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Home, home on the train 32 of 32 Ciao Users found the following review helpful
Rating from rickyshah 2 Stars ()

Advantages Errr.... Near Euston?

Disadvantages Near Euston, expensive, small rooms, tatty facilities, dodgy location

This weekend just gone it was one of my missus' mates' birthdays, and as is the norm we all decided to go out on a fun night of drinking. Rather than shell out the extortiante taxi fare home (at least £35 back to my part of West London!), we decided to book a hotel in advance and then wander home on the tube the next day.

Booking the Hotel
--------------------------

We booked the hotel through Lastminute.com's Secret Hotels. The idea behind this is that in return for not knowing the hotels' name until you have booked, you get cheaper rates on the room. The Thistle was described as a 4 star hotel just behind Tottenham Court Road at a rate of only £69 - cheap for London. We booked there and then, and were a tad disappointed to say the least when we discovered we were staying at the Thistle. We have used the Secret Hotels before and stayed in some pretty nice places, however felt that maybe we were mislead on this occasion. A quick glance at other online reviews showed that not only was the Thistle rated as a 3 star hotel (as opposed to the 4 advertised) but also not too many people enjoyed their stay there.

Oh Goody, the joys of Euston
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Saying the hotel was behind Tottenham Court Road is a bit of a misnomer - it is in fact right next to Euston Station, with Tottenham Court Road a good 10 minute walk down Euston Road. The location is a bit poor, although convenient for business travellers I guess. The only place to grab lunch (short of the hotel, whose food I'll come to later) is actually…. Euston Station! Hardly the place for a nice romantic lunch. Well I lie; there is a small, random, community (almost like a mini village) down some winding backstreets with a couple of curry houses, but really. That's it.

I suppose being so near the tube is good, you can literally jump on it and go to…well…. Anywhere else. Which you should do, I hasten to add. However hearing the Euston Tannoy every 10 minutes announcing the 10.27 to Birmingham is ready for boarding is…well…. Off-putting, to say the least.

Lastly, the street the hotel is on did have some rather unsavoury characters wandering down it - not a problem for a big strapping lad like me :) but maybe people travelling alone and late at night should be concerned, especially since there is no swipe access to the hotel. You hve to ring a bell and wait for someone to let you in.

Sounds Fabulous! Or not….
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So. We arrived at around 1pm (check in was 2pm) and were pleased to see that we were able to get a room straight away, we were hoping to just store our bags and come back at 2. There were plenty of staff on duty, which was in contrast to the other review's we'd read. After check-in (and the offer of a newspaper - I asked for FT and the receptionist looked at me like I was insane, so I changed to the News of the World) we were offered the help of a porter to take our bags up. This is a first for the hotels in the UK we've stayed at, and something I was quite impressed by.

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  • sue.51 26/12/2006 20:36
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful

    Laterooms are not the best for an interpretation of star ratings, as I do believe this outlet is actually a 2 star. I stayed here in June, and was quite staggered at how 'compact' the rooms were - although my bed was extroardinarily comfortable. £17 for a steak is about the going rate in hotels, so for (almost) central London, in comparison with outlying areas, this is scaringly quite reasonable.

  • frkurt 26/07/2006 23:34
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    Very Helpful
  • heatherrr13 25/07/2006 17:33
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  • shuttlex 25/07/2006 13:19
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  • XxTratschonkelchenxX 24/07/2006 20:18
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