One Aldwych

Your car stops outside the hotel. It's raining cats and dogs - a valet with an umbrella comes to help you out while another takes care of your luggage.

Now that 's what I call service - you feel like a milion dollars when that happens. The trouble is, this happens very seldomly these days.

I was booked in for just one night and when I got to the front desk, the staff were awash with people checking in. However, a young lady appeared from nowhere from behind the front desk to help me with the check in. I mentioned my name and within seconds she was back with the reservation paperwork already completed, she just needed a signature and credit card. So smooth and simple it seemed too good to be true.

She showed me to the room on the 5th floor, so we went into the lift - very modern and glitzy with bright yellow lighting. Not quite my scene.

When we got to the room, it was very modern but understated. When we walked in, some presentaions which I had been awaiting, was already there for me - they had taken it up previously. Again impressed.

We had a function booked out for that evening for an event - the young lady knew it already and told who to call should I need help, how to get to the function room, etc etc. Incredible attention to detail.

The bedroom was a reasonable size, certainly not large, but had all the usual amenities - plasma TV, music hi-fi, internet access etc. Also a very comfortable king size bed awaited me that evening with inviting feather pillows.

I went down to check the layout of the function room, where staff awaited me. They ran through the menu, the wines which would be served (they even got me to taste the wines, just in case they were not up to scratch, which could be changed if I so wished), when exactly would I want the meal to be served, etc etc. Endless attention to detail which I have never received in such overwhelming amounts at any hotel in London.

As you can imagine the function ran very smoothly, the food was excellent, togther with wines and the service.

That night I slept like a log in one of the most comfortable hotel beds I have ever come accross.

The following day was an early start - I was the first down for breakfast and was later accompanied by two colleagues. Now here there is no buffet affair, it is good old waiting service. I requested my breakfast (juice, cereals, milk, yoghurt, coffee, toast etc.) and also my 2 colleagues. The waiter never jotted anything down and after he had gone, we sniggered, saying "so how many things do you think he'll forget or get wrong?". Within just a few minutes he had brought everything to the table ..... and it was absolutely all there, correct and no mistakes. Again, what service!

This was my first expereince of this hotel and will definitely NOT be my last..... can't wait for the next trip to London !!!

Few years ago, i booked 1Aldwych because of the pool, this because it's quiet hard to find a nice hotel with a pool in central London. Good choice, the pool is very zen specially with under water music which is relly relaxing. Since then, i came back many times. The entrance/lobby of the hotel is magnificent, beautiful whith always nice flowers: perfect place to have one of the cocktail they serve. Checking efficient and discret. Deluxe rooms are a good choice but my favorites rooms are the circular junior suite and on the top of all suite 600 is a little jewel! Of course, the hotel rooms needs a refresch in terms of colors but every room i used was very clean, also the bathrooms. Room service is ok depending on which chef is in the kitchen. Very central location, next to theaters and museums. International staff. One Aldwych is now my n° One hotel in London !

Stayed at One Aldywch when in town to look for relocation accommodation. Heard a lot about it from "hip" acquaintances and the great review it got from the Economist. Booked it for a week. Stayed in a standard room.

Incentives:

1) The location of this hotel is great. It lies in a lovely previous newspaper HQ building in the heart of Covent Garden so you are in the thick of it. Transport is very convenient with lots of taxis and 2 Tube stops nearby.

2) The ground floor lobby bar is very popular and filled with interesting people. Many of the "beautiful" crowd hangs out and makes for good sight-seeing if you are into that sort of thing. The drinks are pretty good.

3) The staff are excellent, with unobtrusive service consistently delivered. A complimentary mobile phone is also available on request, a most useful touch.

4) There is an underground swimming pool which is a great luxury in London. It was quite appreciated given I prefer swimming to stay in shape and ease the day's toils away.

5) The hotel uses Ren bath products, very organic and environmentally friendly. A nice touch.

Discentives:

1) The rooms were pathetically small. The sense of claustrophobia is immense. While London rooms are usually tiny compared with other places, even other world cities, the One Aldywch rooms are the worst of the 5 star establishments I have seen. Given the prices they charge, it is really rather shocking.

I had a peek at the suites as well. While more spacious, they fare poorly next to other hotels like Claridges, Mandarin Oriental etc.

There are no modern facilities like fax machines etc. available. The nearest is a tiny little TV in the bathroom you need to squint to view.

2) The much crowed about hip, sleek modern design is frankly nothing special. It lacks any character and doesn't really look minimalist modern chic. The other hip hotels like the Covent Garden fare much better.

3) The lavatory uses an environmentally friendly vacuum design to save water and while I'm all for saving water, it is extremely loud and the flushing will wake anybody else in the room up. Not great for those nocturnal visits. I could even hear the lavatory next door. Bad for a 5 star.

4) No real gym facility. However, this does seem to be a London thing in general.

5) There was a real shocker of an incident that happened. I requested for the complimentary shoeshine on a Friday evening and couldn't get through to housekeeping. I then checked with the front desk and was told the staff had retired for the night and that they didn't do shoeshines on weekends. She could arrange for it but would need to charge me GBP 50 for it! To have such a policy given the price and billing as a 5 star facility is utterly shocking. It was not mentioned in the information pack in the room and is in my opinion completely ridiculous. This is out of sync with just about every other 5 star establishment I've ever stayed in.

Overall, while London hotels all are overpriced and severely lacking in quality compared to just about everywhere else in the world, even Tokyo and NY which are almost if not equally expensive places, One Aldywch (in my opinion) sticks out like a sore thumb as a clear example of all that is wrong with the hotel environment in London. It is ridiculously overpriced for very tiny rooms and no real amenities.

I will never stay in this empty shell again. For the same price, you can get far better amenities, bigger rooms and better service at Claridges or even the Savoy.

The only reason I can think of to stay other than an extremely good special rate is if you are utterly desperate to maintain superficial appearances as one of the hip crowd though I hear they've all moved on to the Covent Garden......

One Aldywch: All Trumped Up Faux Style and No Substance.