A father who booked a stay in a hotel was left horrified when blue sparks shot from the radiator in his room and “nearly killed” him.

Dale Smith was staying in the newly refurbished Hilton Hotel, in Elton Way, Watford, on October 24 when he says he was nearly electrocuted when he tried to turn the radiator off.

The 30-year-old said he had just got out of the shower when he realised the £109 room was freezing, so tried to turn the cold radiator on.

But when he switched it on, he was horrified to see it almost immediately began to spit out “bright blue sparks”, leaving and left a strong burnt, acrid smell in the room.

He said: “Bright blue sparks started coming out of a radiator in a room I thought was newly refurbished.

“I’m not an electrician but that could have probably killed me and even if it didn’t, it was still pretty damn scary.

“My eldest could have been there. I might have even let my oldest daughter, who is nine, put it on herself and if she’d been electrocuted, this would have been a very different story.

“I was so freaked out.”

Mr Smith’s children, Jayden-Blue, 20 months and Jade, nine, were luckily not with him at the time.

He immediately turned the power off and said the incident left him feeling too stunned to do anything.

After spending a night sleeping in the freezing cold room, he eventually decided to complain to the reception staff.

But their reaction was dismissive and non-committal, he said.

The radiator in the room

Watford Observer:

He added: “Their reaction was what upset me the most, the staff were just very dismissive of the situation.

“I had a cold night’s stay and a bad, potentially life threatening experience."

“They offered me no refunds or anything complimentary as a gesture of goodwill.

“I’m not used to such bad service, as a Toyota car salesman, the customer always comes first.”

Although the room was supposed to be brand new, he said there was already a dry stain on the floor underneath the radiator, which looked ‘corroded’.

He paid £109 for the one-night stay on October 24 and had been looking forward to a “comfortable” stay.

He added: “I’m just bemused as to how I was allowed to stay in that room to start with, it’s really not what I expected.

“As a multimillion pound franchise, the way they are dealing with me is just disgusting.

“I have spoken to head office, they’ve passed me around three different people and I’ve waited about a week for the next person to call back.

“The room was dangerous, I won’t be staying at that hotel again.”

A spokesperson for Hilton Watford said: “The wellbeing and safety of our guests is of paramount importance.

"We can confirm that a concern with a radiator was reported by a guest following their stay, and that we immediately investigated and replaced the radiator."