Plaza London Hotel

Everything good

I booked this for location & price. For budget stays this was ideal. The sink was very compact but everything was clean & useful. Had kettle & glasses but as a guest you had full use of their kitchen facilities which included microwave fridge etc which was very clean. Not for disabled every room is first floor or higher. I was on third floor so was economical about trips up & down the stairs but enjoyed the health aspect. Reception is staffed 24/7 tube was very close & it was an easy walk to Victoria Park. I ended up booking for the whole Easter weekend. So highly recommended if your happy with clean budget style.

Was good for solo travel

I stayed the first time in November. It wasn't great, but the location suited me for where I needed to be, and I understand you don't get much for your money if your budget is less than *** a night in London. Still... in the capital city of a first-world country, am I wrong to expect the bare minimum of hot water in the shower?? Especially in November! Furthermore, can we not have drunk people talking loudly in the corridor at 3-4am? I get it that this is not the hotel staff's fault, but the staff are said to work 24/7, so they should have had a word about this. Where were they? Anyway, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the cold water was just a glitch, or just affected that room and I was unlucky to get it, and maybe the noise was a one-off. I booked again next time I needed to be in the area. Other than the points above, the room was acceptable for the price, and walking distance from where I needed to be. So, to my second trip. This time I booked what was advertised as "Single room: Private bathroom". I naively assumed that meant en suite (after all, my previous stay with the cold water shower was en suite, for roughly the same price). But it turned out that, while indeed the bathroom WAS private, it was not IN my room, it was across the corridor and required a six-digit alphanumeric code to unlock. Well, that did ensure it was private, but it's far from ideal to have to key in a complicated code in the middle of the night when you need the loo. And this time, the room was far inferior to the first stay. It was TINY and, importantly for my purpose as it was a work trip, no desk (the first time did have one). So, I went to the shared kitchen to do my work. I was told off for making noise in there at 11pm. Perhaps I did (not excessively, but OK - I was watching video on my laptop), but where were the staff when I and others were being kept awake at 3-4am the last time I stayed? Then the cherry on top: in the morning before checkout, I went for a shower. Thankfully it did have hot water. But I came out of the shower, wrapped in the towel, to find the keycard to my room suddenly no longer worked. So I had to go down three flights of stairs to the reception wrapped in a towel to get it sorted. Two stays, multiple disappointments. Again, good location for what I needed to do, and accepting that London is expensive, but I'm very sure you could do better than this within the price range. I will certainly try alternatives next time, or be prepared to spend a bit more on somewhere else. I think that would justify the peace of mind that I'd be more likely to get hot water, a bathroom inside my room, and an undisturbed sleep, and less likely I'd be locked out of my own room when I don't have clothes on.