Hotel Review: St Giles Hotel, Bloomsbury London

 

I used to have this review on Hubpages (user mikec1978) but as that site is closing down I have moved it here.

Introduction

I was staying over in London, as I do from time to time, and this hotel was in a convenient location to where I was going. It is situated within a 3 minute (if that) walk from Tottenham Court Road station, so it has good links with the Northern line and Elizabeth line.

For the one night it cost £109.36 excluding breakfast. I paid slightly extra in case I had to cancel last minute and not lose any money.

There are currently some renovation works going on in the hotel but none of it was in the part my room was in.

 

Checking in

The lobby area was clean and tidy with some seating and a separate concierge desk. For the actual check in there was a bit of a queue to but with 3 desks open this did not take too long. Now I have had better experiences at a check in desk as the person who served me, whilst quick an efficient, was sort of robotic and I have the impression that if they smiled, they would think their face would crack. There was no greeting (e.g. no ‘good afternoon’) so being asked to sign the check in form and being told ‘your room is on the third floor’ was about all they said to me. When I needed to ask where the lifts were, as it was not evident, all I got was a point in the right direction.

I was not made aware of any other facilities the hotel had to offer at this stage.

The lifts were small but fast so that was good. However, there appeared to be just one 'call button' for the the four lifts and it was never clear which one was going to arrive.

The Room

The room was small, but not too bad for the price I was paying, but it did have everything that was needed, and it was clean. The first thing I noticed was the door to the room which appeared to be about ¾ the width of a standard door, not a problem for me but may be an issue for others. There was also no ceiling light just two bedside lights. Whilst these can be controlled from the light switch near the door there was only one switch on one side of the bed that controlled both. However, each side did have its own independently controlled reading light. I felt that, given the time of year I was staying here, the duvet was a little thin, more of a summer weight one but the room was not cold so this should not be an issue.

The bed had clean linen on it, but I found the mattress to be a little too soft for my liking, but this is a personal thing. There were bedside cabinets on either side of the bed and a large desk, storage unit. The hanging area for clothes was small and had no door to it but at least it had wooden hangers. However, my one big issue was the window, not only a tad too small but, more importantly, there were no curtains. Yes, it had a Venetian blind between the pains of the double glazing, controlled by a turn knob but no curtains – not a good sign but more about that later.

The other rather odd thing is that there was an oil filled radiator in the room. The actual radiator was under the desk so there was central heating in the room so why it was there is a mystery to me. There were enough power points in the room, and these were mostly conveniently located. There was the normal tea and coffee making facilities and a hair dryer. There were no ironing facilities provided but apparently these are available on certain floors free of charge.

The shower room (no bath so I cannot call it a bathroom) was small, the phrase is ‘barely enough room to swing a cat’ springs to mind but it was functional so not a major issue. The one gripe I have is the towels. Yes, a bath towel and hand towel are provided but firstly they were very thin, possibly on their last legs and also not really big enough. I am one of those who prefers a bath sheet rather than a bath towel, so this was a tad disappointing. There was a small bar of soap provided and, like many hotels today, they do not provide small bottles of shower gel etc just a large one fixed to the wall in the shower. The shower itself was fine, it had a reasonable power and was hot. Also, thankfully, had one of those folding glass doors rather than a simple curtain.

Whilst I personally have no need for them, they did provide ‘disposal bags’ for period products. I have not seen these in hotels in quite a while.

The night's sleep

This was not the best, as the mattress was too soft for me but also, despite the window being double glazed, it was noisy outside. Now I accept this is not the fault of the hotel but curtains may have helped dampen it down a little. Also, I was awoken by the light getting in through the blinds even though they were closed, as there were no curtains, so this woke me up before I really wanted to. Why a hotel would not have curtains at the window is beyond me. This would become a bigger problem in spring and summer when it gets light much earlier.

Checking out

This was fast and efficient, and I was met with a far more cheerful person at the desk. My only bug bare is that they were not able to provide a receipt as I had booked online. I find this odd as I have booked a number of other hotels stays online, through the same website, and always been given a receipt on request, when checking out.

Final score and summary

Checking in and out: 4/5

The room: 3.5/5 (size, no curtains)

The nights sleep: 3.5/5 (lack of curtains, too soft a mattress, noise)

Room facilities: 3.5/5

Food n/a: I did not eat here so cannot comment.

Total: 14.5/20

In all it is not a bad hotel it just needs a few improvements. Adding curtains to the window would have raised two of these areas I have noted above. I appreciate no hotel can cater to every guests’ preferences when it comes to a mattress, but it was too soft for me. I have also tried as far as possible to be fair and judge this hotel again the others I have reviewed on here.

Right to reply

I tend to send the hotel a copy of the review so that they can give a responce if they wish to. So far most I have reviewed on here have done so. St Giles hotel has yet to do so.

A second stay

I was in London overnight again and gave this hotel a second go a while back. I booked a traditionally more expensive room as it had a seperate bedroom/sitting room area but due to the time of year and being mid week it was only £85. This room was better - more a suite style, and unlike the first time there were curtains at the windows. This did not change the above score as this was based on my first stay.

Further stays have occurred here and the opinion has been closer to the first stay. It appears they are renovating and making the rooms smaller to fit more in. This to me is counter productive.