Shaftesbury Premier London Paddington - London, United Kingdom 

Very basic hotel. Dissappointing!
Posted: Sat, May 10 2008
We stayed at this hotel during a quick weekend in London - we wanted something cheap but with a nice atmosphere and conveniently located. The hotel was unfortunately really dissappointing on all accounts. We had an online booking with the hotel so check-in was straighforward - standard room booked but on arrival we were told that there was renovation work goin on in parts of the hotel and that we had been upgraded to an executive room instead. Obviously we were quite pleased with this but on entering our room, we realized immediately there was nothing 'executive' about the room. Even by London standards, the room was very small - sort of like a long shoe box room. Room looked worn but was OK. Nothing special really. In the morning we could hear the builders moving around on our floor obviously working on the renovation. This is a 3 star hotel - the reception area was nice but everything about this hotel (in particular, the rooms) spelt out 2-star to us! Staff were OK - not friendly but not miserable or unfriendly either. The hotel has limited parking which if I remember correctly cost us ?10 per day.

A lovely hotel that is ruined by miserable staff!
Posted: Fri, Dec 07 2007
This hotel was a god-send after I spent the night from hell at a hostel. Gorgeous street in a lovely suburb, close to shops and tube station, beautiful building. Although the room was crazily tiny (I couldn't even open the wardrobe, there wasn't room), it was really, really nice - the bathroom was gorgeous, and there was a massive LCD TV on the wall, plus tea + coffee facilities. I would only book this place if you get a last minute rate, as I did - while it's very lovely, I'm sure so are lots of other places in London. The staff really need to work on - well, everything. I didn't encounter a single pleasant staff member. One was rude. One ignored me whilst I stood at the counter for 10 minutes. One was imcomptent. One nearly lost my passport. Crack a smile and get some training, guys! I was happy with my stay though, but just a word of warning - don't put anything in their 'safety box' - they chuck your things in an envelope and then have trouble finding it again when you want to check out! Not so cool.

WARNING! Keep Out!
Posted: Sat, Sep 15 2007
My boyfriend and I turned up outside the Hyde, quite pleasantly suprised by the exterior. A lovely street and good entrance. We were 'greeted' by the ice queen who was one of many members of staff NEVER to crack a smile for our entire stay. The Hyde require you to pay on arrival. I now know why! After checking in we were informed that our room was on the 4th floor and....the elevator was out of order! We had 2 suitcases, a rucksack and a golf bag. Not impressed. The porter begrudgingly offered to help us with one bag. So up we climbed. We got to the 3rd floor and the heat hit us. Very confusing considering the not so hot summer England is experiencing this year. We found our room in the unbelievable heat of the 4th floor, opened the door to find it as hot, if not hotter in there. Our room was so small, the bed wasn't even a double. It reeked of sewage in there too. The first thing we did was wash our hands in scolding hot water as there was no cold water to discover there were also no towels. Then we tried to cool the room down. The window was broken and didn't open. The AC didn't work and won't work until January 08 we were told. At this point we needed to get out! We climbed down the 4 flights, getting cooler each time and went immediately back to the icequeen and told her of our concerns. She passed us 2 unfolded bath towels right there at reception and told us she would try and get us a second fan for our room! I have NO IDEA (if she had actually done this) where she would have put it!! The lift never did get fixed during our stay, the room never got any cooler, the staff didn't get any friendlier etc etc. I could go on for hours!! PLEASE think seriously before booking this hotel!!!! DOn't put yourself through it!!!!!!!!!! GOOD LUCK!