Hotel flooded after tap broke and staff ‘didn’t know how to turn water off’
Michelle Roberts was staying at the Britannia Hotel in Birmingham with seven friends when disaster struck
A FURIOUS mum has told of her horror at returning to a flooded hotel room after a night out - as she claims bungling staff didn't know how to turn the WATER off.
Michelle Roberts, from New Arley, near Coventry, was visiting Birmingham with her friends on Saturday - where they had booked rooms at the Britannia Hotel on New Street, paying a total of £295.
When the group of eight arrived, Michelle, a waitress, found her room smelled of cigarettes and the lighting was faulty - but eager to get on with enjoying the trip, decided not to bring it up with staff straightaway.
Speaking to The Sun Online, the 28-year-old explained: "We got the train over, so we went and checked in first to get rid of all of our luggage. Our room absolutely stunk of fags even though you're not meant to smoke in the hotel, and then our lighting didn't work properly either. We left it because we'd been travelling all day."
But that wasn't the end of the problems for Michelle.
After an afternoon visiting Birmingham's German Market, the group headed out for a girls' night out on Broad Street - but at around 1:30am, the mum-of-one received a frantic call from her friend, telling her water was pouring into their hotel room through the ceiling.
Michelle, who is mum to Owen, three, said: "We got a phone call from our friend because two of our friends went back at about 12am. They actually rang me - not the hotel.
"It's lucky it wasn't just us three [who stayed out] in our room because we wouldn't have had any clue.
"A woman had gone to turn on a tap to brush her teeth or something and the tap had come off in her hand. It was just like a fountain. The hotel didn't know how to turn off the water."
After rushing back to the hotel, Michelle was horrified to discover a flooded corridor - where light fittings had fallen down - as she dashed into her room to try and salvage her belongings.
She said: "I just looked at the corridor and it was all flooded and all the lighting was falling down, so I literally just grabbed as much as I could, but in all of the commotion we are missing a bag with my friend's straighteners and everything in.
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"My friend's two bank cards have gone missing as well so she's had to cancel them. This bag just seems to have vanished and the hotel say they haven't got it."
After evacuating from the soaked hotel room, a fuming Michelle was forced to wait in the hotel's reception area in the early hours of the morning - as staff said they were unable to refund her or offer another room.
She said: "We stood around for about an hour-and-a-half to two hours at the hotel, they weren't communicating with us, they weren't telling us anything. The only person that told us what was actually going on was the fire brigade.
"[A fireman] came outside and said, 'We've found out where it is, we've stopped it all but it isn't safe to stay here'. Those were his exact words to me."
Michelle added: "The staff did not help one bit, everyone was just sitting around in the reception area. They said we can't give you your money back, we can't deal with stuff like that, you'll have to speak to [other staff] in morning.
"I spoke to them in the morning and they said you'll have to email head office.
"The manager rang me back on Monday and he said I know you've emailed us but it is going to take a while to get through to everyone so you will have to wait for your refund."
In the end, at around 3am, Michelle had to call her brother to come and pick up the group of friends - who were gutted their weekend away had been ruined.
Michelle said: "He had to come and get us because the hotel wasn't telling us anything, they weren't offering us any rooms, and obviously we didn't want to stay there because the fire brigade had told us it wasn't safe.
"We came quite a trek. We'd had it booked for months. I don't get out often so I was hoping for a good night then disaster struck.
"I've put something on TripAdvisor about it and I've been reading the other comments about that night and it's just shocking.
"It was just an absolute nightmare. I was very upset."
The Britannia Hotel Group have been contacted for comment by The Sun Online.
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