Welsh hotel is being roasted online by guests with shocking stories to tell

Yahoo

4 days ago

Angry tourists have accused a Newport hotel of cancelling their bookings with little or no notice. Reviews online, including on TripAdvisor show a number of tourists alleging staff at the Silurian Hotel in Newport's High Street, which is now owned by budget apartments company Belvilla, had informed them on arrival that their stays had been cancelled.
Visitors to the hotel were often, they claimed, left bemused as to what had happened to their bookings and they also claimed they received little or no explanation from Belvilla, which has operated the hotel since autumn, 2024 and does not appear to have responded to any of the highly critical comments about it online.
In recent weeks, multiple people have told a similar story about the hotel.
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Many said they chose the hotel due it being close to Newport railway station, providing convenient access to Cardiff for gigs, but claimed that on arrival hotel staff said they had no evidence of their bookings or in some cases the hotel had decided to cancel their bookings in advance of stays due to the standard of the room. Never miss a Newport story by subscribing to our newsletter here.
One visitor claimed she'd booked for five separate people and each room was cancelled within hours' notice with the same reason given by the hotel.
Suzy Evans, who had booked the hotel in October, 2024, for a gig on July 12, claimed: 'I made a booking at this hotel in October, 2024 for July 12, 2025. The hotel is very close to Newport station and we wanted to stay there as we had tickets to a concert in Cardiff that evening.
'Already when we arrived things did not look promising. We were fourth in the queue to check in and the person being served looked to be having issues with checking in. There were two people serving guests but the gentlemen were just sitting there looking on.
'After 10 to 15 minutes of waiting he finally served the second person in the queue. After 30 minutes of waiting we finally were served but they couldn't find my booking.
'Just two weeks earlier they'd confirmed via Booking.com that I could check in from 2pm. They hunted for another 10 minutes or so and came to the conclusion that they could not in any way offer us a room for the night. We were extremely annoyed and shocked by this having reserved months in advance.'
Suzy also claimed: 'On arriving home I found an email from Booking.com asking me to confirm that I hadn't checked in and then an hour later at midnight another email arrived stating the hotel had cancelled my booking.
'I have tried to contact the hotel directly but there is a recorded message and I cannot leave a voicemail as their inbox is full. Who knows now if they'll try to charge me. It's been quite an unbelievable and unpleasant experience.'
A tourist named Alex also claimed on TripAdvisor that he was left confused when, before he was due to stay at the hotel, he was contacted by Belvilla who told him the rooms weren't right for them and so his booking had been cancelled.
He claimed: 'I booked three rooms for a group and one month before arrival they cancelled the three bookings. The guest experience manager said the rooms were not up to OYO Hotels' standard and so he cancelled our booking.
'He tried to reassure me that we would not be charged any money for this booking. He felt I should be grateful not to be charged for a cancelled booking.'
A review from another visitor named Michelle told the same story, claiming. 'We had five rooms booked and slowly, one by one, they said there was a problem with each room and they needed to cancel. I saw it on loads of previous reviews but thought we'd be okay."
Many of the stories followed a similar line in that tourists claimed they'd booked for particularly busy nights for hotels in the area due to concerts and everything had seemed fine before their bookings were suddenly cancelled.
Lucie, who said she had travelled a long way to the area for a gig in Cardiff, claimed: 'My husband and I booked weeks before a concert we were going to in Cardiff via Booking.com. We travelled a long way to be there - checked the night before that my booking was confirmed.
'When we arrived they said there was no booking in our name. We checked my Booking.com account and the booking had been cancelled just four and a half hours before check in time.
'They left us high and dry on a very busy Friday night. By the time we found somewhere else to stay we had missed the beginning of the concert and had no time to eat.'
Tourist Andy claimed on July 14: 'I arrived at the hotel on Friday afternoon only to be told that they didn't have our reservation despite me having email confirmation and I was also able to show the reservation on their own website.
'They said they were fully booked. By that I take it they have a policy of over booking to ensure that they are full, hence the numerous reviews with regards to last minute cancellations.'
Belvilla has been contacted for comment.