Hotel Sophia

Location

No fridge

Very helpful staff. Location is superb

Steep stairs. No shampoo, TV dodgy

Very kind and helpful staff, good communication in the app and at the hotel. You get a key to the front door with the one to the room, so you can get inside at any time of day/night, even when there's noone at the reception desk. Clean bed linen, no bugs/rats/mice or bad smells - at least in our room. The temperatures in London were very nice throughout, and the temperatures inside were comfortable despite there being no AC. The streets were quite loud at night (especially late evening and early morning) but it was bearable in the room with the windows closed and the thick curtains drawn. The room itself (along with the private bathroom) was comfortable enough for us but we did not have high expectations and were OK with the bare minimum of basic amenities. We asked for an extra duvet for the twin bed and got one without any issues at no extra cost; it was also easy to borrow a hair dryer from the receptionist or get more toilet paper etc.. There was a working electric kettle in the room, a few mugs and some instant coffee packs (plus sugar and milk) and tea bags, so it was a nice addition if you wanted a quick tea or coffe after returning from a long day of walking around London or if you wanted to boil some water and let it cool to refill your bottles (in case you didn't want to drink tap water). There was also a working electric fan on the table in case it got too hot in the room. The three-person room had a single and a twin bed plus a comfortable chair and a small table, two platforms (which seemed like some type of low tables) stacked on top of each other that served as an extra shelf for your stuff, a shelf below the TV, a wall hanger and a standing clothes hanger, a wall-hanging mirror. There were enough wall sockets (also near the beds) to plug in some devices such as chargers in the room. Good free WiFi. Our overall impression (2 adults, 1 teenager) was really good for mostly sleeping and washing there.

I didn't dislike things but there's room for improvement like adding an electrical socket to plug in a hair dryer etc. in the bathroom. A small cabinet in the room would be nice (there was none) and a shelf in the bathroom (there was only a small wall lamp above the mirror, and a raised area above the floor to cover water piping). It was difficult to get a desired water temperature in the washbasin due to the separate hot and cold water taps, which were short, so the streams never mixed and you got a very hot one on the left and a cold one on the right (it was easier in the shower with the single mixed stream and a separate temperature knob but it took some trial and error to get it right - just don't set the temperature to too high and let the water run fast enough to get to a warmer or colder mixture without a long wait). The cold water tap was also fitted incorrectly, so it needed to be held in a more convenient position with a hand or something because there was very little room to reach the stream (the same applies to filling the kettle or washing fruit etc., which was very difficult in the hot stream because it was too hot for the hands). The shower was actually a good alternative for filling the kettle or washing fruit though it was then easy to get the floor wet in the process. The interior seemed clean enough at first glance and the colors and the brightness were better IRL than in the photos but if you looked closely, there were lots of places that hadn't been cleaned well (dust) and even a guest's personal item left under the bed; the windows weren't too clean, either. One of the windows did not shut well due to a small metal part at the bottom protruding and preventing good fit with the rest of the frame. The small light above the bathroom mirror didn't work and the wall shelf & wall hanger in the room were crooked/badly fixed; beds reinforced with wood beams/zip ties. OK with our managed expectations.

It was adequate for a couple of nights.

It's shabby and less than clean. Also, it's so close to Paddington I could hear the announcements of trains/underground coming and going. It's sort of like staying in the station.