St James House Serviced Apartments by Concept Apartmentsv

The room itself was pleasant and at least clean, and the location was reasonably nice, though a bit of a walk from everything. For such a low price, the Wi-Fi was about what you’d expect, but basically unusable in my room. Being in the basement also meant there was no phone reception. The key collection made the stay frustrating. There was nobody on site, and the instructions were awful. Maybe they’d simply sent the wrong ones, but the codes and photos pointed me to the wrong doors. I had to call to work it out after a long day setting up for an event at olympia. The staff weren’t helpful, and next time I’d prefer somewhere with a staffed reception.

The room was spacious and clean, and the mattress was acceptable. The pillows, though, were small and uncomfortable. I’ve never stayed anywhere with noise this bad. The windows, ceiling and door seemed to offer almost no sound insulation. Every few minutes, passing trains were loud enough to hear and feel, mixed with constant traffic, motorbikes, trucks and police sirens. Footsteps overhead sounded like pounding on the floor. After two sleepless nights, I’m glad to be leaving.

Staff were usually nowhere to be found, and when someone was there, they were rude and didn’t help. The room had no basic comforts at all: no toiletries, kettle or even a glass. The bed was much too small for a comfortable night, and the pillow smelled strongly and unpleasantly. Noise was overwhelming. The windows did nothing to block traffic, and the building regularly shook from the nearby metro line. There was a musty smell, loud and unstable floorboards, and the entrance felt unsafe. The whole property looked neglected for years, almost like a derelict building from outside. It was a disappointing, stressful stay and I wouldn’t recommend it.

Our stay was nothing like the impression from the websites. The double bed was small, less than two standard tea towel lengths, as we showed in a photo by placing one on it. Mould was starting to grow in the bathroom, also shown in a photo. The light flickered, and when we called to report it, nobody responded or followed up during our four day stay. There was no staff on site. Before arriving, we also had to send several emails to arrange add-ons such as portable air conditioning.