Birmingham Serviced Apartments - Rotunda

I love staying in this block normally where I can pick up the key at the reception. However if you book this specific appt you have to get the key from an address 20 mins away. Not great at all if you get to the location at 10pm. Ended up booking a cheap hotel nearby instead!

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. SCAM SCAM SCAM. Their only interest is stealing your money, and not providing a service. No customer service and rooms were dirty. "Reception" is half a mile walk from the property, when checking out; no one present, yet have the audacity to ask for a £100 CASH deposit - they don't operate with card. No chance! Ending up accepting an expired gift card from name embossed... what morons. There's cesspits cleaner than their apartments. Still got my fingers crossed they get shut down, or better yet, deported.

I stayed in Room 904 in the Rotunda with two friends. We paid a lot of money for a room that was poorly maintained and not clean and had to wait half an hour to collect the keys because the office had been left unattended. I sent multiple emails to the company outlining all of the issues with photographic evidence and was ignored for over a week before they sent a pathetic reply so I am still waiting for the situation to be resolved. When we arrived, the office was empty even though we got there during opening hours so we called the number and a man said he would be there in 5 minutes. 9 minutes later he still hadn't arrived so we rang again and he said he was around the corner. This was clearly a lie as we had to call him again 7 minutes later as he still wasn't there. Please see attached photo of our call log. When we finally got to the hotel later than planned, the room was not even clean. The location of the room was perfect but the room itself was poorly presented. The walls were covered in marks, the carpet wasn't even cut correctly and there were missing tiles in the shower so it feels like we paid a lot of money for something quite shoddy. The carpets were covered in lots of hair and dust, the curtains were stained, there was a thick layer of muck under the radiator and finger prints all over the windows. There was also a dirty tray in the oven so we had to wash up before we could even cook. Please see attached images of the state of the apartment. AVOID!!!!!

Apartment was pretty dirty, bathroom bin wasn’t emptied, sofa-bed was broken and difficult to sit on without it sliding open on you. Washing up left on drying rack but still had coffee stains on. Windows and glass had sticky prints and smudges and hand prints all over, the curtain had lipstick in a big patch. Couldn’t turn off the heater in the bathroom which was then absolutely baking. It was right next to the toilet, which combined with the sink which is practically in your lap, makes for an uncomfortable sitting. Apartment is pretty small, but good location in centre. View was good, but spoiled by some blue and white dump in Small Heath that looks like it’s falling down anyway.

The apartment was centrally located and for the same price as a hotel room was good value fir money. However the keys have to be picked up and left off at the other side of town despite there being a 24hr reception at the location. Also (and this was mainly down to expedia slipping it in tiny writing on confirmation) you are expected to do a £100 pre-auth on your card on arrival. I found blocking this amount with my bank for 2 weeks unjustified as a key deposit it is way beyond the value, as a security deposit not only would it unlikely cover the cost of any damage but before keeping any money they would have to prove crimunal liability. I was told this happens in all hotels......yes where you may have bar...restaurant...minibar or room services charges. I returned the keys at 9.30am but noone was at the office. I contacted them later to demand they complete the pre auth on their machine but these outstanding professionals clearly had no idea that function could be done and thought it totally acceptable that they could block bank funds for 2 weeks for a 1 night stay. So the apartment was fine but for all the other faff and inconvenience which was the opposite of hospitality i wouldnt stay again

Shower was broken and no one responded back to me until after I checked out. Room was dirty and the pillow cases smelt

position had to walk 30 min to pick up key and rverse to return key 100 deposit required this had been sub let to us

DO NOT BOOK THIS APARTMENT I had a nightmare with this apartment. You have to pick the keys up 20mins walk from the actual apartment location. Not acceptable when you arrive into Birmingham at 9pm at night. The keys location is in a business area so would not recommend walking in the dark. There is nothing on hotels.com website advising you have to pay £100 key deposit. And to add to that you have to drop the keys back off. No box to drop off within the apartment building, completely insane considering there's a manned reception desk. In total 80mins of walking back & forth or approx £12 in taxi fees. When I opened my apartment door, (the key gets stuck) it had not been serviced/cleaned. It was really dirty with marks on walls. I refused to stay but they don't have any other apartments in this complex. Nightmare by now at 1030pm at night. After 40mins a staff member arrived (after i refused to meet him as he didn't want to park his car???) and offered me another apartment at another location and would drive me there??? Absolutely no way I would get in a car with someone I didn't know and with no guarantee the state of the apartment. Plus I specifically booked the New street location to be close to the Train Station and my meeting location. The security have had endless complaints of issues with this apartment and want the owner out. Pay the extra and stay in a hotel.

Had to pick up key nearly a mile away in Jewellery Quarter! I only stayed one night so was asked to drop back the next day. It was nearly 4 miles of walking! I had to do it because they took £100 deposit on the keys. Apartment wasn't even locked when I got there! Staff didn't care and said I should have read the small print. Apartment was dirty. Hairs all over the carpet, bathroom and shower. Stains on carpet, curtains and work surface. Dirt in all areas - crevices such as skirting, corners etc. Décor and condition was very tatty. Mattress was ultra cheap and not comfortable. Sofa was more comfortable and I considered sleeping there. One window was broken. TV had sky, but the remote didn't work so was stuck with one channel and subtitles. Location was good which is why I went for it but the walk for the keys more than cancelled that out. Safe to say I will never, ever return.

What isn't clear is on the front booking page it doesn't state you have to pick up keys, the keys are a 15 min walk (or 10 min taxi) from the apartment, so that's potentially 30 mins before you've got to apartment. They then ask you to drop keys back when you are leaving, so again you have to add 30 mins to your travel time. This is not ideal when you pick this for location and you have to carry luggage/bags etc. No WiFi, contacted them through the mobile they text me to confirm bookind in the evening, no response. Window didn't shut properly allowing noise in, lights in kitchen part didn't work. Sink was clearly blocked in bathroom as took ages to go down, didn't seem that clean. Text them in the morning with all the issues (including the wifi again), no response. They give you an amenities bag, only 1 tea bag, one coffee sachet and one sugar sachet for drink, bit stingey if you ask me. Nothing in the apartment for drinking i.e. no other teabags/coffee etc.

The room itself could have been lovely, in a great location with a lovely view however poor cleanliness, a broken fridge, a full bin, unclean bed sheets all made for a poor visit. Add to the fact that to get your room key is a 45 minute walk and this is not a hotel I will be re-using.

The people who work in the reception / office are nice and polite. However, the flat was not well maintained, wi-fi did not work and the check in process was a mess, as guests need to walk 15 minutes from the flat in order to take the keys (not convenient at all, especially on a rainy day). The area is very central, which is handy for visiting bars / restaurants / train stations but it's really noisy, with some dodgy sorts of preachers singing prayers and drunk students being around constantly.

The view aside, its a pretty average set-up. From the near mile walk across the city to pick up the keys (and return them to check out, even though there is a reception at the Rotunda - surely something could be done about that?!) to the generally grubby condition of the apartment this was a rather disappointing offering. Ours certainly was in need of some TLC. Poor standard beds and old manky bedding, stained carpet, luke warm water from the shower...good view though! See Bham from the Cube and stay somewhere else!

I was told there was parking before I booked and there wasn't after I booked