No, they are not all perfectly good hotels.
Here are some of the comments from TripAdvisor about the Bell Hotel in Epping before it became accommodation for asylum seekers:
"Lovely staff - checked in and when asked to book in for breakfast was told not currently available even tho offered on the website and visible sign at reception with prices 😅
While building looking very tired but the room was clean and bed comfortable .
No hot water ,TV broken and had to request cup towel and milk ( all three bought to me very quickly ) but the no hot water was a deal breaker."
"My wife and I stayed here while wedding a friend's wedding. Have to stay that the staff tried but the place looks tired and so was the room.
The bathroom needs attention to bring it up to any standard.
Breakfast in the morning was very average.
The only positive aspect was plenty of parking.
We will not be staying here again."
"Just checked out of this REALLY BAD well you can't call it a hotel.. Is really a 1950 motel. Service really poor room not that much better either. Booked in yesterday to be told by the receptionist that breakfast was till 10.30 am. Set alarm so as not to miss it to be told that We got it wrong.. Its till 9.00. Didn't want to give us a refund as it wasn't there fault we missed it. DON'T STAY HERE IF YOU DON'T HAVE To!"
"Worst hotel ever stayed in it’s like something out of the 1970’s a load of of us stayed here as wedding guests and every single room has stains on the walls and white stains on the sofas/chairs. Facility’s are terrible you would have a more powerful shower if you stood out in the rain. On discussion with other guests the same rooms for the same night were all different prices. Some one paid £160 for two nights some payed 120 for one night we payed 100 for one night and you look on there website and it says £59 now. Your better off sleeping in your car in the car park"
"Wouldn't recommend this hotel at all, used it just to get ready in for a wedding and to sleep in after the wedding and hated it. They asked for £20 extra for early check in and we were told this would be 12 o clock, got there at 12 and the leaflet said 11am early check in so already false information and the extra hour would have helped, especially as we paid for it. There were stains all over the walls and carpets, bugs and flies etc - no air conditioning!
We had the room for one single night and check out was 12pm but the housekeepers knocked and came in at 9am!? absolutely ridiculous and not needed if we were only there for one night, didn't make sense at all.
Went to have a shower in the morning and there was a massive spider in the bath. Wouldn't bother with this place, its a nice area so I'm sure you could get somewhere better."
"Got to big the worst place I’ve stayed in the rooms where so dated I had to check I was the age I thought I was like something out the 1980s rooms where so old and dated.
Staff wasn’t great either fella on reception was rude when we left.
Would I stay there again 😂 id rather sleep in a card board box on the street"
"We were definitely disappointed with this hotel...staff were lovely but the rooms etc were very run down...our bed was as hard as nails and bathroom not very appealing at all. We even had metal bits sticking out of the wall which presumably ? Held a shelf at one time. I read one review just now that heating was not on..we had the opposite, we could not turn rads down even though the thermostat said it had. Fine to crash for a night which is what we did but definitely would not stay any longer. Breakfast was ok...plenty of it.
My heart sank as soon as we drove into the very upkempt grounds of the car park."
"I was quite disappointed with the hotel. The rooms are in a separate block and there is no security there whatsoever; anyone could walk in. The bed was very comfortable but the room was extremely dated. It looked like something out of the 1970’s. Actually, the whole hotel needs to be brought up to date."
"Hotel is quite run down, really needs attention, things don't work. Beds weren't comfortable and food was appalling, ate both dinner and breakfast, thought surely they couldn't mess up a jacket potato and beans but somehow they managed! LOL Wouldn't stay here again."
"Stayed here for one night as we were attending a wedding, and have to say for £90 was expecting a decent hotel. It reminded me of Crossroads Motel from the 70's. The whole place is crying out to be modernised. Rooms are very dated with no air conditioning. The corridors to the rooms have carpet which is dirty and lifting up, which is a trip hazard. The restaurant has awful net curtains and plastic plants. Breakfast is ok but the coffee was awful. The bar service was painfully slow even when I was the only person waiting to be served. The only decent thing about this hotel is the location. If I was staying longer than one night I would have checked out and stayed elsewhere. It needs a complete overhaul to get it up to standard."
"Looks like Crossroads from the outside and looks like it hasn’t been updated since the 80s too. There was a smell of burnt grease outside. Even though it has an Indian restaurant no smell of Indian food just burned dirty grease smell.
Staff are very friendly and helpful but there’s hardly any of them.
There are stains on the carpets everywhere.
My first room the shower head was collapsing and the tv didn’t work. The second room was better and could see an effort was made to clean it. But there was a bag of sweets from previous guests beer bed. Soap from previous guest was still in the shower. Stains on the sofa and carpet and rips it in the quilt cover. The built in shower was cold only no matter what I tried. One on hose was ok.
I paid for breakfast in advance £5 - seemed like a good deal. Turned up first morning no hot buffet and no staff. After waiting for nearly 10 minutes the cleaner went and fetched someone for me. She asked if I wanted them to cook me a breakfast. Given the wait I declined. Made myself 2 pieces of toast. Couldn’t have a hot drink because there was no herbal tea or decaf. Didn’t bother going to breakfast again after that so paid £20 for 2 slices of toast.
Like I said no problem with staff - they are very pleasant and try hard. Just not enough of them and whole place needs a proper deep clean."
It has an overall rating of 2.7.