City View Hotel

Firstly, I really don't feel comfortable calling this a hotel and I feel that it is far more apt to describe it as a 'hovel'. And in that case, it's the worse 'hovel' I have ever been to. Before you make your decision to book here I shall inform you of our delightful experience. Upon entrance to what looks like a br*thel we were greeted by tramp-like man asleep on the sofa, a few tables pushed against the back wall as a 'dining area' and although the place looked quite clean it still had the eery feeling that mass homicide had been commited over the years and that dozens of bodies are rotting under the floorboards. The man on reception, although deceptively polite at first, went on to explain how our card had been declined and that there were no rooms left for us. I may have believed this, however we had called TWICE to confirm that everything was booked and the payment had been made. He told us that he had the wrong contact number, and so when we asked him to dial it, he, of course, was very reluctant, and, of course, our phone rang. The gentlemen then explained that he had one triple for us and an apartment 'round the corner'. Being 7 young northern girls in London, You can imagine we didn’t want to be separated, especially with 4 of us sleeping in a 1 bedroomed ghetto apartment and paying £100 for that luxury. They obviously knew they were expecting us as the check in sheet already had 'apartment and triple' written on it. No doubtedly it also said 'lets scam these poor [--]' underneath our contact details. After convincing us that these were the only rooms left in London we decided to look at the triple room, and decide what to do from there. During this time the man on reception happened to remember that there were 3 empty rooms in the building next door also owned by them. How convenient. The rooms were basic, looked a little like a crack den and had shared bathroom facilities (in which the toilet on our floor had no working sink). We also had to request a mattress and a duvet so that one of us could sleep on the floor. For this he tried to charge us £50 per room. We managed to argue this down to roughly £32 per room (£16 each). Baring in mind that one of the rooms was £48 for triple occupancy (roll mat on the floor). As we now had no other option, we decided to take what we thought was a good deal and then we were later told by another guest (the only nice man we met there) that the rate he was paying anyway was £30! The man also went on to tell us how much of a horrible stay he'd had and also how he had been informed that a previous guest had been told their card was declined, only to have £600 stolen out of their account weeks later. Lets just say within minutes we had cancelled our card. To make the most of a bad situation however, we still had fun. And even though my roomed smelt like [--] and I almost got electrocuted by the faulty wiring. (In fact, when straightening my hair I seemed to blow a fuse on the TV), 'breakfast' was an egg on bread with Jam, and there were empty cans of special brew located outside my door, I would say I would come back to City View Hotel, but only if someone was holding a gun to my head.

I suppose you get what you pay for, and that's fine as long as you know what you're paying for. I found this hotel on allinlondon.com, and here was the description: " The City View Hotel has 22 bright, modern en-suite rooms and 6 with shared bathroom. All rooms are newly decorated and have comfortable beds with duvets." I took "all rooms" to mean all rooms, not just the en-suite rooms. Well, maybe the joke's on me, but from this description and the photos on allinlondon.com, I expected bare bones but clean accomodations.

I requested a single room with shared bathroom and was taken to the building next door. My room smelled of tobacco and mold; there was trash in the wastebasket; the walls looked like someone had been throwing shoes against them what with all the black smudges; the carpet was stained and possibly dirty and certainly was very old and smelled; and, though I had a room at the front of the building, the train was really loud. Also, I'm not sure what view they're talking about, unless it's the view of the garbage in the yard next to the hotel (though this is a minor point).

Maybe the en-suite rooms are nicer, hence the split opinions here?

Meanwhile, the bathroom hadn't been cleaned in awhile. The toilet seat was dirty and the single roll of toilet paper sat on the floor.

I asked for my money back. The concierge would not give me a refund but merely offered me another room. That room was marginally better, but that's not saying much. The smell wasn't quite as bad, but there were stains on the sheets. Again I asked for a refund and the concierge refused.

If you're planning on staying in London several nights and need cheap accomodations and have been forewarned by the bad reviews, then City View Hotel might not be so bad. However, the bait-and-switch they pull makes the place that much more revolting. I don't care about TVs in the rooms or Egyptian cotton sheets or even breakfast, for that matter, but I expect cleanliness. I've stayed in student residence halls in London and their bare bones accomodations are great and they're always clean. I picked City View because it was in an area that I wanted to explore.

Worried I wouldn't get much sleep and in desperate need of it, I wrote off the £30 at a loss and actually stayed in a different hotel, returning the next day to drop off my key. I'm sorry I didn't take photographs to post here.

I have stayed in many hotels in London and I always book budget but this has to be the worst.The room wasn't ready at gone 4pm,it stank of cat pee,the tv didnt work,the glasses in the room were dirty,the wardrobe would have broken if you lent on it and the curtains were hanging off the rail.Disgusting and dirty