The Brook Green Hotel - London, United Kingdom     

We stayed in this hotel for three nights. The location is handy to public transport. The ambience in the bar is nice. The staff were mostly young expatriates who were really friendly. Our room overlooked Shepherds Bush Road. We felt as if we were bombarded by sirens, with the fire station being very close, and the road being frequented by ambulances and police cars that had their sirens blaring at all hours. This did not make for restful sleep. Neither did hard beds. Our room needed quite a bit of maintenance - one power point didn't work, only one of three bathroom lights was functional, the shower leaked onto the end of the bath and water flowed from there to make a lake on the bathroom floor, and the main stairwell light was also not functioning. Housekeeping hadn't removed all of the previous occupants' rubbish and during our stay didn't once clean or replace our water glasses or tea cups - we had to clean them ourselves. We expected a bath towel each but didn't always get this and had to ask for more, although there were enough hand towels. Our room keys seemed programmed to work only once - we were having to get them reprogrammed several times each day. The breakfast menu runs from 7am till noon which is good for a sleep-in, but the standard of food is patchy.

The Brook Green was a breath of fresh air, literally. The hotel rooms are above a busy pub, but extremely well isolated acoustically. In addition, our stay was during one of those heatwaves that are allegedly rare in Britain, but seem to strike every time I visit. The room was not huge, but had gorgeous high ceilings and quiet, cool air conditioning. The bed was comfortable, the bathroom very well appointed. The proprietors were friendly and this made a great place to stay the final night of our sojourn.