Crowne Plaza London - Heathrow

I chose the crowne plaza while booking a weekend at Legoland, I chose this hotel as from their website It looked OK, and the legoland site suggested it was child friendly, even with a children's hour and children eat free offer. I had looked at reviews on here for this and other hotels offered with the package at legoland and it seemed the best of a limited choice.

We arrived at the hotel about 9pm (having phoned to say we would be late) soaking wet, cold, hungry, with a grumpy/sleepy 6 yr old and just wanting a cosy room, food, fast service and a bed.

The first impression of the hotel is a converted council house block, even with bits of car bonnets in the car park!

The reception is grey, grey and even more grey, the booking clark asked for a credit card to swipe, but didn't accept the one i gave him, so he asked for cash - I had prepaid on line and there had been no warning of this any where. When I finally got the money together, we were given the room key.

As we walked to our room (on the other side of the hotel) we noticed lots of bottles and glasses outside peoples rooms, as well as a big pile of dirty linen and rubbish left by housekeeping, I understand people have room service etc, but when the bottles and glasses are still there hours later, having had staff walk by, you wonder how safe it is when they specifically welcome children and there are children(not mine!) running up and down the hall.

Our room was not the one I had booked and paid for, I had booked a room with 2 double beds, we had a room with 1 double and a sofa bed - that was not made up and no sheets anywhere in the room, we pulled down the sofa bed, to find a "mattress" that was riped, shabby and old. My hubby phoned to request a move, but was told someone would be there to make the bed, after a while I went to reception to say about having the wrong room, to be told "we where lucky to have that room at all, as they were running out of rooms" when i said we had booked and paid weeks ago, i was told "so, we are busy, you could have been given a room without even a sofa bed" I was told there was no other rooms only smoking without the extra bed, so we were stuck with it, I asked could we have it made up and was told it should have been done, I asked for the mini bar to be unlocked too as that hadn't been done either, only to have to explain to him why they didn't have a credit card swiped.

Back at the room, my hubby had gone to turn the heating up, only for the whole control panel to have come off the wall, and be hanging by the wires, another phone call and the manager and engineering came to the room, the manager had to ask again for someone to come and make up the sofa bed, and took yet another attempt to open the mini bar, They decided the unit had come off the wall because it was new! and the solution was to stick it up with spray glue - bad idea as my hubby is asthmatic!

The bathroom was dirty and the shower head had long ago seen better days, there was still a half used shower gel in the shower too.

My little boy was offered a free movie (because of the wait for his bed) but when we tried to access it, the button did not work on the T.V

We went to get something to eat, (very expensive, although good, compulsory service charge of 10%) and no one knew much about the free children's meal, eventually a waiter did bring a children's menu and said it was free, however when paid for the children's meal was not free - still says on the site " Kids eat Free".

In the morning before going to breakfast I hung my son's coat by the warm air vent/air con vent, only to have the whole thing come off the wall, this was a heavy chunky bit of metal, which was right over the sofa bed my son had been sleeping in.

Breakfast was adequate, service bad - we had to wait to we were nearly at the end of breakfast to be service tea/coffee, and there was barely enough for a cup each.

The cutlery (when we eventually got some) was filthy-dried on old food, and they didn't re-stock sugar, jam, juice etc when low.

All in all if this is four star, standards are low. It may have been four star when new, a long time ago, but not now. Very expensive and disappointing overnight stay.

LOCATION

Very close to Terminal 3 where we were leaving from the next morning. 11 pound taxi to Terminal 3. Not sure that you could walk anywhere from this hotel, it seems to be surrounded by highways but we did not try. Nothing too picturesque about the setting, it is an airport hotel but we felt safe.

CHECKIN

Had to wait in line a bit but it was Sunday evening so not surprised it was busy. Very pleasant Australian desk clerk. Changed room to non-smoking as Priceline had booked it as smoking. Initial mistake - gave us smoking room which was quickly rectified with a return to front desk. I asked and received a room close to elevators based on previous reviews of having to walk too far. Honestly - it's not that far but whatever!

ROOM

2nd floor, can't recall number. 2 double beds, very spacious. Desk and arm chairs. Lots of closet space including pant press. Big TV, free sparkling water, coffee, tea, hot chocolate & cookies. View over air-conditioning ducts and parking lot. A/C worked well. Clean bathroom - remember they rarely give you conditioner anywhere in the UK! Hairdryer is in the chest of drawers in the room itself in case you can't find it! Didn't hear any hallway noise but hotel was not full.

We did not use any facilities but I saw the pool complex as were leaving & it looked pretty nice.

ROOM SERVICE

Went down to resto but found there was nothing we fancied on the menu. Room service answered promptly. Average price, although since our room came to about $90CDN with Priceline our dinner actually ended up costing about the same which we found ironically funny. Ordered pizza which was yummy and hubby had fish & chips - they happily accomodated his wish for mashed potatoes instead but forgot the peas :( Side salad was good too. Arrived promptly.

CHECKOUT

No video checkout but not many ppl checking out at 6am! Booked taxi the night prior and able to charge it to room. Only problem was by 610 no taxi had pulled up. This was quickly fixed by one of the bellman who whistled for the taxis who were parked off to the side and then yelled at them for keeping us waiting! The trip to Terminal 3 literally took 5min. 11 pounds total - we didnt tip cause we figured 11 pounds for 5min and late taxi was enough.