We used Booking.com to reserve a room for two nights at the Ship Inn in Solva, Pembrokeshire.
I charged my mobile in a double socket outside the bathroom door. Beside the socket were two switches. I must have accidentally knocked one because we awoke the next day to an unpleasant smell and found urine in the bathtub. This put us off staying the second night and we asked to be refunded.
The landlord explained that many rural buildings have electric pumps for sanitation and that if it is off, effluent doesn’t drain away but flows into the bath. He declined to refund us and referred us to Booking.com which has offered £20 against the £144 we paid. JA, Bristol
Your pictures show a couple of inches of yellow liquid in the bath and of identical sockets with nothing to show the crucial function of one of them.
The Ship Inn lays the blame squarely on you. Landlord Simon Greene says that the situation has been exaggerated “way out of proportion” and questions why you chose that particular socket to charge your phone when there are others behind the TV and beside the bed. “The pumping system has been around since the early seventies and is effective when not meddled with,” he says. He explains he referred you to Booking.com because it takes a month before the Inn receives payment for bookings.
The Ship Inn has a four-star rating on review websites and most guests are pleased with their stay, so it’s a pity your mishap was not handled more gracefully. The good news is that Booking.com, when contacted by the Observer, has refunded you in full. “We are in communication with the property regarding making some adjustments to avoid a similar situation occurring again,” it says .
The Ship Inn says it has now labelled the switch.
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