OYO the Rivenhall Hotel in Witham, Chelmsford

We and another couple arrived at around 1:30pm on the day of our booking. Our friends had already tried to check in and were told to wait in the car park as the room wasn’t ready until 3pm. On the booking we had been asked what time we were expected to arrive and told them 1-2pm I walked into the foyer as I needed to use the toilet as we had been travelling for a while. There were no signs for the bathroom but walked through to where the bar used to be and went into the bathroom. There was no paper or any sign that it was in use. The bar area was completely closed off and looked derelict, our friends had already asked if there were drinks or food whilst they were waiting for their room and told nothing was available?? Another couple were checking in and looked just as horrified as we did but they were given a room number and were taken off to their room so I asked if ours was available yet as I needed to use the toilet still… We gave our names and were given our keys and the guy at reception walked us round to our rooms. At no point did he ask for payment to be made up front and I have sometimes paid as we have checked out of a hotel so I didn’t think anything of it. We unpacked our bags and drove to another location to have lunch before going to meet our friends. At 16:23 I received a phone call from the hotel asking if we’re still coming as we hadn’t been checked in, I explained that we had and told the guy what room numbers we had been allocated, he asked if we had paid and I said no one asked us? At 19:21 my phone rung again and it was the reception guy again still checking up on our booking?? We were out with friends and didn’t expect to keep getting calls from the hotel. We arrived back to the hotel just after midnight and went straight to our rooms. At 00:22 I received yet another phone call from reception asking about payment, we were understandably very tired after being out all day and evening and I certainly wasn’t going to walk back to the reception at that time of night. He proceeded to interrogate me about what time I was checking out so I said around 10am. For gods sake just leave me alone!!! We went to check out about 9:30am and there was a young lad on the reception that didn’t know how to take the payment, another guy was complaining about the lack of water in his room. We waited for someone to arrive supposedly a manager who was asleep. After about 10 minutes whilst we wee running through our list of complaints and no one had appeared, I said to the reception guy well it’s obvious you have my phone number so ring me and I’ll make payment over the phone. He then proceeded to accuse me of not wanting to pay! I had kept my cool until then but that was one step too far now he was just saying things that weren’t true. The manager finally appeared and when I said it’s just not acceptable to be called up 3 times during my stay and quite frankly be harassed as him and his staff are totally incompetent he was argu

property was was in a state of disrepair whilst the room was comfortable and clean the reast of the site was like a building site nd being remote had no falcilities to eat or relax

What a disappointment, arrived to to a dingy badly lit reception, around 7.15pm to be told there was no bar, no restaurant and no chance of refreshments. Guy on reception took me to my room rather than handing over the key - room was ok, clean and tidy but dated and in need of a serious refresh, maybe the bathroom being the exception to this. Very limited power sockets, flaky Wifi and two pillows which were about as flat as a couple of pancakes. When I reaffirmed once again there was nowhere to get a drink / food he mentioned the tea / coffee in the room and a biscuit. The biscuit was so small it would have struggled to cover the surface area of a mouse's tongue. All in all, this place is worth swerving - its in serious need of a revamp. A hotel that clearly shows rooms from a bygone age on their website ....this is misrepresentation on the highest scale.... Probably in the top two of the worst places i have stayed in twenty years of business travel.