Toronto Motel

It’s one of the cheapest places around, and right by Tsim Sha Tsui MTR, so the location is good. But be careful if the low price and handful of Booking reviews make it look tempting. It isn’t a scam and the place does exist, but it looks nothing like the photos. What you get depends on the floor. There may be bugs, or even mice or rats. My room smelled strongly of mold, the air conditioning was very loud, and the bedding felt sticky and smelled bad, as if it hadn’t been cleaned properly. There were broken lights, leaking faucets, and sometimes no hot water. A really disappointing stay.

Be careful, I booked on booking a month and a half before my trip, and some of the pictures had changed by the time I arrived. The place was hard to find, so I had to call. The area is very touristy, with people offering drugs in the street, but I accepted that. I wasn’t prepared for the rest. The person at reception barely greeted me and carried on with what he was doing without asking me to wait. He couldn’t find my booking at first. Once he did, he said we’d have a room, but would need to change the next day. That was disappointing, but we accepted. Then we saw the room. It was awful, like a rat cage, and I love rats. There was no key to lock it because the previous guest had kept it for Disneyland. We refused it and were given a better room that they seemed to keep for complaints. The next day I went to reception with all our luggage to get the new room. He said we had to spend one more night in the first one because the other travelers had extended their stay. I refused, and they let us stay in the other room for the rest of the trip. It had almost no toilet paper and very little hot water. One day we came back and the laundry machine had disappeared without anyone asking us, because they needed it. We’d wanted to do laundry, so had to go out instead. We ended up with something “okay,” but the service was the worst I’ve had. The only nice person was the younger guy who showed us the room. The receptionist should be fired quickly. Please avoid this place. I’d only come back to try the Pakistan restaurant in the same building.

A pleasant stay for an average price for the area, and the staff were friendly. In our room for two, though, the bathroom had a clear glass window, so there was no privacy. Curtains would help.

I booked a double room but was given a single, and there was no TV even though one was supposed to be included. They also hadn’t mentioned that there was no window. The pictures were completely different, and I found a lot of cockroaches in my bed. I’m furious and will never come back. This is definitely a scam!