The Mayflower

I arrived at the Mayflower a little apprehenisve after reading some recent reviews. I walked left out Earls Court tube station, left again, and 1 minute down the road and i was at the Mayflower, so first star for location- SO central and easy to get to. I arrived at the lovely reception area and was greeted by a friendly helpful receptionist, second star. He asked to take payment for the room, but as i wanted to see the room first he allowed me to just swipe my credit card and pay after i had checked out the room, third star. As he then led me outside the hotel and down some stairs to a basement room he told me we had been upgraded to a luxury suite,fourth star. WOW. HUGE four poster bed, beautiful furniture and bedding, kitchen, dining table, huge TV, walk in closet and massive bathroom which giant shower. I was a very happy girl, fifth star. Everything was clean and high standard, only problem was the remote died, but we werent really interested in watching TV anyway. Could have done with more towels, and be careful of the shower... it floods easily as there is no door, its more of a wetroom. All in all i had a fantastic 5star 2 day getaway to London and the fact we only paid for a standard double room made it even better. I will be back!

In Earl's Court, the main travelers' district, so don't expect to meet many Londoners. But a nice place, friendly and cooperative. Very clean. The room is unbelievably tiny with just two camp cot sized beds. No honeymoons here. Who would come to London on a honeymoon anyway? Good value for money.

Let's start with the positives; location is almost perfect - less than a minute to Earl's Court tube station, external appearances very good, room size (if in deluxe or above) is very acceptable and the bathroom is of a good size with functioning (thank god) facilities.

Now to the negatives, whilst I was not in London to stay in the hotel room for the period of our stay I do have some standard expectations for the room e.g. cleanliness, facilities etc. At first all seemed good, advised at check in (by very pleasant receptionist) that we had been upgraded from a standard double to deluxe double. However, first thing that surprised me was the request for full payment in advance something I am not used to with Hotels as with all other hotels I have stayed in you are provided with a service and then make payment on departure (as I was soon to discover there is no service at this hotel so that is why you pay up front).

So bags duly dropped off, we spent the rest of the day exploring London... after a wonderful evening out, we get back to the hotel and first shocker - make up on the pillows, hairs in the bed!!!! This swiftly followed by the realisation there is no telephone in the room in order to contact reception, and being on the 3rd floor we were not in the mood to go back to reception.

I went to complain in the morning and point out a few other nuggets of information to the duty manager: the bed issue, no telephone, tv not as advertised, dirty towels in room, stains on bathroom floor, dirty/dust in general - this was met with a lack of interest and a lack of action from the staff. I also pointed out that the card stating the facilities they provided does not meet the room provided as by this point I was thinking lets see what would make them interested. Out of everything they appeared interested in the missing trouser press which a random handyman turned up shortly after to install - I don't think they took on board the sarcasm in my voice when saying this was not in the room.

this is when I discovered the reason why they take payment in full when you check in - we strongly thought about checking out and moving hotels for the second night, but would obviously want a refund - this was not going to happen as the 'policy' of the hotel is that cancellation should be 48 hours in advance - this would be a bit difficult as we had already checked in and hadn't seen the shocking state of the room!!! So they offered us a move in room to the standard room - not happening after seeing the box room they call a hotel room.

In summary - go to the Mayflower if you wish to have money taken off you for a dirty room, dirty towels, dirty pillows and hairs (from someone else) in your bed and the management/supervisory staff not being interested in the least in anything you have to say. They have an attitude that you should be grateful that they let you in and you should not complain about anything.