umi Hotel

Okay, this is a budget hotel but *still*... We stayed for four nights, having booked from overseas and having had friends who stayed here. It wasn't much for *London* prices (89GBP to 139 GBP) but it still seemed like a complete waste of money. We were woken on the first morning by obscene shouting coming from the corridor/next room. I thought maybe it was guests and ignored it for a while, but when we left I realized who was making the noise. We were next to room service's little 'office' on the third floor. Okay, so the doors and walls were thin. But on the last morning we were woken by room service shouting about the "[--] bottles in the room, why are there so many [--] bottles in the bl**dy room." Nice.

Perhaps because we didn't tip room service, they basically didn't bother to clean the room after the first day; I mean, they made the bed, but they didn't bother wiping down the sink (which is in the bedroom, yes).

There was also the matter of the leaking bath faucets, which probably disturbed someone downstars, as a hotel employee tried to get into our room while my fiancee was showering in order to see whether we were somehow joyously spraying water all over the bathroom. They didn't fix it that day while we were out; instead we went through the same rigmarole the next morning; this time, we were finished our showers and let them in to look at the tub. They fixed it with a LOT of grout.

The hotel needs a bit of repair; creaking floorboards and shrieking taps are a noisy, bed is really uncomfortable and you just roll off it basically... the tub is cracked and the bathroom ceiling was mouldy ... but okay, this is budget... yes, the tv worked fine (except when you plug something in--and then it just stops) ...

Probably the best part of this was on the third night when we arrived back to find a full bag of garbage in our room left by room service. I guess they 'forgot' it. Awesome. I took it down to reception and they wrote something down in their little book, apologized... but that was it. I guess that was business as usual at Umi Hotel.

If for some reason you do go there and need wireless access to search for your next stay, don't spend 3GBP for 3 hours on the internet, go down the street to one of the several internet cafes there.

Oh and of course... do keep in mind that if you don't check in by 11am, you will be required to pay for or stay for two nights, rather than just one.

My friend and I stayed at the Umi once at the outset of our trip before flying to Italy and also at the conclusion before flying home to the US. The first room had the sink in the bedroom. The sink had two faucets, one for hot and one for cold, and neither worked very well. There is a trick to getting the toilet to flush by repeatedly pumping the handle. The carpeting had huge stains and the bed gave me a backache. The shower was impossible to turn off and you needed to grab a towel in order to get a strong grip on the shut off valve. When staying in the second room, all the same problems remained except now our crummy sink was in the bathroom. What amazed me is that, on one hand I was worried that I couldn't flush the toilet, yet I could watch a flat screen tv. I'm not sure Umi has its priorities straight. I'm not used to luxury when I travel but this was a little too much for me.

although staff are helpful and polite. I am afraid the hotel is let down by at least the room I stayed in. It was not cleaned well and the furniture a litle shabby. Taps and showers didnt work well. One good point is its location. Near to tube ,shops and many types of eateries.