Review by JAM on 27th June, 2009

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******PLEASE READ BEFORE BOOKING THIS HOTEL****** I think the positive comments on hear must be written by the employees as i have no idea how anybody would rate this shambles of a hotel with any approval. The hotel is run by idiots who clearly have nothing to do with Ramada apart from the name over the door! The quality and standards you would expect from any Ramada Just is not there. If you are thinking of using this hotel or any of the sister hotels run by Fortmere, think twice, in our experience they are all just as shocking. I believe that the other hotels under the Fortmere Portfolieo include Ramada Newcastle Under lime, Ramada Park Hall, Ramada Warwick, its also believed that they run Johnathens, and Colmeore place in the centre of Birmingham. The link to the group website is: Ramada Birmingham Oldbury Hotel & Conference Centre Please look at the sister hotels link and don’t be fooled by the fancy pics on the website! I work for a local blue chip company in the area of Oldbury and was pleased to see plans of another hotel opening in the area last year, booking hotels is always a problem as they are always fully booked around hear and finally we all thought this problem would be resolved. When we found out it was going to be a Ramada again this was positive as we have used Ramada hotels all over the UK and internationally with only good things to comment about this brand. We soon had arrangements in place for a preferred rate which we all thought was high taking into consideration the volume of rooms we needed, and the other hotels in and around Birmingham, but with all things considered we agreed to it, it was from day one things went from bad to worse. They had clearly opened in desperation as nothing was finished in or around the hotel grounds. I could not believe what i was hearing so i had to look for myself so i checked in and what i witnessed was to put it bluntly SHOCKING. How they can still be aloud to open the doors each day i cant understand. The list of problems include: Suspected live wires dangling in rooms and in the reception area. Two pin plugs for electrical items in the rooms with no safety inspection certificates. We had feedback that a member of staff recommended we push in the earth connection in a plug socket on the wall to get the only lamp in the room working. Electric doors that will not work, which apparently have been removed now. No lighting in the car park at night. Rude unhelpful Staff. The Lift was Out of order. On arrival the porters were unobtainable so we had to lug our baggage up 3 levels of stairs. The night porters who are responsible for the 24 hour room services were asleep at night so you would have to wake them up if you require anything. The Gym advertised was a empty room with gymnasium written on it. As the lift was Out of order. We had to get help to carry are Disabled client up to the bar area. The disabled rooms are useless for the purpose as you cant fit a wheel chair past the bed, the emergency pull cords are tied up to the cealing. The spy hole is to high to see out of on the disabled door of the room. There is still building work materials scattered all around the building. Rubbish all around the building including bottles and glasses left from the day before. Cigaret buts and empty packets all around the front door of the hotel. It was reported that this rubbish was there for days. The building must not have proper drainage as a waste disposal company pulled up and sucked out of what looked and smelt like a septic tank, the oder was soon filled by the whole hotel. The food is extremely expensive for what is out of the packet quality. The staff personal hygiene is repulsive, you can smell human body oder as you walk in. The rooms are filthy with thick dust coverage all over, including the whole hotel. The public washrooms are filthy and smelly that again look like they have not been finished. Pubic hair in the supposedly freshly made beds. Poorly cramped designed bathrooms you have to shuffle around in to get into the shower, you cant wash in the sink as the toilet is in the way including the door to the bathroom. Poor TV signal in all the rooms and is almost unwatchable. The list continues but i take it you get the idea by now, truly shocking! One year on after meeting the new sales manager who i must say was a refreshing breath of fresh air, he was charming, caring, charismatic gentleman who was very keen to try and help me and our group to regain trust in their brand and hotels, he for the first time was somebody who clearly had a background in the hotel industry. It was explained by Ben Cobb i think was his name that things were on the up and all the teething problems in the past were or are being sorted, so with that news i only thought the wright thing to do was to give them a second chance and use the hotel again. I arrived this week and all i can say is that nothing has changed, OK the room was a little better as it was cleaner but was disappointed that the carpet had clearly not been vacuumed as there were crumbs all over the floor, the toilet had urine round the seat and had not been flushed. The lamps for the desk had an openly exposed wire sticking out of it that could be live!! The carpets were all stained, wires still hanging in the corridors. More than 50% of the bulbs were blown in the building including the communal Toilets which were in darkness apart for one in a cubical. Also as i get the impression this new build is on the verge of folding don’t be tempted by the give away offers they are clearly offering in desperation. So with this i walked out and will never return to what can only be described as THE REAL FAULTY TOWERS!!! You have been warned!!

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