We Tried The WORST Rated Hotel In The UK - Norbreck Castle Blackpool

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Britannia Hotels have been named the worst hotel chain in the UK, and most of the complaints seem to come down to cleanliness, maintenance, and rooms that feel like they haven't been touched in years. So, this week, we thought we'd come and see for ourselves. This time, we're staying in the Norre Castle in Blackpool. With over 4,000 one-star reviews, there must be something seriously going wrong inside this place.

[00:00:22]Let's see what it's actually like. Well, it is a pretty big building from the outside. It does kind of look like a castle. also kind of looks like a prison. It is a pretty impressive building when you look at it from afar, but when you do look at it a bit closer, it does look like there's a little bit lack of maintenance.

[00:00:40]>> Yeah, it looks a little bit rough around the edges, I'll be honest. But you never know what it's going to look like inside. So, stay positive.

[00:00:48]>> So, this one's called the Norre Castle, just outside of Blackpool.

[00:00:55]We need to check in. So, let's do that first.

[00:00:58]>> Oh, this looks a bit old.

[00:01:00]>> A bit rustic.

[00:01:06]>> Oh, it's nice and warm in here.

[00:01:09]>> Let's check it.

[00:01:10]>> Should we take the lift? We're up on floor two.

[00:01:14]Or should we take the stairs?

[00:01:16]>> Let's take the stairs.

[00:01:17]>> Are you sure?

[00:01:20]>> Well, this is actually fairly creepy. I mean, we did read yesterday that the hotel is actually haunted. Room 770 specifically.

[00:01:29]>> Thank god that's not our room.

[00:01:31]>> We are in room 240 and the Boston room, which I assume is one of the halls. We'll we'll look into the hauntedness a little bit more. Is it normal for them to just leave all the wash in the pile? Hey, at least there's no marks on the walls in this one as well. No, it looks like it's kind of been freshly painted maybe. So, this is us room 240.

[00:01:57]>> You nervous?

[00:01:59]>> A little bit.

[00:02:01]>> Oh, it's very bright in here.

[00:02:03]>> We've got a nice sea view. We paid extra for it. Let's have a look at that first.

[00:02:07]The windows are a little bit dirty, but there's a pretty decent view of the sea.

[00:02:12]>> So, at first glance, there's a lot of new furniture in here, but there is also a lot of old furniture in here. It's giving uni accommodation slash someone's spare room again.

[00:02:20]>> Now, when we checked in, we were given this envelope that had a room key in.

[00:02:24]And the last hotel had the entertainment information in it, but this one does not. There is entertainment in this hotel. I'm not sure what the entertainment is or if there's a full evening of activities again, but we'll figure that out later. For now, let's show you around this hotel room. Let's start with this side of the room because we've got a bunch of new looking furniture. There's a bedside table, but obviously there's no room but the bed, so it's here. A little desk without tea and coffees on. Bunch of drawers.

[00:02:51]They're all clean but all empty. Down here there are a few stains. I think that's from where people have thrown things in the bin and then they just haven't bothered cleaning up. And then out tea and coffee. This kettle is full of water. Couple of mugs. They look pretty clean. The spoons, however, do look used. Bunch of tea. No coffee.

[00:03:15]or hot chocolate. I'm not sure if the camera can pick this up, but the desk here is very sticky. It's as if people have put bottles or mugs on here and then the liquid's dried. That's such a quick, easy little fix as well to give that a wipe. Set of drawers. Nothing in these, but at least they're nice and clean. Oh, haird dryer. Now, I'm a little bit surprised. The TV is actually a smart TV, so you should be able to get Netflix and YouTube on here. It's pretty good. And the double wardrobe looks pretty new as well. Ignore our bags down there. Bunch of hangers, luggage holder, and then a spare pillow. Oh, the spare pillow looks a bit a little bit stained with those yellow stains over there. There isn't even a um pillowcase on here.

