The best budget hotel I’ve ever found in LondonPosted: Wed, Jun 11 2008Location:
5Rooms:
3Service:
3.5Value:
5Stayed here for a night while down in London on business. Srange hotel – but not in a bad way. More a hotel of unexpected contrasts - and most of them good. Actually quite a find given some of the places I’ve had to stay in over the years in London.
The hotel is situated in the Marylebone area of the city – Baker Street and Madame Tussaud’s is about a 10 minute walk, Paddington Station and the West End 20 minutes. But the hotel actually sits down a side road so is very quiet considering the number of busy main roads in the area.
It's very unassuming as you arrive with its locked door. But once I arrived, rang the door bell to get in, paid by credit card, and was given a key and shown to my room I was made very welcome.
They say you get what you pay for but in London terms this represented excellent value especially when you consider what some hotels charge in London for far inferior accomodation. OK my room was small and basic but it was adequately furnished with a TV and Ikea-style furniture and the small en-suite shower put some alleged “power showers” I’ve used in well known hotels to shame. There were a couple of shared toilets close to my room but they were clean and obviously cared for.
But there were other nice little touches I haven’t seen in budget hotels such as this in London before. There was a mini-fridge in the room well-stocked with cold soft drinks. It was a hot day and a portable fan had been left switched on in the room. There was a bowl of fresh apples on the bedside table. The bed was actually one of the most comfortable hotel beds I have slept in for a while, and there was a fresh dressing gown hanging behind the door.
In the morning, a perfectly acceptable breakfast was freshly cooked in the open-plan breakfast room kitchen area which overlooked a balcony area. As the only other guest I met commented, it was almost like being a guest in someone’s own house.
So who would I recommend it for? Certainly as a budget tourist hotel, and I’ll certainly use it again when I come to London on business.