Arriva Hotel

The rooms were stuffy, looked nothing like the photos, and had no air conditioning. The TV wouldn’t connect to the internet either. More seriously, the cleanliness was awful: there was a footprint on the sheet when we arrived and stains all over the curtain. We were told the curtain couldn’t be changed, and the cleaners had already gone, so we changed the sheet ourselves. On day four we asked housekeeping to clean. They took out the rubbish but left the sheets as they were. The sheet with the footprint had been put on the floor, yet they picked it up and put it back on the bed. The walls are so thin you hear everything, especially the loud housekeeping early in the morning, which made it hard to sleep. We stayed eight days, and I can only speak to what happened to us, but I really wouldn’t recommend it. I also wouldn’t choose it just for being close to the King's Cross metro lines. The area around King's Cross didn’t feel very safe to me.

Our first room was much too small, with almost no shower pressure, and we could hear guests upstairs and nearby all night. The hallway smelled bad, and a cabinet kept cracking through the night. We’d booked because the Booking reviews were mostly positive, but then saw Google reviews describing similar noise problems and reports of bed bugs. That made us nervous about moving, too. When the cabinet started again the following evening, we went to reception. The staff listened and acted quickly. They said the cabinet was probably making the noise because it sat over heating pipes, then moved us to a room in the main building. That room was roomier, quieter, had proper water pressure, and we didn’t find any bed bugs. The first room really shouldn’t be offered to guests in that condition. The move made things much better. If we’d been given the second room at the start, we’d probably have come away with a much better impression.

The staff were the best part for me, so friendly and helpful, with someone always at the 24-hour front desk. Housekeeping was great too. I could sleep in and still come back to a clean room, fresh linens, and soaps. It’s such a good deal and the location’s ideal, under a 10-minute walk from kings cross. The rooms were really clean, and it felt perfect for solo travelers or couples. I miss this place so much!

A few minutes from king's cross, which was great, and fine for a night on the way somewhere else. It’s basic and inexpensive. Other reviews had made me paranoid about bedbugs, so I stripped the bed and checked everything closely. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t another living creature in the room.