[00:04:11]>> Ew. I don't think that's been cleaned for quite a while. I do like the big windows letting all that light in and the C view.

[00:04:17]>> These chairs are actually quite comfortable. They seem quite new as well. The table on the other hand does look quite old.

[00:04:24]>> Now, just looking at the curtains, there are a lot of stains along the curtains.

[00:04:29]A lot of marks all the way down.

[00:04:33]Not 100% sure what. There's just a bunch of different stains. There's so many different ones. It could be could be anything. Different colors, different sizes.

[00:04:44]>> Talking of marks on the curtains, there's also marks on the bed as well.

[00:04:48]Before we do the bed check, I do like this little bit of wall art. Just gives the room a little bit of color. And then there's a couple of lamps up here, which are unfortunately full of dust. The bed's also tucked in the corner of the wall, so whoever's sleeping on that side is going to have to scoot their way if they need a wee in the middle of the night. I've also noticed that there's no power points near the bed. I guess it's time to see how comfy the bed is.

[00:05:10]>> Bed check.

[00:05:12]>> Oh, that feels >> That feels That seems comfy.

[00:05:15]>> That is comfy. It's really bouncy.

[00:05:19]>> That might be one of the comfiest mattresses we've ever had.

[00:05:22]>> That is actually insanely comfortable.

[00:05:25]What the heck?

[00:05:26]>> Oh, this is going to be a lovely sleep.

[00:05:28]>> I was expecting a clunk. Pillows. Are we going to get good pillows?

[00:05:34]>> As long as they're not stained like the one in the cupboard.

[00:05:37]Yours feels a little bit lumpier to be honest.

[00:05:41]Feel here. Not the best, but they'll do for one night.

[00:05:45]>> Pillows. Not so good. Mattress.

[00:05:47]>> Fantastic.

[00:05:48]>> Fantastic. Pretty small double bed.

[00:05:50]Let's see how many Kelsey's fit in it.

[00:05:52]>> One, two, three, four. Pretty standard double bed.

[00:05:56]>> Now we do have a private bathroom. Oh gosh.

[00:06:01]Oh, the door just goes into the sink.

[00:06:04]Pretty standard sink.

[00:06:07]Seems nice and clean. Couple of bars of soap. A pretty basic mirror. I don't think this has been cleaned. It seems quite dusty. There's also a lot of toothpaste marks. Once again, just like the last hotel, the extractor fan is covered in dust. That is pretty grim.

[00:06:22]There's also a bunch of stains all along the ceiling, and the paint is pretty cracked as well. But the rest of the bathroom seems quite clean. All these tiles seem pretty clean. The shower head has got quite a lot of lime scale built up on it, which I can imagine is really hard to keep clean all the time. We have got a two in one bath shower and the bath itself does seem nice and clean.

[00:06:43]And just like the last hotel, we do have a shower curtain. I've got to be honest, I'm not 100% a fan of having shower curtains in hotels. Once again, there just seems to be a lot of areas that they've missed cleaning. a lot of little marks, little stains, little scuffs that just make it seem like a bigger issue than what it could be if these things were taken care of. Like down here underneath the radiator just looks a little bit scruffy, as well as a bunch of these marks on the doors and the walls. So, before we go and take a look at the rest of the hotel, you might be wondering how much this cost us. We paid £92 for the night, but that is with a C view and breakfast included in the morning. I don't know. Let us know in the comments if you think this room is worth that price.

[00:07:21]These uh lights are pretty retro, right?

[00:07:25]Okay, we've got a map of the hotel here.

[00:07:28]So, we're here in reception. There's a cinema, the Boston room, that's the one that's swamped, apparently. Another restaurant, bar, ballroom, and >> Olympia, >> whatever that is.

[00:07:44]>> It's quite um grand looking. It reminds me of like a theater.

[00:07:48]>> Yeah.

[00:07:54]Is this the haunted bit?

