I don't seem to stay in London so much these days. It's partly because for meetings and such like, most people are now reluctant to travel to the capital for one reason or another. When I do have such a trip, I like to try different hotels from the usual Holiday Inns, Thistles and Novotels. Variety is the spice and all that. There are some good deals to be had out there, particularly at weekends. For a Monday meeting, train fare and hotel on the Sunday work out far cheaper than peak travel on the Monday morning and you get to try out a shiny new hotel. Winner!

Ambassador's at Bloomsbury is located on Upper Woburn Place smack opposite London Euston railway station. It is literally just two or three minutes walk from the station. As such, with King's Cross and St Pancras not much further along, it is extremely well-placed for visitors coming down from the North. A taxi fare from Kings Cross station is likely to cost you about £7 - worth it, if you are carrying bags and such like. Alternatively, a number of major bus routes pass just outside and with Euston so close, connections from the London Underground are dead easy too. If you are driving, the hotel is easily located but I'd use RAC Route Planner or such like as, due to the one-way system and congestion charges, you'll need to plan your route carefully on an individual basis.

Got There

The hotel is rather proud of the new rooms, so much so that when you check in, the duty manager will normally escort you to your room to explain what's what. It's an unecessary (but pleasant) step, because it's all very self-explanatory. The design is contemporary, cool and clean and an enormous improvement on much of the accommodation offered in Central London. Groovy orange marble slabs at the foot of the door mark the room numbers in gold lettering and your chip key card simply slides into the door to let you in. You have to use the same card on the wall to activate your electricity and as you do so, prepare to be blinded because every light in the room appears to be set up to come on automatically.

The bathroom was a very strange affair. For starters, like the bedroom, it was very small. The sink was just about large enough to use but it was cramped in the corner, leaving little room for manouevre when shaving. There was no bath and the whole room was set up like a wetroom so that essentially it was one big shower cubicle. The bathroom door was a very heavy duty, water sealed lump that, when pushed closed rather made you feel as though you were in a decompression chamber. Given that the door really needed to be closed to stop the water leaking out into the room, I couldn't really see the need for the shower curtain, but there was one there nonetheless. The shower was a good power shower, very simple to use and with various temperature settings - although on the night of my arrival I had to succumb to a cool shower because I couldn't get much hot water. Fortunately, the following morning, the hot water was back on in abundance.

Eating There

The breakfast was similarly priced (£12.95 for the full English) but far less palatable. Although it was brought to the table very quickly (and was very hot and fresh) the scrambled eggs were like a slick of butter, and the sausage was almost raw. I kind of poked mine around, reminded myself that this was neither free range, nor organic and promptly sent the whole lot back. The contintental breakfast was much better, with a good selection of juices, fruits, cereals and pastries and would be my recommendation - particularly as the £7 price tag will go down much better.

If I think about it, I had contact with six different members of staff during my visit and all of them were very friendly, very polite and very welcoming. The waitress who brought the food to my room was particularly warm and friendly and my lasting impression of the place was that the service far exceeded many oither London hotels that I have visited.

Standard room rates are much the same as any other London hotel - my room would normally cost £225 per night, which is excessive, regardless of the standard of the fixtures and fittings. The good news is, however, that discounted rates are widely available on sites such as lastminute.com or laterooms.com. I picked up my room for £89 per night, which is a good price for the area and for the standard of the room. Bear in mind that checkout each day is 11:00 unlike the normal 12:00 that you find in most hotels.