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For the fifth year running, Britannia, which runs the brutalist building in Coventry city centre, has come bottom in a Which? Travel survey of large hotel brands.

Which? asked its members to rate UK hotel chains on everything from bed comfort to cleanliness. From a total of more than 4,000 responses, the survey found that Britannia, which has 54 hotels across the UK, was judged as the worst.

At a Britannia hotel, they found run-down and dated accommodation ‘with an air of neglect’. The room itself featured a cracked sink and a lumpy mattress, as well as a stained carpet.



This is what happened when our reporter stayed there earlier this year...

Truthfully, I didn’t book my room at the Britannia Hotel in Coventry city centre.

My dad did it for me.

Only later did I discover I would be spending five nights in, according to Which?, Britain’s worst hotel chain.

I was excited to see what all the fuss was about.

Let’s address the elephant in the room right away. The Britannia is the architectural zit on the face of Coventry. If this design was intended to represent the grandeur of Britain when it was constructed in 1973, it makes me glad I wasn’t born until the 1990s.

In a Coventry Telegraph poll last year, 46% of readers described the building as a ‘monstrosity’ while another 27% described it as in need of complete refurbishment.

On the inside, I’m sure it was very nice in the year Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon and The Last of the Summer Wine was the newest show on television.

In 2017 however, it could do with a hint of modernisation - especially as the city aspires to be the City of Culture 2021.

My double room cost me £63 a night, for five nights. Although I’ve heard whisperings that I might have got a better price if I’d come on a coach trip.

I can only assume the hole in the wall outside the room was caused by somebody frustrated at having gone back down to reception for the sixth time in ten minutes to get a new key, only to find out this one doesn’t open the door either. I managed to show more restraint.

If you do manage to gain access to your room, you’ll find they are quite spacious and reasonably clean. Almost all the drawers have handles, almost all the lights have bulbs and you only need one hand to hold up the toilet seat.

The bed is comfortable, if a little small and the cushions are nice, if you don’t mind the smell of stale cigarettes. There’s also two chairs and a table located next to the large window, which offers quite a nice view once the sun sets. If it wasn't for the dust and grime on it.

The small Samsung TV (the only indication that it’s not 1970) is far too small to be seen by anyone that isn’t sat twelve inches away from it and wearing their specs.

The shower has two temperature settings, hot and really hot. Which is fine. Nobody has cold showers anyway.

My girlfriend had hoped to get some work done during our stay. However, after spending most of the first two days trying to get the wi-fi to connect and the rest waiting for Google to load, I think she gave up and watched Countdown instead.

Put it this way, it didn’t surprise me one bit that Britannia Hotels considered Pontins a good investment when they paid £18.5million for it back in 2011.

For just £27, my girlfriend and I enjoyed three very average courses of food at Bentley’s restaurant located on the ground floor. The mushroom soup starter was a tad cold and more than a tad swamp-coloured.

The buffet style food is more ‘all we’ll let you eat’ than ‘all you can eat’ and £13.50 seems a little pricey to serve my own soup.

Credit where credit is due, the roast pork was succulent and actually very nice.

The roast potatoes that accompanied it were also excellent. We’re still trying to figure out all the components of the vegetables we were given, but I think it was carrots, sugar snaps and turnips.

For dessert, there was an attempt at a banana-flavoured cake. I’ve opted not to include the picture because it still makes me retch a little bit.

The bar, which closes at 11pm, is cheap and appears to be rather quiet. That is, until the evening's entertainment gets underway, which I would describe as very Phoenix Nights.

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Throughout my stay, the staff have been very polite and helpful. They have answered several queries of mine regarding the local area and told me about a cheap car park to leave my car in for the week.

Overall, I would describe my stay at the Britannia as not that bad. Perhaps this is because I’m from the North and we’re easily pleased.

For five nights, I haven’t felt the need to run to the local Premier Inn like some of the Tripadvisor comments I read, I haven't seen any bed bugs and I’ve slept just fine.

But I won't be staying there again - though that's not the real issue here. This brutally ugly hotel is a blight on Coventry and the sooner it is brought into the 21st century, the better. For the whole city.

Britannia Hotels was approached for comment.