[00:07:58]>> That's the good thing about these hotels. The rooms are so big. You can kind of just go and explore and see what you find.

[00:08:07]>> What's that for?

[00:08:09]It's >> pretty random. Obviously, it was for something.

[00:08:13]Oh, this.

[00:08:18]So, is this the Boston room? It's just It's just things like this in these hotels, in these Bratannia hotels that just feel like you're in almost half a building site.

[00:08:28]>> It's even worse in here.

[00:08:30]>> This is the Boston room. I think this is the one that's haunted. Now, this one is like a building site. Maybe they are doing that up.

[00:08:36]>> It's locked. You're not allowed in there. So, at least they've locked it.

[00:08:42]>> I can't get in anywhere.

[00:08:43]>> They look like new fire doors.

[00:08:46]>> They're so new. There's >> But there's different handles on them.

[00:08:52]>> Oh, that's also locked.

[00:08:56]It's quite creepy in there.

[00:08:58]>> Oh, this is boarded up. Well, I say boarded up. Zip zip lock tied up.

[00:09:05]>> It's weird how all these rooms are just abandoned. It's a bunch of different old arcade games. And then there's just wood on the floor as if it's been left. Oh, the ceiling in there looks disgusting.

[00:09:15]There's all mold and stuff on the ceiling.

[00:09:17]>> I found the cinema.

[00:09:19]>> Is it open though?

[00:09:24]>> No.

[00:09:25]Does it just open when there's a film on? Maybe. I don't know.

[00:09:28]>> Maybe a film on now. Inside Out supposed to be on. The Norre Castle Cinema open daily for all times and shows. Please see the cinema board located in the main reception.

[00:09:41]Oh, I think there's just rooms down here. There's loads of doors that are just locked.

[00:09:52]>> There's just so much of it that's like broken and falling apart.

[00:09:57]>> I want to say there's just a lack of maintenance, but some of the rooms are really nice and then some of the hallways and doors just seem to be really scruffy. But I can imagine it's quite hard to upkeep such a big old building. Even the crane machines in reception are just neglected. So here's the cinema showcase times. We got the days of the week on the side, times on the top. There should be inside out and then Avatar through here.

[00:10:24]There should be a coffee shop and a bar.

[00:10:26]It's pretty busy in here. There's actually quite a lot of people staying here tonight.

[00:10:31]>> We got bingo later. I don't know what time that's going to start, but >> assuming this is the entertainment room.

[00:10:37]This looks really nice to be fair.

[00:10:38]>> It does. All these chairs look quite new.

[00:10:40]>> The carpet looks quite new as well, to be fair.

[00:10:43]>> The entertainment schedules on the screen.

[00:10:45]>> Seems very similar to the other hotel.

[00:10:46]>> This looks like it's been decorated recently. All this gray paint and the white paint looks really new.

[00:10:51]>> It kind of smells like fresh paint, too.

[00:10:54]>> We've just left the entertainment room.

[00:10:55]We've come in here. There's a really heavy smell of weed.

[00:10:58]>> Oh, ballroom.

[00:10:59]>> The grand ballroom.

[00:11:01]>> Locked.

[00:11:03]>> I just want to have a look, guys.

[00:11:06]>> It does look pretty grand.

[00:11:08]Oh, wa.

[00:11:10]>> This is nice.

[00:11:15]>> Exhibition hall.

[00:11:20]>> I'm going to say that this is going to be locked.

[00:11:23]>> All the exciting rooms are locked.

[00:11:25]>> Oh, this room's huge. Looks like a big function room.

[00:11:29]>> Oh my goodness me.

[00:11:34]>> Oh, it's cold. It's >> freezing.

[00:11:38]Oh, >> there's just all these marks, cracks in the paint, stains on the wall.

[00:11:45]I just kind of let the place down.

[00:11:50]>> Another locked room.

[00:11:52]I'm just nosy. I just want to have a look, you know.

