I have never had to show my passport in a British hotel before. I have never had to leave a £50 holding fee. Both of these issues meant I was scared to death to touch anything, use anything in the bathroom or speak to anyone about anything.
We were shown to the wrong room.
The hoops on the curtains rail came off when I tried to close the curtains, which were stuck and I called reception to explain and say that ot wasn't my fault.
There was no plug in the bath and I asked for one. I was told that because people filled the bath without putting the plug in and ran the water out and made the water go cold, they removed all the plugs! (I can only imagine it happened on a regular basis or hordes of people did it to sabotage the hotel). However, why they thought that removing the plugs altogether to prevent people from filling the bath without the plug in was going to work, I have no idea! Insanity seems to rule!
Only a continental breakfast was provided, but it was reasonably cheap and was expected. However, the fruit bowls were breakfast bowls of tinned syruppy fruit with a teaspoon to serve it out!
We were also expected to clear up after ourselves - another thing I have never experienced in a hotel in UK before.
Thankfully we got our deposit back. This was hardly surprising as I actually cleaned the bathroom as we went along to avoid giving them any reason to charge us further.
Thinking back now I should have looked for cameras as I feel we were on a hidden camera show!