Disgusted guests have slammed a hotel after they were forced to 'flee' due to huge rat infestation. The Best Western hotel in Stoke was hit with several damning reviews on TripAdvisor, with one customer claiming they had to wake up their sleeping children to leave early.
In response to the complaints, the three-star hotel said that "strict action plan" has been put in place to deal with the rodent problem, the Mirror reports. One family, who had booked a room for their trip to Alton Towers, said they were left with no choice but to check-out at 10pm after discovering the creatures and being told that no other rooms were available.
Posting to TripAdvisor, they wrote: "The courtyard to the family rooms is completely overrun by a huge infestation of rats. You couldn’t look out of the window for five seconds without seeing some.
"I have a 20-second video where you can see at least 10 just pottering around by the hotel doors. I am furious that the hotel is allowing families to pay to have this experience of the rooms.
"We woke up our sleeping toddler and baby at 10pm at night to leave, as they had no higher rooms. I feel sick thinking about our experience there."
Rats can carry all kinds of diseases, including salmonella and Weil's disease, as well as being known to chew through walls and wires. Another set of visitors claimed to have had the same experience, saying they saw rodents crawling around the premises.
"The family rooms are out the back of the hotel where you have to cross through a rat-infested courtyard," they wrote. The rat issue comes as the three-star hotel has complained to the council about its guests being kept awake until 2am by loud music coming from a restaurant on the opposite side of the street.
In response to the rats, general manager Neill Stockill said: "We work closely with a national pest contractor and have spoken with the local authority's environmental health officers with relation to rodent activity around the exterior of the hotel and neighbouring business properties. We have a strict action plan in place as agreed with both agencies to prevent the activity.
"The national pest control company and the local council are happy with the measures we are taking to reduce the rodent activity around our property perimeter."
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