Witzend brings a whole new meaning to 'Jury's out!' doesn't it?
I hate to denigrate my hometown but my son and I had two rather odd experiences when we visited Bradford in 1997.
We had looked online and the reviews seem okay and at that time, as a result of a legacy, we were able to book 4-Star rather than budget
Goodness knows how either of these establishments ever got 1 star, let alone 4.
In the first hotel we were shown up 3 flights of stairs, despite the fact I had specifically asked for one of their ground floor bedroom and had booked almost 3 months in advance.
It was an attic room with a sloping ceiling but the beds were at the high end.
It had been advertised as 'en suite' and when I asked about this, the owner moved a table and slid back a tiny door at the low end, so low, one clearly had to bend almost double to get to it. Inside was a lavatory in the ceiling space.
My son is 6ft 7" and obviously wasn't going to be able to use it. She said we could use the loo on the next floor down.
I asked about the shower.
With a grand gesture, she opened what we had assumed was a built in wardrobe to expose a shower.
There seemed to be no extractor to take out any steam - it would just billow straight into the bedroom and you would have to step out onto the carpet.
My son said later, 'There's no way they got planning permission for that lot.'
The second hotel, on our way back from Scotland had been billed as 'one of Bradford's Premier Hotels'.
The room was all right but my son and I had booked two rooms and this was a twin.
Once again it was only for one night but what a night it was. The owner and what we presumed was his wife, were yelling and screaming at one another at fairly regular intervals from 11pm until I went downstairs at 2am, pounded on their door and shouted, 'For goodness sake, we're trying to sleep!"
I had thought the 'shared room error' was because they were fully booked but in the underground, windowless dining room the next day, we were the only guests.
The breakfast was acceptable, nowt special but there was strong and an all pervading smell of Indian food.
I love Indian food but not when I am groggily trying to enjoy coffee, fruit and croissant at 7am.