Rose Court Hotel - London, United Kingdom     

We booked a triple room and had a terrible experience. The complaint we made at reception was ignored. The room we were shown (G06) had no windows and no form of ventilation apart from an air pump in the room with a huge tube leading through the "window" into another room (i.e., not outside) and thus recycling the same air through the rooms. It was stifling and smelly. In addition, the room was right next to reception where staff and their friends were talking loudly from Saturday evening until 6:00am on Sunday morning. The beddings, moreover, also smelt and did not appear to have been washed. We did not sleep at all that night.

Oh my word! First thing I did upon arrival (whilst carefully averting my eyes from the grim surroundings, peeling paint, stained bedding, filthy carpet etc etc) was attempt to boil the kettle for a nice cuppa. This took an absolute age, and when the kettle had boiled, there was hardly any water in it... the kettle was leaking badly, with electric points situated precariously beneath just to add to the sense of danger and fun! As I looked from the window, I admired the view; a thirty foot drop onto what appeared to be some sort of rusting old piece of agricultural machinery, surrounded by bags of rubbish and large discarded boxes, and no visible skyline, merely the backs of other hotels, creating a sense of overwhelming claustrophobia and doom. As I peeled the paint from the window sill, I contemplated what might happen in the event of a fire, should I have to use this window as a means of escape, and hurriedly pushed the thought to the back of my head. Breakfast the next morning was very surreal. I am not sure how they managed to fry the eggs and make them all stick together in a large, (roughly) square block of congealed yolk, fat and egg-white, but somehow it worked, and would have done Tracey Emin proud as a form of modern artwork. Also on the menu was some tepid baked beans. The bacon, sausages and hash-browns must have done a runner somewhere, probably in terror at the sight of the horrifying 'egg-square monster thang'. Toast was eventually forthcoming, but the only butter on offer tasted a bit like having an affair with your aging granny; very unpleasant, and leaving a bad taste in your mouth. On the plus side, the orange juice was quite nice. In all fairness, I've stayed in a lot worse places, and I don't really mind 'roughing it', but am aware that many expect a certain basic standard and rightly so, and I don't think this place meets those standards at all. If you like your stay to be dark, dirty and dreary, then this is definitely the place for you! If not, then avoid like the plague. The location is great though, with Paddington Station and underground just a short walk away, and bars, restaurants and takeaways aplenty.