Imperial Hotel

Nice reception area, but such a bad hotel. Check-in involves several ridiculous and unnecessary stages. As someone said before me you have to fill in a firm at reception, then shuffle 20 feet left to another person who asks you what your room number is, and then give you a foot long metal rod with a key at the end. This you must hand in when you go out, an then show the form you filled in to get it back! Why? I slept really badly on the quiet courtyard side. A single bed with sheets and blankets that disintegrated into separate piles overnight, the curtains don't block out the light, the tea and coffee I'd a joke. A plastic envelope with a generic teabag, red mill (?) coffee sachet, 2 x generic white sugar sachets, a plastic stirrer and a tissue. There were 4 milk pots though. Breakfast is cheap. Coffee nasty and orange from powder I believe. It's been a while since I stayed in somewhere so big and yet so bad.

I walk pass this hotel almost everyday when I’m heading towards Holborn and Bloomsbury. There’s nothing I could say about this hotel, however I do use the local shops and cafes that are right next to the Imperial. I could tell straight away there is nothing special and deluxe about it.

Just stayed at the Imperial for a 3 night break. The hotel was serviceable with very clean room. We were 7th floor - and had choice of front of hotel view but could be noisy, or facing courtyard, quieter. Opted for courtyard. Windows were scary in that you could open them fully - 7th floor - eeek! The hotel decor is perhaps a little tired and dated, but for the price we paid the hotel and its facilities was more than adequate. All staff were very friendly and nothing too much trouble. Breakfast - average - no complaints. Would we go back again - yes.

Imperial? I don’t think so! Such a disappointing hotel. The actual room wasn’t awful, it did at least seem clean. But there were so many other things wrong, that it all added up.

Where to start, well how about check-in. The hotel is clearly used to having large groups staying, so if you are a family or couple checking in you get the same officious processing. No one behind the desk seemed to want to actually welcome guests, just deal with them. You have to fill out a form, with exactly the same information that you supplied when you booked online.

As I say, the hotel room itself wasn’t too bad. However the shower holder was broken, so you could only really have a bath. The towels were the size of handtowels and some were well past their best. The TV is tiny and barely visable from the bed, also they have about 8 channels, (1 to 5, plus BBC World and a couple of other channels). Why do hotels not offer Freeview or FreeSat, which would give so much more choice?

There is supposed to be a wireless network throughout the hotel. I had hoped to do some work while staying, so booted up my laptop to pick up my emails. Sadly the service wasn’t working. I phoned reception, who told me they couldn’t guarantee it would work in rooms, but that it would work in reception. Strangely when I tried in reception the service still didn’t work, and this time the story changed to ‘We’ve been having a few problems today.’ When I asked whether someone could have a look at the system, I got ‘Oh I don’t know anything about computers and the person who deals with this has gone home’, surprising bearing in mind it was 4pm, not midnight.

Breakfast was dreadful. The cooked breakfast was far from nice, with cheapest ingredients – avoid the sausages! The tea that we were served, was the colour of coffee and tasted worse.

All of the above was pretty awful, but the windows were the final straw. We were on the seventh floor and with the windows firmly closed we could hear the conversations of people in the park outside and sirens reverberated around the room. There was no balcony on the rooms, which is no problem, however the windows open wide, meaning even the largest hotel customer could easily fit through. There was no safety catches to stop windows from opening too far, which is particularly scary with small children. I would love to see the risk assessment that has been written for that, as I would have thought inspections should have picked that up and forced the installation of safety catches.

This hotel very definitely doesn’t offer a Quiet Night Guarantee and if sleep or comfort is part of your planned visit to London, I wouldn’t choose this hotel.

Didn’t stay here because I live in London but came here for drinks and supper for an old school function. Food and booze was pretty standard fare and nothing to write home about. However, the location is great and I’m told rooms are pretty cheap so it would be a good option if you are planning a trip to London during a time when money is tight such as a recession. Who wants to spend most of their time in the hotel anyhow?