A NOTTINGHAM bloke says he was left ‘disgusted’ after discovering a ‘soiled sanitary pad’ under the cushion of a hotel sofa mattress.
Dan Thorpe was staying with his fiancé Dane Bri, 29, at the Derby Cathedral Quarter Premier Inn hotel on October 20th.
The 31-year-old says he had lost his key card and was searching under the furniture for the plastic key when he made the grim discovery – a ‘soiled, padded’ item under a sofa bed cushion.
Dan reported it to reception where a member of staff told him the room would be cleaned.
But when he returned at 1am on Thursday, Dan says the item was still under the bed.
Instead of removing the item himself, Dan complained again and demanded assistance. A cleaner arrived ten minutes later to remove the product.
In a statement to The Sun, Premier Inn said they apologised to Dan for the inconvenience and offered an explanation for the delay in being able to locate the item.
“On being incorrectly notified by the guest that the item was under the bed, the team were initially unable to locate it but nonetheless re-cleaned the room,” a spokesperson said.
“Once the guest returning later that evening, they were then advised that the item was actually in a different location, between a sofa mattress and base and swiftly removed the item and cleaned and sanitised the room once more.
“We are sorry that the guest’s stay fell short of the high standards they should rightly expect, and we have provided the guest with a refund.”
Dan has said he won’t be returning to the hotel claiming he’s ‘lost faith’ in their hygiene standards.
“It’s definitely put us off staying at that one in particular. We would like to think this isn’t a common occurrence.”
He said “all seemed fine” when they first settled in to the room but the experience really rattled them both.
“About an hour later we couldn’t find our key card and looked underneath the sofa bed to see if it had slipped down the side.
“We couldn’t find it so we tried lifting the cushion up, only to find the nappy or sanitary pad underneath the cushion.
“We thought it was a nappy but the day manager said it was a sanitary pad – like it was somehow better.
“Dane was really disgusted by it. I think at the time he was even more disgusted than me, I was just in shock.
“He said he was sure he saw soiling of some kind on it, I didn’t want to get that close to the item in question.
“I honestly didn’t know what to do, I was just in shock that something like that could be missed during cleaning, especially in COVID times.
“It really made me question how clean the hotel was.”
Dan reported it to a reception and a manager was called who allegedly assured the couple it would be cleaned before they returned.
Dan said: “He seemed just as shocked and offered us a free breakfast each.
“We got back at 1am to find nothing had changed and everything was still there. “I then had to find another receptionist at 1am to deal with the problem.
“She sent a cleaner up 10 minutes later who seemed rather disgruntled to be doing the job but then it was removed. I will say she did apologise.”
Initially, a refund was not offered but since going public with their concerns, Dan and his partner have been issued one, according to the hotel.
Dan said he has not been in touch with Premier Inn since and despite publicly slamming the hotel and accepts the compensation he has been given so far.
“I didn’t think it was worth taking it higher since they already seemed to think we had been compensated enough with the breakfasts – not that it gave me much faith in their hygiene standards from that point on,” Dan said.
“It’s just a shame it took shaming them to take it seriously.”
