Toxteth O' G.
Google
I deliberated long and hard before booking the Clay. Im glad to report that in the main, our stay was a pleasant one.
When making the reservation I asked for a "quiet room if possible" beforehand via email to avoid any noise from espanola way/washington avenue. hey presto, they put us in a room around the back. A problem solved quite easily. I had no problems at the reception, yes the staff are foreign, but we understood each other without any problems. the price is good, and the room was fine by us. if we wanted to be ultra fussy, I suppose we could say that the carpet felt "slightly" sticky and the bottom of the bath was dirty. I cant be 100% sure this was the case though. the bath looked dirty but when I tried to scrub the "dirt" off i couldnt so I think it is due to the age of the old enamel bath. i didnt have a problem showering whilst stood in it anyway, and I consider myself hygenic.
The balcony in the communal room overlooking espanola way was great! you could lap up the street atmosphere whilst having a beer or two of your own before going out.
The bed was immaculately clean, and the TV reception was good, and the fridge was clean.
I did spot a bug on the wall on the morning of our departure, I couldnt verify what kind it was, but we did have our window open for our entire stay, so i'm reluctant to blame the hotel for that. the air conditioning was good but noisy, so we tended to use it just for short periods, and it suited us fine.
one black mark is the shared bathrooms: when exiting/entering the bathroom you have to lock/unlock access for the adjacent guests while you are in there. Not a problem, if people use the bolts quietly. In our case I think two gorillas had taken residence in the adjoining room as they were really noisy with the bolt in the middle of the night. but, that isnt the hotels fault!
all in all, a good budget hotel, which I would be glad to stay at again.