Hotel 82

Hotel 82 really ought to be getting a good review, but it's not.

It's quite cheap. It's in a decent location. There is free internet (although not wireless) in every room. The beds are comfortable. The breakfast is decent (£5).

However, when I arrived they at first seemed to have lost my booking. I was made to wait for 30 minutes until I was finally given the choice between a room with a broken lock (you couldn't lock it) and spending one night in a flat down the road, then moving back to the hotel the next morning once the lock had been fixed.

I initially chose the latter, but then after it was mentioned that all the rooms had safes, I decided that I didn't want to lug my bags around anymore.

The room looked quite nice, but it felt cold and noisy - as if the window was open. There were actually two single-glazed windows and the outermost of the two was open. In opening the inner window to get at the outer some strips of metal fell to the floor - it turned out that the inner window was broken and being propped-up by some strips that had been jammed in.

The next morning I got out of the shower to find the bathroom flooded. The show guard/curtain was broken on closer inspection.

After all of this, I wasn't offered money off, but I was given complimentary breakfast for the two days I was staying (normally £5 a day). Better than nothing, but I think my poor experience deserved more.

When I returned for the second night the door lock still wasn't fixed (they had promised to fix it). When I left their machine wouldn't accept my foreign credit card.

What more can I say? Well, they now have a bad review.

Room was boutique style, with a big window and a power shower. Flat screen tv on the wall, and a good choice of buffet breakfast. I didn’t like the fact that some of the food was left uncovered, probably for a long time (smoked salmon and meats for instance) but hot croissants were brought out at 8am on the dot! Coffee cups rather too small, and you couldn’t help yourself :-(

The lift has to be the smallest ever!!!!

I took a pic with my back against the wall and no bags. Have a look and imagine what it was like with a rucksack on! 8-S

A short walk from Baker Street underground which was useful as I was working near Barbican.