The first thing you’ll notice about the Bently is its unusual exterior. Its red-and-white-striped frontage is more reminiscent of a well-known fried chicken outlet than a luxury hotel.

Unfortunately, this motif is somewhat reinforced by the counter full of sausage rolls and pastries that the staff has chosen to place immediately inside the front door. The lobby is decorated in a style that perhaps attempts to counteract the fast-food theme; it’s intended to look opulent, but comes across as slightly underwhelming: the walls are gold mirrored and the carpets are thick and red.

The facility has 91 rooms spread over five floors, plus two conference rooms. There are also theoretically gym facilities and a swimming pool, but on my visit all machines in the gym were unusable or out of action, and the swimming pool was closed with a leak. I was assured the pool issue would be fixed within a week, but given the problems in the gym, I’m afraid I lack conviction.

Rooms are a good size and furniture is hard-wearing, though my non-smoking room smelt of smoke, lacked any bottled water, and looked as though it could do with a thorough cleaning. The air conditioning was a noisy wall-mounted unit that barely managed to mask the sound of the building work going on immediately outside. Nor is there any Wi-Fi available, unless you wish to pay N750 for 100MB or N1500 for 250MB. Given the limited DSTV channels and the general lack of other available facilities, you may end up using more data than you expect.

Despite the overall disappointing nature of the Bently, the staff are friendly enough…maybe they should open that fast food franchise instead?