Harrington Hall

I was in London for work as part of a large party, so the booking arrangements were handled by the people organising the trip. I have looked at the website, and booking seems very straightforward on there, with an easy form with drop-down menus with options for the quality of room.

The reception area is understated to the point of being inadequate. On entering through double doors, there is the reception desk on the left, next to week is a secure room for luggage. The staff on the desk were efficient, if not overly friendly, but check-in was completed quickly and without hassle. Check-out was equally efficient, and there were no problems with the bill, or with leaving luggage secure to be collected later.

My room was on the sixth floor, and was really rather nice. The first impression was one of space. The room was decorated in an traditional style (Laura Ashley was the comment of a Spanish colleague), with three windows in what I guess is a Mansard Roof. The room had a queen size double bed, bedside table, writing desk with upright chair, and two high backed armchairs either side of a high coffee table. The bed was nice and firm, with sheets and blankets rather than a duvet, and extra cushions and blankets were in the wardrobe.

In addition to the minibar, there was a flat screen TV mounted on the wall, with all the main UK Channels plus a few from Sky (Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky 1), plus an eclectic smattering of foreign language channels (TVE, RAI, TV5, RTP, DSF, ERT, BVN). You could access 3 radio stations through the TV as well. There was a kettle with a few sachets of instant coffee and tea bags.

The sound insulation was very good, and the room was not too hot. Overall, it was a very pleasant room. If I were being picky, I had a couple of niggles over and above the problems with the bath. There was no folder with all the hotel information in one place. Instead, there were various leaflets on different surfaces across the room, and these had the information in Spanish first, with English and sometimes other languages after that. I don't have a problem with Spanish being the first language since this is a Spanish chain, but there was no consistency of which and how many languages were used (sorry - this is a bit of a personal hobby horse, living in Flanders in Belgium and working in the European Parliament, where language use is a very sensitive issue!). I would have found it much more useful to have all the information in one place. The other gripe was with the desk and chair. These were very nice, solid, old-fashioned style, but they didn't go together. In fact, to sit at the desk, I had to get two extra cushions to get to a comfortable height and I'm over 6 foot tall. But these are small gripes.

= FOOD AND OTHER FACILITIES

There is a bar menu, with sandwiches and salads, plus the restaurant is open for lunch and dinner, although I personally didn't try it. The lunch buffet for £19.50 got good reviews from those I was travelling with who did try it.