Hotel 1843

This hotel is clean, the staff friendly and it is in a great location for shops and train in Reading. My only reservation that I did not realise when booking that there is no lift. If you have a lot of luggage or heavy bags the stairs are quite the work out. If you are there with minimal bags, want something close to town, friendly and affordable with no bells and whistles, this is the place for you!

Perfect location and price, room in need of modernisation and doesn't match the high quality of the venue downstairs

Staff are very friendly, there is no elevator, so it is a little bit not good for the guests who have heavy luggage.

The positive reviews for this hotel really make me question whether Agoda's reviews are all real. Normally hotels at this level are good; I was looking for a hotel with character--not just a chain. But I think I may rethink that idea going forward. Here are my concerns with this hotel: 1) The hotel is above a bar, and the front door is open to the street till midnight. There is no locked door between the hotel part of the building and the bar--nor even a closed door between it and the street, so anyone could walk in off the street and go up to the hotel. In fairness, they tell me they have a watchman. But I would have felt much better with either a closed door to the street or a keycard entry to the hotel section of the building (or both). 2) Most of the time no one is sitting at reception, but reception itself is separated from the guest by a glass box, which doesn't raise confidence in the safety of the hotel. The receptionist is secure, but the guests are not. Moreover, the sign on the glass box warns against drug use in the hotel; I don't tend to see such signs in most hotels, which makes me think that, at least at some point, it may have been a problem here. 3) The walls are thin enough that you can hear the words of your neighbors' conversations. And in the middle of the night on my first night, someone was outside screaming to be let in, which woke me up. 4) In the summer, it is hot--miserably so. This is the only non-air-conditioned hotel I have ever been in where guests were not provided with a fan. I would be sweating again one minute after leaving the shower. 5) The room itself is not very clean. As you can see from the photo, dust hung from the ceiling. I was hoping for a hotel where I could do a little desk work after finishing my job each day. This was not the place. 6) The bed mattress was clearly not super new and buckled slightly in the middle. 7) There was no housekeeping on the two days of my five-day stay that I actually stayed in the hotel. My shower was low on body wash the first day and out of body wash by the second, and no one replaced it. Moreover, the blow dryer is attached to the bathroom wall (they are clearly afraid of thieves) and of almost no use whatsoever, blowing very faint warm air. 8) The breakfast was okay--but just. On the first day, there were baked beans, toast, yogurt, muffins, and fruit (apples, etc.) On the second day, there were also hard boiled eggs (which had presumably all been eaten on the first day). The breakfast staff person was nice. (9) There was no laundry. I would have known this if I had looked carefully, but I think they could at least have pointed me to places where I could go to have a service load done. It would be better if they could add laundry pickup for such a load. 10) In short, I was so miserable in this hotel due to the feeling of insecurity and the heat and the dirt that I left after two nights of my supposed five-night stay. I would have left after one night, but there were no hotels in town that could accommodate me for the whole of my remaining nights, so I stayed a second night. I complained to Agoda and to the hotel, but the hotel evidently told Agoda that everything I said is untrue (which was insulting) and has not yet responded to my request for a partial refund. (I just got my second notification from Agoda that the property has not responded and the case is still under review. I'm not holding my breath. But I wish I had seen a review like this one before staying. I had chosen this hotel as closer to my work, but, in future, when in Reading, I would recommend one of the many hotels closer to the train station and the more interesting parts of town (the museum, the abbey ruins, etc.) I stayed in the Ibis for the remaining three nights and was much, much happier, cooler, and better fed.