Grange Langham Court

I booked this hotel for an anniversary trip into London with my wife based on their glowing descriptions of being "London's leading independent luxury hotels". This it certainly is not. If I decide to book a budget hotel anywhere in the world, at a budget price, I am prepared to make allowances. If I am paying £161 per night for an executive double room,on the promise of luxury, that is what I will be expecting. The first room we were given was minute and had the smallest toilet and shower cubicle I have ever seen. When I queried it with the reception, I was assured that this was an executive room but they would change it for one with a bath. The second room was just as small but contained a tiny bath no longer than 4 feet. It was almost impossible to walk around the bed, which looked remarkably like the bed in their publicity photograph except smaller, It was covered in cushions, which then had to be piled up in the corner next to the wardrobe, leaving nowhere for a suitcase.

I was aware that our rate only included a continental breakfast and that a full english breakfast would be extra. What I did not expect was, on arrival at the breakfast room, (I would not call it a restaurant as it was a dark dingy room in the basement) to see a queue of disgruntled people sitting on a line of chairs as though they were waiting for the dentist to be told that we were all waiting for tables for breakfast. This small room held only around 12 tables, there were already 9 people in front of us in the queue. The very pleasant but clueless Eastern European waitress came to the first couple to apologise that she only had a table for 4 people and that she could not let them have it unless they were prepared to negotiate a sharing arrangement with the next 2 people in the queue behind them. Being English and polite they, of course, agreed as they did not want to make a fuss, unlike me!. When I protested to this girl that this was yet another failing of this hotel to meet the standard that it boasted about in it's marketing, her english failed her.

As other guests have pointed out, the staff were for the most part Eastern European and as polite and helpful as they can be, but, they are clearly working under the constraints of a penny pinching management who are running this operation on a shoestring. My advice is do not go anywhere near this place. I cannot say it is the worst hotel I have ever stayed in as I have spent more than 40 years travelling the world on business and I have stayed in some horrors but it is probably the worst value I have ever experienced.

I booked this room as the Grange Langham Court is supposedly a 4 star hotel. If it is categorised as a 4 star, my room was 2 star at best. On the lower ground floor it had bars on the window and a view of a generator which was on and off every 60 seconds throughout the night. Situated next to a building site the noise started early and complimented the noise from the breakfast room which was virtually opposite my room. There were also a pile of chairs outside the room and staff lugging them around periodically. I was told there was wireless but it didn't work in my room, too far underground I think. The cherry on the cake was the fact that the room smelt of urine. All that for a bargain £129. On Friday morning I could not wait to get away from the Grange Langham Court and I definitely won't be going back!