President Hotel, London

This hotel is way below the standard of any I have ever stayed in. Having arrived in Russell Square by tube we found the hotel without too many problems, although it feels a little as though it is up a back street. First impressions were not good - the whole place looked as though it were in a time warp.

We went to reception to check in and were given a room key and sent up to the room, only to get there and find it was still being ...
...have carpet on the walls - inexplicable! We went to sit in the reception area where our impression of the hotel only got worse. The reception staff were Ok, nice but seemingly clueless in allocating rooms which are not ready.

The common areas were awful, very tatty with dirty sofas which may have been new once in the 1960s. By this point I actually wasn't looking forward to getting into the room. Eventually after waiting around half ... more

This hotel is way below the standard of any I have ever stayed in. Having arrived in Russell Square by tube we found the hotel without too many problems, although it feels a little as though it is up a back street. First impressions were not good - the whole place looked as though it were in a time warp.

We went to reception to check in and were given a room key and sent up to the room, only to get there and find it was still being prepared then rudely told to go back downstairs. The lifts have carpet on the walls - inexplicable! We went to sit in the reception area where our impression of the hotel only got worse. The reception staff were Ok, nice but seemingly clueless in allocating rooms which are not ready.

The common areas were awful, very tatty with dirty sofas which may have been new once in the 1960s. By this point I actually wasn't looking forward to getting into the room. Eventually after waiting around half an hour for someone to inform us our room was ready (which never happened) we took our chances and found it was.

The room itself was not terrible - it was clean and the bathroom was reasonable, although very basic. The sheets had holes in and looked as though they may once have been white. The windows were secondary double glazed, and had a lovely coating of mould growing round them. Being the height of the summer heatwave we chucked them open to try and get some fresh air, since the rooms have no air conditioning but there was a lot of noise from the street in spite of us being on the 5th floor.

In the evening we had a meal booked at the hotel's Saracen carvery. This was a major dissappointment, and felt a lot like dining at Fawlty Towers due to the strange behaviour of the staff who were fussy and invasive. There was a choice of meats or salmon, none of which looked particularly appetising and some vegetables. I chose beef with potatoes and vegetables (frozen) and it was barely edible. The soup for starter was acceptable and the only bit of the meal I ate. I cut my losses and didn't have desert. We discounted a drink in the hotel bar as it looked so uninviting. The decor was themed around sport, the atmosphere was stuffy and miserbale.

We had booked this hotel as a Superbreak through Thomas Cook, and although we weren't expecting luxury we had hoped for something better than the standard of this hotel. We checked out after one night although we had paid for two as the accomodation was awful.

The only positive thing I can find to say about this hotel is the location was good, Russell Square itself has plenty to do and is near the West End. Also, the reception staff were pleasant enough. However, overall this is the worst hotel experience I have ever had - from start to finish the place was depressing, out-of-date and just not good enough.

 

...less