[00:11:55]>> It looks as if there's a bunch of rooms that only get used if they get rented out.

[00:12:00]>> What?

[00:12:03]>> Look at these old door handles.

[00:12:06]These are the new ones. These are the old ones. You can hear what's going on in people's rooms. You can hear them watching stuff on their phone or on the TV.

[00:12:15]>> Very loud.

[00:12:15]>> The soundproofing isn't the best in these rooms.

[00:12:21]Ceiling's a little bit moldy in places.

[00:12:25]The walls a little bit chipped. And look at the paint all over these windows.

[00:12:31]Just a bunch of stuff dumped down there.

[00:12:34]This window sill is absolutely filthy.

[00:12:46]That wouldn't take two seconds to wipe.

[00:12:48]>> So, this looks like the new carpet. And I think this must be the old carpet.

[00:12:53]Again, walls are really chipped.

[00:12:57]Wallpaper's all chipped. Windows are stinking.

[00:13:03]This hotel's absolutely massive. There's so many rooms. I wonder how many rooms are in this hotel.

[00:13:12]>> There's 487 on suite rooms in this hotel.

[00:13:16]>> Presidential suite. I didn't realize there's a presidential suite in here. I wonder if that room is any nicer than all the others. I do like all the chandeliers they've got around this hotel. There's just so much the hotel that's just falling apart.

[00:13:31]I can see why there's a lot of bad reviews. Some parts of this hotel are really nice, but then on the other hand, so much of it just falling apart.

[00:13:38]>> So fun.

[00:13:43]>> All right.

[00:13:45]Did that smell just hit you?

[00:13:48]>> Like a room that hasn't been used in a really long time.

[00:13:51]>> Like a really musty smell. It is. What a nice room, though.

[00:13:54]>> It's absolutely stunning.

[00:13:55]>> Just look at the detail on the top of the pillows. This is the ballroom. Look at these chandeliers.

[00:14:02]That looks like something off Beauty and the Beast.

[00:14:04]>> Oh my gosh, it does. This whole room does to be fair.

[00:14:07]>> We are going to get out here. It does look like they're doing some work in here, but I can imagine years ago this room being used as a wedding or something would be really nice. So, we've had a look around the main parts of the hotel and you could tell that back in the day this hotel used to be a really big grand hotel. It has lost its touch a little bit. It feels feels like it's not wellmaintained and there's also cleanliness issues which seem to be the problems in the other Britannia hotel we've stayed in and that's what people are saying online.

[00:14:37]>> It's a shame we couldn't get into some of the rooms to have a little look and obviously we can't see every single hallway but we explored as much as we could. We said the hotel was right opposite the seafront. So we're going to go and have a little look take a little walk on the prominard.

[00:14:52]So on the seafront in Blackpool we've got the tram. Make sure to lock walkways.

[00:14:58]>> Very good.

[00:15:04]>> Lovely little walk up here, though.

[00:15:06]>> I wonder how far the cycle track stretches in both directions up the coast and obviously down the coast.

[00:15:14]Little bit of a beach. I wonder if the tide's in or out. The hotel really is an impressive building when you're looking at it from afar. It's got two castle towers. Oh, there's the tram.

[00:15:24]I can't get over how big it is.

[00:15:25]>> It's also the biggest building in comparison to all the other buildings that are around too. So, I think that's why it stands out more as well.

[00:15:32]>> There's basically just a row of houses on one side, the big castle hotel, and then a row of houses all along the coast. Little bit of a shame about the weather cuz you can get really good sunsets here in Blackpool.

[00:15:48]So, we picked up a chippy tea again, the closest chip shop to the hotel. We're going to eat outside, but it's a little bit cold. So, we've decided to come back. We're going to sit by the window, eat there, and we can check out the entertainment.

[00:16:04]>> I don't know if you can hear that, but someone's singing next door. The soundproof in your ear is absolutely terrible.

