I discovered The Rhodes when i went back to the UK after 40 years away. (Thanks to TripAdvisor!)

I am a "young-ish-60 year old" who travels alone. Since 2008, I now travel to London about 3 times per year. I come for 9 days at a time and spend the weekends in London at the Rhodes and then go down to Redhill where our UK offices are for the weeknights.

What originally attracted me to the Rhodes (after the location and price) was a comment made by a TA member about how friendly and welcoming the owners were, Chris & Maria. I booked in for a week in 2007 and have been back many times - it's now my UK home away from home.

The location is perfect - I hop off the Heathrow express at Paddington Station and walk the one block to The Rhodes. I arrive to faces of smiles that light up to greet me. I often arrive MUCH earlier than the usually accepted check-in time of 3 PM - like, ... would you believe, 9:30 AM - since my flight from Toronto touched down at Heathrow at 6:30 AM - but, somehow, Maria (who is on the front desk) sends me downstairs to the dinning room where Chris finds an extra set of cutlery so i can have the breakfast that Air Canada somehow messed up... meanwhile, upstairs, while Chris & I are gabbing, maria, somehow, gets room service to fluff up my room right away.... It's like coming home...

The Rhodes has about 5 floors and no lift (so I ask for a room close to ground - but they are always ready to carry your luggage up stairs...). The rooms are not big but I have learned that this is normal for Europe - after all, I am not planning to play squash in my room - just sight-see from it!

The rooms are very comfortable and all have en-suite bathrooms (all renovated and beautiful...), AC and flat screen TVs.

The location is perfect - right in the middle between Paddington Tube and Lancaster tube stations (this may seem like a redundancy but becomes important depending on where in London you want to go on the Tube ...). One block north of Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens - I took a leisurely stroll through the park one day to find myself relaxing on the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and then emerging across the street from Royal Albert Hall).

When I am in London, I spend most evenings in the West End enjoying musical theatre and wander back to The Rhodes around midnight. Chris os often on front desk duty and is relaxing watching TV - we usually end up sharing a glass of wine together while he gives me advice on what else I should see in his London.

I will continue to go back!