Blakemore Hotel - London, United Kingdom 

My wife and I stayed at the Blakemore Hotel in London for five days beginning on June 27, 2008. I have stayed in hotels all over Europe (even in Russia) and the United States and this has to be the worst accommodation I have ever had. After booking months in advance, we arrived around noon. When we opened the door to our room, we were shocked at how small the twin room was. There was less than 10 inches between the foot of each bed and the wall to say nothing about the otherwise shabby appearance of the room in general. If the size and condition of the room were the only problems, I would not be writing about our experience. But unfortunately, this was only the tip of the iceberg! Directly outside of our window on the 4th floor was a walking scaffold. Workman had a bird’s eye view of our bedroom! I then turned on the hot water in the sink to wash up and I was unable to turn it off. It was running at full throttle and filling the room with hot steam. A call to the desk brought a prompt response from a hotel staff member who also could not turn it off. A plumber showed up shortly after that and was able to turn it off by jiggling the valve. He said the plumbing was old and showed us how to turn it off ourselves. I called the front desk and asked for another room. I was told the hotel was completely booked, but they would give us another room the next day. The new room was slightly larger and in better condition than the other room. There was no scaffolding, but our strange odyssey continued on. During the course of the next four days, here is what happened. The room was very hot and we were unable to open the windows beyond a three-inch gap. What was advertised as a “ceiling fan” in each room was a cheap, stand-up floor fan that hardly blew any air. We suffered for four days in a stifling room. If this weren’t enough, the handle on the toilet broke late one evening. A staff member came up and after looking at the toilet, said he could not fix it. He said it would be fixed in the morning and in the meantime, we could fill the trashcan with water and pour it into the toilet! To be fair, we were offered another room that evening, but it was very late and we were very tired. We simply were not up to packing all of our stuff up for a third move. It was fixed the next day. Around 2 AM one night, after finally falling asleep in the hot room, the hotel fire alarm went off. The occupants of the entire hotel evacuated to the lobby and the outside. Everyone was standing around half dazed and no one in the hotel told us what was going on. After around two hours, everyone finally returned to their rooms. When returning to our room, I noticed a sign on the wall that said that in the event of a fire alarm, the local fire brigade is required to be called in. No one from the fire brigade ever showed up! Continuing on, in our first attempt to use the hair dryer, it started to grind and threw out sparks! So much for the hair dryer! Additionally, the shower had a temperature regulator that didn’t work properly. We basically had two choices, “steaming hot” and “boiling hot.” We did mention this to the staff, but nothing was done. My wife and I were able to use the steaming hot shower by moving in and out of the stream while showering. I am the kind of person who rarely complains. In fact, I have never written a letter like this about any accommodation. If an accommodation is safe and relatively comfortable, I am generally OK with it. This accommodation was neither!