Blakes Hotel

Firstly, let me say that I live very close to Blake's Hotel in South Kensington. I have builders working in my house, so it was easiest to check into a hotel whilst the work was being completed.

I had heard a lot of good things about Blake's- it was small, quiet and dedicated to providing unprecedented levels of service. Sadly, I got a major shock when I arrived... I was allocated a room in the basement- it was cold (no heating except for an electric heater!), noisy and had no shower. I tried several times to order room service, and when the kitchen did answer I was shouted at down the phone "I'll have to call you back".

Whilst the decor is spectacular and arresting, it is very impractical and now looking very tired. I checked out the following night (they were fully booked and could not accomodate me) but was due to check in again for the remaining few weeks of my stay. When I looked at my new room, it was pretty much the same state of affairs. How do they expect to retain 5 star status and not even be able to provide a shower for guests? A huge disappointment, espically given the price.

That said, I have checked into an excellant hotel very nearby- Number Sixteen. It is again a small hotel, but the rooms are bigger, fresher and have showers!!!

What a let down this was.

Our daughters booked this hotel for us as an anniversary gift. I feel they were robbed, they really thought they were doing something nice for us.

They booked a luxury double at £265.00 + 17.5% vat room only.

I was horrified at the state of the room we were allocated, it was on the fourth floor. We used the lift and after what seemed to take a life time we reached the fourth. The hallway was narrow but tastefully decorated.....that's where it ended.

Our sitting room was awful, the carpets were stained, it had an overall grubby appearance. To turn off one of the lamps we had to pull out the mini bar....how convenient!!!! We couldn't open the blinds as they were broken.

The bathroom was miniscule, it didn't have a window and as far as we could tell there wasn't an extractor (and if there was it wasn't working) it was so small they couldn't put a toilet roll holder on the wall, the loo roll was perched on the side of the sink. The bath had dead flies in it and the plug didn't fit so the water trickled out constantly. You could barely turn round in there let alone dry yourself.

The bedroom...well...you wouldn't believe it, you could barely walk round the bed, there was about 6 inches from the side of the bed to the patio doors which wouldn't open so it was stifling, and about 8 inches on the other side to the wall. We couldn't get dressed/undressed in there as it was too small and again the carpet was stained, most unpleasant.

We were hoping for a relaxing evening and unfortunately the champagne that our daughters had delivered to the room for when we were returned from a lovely evening at the ballet had to be brought home, the ambiance just wasn't there and by this time the room was unbearably hot (no a/c).

We spent as little time as possible in the hotel which was not the point of the trip.

I know the website says that their description of the rooms can vary, but this room was a million miles away from anything on the web site or in their brochure.

On checking out my husband noticed that they had added an 'optional' £9.00 service charge for bringing the champagne to the room and also we had been charged for drinks from the mini bar which we hadn't had. The receptionist did remove these items without any fuss.

I will add that the reception area is quite impressive and the staff were pleasant and polite but apart from that I wouldn't recommend this hotel at all.

I only wish I had read the other reviews before we booked this pretentious, out dated and decidedly naff, so-called "boutique hotel", what-ever that much quoted phrase is supposed to mean.

A broken heating system and no air conditioning,[ so no chance of controlling the temperature in your room then!] combined with all night partying in other rooms [till 7.00a.m.!] ,with no great measure of concern from the management ,ensured an allmost total lack of sleep ,capped by knocking on our door at 9.00 a.m. and 10.45a.m , from the cleaners whom wanted to enquire ,what time we would be checking out? Five Stars ... you have to be joking!!!!