Russell Hotel, London

The Russell Hotel is a large, imposing, renaissance style hotel located, yup you guessed it, just opposite Russell Square in London (imaginative these hoteliers eh!).

I stayed here on business a couple of weeks ago so I can't say I had much say in the choice, although having been told where I was staying and had a good browse around the website, I must say I was quite pleased with the choice, the only question was would the hotel live ...
...any stay, food. The Russell suffers in the same way that all city centre hotels suffer, and that is price. I mean £22 for an English breakfast, not even Turpin himself got away with such robbery. I know my company is paying, but it's still absolutely disgraceful that a hotel will charge such exorbitant prices for what is essentially a hot buffet. As it happens, these aren't always even hot, although in the Russell's case this was true. So, breakfast ... more

The Russell Hotel is a large, imposing, renaissance style hotel located, yup you guessed it, just opposite Russell Square in London (imaginative these hoteliers eh!).

I stayed here on business a couple of weeks ago so I can't say I had much say in the choice, although having been told where I was staying and had a good browse around the website, I must say I was quite pleased with the choice, the only question was would the hotel live up to expectations (and price!)

First impressions were definitely good. The hotel is absolutely huge, and looks very impressive on the way in. You go up several steps, past the doorman into a fabulous foyer/lobby/entrance hall (please let me know what these things are supposed to be called, I'm so confused!). There is lots of marble, lots of plants, lots of gold (or gold paint...) and most surprising of all, lots of staff. I've stayed in quite a few hotels recently, and it never ceases to amaze me how few people are actually manning reception at the busiest time of the day, around 6pm when grumpy, tired people arriving on business trips check in. I've had some nightmares where it's taken over 30 minutes of queuing just to get to speak to a receptionist, let alone argue about whether you have a reservation and finally get a key to your room. On this occasion, check-in was pretty flawless, no queue, friendly, pleasant staff, and they even found my reservation details, no mean feat when compared to some other hotels I can assure you.

So, check-in complete, off to check out my home for the next four nights. As I was on the fourth floor and carrying an epic suitcase (how do people manage to pack for a week in a flight bag? I always turn up with a trunk full, what am I doing wrong? but I digress...) so despite my lack of recent exercise, I spurned a perfect opportunity to work my thighs a little and took the lift up.

I was then pleasantly surprised not once but twice in the space of a few seconds, and I don't normally surprise easily. Not only did I have a room within 10 metres of the lift, the sign posts for room numbers were actually clear to follow, so I didn't take an unplanned tour of the hotel, including kitchens (don't laugh, it has been known on my travels) and managed to reach my room without incident.

Then roll on surprise number three, the room was massive. The last time I stayed in London I had stayed at the Euston Hilton, just up the road, where the room was about 1ft bigger than the bed and the bathroom didn't have room to swing a dwarf mouse, let alone a cat. This room was very impressive, with a 6ft bed (is that super-king?, I think so), plenty of room between the foot of the bed and the TV, more space between the bed and the window (you could have fit another bed in there) and even an annex with a desk. The bathroom, although not massive, was definitely respectable. Now I can't say if all the rooms were like this (there are 373 bedrooms in this monster and I was only staying for a week) but this one definitely ticked the boxes on first impressions.

The room had all the conveniences you would expect from a 4- star hotel, safe, iron, trouser press, TV, high speed internet (more of that later!), loads of toiletries to restock my home bathroom, air con and the essential Gideon bible. The room was clean, well decorated (all dark wood and reds, a bit glum for my tastes but a good change from the beige, beige beige at home!) and most importantly of all, smelt OK (you might think this is not worth commenting on, but I stayed at a hotel in Blackpool recently where, when you flushed the toilet, you could see water bubbling up through the bottom of the shower, and the smell reflected where I though that water might have been coming from, yuck!)

Now for the most important two bits, the bed and the shower. As I've mentioned, the bed was a 6ft monster and I have to say was exceedingly comfortable, although I always feel a little lost in these huge beds and don't think I used more then 3ft of it throughout my entire stay, so I can't be sure it was ALL comfy but there's only so much I can tell you, you'll just have to find some things out for yourselves! The bed is obviously important as I spend a lot of time there when away from home, the shower may not seem as important, but after a fully expensed dinner including the odd glass or six of wine, a decent power shower that doesn't alternately freeze you to death or scold you to a nice lobster red is all important to ensure I can get to work looking vaguely human. This shower was actually very good, powerful enough to exfoliate at least three layers every morning, and controllable to ensure I didn't re-enact several thousand years of freeze-thaw action in one session.

So, the room and showers are OK, what about the rest. Let's start with the next most important thing on any stay, food. The Russell suffers in the same way that all city centre hotels suffer, and that is price. I mean £22 for an English breakfast, not even Turpin himself got away with such robbery. I know my company is paying, but it's still absolutely disgraceful that a hotel will charge such exorbitant prices for what is essentially a hot buffet. As it happens, these aren't always even hot, although in the Russell's case this was true. So, breakfast was as you would expect, lots of it, normally hot, but not exactly cordon bleu, let's face it, how far wrong can you go with bacon and eggs? Staff were pretty attentive so overall not bad. I'd like to comment on the restaurant for evening meals, but I normally find hotel food mediocre and overpriced and could not bring myself to sample the Russell's fare. For what it's worth, the menu looked tempting but at £8 for a starter and £17 for a main, I wasn't going to get many glasses of wine from my expense budget, so I took myself somewhere cheaper each night. Again, you'll just have to try for yourself and see if you like it. I know this is a review but you can't expect me to find out everything for you, oh you do, erm, oh bug^&r.

Right then, onto service. Good overall, as I've said, check-in was smooth, staff were pleasant at breakfast, concierge was good at recommending local restaurants, rooms was clean and tidy upon my return everyday, (no mean feat considering the mess I manage to make in 12 hours!) and check-out went OK, although the queue was a bit longer than when I arrived, at least there were no nasty surprises on my bill. This was mainly because I chose not accept their kind invitation to spend 50p a minute, or £25 a night on their high speed internet. £25, who are they trying to kid? I know the installation costs aren't cheap, but really, £25! No way Hose, Alice, John or whoever.

Location is pretty good, you're about 10 minutes walk from Euston, 20 minutes from the Strand, and there is a tube station right around the corner. You're not in the middle of touristville or the City, but both are within reasonably easy reach.

Cost, now here we come to the crux of the matter. I got a discounted rate, and it still came to £150 a night. £150! Good grief. I know this is London but please! Add on breakfast and internet, maybe an evening meal and a kitkat from the mini bar and I might have to sell a kidney! The rack rate for the room I was in was £215, that's two kidneys! Now as you've probably gathered, the stay was quite pleasant, but for £215 standard rate, give me a break.

Anything else? Well, there's no gym which is a bit of a disappointment, but in compensation there is a very pleasant, gentleman's club style bar, lots of leather seats and cognac. Very easy to while away a few late evening hours on the odd nightcap, no wonder I need those showers in the morning.

So, overall, pretty good, large rooms, friendly staff only let down by the price (rooms, food and internet). Definitely recommended. 

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