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When Jan Jones from Porthcawl was looking for somewhere to stay in the Welsh capital for a friend鈥檚 birthday, she settled on the Big Sleep Hotel in Cardiff.听 But the state of her room shocked her.听 鈥淭here were empty food containers in there, there were empty beer bottles, the mattress was exposed and it was stained.听 The bathroom was filthy dirty.听 It was just shocking.鈥澨�

Jan is one of a number of guests at the hotel who have spoken to X-Ray about poor levels of cleanliness in their rooms.听 Becky from Hay-on-Wye discovered blood stains on her bathroom wall, while Josh from Staffordshire found a huge brown stain on his duvet.听 鈥淚 hate to think what it was,鈥� he told us.听 When Lina from Greece found body hair from previous guests in her bathroom, she took matters into her own hands after being told there were no other rooms available.听 鈥淚 went to the convenience store and took some cleaning products myself and cleaned the room.听 I felt disappointed, I felt disgust, I felt deceived.鈥�

When X-Ray reporter听Omar booked a room at the Big Sleep to investigate further, he uncovered a whole host of hygiene horrors, including a heavily stained bed sheet and mattress, body hairs on the bedding and in the bin, and thick mould growing on the inside of the bathroom window sill with a dead insect in the middle of it.听

The hotel鈥檚 management has apologised and admitted these 'lapses in quality' are unacceptable.听 They have offered to refund all the unhappy guests we featured, and have promised to take action to improve their housekeeping.听 They also say they're confident the hotel will be 'transformed' once their current refurbishment is complete.

Kasha Minor, a lecturer in hospitality at Cardiff Metropolitan University, has some useful advice for anyone who checks into a hotel room and finds it鈥檚 not up to scratch.听 鈥淔irst of all go downstairs and complain before you use anything at all,鈥� she says.听 鈥淭hat way you鈥檙e giving the hotel the chance to rectify what鈥檚 been going wrong.听 If they put it right it and it鈥檚 all fine then you鈥檒l have to pay because you鈥檝e used a service.听 But if you don鈥檛 complain straight away don鈥檛 expect to get any money off.鈥�

Caerphilly鈥檚 Community Learning Disabilities team had been looking forward to their Christmas party all year.

At 拢68 a head their 鈥榰nder the sea鈥� themed party in Cardiff wasn鈥檛 going to be cheap, but they鈥檇 started saving in January to make it more affordable.听

They booked through an agent called Office Christmas, also known as Office Events, and last month they paid their final balance, meaning they鈥檇 handed over more than 拢1,700 in total.

However, a couple of weeks later they received a shock 鈥� an email arrived stating the company had stopped trading.

The team then turned to the company hosting the event 鈥� Best Parties Ever 鈥� but they also had bad news.听 Best Parties Ever told them they鈥檇 only been given the group鈥檚 deposit and they鈥檇 have to pay the remaining balance again if they wanted to go to the party.

The team couldn鈥檛 afford to do that, so turned to X-Ray for help.

We tried to contact Office Events Ltd - but their website no longer exists and we didn鈥檛 receive a reply to our email.

Best Parties Ever told us they've also lost a significant amount of money because of this, and are urging people who booked with a credit card to try to get a refund through their credit card company.

And, after we got in touch, they offered everybody who鈥檇 paid by bank transfer or cheque a 50% discount on their outstanding balance if they can provide proof of payment.

What should you do to ensure your Christmas tree stays looking great into the new year? Lucy met Rob Morgan, who grows Christmas trees in Gower, Swansea, for some top tips:

1.听听听听 Don't buy too early - wait until December. You need to go听somewhere that's selling fresh trees - you can see how fresh they are as they smell nice and look green and lush. The key to a good tree generally is the weight of the tree 鈥� if you can lift it up too easily it means there's no moisture in it. It might look good when you buy it, but in a couple of weeks it will just be needles on the floor.

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2.听听听听 You don鈥檛 need to spend a lot of money. A Nordman fur is your classic non-drop tree, which would cost about 拢35. But for a Norway Spruce, a traditional tree, you're looking at half the price.

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3.听听听听听 Once you get your tree home, it鈥檚 a good idea to cut a little bit off the bottom. That will stimulate the tree to start drinking water again. Put the tree in a very good tree stand that holds a lot of water. Try not to put it next to under-floor heating, a radiator or a fire - you've got to treat the trees like cut flowers because they'll just dry out straight away.

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