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Woman's manky 99 Wowcher mystery holiday poo loo, mould colony and eyebrow-raising stains

Daily Star news editor Abigail Hunt spontaneously booked a 99 Wowcher mystery holiday and boy did she get what she paid for from poo-stained loos to gross marks on the bed, she had one hell of a time

[3* hotel? What a treat, just look at that high tech flat-screen TV]

3* hotel? What a treat, just look at that high tech flat-screen TV

When my friend and I booked a 99 Wowcher Mystery Holiday and discovered wed been sent to Venice, I genuinely thought wed beaten the system. Venice! Gondolas! Aperol Spritz! Romance! Culture! It felt like wed somehow hacked life.

Reader, we had not. After landing, we spent the day wandering around Venice, marvelling at how absurdly beautiful it is. Every corner looked like a Renaissance painting. Every canal looked like a postcard.

We were already discussing how smug wed sound telling people wed bagged a Venetian getaway for less than the price of a weekly food shop at your local Tesco.

[Looking absolutely horrified at the state of the hotel room, which looked straight out of a Netflix crime doc]

Looking absolutely horrified at the state of the hotel room, which looked straight out of a Netflix crime doc

Then we arrived at the Club Hotel. The first red flag greeted us at reception. A woman who looked like shed rather be literally anywhere else handed us our room key, which came attached to what can only be described as a giant teardrop-shaped plank of wood.

We were then informed that we had to hand the key back in every time we left the hotel. Excellent. Nothing says luxury city break quite like a prison release procedure.

Upon entering the room, my stomach dropped. The kind of drop you get when youre on a rollercoaster and suddenly realise the safety bar feels a bit loose.

[Mould? No, of course not - it's clearly a modern art installation]

Mould? No, of course not - it's clearly a modern art installation

The carpets looked like theyd been fitted around the same time Gareth Gates was topping the charts and hadnt seen a vacuum cleaner since. The whole room felt trapped in 2002, preserved like a museum exhibit dedicated to poor life choices.

Then there was the bathroom. Ive stayed in budget hotels before. Nothing prepared me for this. Around the window frame was a bizarre mouldy rot situation that appeared to have actively consumed part of the wall.

Rather than fixing it, the hotel seemed to have adopted a bold artistic stance and pretended it was some kind of contemporary feature wall. Look away if you have trypophobia.

[It's fair to say you may come out of this bath dirtier than you entered ]

It's fair to say you may come out of this bath dirtier than you entered

The toilet was filthy. Unfortunately, the following morning I was forced to become far more acquainted with it than I ever wanted after being ill. A truly humbling experience.

The hairdryer looked like it had been personally unveiled by Thomas Edison. Im fairly certain it belonged in a museum. The bath and tiles were decorated with enough black mould to qualify as their own ecosystem.

Then came the bed. Having spotted some suspicious signs, I immediately entered full CSI mode and stripped the sheets looking for bed bugs. There were black spots on the mattress, which wasnt exactly reassuring, but thankfully no actual bugs appeared.

[Love a rusty and dirt-filled radiator]

Love a rusty and dirt-filled radiator

There were, however, several mysterious stains that absolutely nobody wants to investigate further. You know the kind. The headboard was perhaps the hotels crowning achievement. Someone had apparently looked at the carpet and thought, Not enough of this.

So theyd stuck the same carpet directly onto the wall behind the bed. This makeshift headboard was covered in brown marks and grime that looked old enough to have witnessed multiple World Cups.

At this point we requested a different room. The receptionist came upstairs to inspect our concerns. By inspect I mean she stared in horror at the fact Id stripped the bed.

[Carpet headboard? Go on then]

Grotty carpet headboard? Go on then

Her primary concern wasnt the mould. It wasnt the stains. It wasnt the state of the bathroom. It was the duvet.

She repeatedly explained that she had no staff available to remake the bed. I asked whether she genuinely thought the room was acceptable. She never answered. Instead, she continued to mourn the dismantled bedding like Id vandalised a national monument.

Eventually a compromise was reached: if we made the bed ourselves, shed show us another room. Fair enough.

[Pictured is the prison-release plank of wood key we were forced to hand in to reception every time we left the hotel]

Pictured is the prison-release plank of wood key we were forced to hand in to reception every time we left the hotel. Also trying not to cry

The second room turned out to be equally grim, but it was slightly larger and somehow felt marginally less likely to feature in a Netflix true-crime documentary. At that stage, exhausted and defeated, we took it.

My friend and I did what all great travellers do when faced with adversity: we laughed. Constantly. Because if we didnt laugh, wed probably cry. Thankfully, I was so blackout drunk on the first night that I have absolutely no memory of sleeping in the bed, which was arguably the hotels strongest feature.

The next morning, while staring into the abyss of the bathroom and questioning every life decision that had led me there, I found myself repeating the same phrase: This is what you get for 99.

[I had the pleasure of being sick down one of these monstrosities the first morning after]

I had the pleasure of being sick down one of these monstrosities the first morning after

And honestly, it is. The thing is, Venice itself was spectacular. Genuinely one of the most beautiful places Ive ever visited. Every time the hotel threatened to ruin the trip, Venice would swoop in and save the day. Had the city been even slightly less magical, the Club Hotel might have single-handedly destroyed the entire holiday.

Would I do another Wowcher Mystery Holiday Probably.

Would I stay at the Club Hotel again? Id sooner book two nights in the upside-down world from Stranger Things.

Venice: 10/10.

Club Hotel: proof that not all mysteries should be solved.

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[Abigail Hunt]

Abigail Hunt

Abigail joined the Daily Star as Assistant News Editor in July 2022 before joining the Star Live News Network as Content Editor in November 2025. Prior to the Star she worked as Chief Reporter at the Newark Advertiser. Abigail graduated with an MA in News Journalism at Nottingham Trent University in 2019 and is also an active Teeline Shorthand tutor.

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