Ramada Dover, Dover

We are lead to believe that this is a 4 star hotel, having taught in the travel industry for several years, I have to say that I wouldn’t even give it a 3 star. On the Friday evening we arrived it was clear that some kind of party was taking place with the merry partygoers using the two exit doors on either side of the bar area as exit routes to some other room. Other complaining about the constant in and out of the two fire doors on either side of the bar by people which left the bar area very cold. One guest challenged someone who appeared to be the duty manager, who then told him that he might want to sit somewhere else in the bar!! The bar area itself was dirty and tables full of dirty dishes and not one table to sit at without first clearing it yourself. When my husband finally got served (20 min wait to be served) the glassware was dirty and he had to ask for a clean glass, the waitress seemed quite put out by this request. My view the drinks cost enough, at least serve them in clean glassware. My husband also had to ask for a till receipt so that he could see what he had been charged for. The rooms are very small and have a damp feel to them; in fact I would suggest that you get more room in a Travel Lodge type accommodation than in this hotel. The mattress on the bed was dirty and stained and only had a thin mattress cover on to disguise this. This is not an oversight; this is entrenched practises, poor checking by the housekeeping staff. .Once we finally got to sleep due to the general room sound proofing not being over good, we were both woken at about 2:15am by rowdy partygoers now leaving their party, via the car park outside our room. (Not got a problem with people enjoying themselves but in my view the Ramada Hotel has a conflict between attracting and looking after guests who may be travelling and need a good nights sleep and the constant need to attract all kinds of business. The two seldom mix). Breakfast was £10 per head and MOH and I had a look at what was on offer and decided that it wasn’t worthy of that price. The only plus for this hotel as far as we are concerned was the meal in the Restaurant on the night of our arrival. We were apprehensive due to our experience thus farm but have to say was of a good standard and the staff were very helpful and polite in there. They were clearly understaffed, but carried out their duties professionally On the French side we have stayed in the Holiday Inn in Calais which is a 3 star and have to say that it has a feel of a professionally well run hotel. The Ramada Dover feels like a tired, struggling hotel, which it seems are not prepared to pay for the amount of staff needed to ensure that tables are cleared regularly and that standards are met. A customer service policy is only as good as those who are charged with delivering it to your customers. We cancelled our return stay and have booked with the Premier Lodge, at least we know what we are paying for and what to expect.