Orchard Hotel - London, United Kingdom 

As a budget traveller I wasn't expecting much and therefore wasn't too disappointed. The room and bathroom were clean - small, but that is to be expected in London. The location was great (10 mins from Paddington station and about the same from Hyde Park - important as a runner!). The front desk staff were friendly enough, although the women serving breakfast were a bit rude (i.e., like they were "put out" if you asked them for something). The continental breakfast was disappointing - cornflakes, white bread toast, and something masquerading as "juice". Cereal and toast are fine, but something other than cornflakes and "Wonder Bread" would have been better. I had a curious issue with my towels - I left my wet towels drying on the rack when I left in the morning and found the same ones upon my return. I know some hotels indicate that if you'd like to reuse your towels you should hang them on the rack and if you'd like new ones you should put them bathroom floor. That hadn't been my intention, but reusing them was not a problem. The next morning I left the wet towels (day two) on the bathroom floor expecting to receive new ones. Upon my return I found the same towels drying on the rack - I expected that leaving them on the floor was a clear indication that I wanted clean towels. I had to ask the front staff for clean towels - a bit unusual - how many days did they expect me to reuse the towels??

I recently stayed at this hotel whilst attending a concert in Hyde Park. While we were satisfied with the distance between the Park and the hotel, we realised that the area was less than desirable. Upon entering reception we were greated by a less than welcoming gentleman, who seemed to find our mere presence a cause for complaint. Our room was at the front of the hotel, on the third floor, overlooking a block of flats and the main road. Although this did not appear to be an issue at first, it became more so later on as the road became quite busy during the night. Our room was surprisingly small, featuring two twin beds, a tiny bathroom lacking any toiletries or a plug for the sink. We had a very small television, although this was plugged into the only socket in the room. When we unplugged it to use our electrical items, we noticed that the television plug was frayed, which appeared slighly dangerous. There was no remote provided, some of the buttons on the front of the television did not work and the picture was intolerable. Another cause for concern was that the door did not feature any form of deadlock, or even a chain. When another guest entered the room opposite ours, resulting in their standing next to our door (the corridor was very narrow and dark) the door almost came open. As two young female travellers, this made us nervous to say the least. The final issue regarding the room was the window. It was a wooden sash, which in itself appeared quite pretty. However, we noticed when in bed that there was a constant breeze and the road noise was rather loud. There was a 3 inch gap between the upper and lower panes which could not be closed and hence had to be endured. Whilst the breeze was welcome during the warm temperatures, in winter I'd imagine this would become irritating. The breakfast room was located in the basement (four flights of stairs down from our room). Whilst we found a free table quickly (as we went into the breakfast room at 7.30am) those arriving slighly later had to wait. The 'full english breakfast' was beans, a rasher of bacon and a very 'well done' fried egg. On a positive note, we were given tea and coffee, toast, jam and butter to accompany the cooked breakfast and orange juice was available. All in all, I was a little shocked by the standard of the hotel and the fact that quite a few of the staff appeared to detest the inconvience of having guests, whilst they struggled to communicate with us due to poor English language abilities. That said, it was clean, the beds were quite comfortable and in relation to Hyde Park the location was okay. However, I do believe you could find better quality hotels for the same price should you look elsewher.