Ahh London. One of the worlds most beautiful & EXPENSIVE cities! Perhaps the best advice I can give is that you typically get what you pay for in this city. To get what would be your average no thrills hotel in most cities (aside from Tokyo) expect to pay about $200 plus per night. Keeping that and the exchange rate in perspective you can see why these hotels usually get such terrible ratings... that and the fact that they would probably be already have gone out of business in most other cities.

Location wise its fantastic. I typically stay in the Victoria area and as my hotel experiences couldn't get much worse than there, I decided to give the Paddington area a try. Paddington Station is a 5-10min walk. Paddington Station is where the Heathrow express arrives (15min journey from Heathrow to Paddington Station for about twenty pounds one way) and the regular Heathrow Train (25min journey for about 9 pounds one way). The walk to the hotel is very simple if you take down directions or a cab fare would probably be about 5 pounds, maybe less. All tube stations seem to be a 5-10 min walk (Paddington or Queensway) and Kennsington Park is a 5 min walk or less.

The hotel receptionists were friendly enough and check in was fine. The hotel does provide free and reasonable safe locked luggage storage in a cupboard adjacent to the front desk. You can purchase internet for an hour or a day at the front desk. Think it was around 8-10 pounds for 24hrs.

The ensuite room was located in the basement (as most cheaper expedia bookings seem to be) and is a typical tiny London room. The room comes complete with a wardrobe, desk and chair, tv with a few channels (the typical tv remote that apparently works for a tv in some other in the building but not the one in your room) double or twin beds, night stand and barely room to move. The room did come with a small safe and seemed reasonably clean.

Bewarned the walls are thin in this hotel! You will hear your neighbors if you have any and they will hear you. On my first morning there I had the pleasure of bring woken up at 530am by a drunken lady screaming into her phone to her mother about helping the children of Egypt after what apparently was a great night out on the town. How do I know all this about a phone conversation having nothing to do with me you ask? As I said the walls are very VERY thin apparently. I am not sure who was more relived when her credit ran out... her mother or myself. I am still not sure if this woman was screaming outside the bedroom door, in the room next door or if she had somehow snuck into my room and was standing with a megaphone at the bottom of my bed. But you get the point. If this woman isn't still around for your 530am wake up call, never fear the many children in the hotel will be up screaming and tearing around the place slamming doors by about 730am. And if this still doesn't rose you out of bed the silent knocking maid with the ability to open a door faster than the speed of light will surely have you up by 10am latest. And yes she did this both days. I was beginning to question if she has a side job with Inquirer to try to get surprise photos.

The ensuite bathroom was better than most I have seen in London, even despite the cracked tiles in one area. It apparently had been recently renovated and is refreshingly clean. Plenty of warm water and water pressure. This is not something I am used to in London. Typically I feel like I am attempting a shower out of a frozen garden watering can. So that was a pleasant surprise. Also the shower drain actually drained. Another first in a cheap London hotel for me. Often I emerge from the shower to make my way across a swamp only to find it flooding into my bedroom as well.

Do be sure to keep their towels tidy as the sign says or they will happily charge you a 10 pound fee. After the cracked tiles on the floor stained the bathmat towel I had a note awaiting me in my room informing me of a 10 pound charge for replacement. Upon showing the desk clerk that their floor tile was cracked and that is where the stain came from (and that I don't infact wear industrial strength rust on my face as makeup) the charge was dropped. It is a bit comical that they would charge 10 pounds for their towels as even in their brand new towel days I doubt they ever saw 10 pounds.

I never tried the hotel breakfast but there is a great little cafe down the same street heading towards Kennsington Park that had a great 4.99 pound traditional English breakfast and other delicious choices as well.

So overall location is great, the hotel is better than many I have experienced in Victoria area and just keep in mind you get what you pay for in London and many of the buildings in this city are quite old and cramped which is part of what makes it such a great place and makes finding a descent affordable room so challenging.

This was the Third time we visit London in a year, and gave this Hotel a second chance in oct 2011, as we wasnt so happy after the first time a year earlier.

The first time the whole family of 5 people had to wait nearly an hour for the taxi that the hotel was suposed to send.
The kids got a drafty room, from the window, and we, the parents, where every morning woken by the kitchen staff one floor down.

Anyway the next time, april 2011, we asked if we could have a specific room, the answer was NO ! = Bad service, so that time we found a good price on a Hilton Hotel and at the same price as this hotel so look around before you decide.

In october 2011, we tried again, = BAD idea.

The New Mercedes that the Hotel then showed on the homepage as their new Taxi, was instead a old Volkswagen with old papers on the floor, and you guessed right, again we had to wait for it for one hour on Heathrow airport.

Got another small room then the one we had before, lucky us :-( , and the bed placed in a room suited for a single bed, was in the form of an old hammock so the back wasnt any happy after the nights.

Asked the manager of a refund of the Taxifair, because of the waitingtime that could have taken us in to the hotel by the tube and a lot cheaper, and because of the bad advertising on the class of transport.

But the manager since many years couldnt care less and the bad offer he gave isnt worth mention (and we didnt take it as it was more as a big joke) !

So find another Hotel in London, this isnt worth your money!

Walked up thought yeah looks good, walked into reception, thought good ( nodding) got to my room ( no.4 a twin) thought wow this stinks,litterally stinks of anal belch! So sprayed some spray, had a look around the room and couldnt actually believe that this is the place that is on the website, as far as refurbishment goes, I believe the woodwork was done by an elderly beever, that had not only trimmed the bottoms of the doors to a perfect inch off the floor but also washed it in a mixture of white and dirt paint,the shower has been done by a person with no real comprehension that the tiles go next to each other and above each other or that if u run out of tiles filler out of a tube will not give the same effect.if u manage to brave the cold water shower whoever is in the room with u will be treated to a small waterfall flowing into the bedroom off the inch floor difference ( which u will stub your toes on,worse than treadding on Lego after you've had your cold shower)! Asked for money back told NO,got told all our rooms are the same standard maybe they are just not what your used too!! To which my reply was all I want is clean paint on the walls and a clean room, but most of all if the website had said looks good from outside but worse than a hostel once your through the entrance u would know what your in for, bottom line check your room B4 U PAY!!! absolutely rubbish, if I'd have known it would be this bad, I'd have paid the homeless guy for a night in his sleeping bag, or at the very least just slept in my van! Dirty tiny rooms, unhelpful staff horrible stay, after seeing the rooms the breakfast was not on my menu

I booked a single room with shared facilities, but was given a cupboard with a window. The first room they gave me was so tiny and claustraphobic, I asked for another, which granted was better as it had a larger window, so didn't feel like a prison cell.

The rooms are so tiny, my wardrobe is bigger. In fairness, it was relatively clean, but just not what was advertised. I expected shared facilities to mean sharing with maybe 5 other people, but I found one bathroom with one shower and one toilet between the ground floor, the inbetween ground and 1st (where my room was), the first and second. So even if I had stayed there, it would have been unlikely that I would have been able to wash etc.

When I raised my issue with the front desk...no refund, and was told "what did I expect for a 2 star hotel"...well a room not a closet, and reasonable provision of washing facilities actually. I have stayed in hostels on London that are better.

In all seriousness, if you can do without a bathroom and can sleep in your wardrobe...go for it...its not cheap for nothing...To be honest, pay a little bit more, and you can get a room and a bathroom...