Astor Court Hotel

The hotel is very close to Oxford Circus Tube and its location is ideal for Oxford Street,

The service from reception was good and the staff are friendly and happy to help. The rooms are OK in size and very warm (exceptionally clean).

The breakfast area is very small and the breakfast is very basic but its OK!! toast and coffee etc only! no full english at this hotel

Pros: Proximity to Oxford Street.

Cons: Everything else...

As someone else described, this hotel is a conversion and as a result some of the rooms must be great and some are rubbish. Mine was a strange layout, but of reasonable size - a bit tired to look at, but that seems to be the norm for hotels trying to save a penny or two in refurbishment costs. Unfortunately, long term (and ongoing) building works almost adjacent to the hotel make this one of the noisiest daytime rooms I ever been in (and I was doing some last minute revision for an exam!). At night I have to admit it was pleasantly quiet although not having double glazing is a puzzling choice in a city centre hotel.

Contrary to other reviewers experience, my room was freezing (in the second week of October) with a barely functional radiator the only source of heat. Reception couldn't provide a standalone heater ("people normally complain the rooms are too hot") so I resorted to using the lights, the trouser press and even the hair-dryer at one point to heat the room up!

The en-suite bathroom was old, basic and cold with the poorest excuse for a shower I've ever witnessed.

An interesting puzzle was the television (nice LCD) which provided the 5 analogue channels as well as a Freview selection, but unfortunately no-one's paid the engineers to come round and retune the sets after the recent channel changes so most of them are missing.

The bed was at least comfortable and the continental breakfast was better presented than most other hotels I've stayed in recently.

Overall, if you want a cheap hotel I advise you to stay in a Travelodge or Premier Inn somewhere else in central London and use the money saved to pay for the extra tube fare. Even at £30 this hotel would be charging too much.

Our party of 5 booked a 2 bedroom apartment, with a kitchen, bath, and sofa bed in the lounge.

First the good: The room sizes are generous. The original coving and moulding is fantastic! We were in a top floor apartment, with windows in every room, as well as skylights in the hall, so it was bright and cheerful. The rooms were clean, and kept nicely clean. The location can't be beat, as it is a 5 minute walk to both Soho and Oxford Circus, 10 minutes on foot to Picadilly - and the tube is really the only way to travel in London.

For the not so good: the sheets were starched and more than one of us woke up with skinned elbows. The matresses were old and very uncomfortable. The windows are single-paned and let in every noise from the busy district outside (lorries thundering by literally all night). The bath and shower had no shower head. The bathroom floor was a bit iffy, and definitely sloping toward scary. The continental breakfast, although conscienciously attended by friendly staff) was very basic. The desk staff (also very friendly) know nothing, so don't even bother to ask - they don't even know the type of parking zone in front of the hotel!

Overall, it was a clean, budget-friendly hotel in a fabulous location. Anyone raised on television would be horrified by the old and battered state of the place. Realists without rheumatism can manage quite well. Pampering this is not, but there's all the rest of London to take care of that!