Classic Hotel

I booked a twin room at this hotel through booking.com a month beforehand. When we arrived, after a stressful long day travelling, we were politely informed there was no reservation for us. However, the receptionist made a couple of phone calls and advised us he could get us in to their sister hotel, the ABC across the road in a double room for 2 nights, and another sister hotel, the Piccolino in a twin room for our 3rd and final night.

The ABC hotel room was okay, and what I expected from a budget hotel. The rubber glove over the smoke detector/sprinkler system caused us great amusement and cheered us up after a rotten day. Breakfast was very basic, but again fair, as this is a budget hotel. There was quite a bit of noise at night as the receptionist would stand outside our window chatting with others on his smoke break. The ABC receptionist had told us on arrival that he would 'try to rearrange other guests arriving' so that we could stay in the same room for our full 3 nights. (In other words, some other poor guest would arrive on Wednesday to find they had been moved!).

By the end of day 2, we asked the receptionist if he had sorted anything out for our final evening. He told us to check in the morning. He was late for work the following morning (a usual occurrence according to the other receptionist!) so we packed our bags in case we would have to move hotels, and left our mobile number for him to call us upon his arrival.

By lunchtime, we had not heard anything so I called him. He advised me that it was okay, we would be able to stay there at the ABC for our final night. Great news (for us). We hadn't planned to return to the hotel until after 11pm as we were going to the theatre. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we changed our minds and went back earlier to freshen up before our long-awaited evening out.

When we returned to the ABC, the same receptionist then informed us he wasn't able to change guests around afterall and we would have to move to the 3rd hotel, the Piccolino as originally advised, another few minutes down the road. We were very upset as this was now eating into our time before the theatre performance. He unwillingly escorted us to the Piccolino and waited for the receptionist there to finish checking in one guest, then deal with a complaining guest who jumped infront of us. I filled in the check-in form and handed over my credit card, and THEN was told he too had made a mistake and didn't have a room for us (despite both the previous 2 hotel receptionists confirming our room with him!).By now we were extremely anxious and quite angry at the lack of professionalism now displayed by 3 sister hotels. He could not give us more than a shrug in response to our questions as to why this had happened and what had happened to the room that was apparently available 2 days earlier. He suggested we leave our bags there, that he would take them back to the Classic hotel, and we could return to the Classic hotel at 11pm and there would be a room for us (which WASN'T available 2 days earlier!!!). Under no circumstances were we going to just leave our bags, so we insisted on the receptionist escorting us to the Classic, which he did unhappily.

On passing, I asked the Classic receptionist to order us a taxi immediately to take us to the station. The Piccolino receptionist took us down to our room, again, still not a twin as we had originally booked. The room was worse than that at the ABC - not only was it not possible to get round both sides of the bed (as in the ABC also), the 'wardrobe' was 2 coathangers hanging on a broken standard lamp, there was nowehere in the bathroom to hang towels etc, there was no dvd player, we were right next to the hotel toilet (and we had to listen to the hotel receptionist using it in the middle of the night), we were also next to the kitchen back door and were awoken extremely early when staff arrived to prepare the 'budget' breakfast.

The taxi he ordered was a friend of his and took us to the wrong end of the station (despite us asking him which end we needed) (Edgeware road is in 2 halves, with a good 5 minute walk between), and he charged us £10 for this short journey!!

We missed a good 45 minutes of the theatre performance and didn't enjoy it because of all the stress we had at the hotels.

The next morning, breakfast was chaotic. There were not enough tables/chairs to seat even half the guests. As we left, there were several families of people sitting on the stairs waiting to get in!!!! It was indeed, as other reviewers have pointed out, eggs, beans, cereal, toast, juice, and boil-the-kettle-yourself tea/coffee. I noticed the kettle was on the edge of the table right above a confusion of extension leads and sockets - I hope nobody spills water on them! We were quite rudely told to sit at two separate tables each set out for one person, so we squeezed onto one. Another family of six were told to do their breakfast in two sittings as there weren't enough chairs. Another guest had to argue with the staff before they would allow him to take a breakfast tray upstairs to his room, despite the manager telling him it was okay to do so.

I am completely appalled by the service provided at all three of these hotels and the lack of professionalism. This is the first time in my life I have ever felt it necessary to complain, nevermind leave the hotel without paying for our final night. I have returned home feeling more stressed than I was before I went away! I too, provide holiday accommodation and I would be horrified if any of my guests were so much as unhappy with the flavour of the washing up liquid, and would indeed rectify it immediately. But to not even get a basic booking right is beyond comprehension!

You have been warned!!!