Thistle Westminster

I used to work for The Thistle group and have stayed at nearly all of the Thistle/Guoman properties across the UK and I must say that my recent stay at The Thistle Westminster has been disappointing.

Here's a diary of my one-night stay.....

I chose to stay at The Thistle Westminster primarily because it is conveniently located within a couple minutes walk from Victoria Station. This is excellent for business travellers such as myself. For leisure travellers, it is walking distance from Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. It is not an ideal location for shopping and dining- you should try Thistle Piccadilly, Trafalgar or Marble Arch if you want to be near Oxford Street shopping and Soho.

Easy enough to check-in but there were no personal touches....It was like checkin-in for a flight using a self-service machine. The receptionist could have mentioned what time breakfast was; if we needed any newspapers in the morning or offered a wake-up call.

I booked a twin room on the second floor, room 253. I thought it was great that it had two queen bed but was not impressed with the layout- I could hardly open the wardrobe door because there was lack of space between this and the foot of the bed. It was nice to have a couch in the room along with tea/coffee making facilities and an iron.

I called both reception and the concierge 3 times in the space of 30 minutes to request

a bath robe. No one answered. I went downstairs to have a cigarette and saw three members in reception gossiping to each other. I gave up on my request. Before I went out for the evening, the concierge was helpful enough to help me locate my destination.

I realised my two biggest problem with the hotel later in the evening. The first is the state of the bathroom: the tiles were cracking, the paint job around the shower was poor and the ceiling when you step in to the bathtub is too low for anyone over 5ft10. The shower is old and disgusting.....the latch is very loose and I'm sure this goes against their health and safety policy.

My second major problem was the temperature of the room. I'm glad it's wasn't my stupidity that I can't work the air conditioning because another traveller has mentioned this. I turned the air conditioning on and no matter what I did, it offset hot air. I opened the window and opened the window and still it was boiling hot in the room. I must say I'm a sort of person who much prefers a heated room but this was a nightmare for my friend who told me in the morning he had no sleep because of it.

On both issues I must admit I should have informed the duty manager. In regards to the shower, I only noticed at 2:30am and thought it wasn't worth the hassle. Regarding the temperature in the room, it was only my friend who had the problem and had he woke me up to inform me of the severity of the problem, I would have demanded to change rooms.

In the morning we had our full English breakfast. The staff were friendly and attentive. However there was not much selection in the continental option....like they do at other Thistles. Hardly any selection of fresh fruits. I wouldn't be paying for breakfast here again....it just isn't value for money.

If you must go with a Thistle then try the Thistle Grosvenor (which is a 5 minute away) or the Thistle Marble Arch or any of the Guoman properties. The standards in terms of quality and service at The Westminster really isn't worth it.

Thank you for your feedback, I was disappointed to read your comments regarding your experience at the Thistle Westminster. Unfortunately this issue was not brought to our attention at the time however we will be in contact with regards to a resolution.

Once again apologies for the inconvenience caused to you & your partner.

I stayed here as part of a party to deliver an event to colleagues. The facilities for the event were quite good and staff were helpful enough but needed to be prompted through our needs. There was the occasional 'jobsworth' moment and when asked for some milk for our coffee whilst setting up we were told to visit a local shop!

Fortunately this was isolated and on the whole everything went well.

The rooms are large but bathrooms are small and a bit 'tired'. This was slightly out of character for the rest of the hotel and hopefully the management will address this before too long. The hotel was quiet but there was significant noise through the wall of my room from what was a service area(?). This happened at least twice (once at 06:30 am) and I was hardly in the room except to sleep. (Room 125).. Not too good.

Breakfast was good with food freshly reasonably freshly prepared with traditional choices.