When I booked a hotel for London, I knew it was going to be expensive and small.  I found this hotel on Expedia.com and it seemed to be an ok choice.  It looked clean enough, it was within my price range, and it was situated in the heart of London.

Upon arriving at the hotel, I realized that it was just barely sufficient.  It was an ok hotel for my purposes - sightseeing all day and spending as little time as possible in the room - but business travelers and families would find it wholely insufficient.

The biggest thing going for the Paddington Hotel is its location.  It is in the northwest part of downtown London, about 2 blocks from the Paddington train station.  This short five minute walk to the train station will connect you to the rest of London through the subway.  The Paddington station is also connected directly to Heathrow Airport.  This made it extremely convenient to get around town as well as to and from the airport.

The other high point of the Paddington was the price.  We paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 per night for our stay.  Hotels in the heart of London can easily cost $3-400 per night, and this was one of the only hotels that was in my original budget.

However, you’ll have to weigh the relatively low price and the extreme convenience against some other factors.

For starters, the Paddington is an old fashioned building.  The building itself is quite small, and the rooms are all situated along a steep stairwell.  No elevator for those of you staying at the top.  The rooms are also small.  Our room was big enough for a bed and about 3 ft of clearance around it on each site.  That fit two small end-tables, a small refrigerator, and a television.  There was very little room to move around.  The operators also request that you turn your key in whenever you leave the building.  The office is located across the street, so you need to visit that building every time you come and go from your room.  It can be a bit annoying when you’re coming in late from a long day of sightseeing.

The service at the hotel was mixed.  The staff in the office quickly checked us in and out, and someone was available every time I had to hand in or pick up my key.  They also delivered an ironing board to our room quickly after we requested one.  However, we had a problem with the television that was never fixed.  The faceplate around the cable had become detached from the wall, leaving the wire hanging out.  There was also a loose connection, resulting in two of the five channels being covered with heavy static.  We mentioned it to the staff the first morning we were there, and it was not fixed or addressed throughout our four night stay.

The free breakfast also gets mixed reviews.  Juice, hot water, toast, croissants, and cereal were served every morning from 7:30-9:30.  The hot water could be used to make instant coffee, instant hot chocolate, or tea.  It was a meager continental breakfast, and it paled in comparison to the full Scottish breakfast that we got every day in Scotland.  While it sufficed to give us something to eat early in the morning, it would have been nice to have a greater selection - perhaps some bagels, muffins, or danishes.

Overall, the hotel was sufficient for our purposes, but just barely.  We spent most of our time out, so the small room wasn’t a big problem.  The biggest annoyance for us was that there were only three television stations with good reception, so it was hard to relax and watch some tv at the end of a long day.  If you’re looking for spacious or comfortable accomodations, don’t choose the Paddington.  If you want a bed that’s close to everything that you’ll want to see, though, this is an option you may want to look into.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.