It's hard to summarise how bad this hotel experience was without it becoming a lengthy rant, but here goes. (1) this place is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by industrial estates (2) if you have a car, great - if you get a black cab from Heathrow like I did, it'll cost you £34 ("Minimum charge, governor") even though it's 10 minutes away (3) I arrived at 7.30PM pretty much as previously advised but my room was not ready and I had to wait 20 minutes for them to prepare it (4) this is not a 4-star hotel ("self-assessed", apparently) by any stretch of the imagination, not even with the aid of mind-bending drugs (5) there is no restaurant (contrary to the LateRooms website, which says there is) - only a couple of vending machines in the bar dispensing crisps, sandwiches or things to put in some self-service microwaves (6) there is no room service, though the receptionist insisted there was and offered to carry my crisps back to my room once I'd selected them from the machine (in his world, this was room service) (7) I struggled to get back to my room, because my keycard which you need for the lift and numerous other doors, suddenly stopped working (8) the kettle in the room didn't work - the receptionist later told me that they've cunningly hidden a concealed switch in the cabinet so that the kettle won't work unless the cabinet lid is opened - only they can't be bothered to tell you this (9) many of the staff seem to have little grasp of English and no grasp of how a hotel (and certainly not a 4-star hotel) should operate, and finally (10) when checking out don't bother asking for a credit card slip so you can see how much they've debited from your card because they'll just look at you blankly and no matter how much you insist they won't give one to you. There are some plus-points - the rooms are actually nice, spacious and clean. And very well-insulated from the passing planes. I also had 14 complimentary and 10 bottles of lotion, shampoo etc. But hardly any tea, coffee or milk and no biscuits. Most guest seem to be aircrew from Indian subcontinent airlines or airport groundcrew. They are obviously regulars because they sit around in the lobby or bar, eating takeaways that they've ordered in. There's also a 'tabard cleaning service', if your reflective waistcoat is getting a little bit grubby. But if you are a normal traveller, my advice is to avoid this place (incidentally I paid £109, reduced from £195 if you can believe that) and find yourself a proper hotel, not a glorified hostel for aircrew.
- Arora Park Slough
- Arora Park Hotel Slough
