Last September at Lib Dem Autumn conference, we were advised to book ahead for Spring conference in Liverpool. The conference, the first weekend in March, clashes with a home game, so most of the hotel rooms were booked up long in advance. There was a handy booking service at Brighton to get us into rooms in Liverpool, and they really bigged up a hotel called the Britannia Adelphi. They showed us lovely looking pictures of a luxury hotel with swanky rooms, a health club, nice restaurants, right next to the railway station. “Recently refurbished” they say.
On-the-ball friends have in the last few days noticed there are some truly disastrous reviews on the internet. Tripadvisor is particular damning, over hundreds of reviews: filthy rooms, dirty curtains, “animals in the toilets”, stains, grease, stag-nights, terrible customer service and indifferent staff. Other websites sort of confirm the pattern. Asking around on Facebook and Thingbox has not found a positive view of the place.
Checking my email from the booking service, if I don’t cancel my reservation before Thursday I’m liable for the cost of the first of two nights – over a 100 quid.
So, do I believe the internet or do I believe the travel advisor? Do I take the risk of an unsanitory room or risk not being able to find another hotel?
*Edit* – thanks for the comments, here and on Facebook. We bottled it today and booked the Radisson instead.
Niles's Blog 
Ah, the dear old Adelphi! When I was a student in Liverpool I always wanted to stay there. It was a gorgeous anachronism. Ten years later I got my chance – a weekend break at a bargain price with a partnet in one of the suites with balconies looking down Ranelagh Street. It was wonderful, in a steampunkish way. Nothing much had changed since the White Star liners docked and the plumbing had to be seen to be believed. But then, I like that kind of thing. Not everybody does, I believe, and they will probably be happier at the Holiday Inn. I say go for it. I may ask to kip on your floor, actually, as I’m supposed to be going to Spring Conf, but I suspect I might go for a B&B on the Wirral.
That was the hotel that the 1997 BBC docu-soap cleverly titled Hotel was about. Wouldn’t touch with a barge pole.
Wasn’t the Adelphi where they filmed the bit of ‘GBH’ with the Doctor Who convention? As far as I know, the Adelphi is a grand hotel that has really gone to pot. Friends who have been at SF conventions there say that thefts from rooms are a real problem too.