[00:16:10]>> Hey, where's my sausage?

[00:16:14]>> Did they forget the sausage?

[00:16:16]>> Well, I forgot the sausage. We both ordered chips and sausage and we've literally just got one half of a sausage. So instead of going for fish and chips, we went for sausage and chips. But unfortunately, instead of having one sauce in each, we've now got >> a bite each.

[00:16:32]>> A bite each.

[00:16:34]But these chips are pretty good.

[00:16:36]>> They are proper chip shop chips.

[00:16:38]>> Nice little dinner with a view.

[00:16:41]Although it's quite busy down here and there's a lot of people around. I don't think there was enough people that wanted to play bingo. So, they're not doing the bingo, but there is a quiz on at half 8 and then a cabaret.

[00:16:54]So, we're going to stick around and see what's going on. It's >> a nice vibe in here to be fair.

[00:16:57]Everyone's happy. Everyone's enjoying.

[00:16:58]>> Just like yesterday, we are taking part in the quiz. This time, I am determined to win, but there's a lot more people.

[00:17:06]>> We might have some quiz masters in this room.

[00:17:12]and welcome to Crystal 70s intros.

[00:17:16]>> We didn't win. We didn't even come in the top six.

[00:17:19]>> We did a horrific job.

[00:17:23]>> To be honest, my camera, I thought we'd get a cigarette, but the entertainment team, I'm not going to lie, they're pretty good.

[00:17:31]>> They are smashing it. I was pleasantly surprised with tonight's entertainment.

[00:17:35]I really enjoyed.

[00:17:36]>> We're going to head to bed. We'll see you for breakfast in the morning.

[00:17:38]>> Good night.

[00:17:40]>> Good morning. And I've got to say, we had a really good sleep on that bed. It is super comfortable. The shower, on the other hand, not so great. However, it's currently 7:30. It is time for us to go get breakfast.

[00:17:52]I'm going to say it's going to be kind of the same as the last one. Got some fresh fruit, butters, and jams. Fried egg, scrambled egg, beans, tomatoes, hash browns.

[00:18:03]Basically, a full English. Once again, the room breakfast is in. It's really big and grand. It's got a bunch of chandeliers like the rest of this hotel.

[00:18:10]Not feeling too hungry today. Just got a small cup breakfast. Same as Kelsey.

[00:18:14]>> I will say though, the juice is in containers rather than a machine like the last place. And this juice is a lot fresher.

[00:18:21]>> However, it is pretty weird that it's in a plastic cup. We're not trusted with glasses.

[00:18:25]>> Going for a sausage and beans. One thing I will say, the food was absolutely piping hot.

[00:18:30]>> There's still steam coming off the sausage.

[00:18:33]Once again, Britannia Hotel breakfast good.

[00:18:37]>> Very good. No complaints to you. That was lovely.

[00:18:39]>> I have checked and there is no one in here. I just want to say how often do you come into the toilets and there's a chandelier in here? They've got chandeliers everywhere in this place.

[00:18:50]However, can you hear that? The floor's a little bit sticky. The building itself is really impressive. Some of the rooms are nice and big, grand. I can imagine back in the day they were full of life and beautiful. However, it's just a bit of a shame that they are falling apart.

[00:19:07]>> The maintenance here probably isn't quite as kept as it should be.

[00:19:11]>> You can see that they are trying to improve the place. Like the entertainment room seems to be recently renovated. There's a lot more life in this hotel as far as customers and guests go as well. There seems to be a lot more people here.

[00:19:23]>> People are all enjoying having a good time. The vibe downstairs last night was great. Everyone was having a really, really nice time. As far as the room goes, yeah, they're quite small. They're quite basic. Kind of like the other one.

[00:19:34]>> We've got one more Bratanni hotel to stay in tonight, and it's a three-hour drive, so we better go.

[00:19:38]>> If you haven't seen our last one, click the video here, and we'll see you next time. Tomorrow.