Bob W London Spitalfields

The location is the one thing I liked. For the same price in the same area, I’d tell people to stay somewhere else. I spent two weeks here, and it may honestly have been the worst hotel stay of my life. There’s no elevator, so even getting out from my top-floor room meant psyching myself up for the climb. The shower pressure was feeble, perhaps because I was so high up. The heater roared like a jet engine, so I wore earplugs every night. Then a heatwave hit near the end of our stay. There was no air conditioning, and the fan barely moved the air. We baked for days. The Wi-Fi struggled if two people tried downloading videos at once, with buffering that could almost pass for meditation. Housekeeping didn’t come during our long stay, so we took out our own rubbish. One day a housekeeper knocked for a while before I could answer, then said she had the wrong room and left. I felt more impressed than angry. I’m not blaming her, since she seemed to be the only person cleaning the whole place. They said the fire alarm test would take “two minutes.” After twenty minutes of shrieking, the actual fire brigade turned up at the gate, and still no hotel staff appeared. There was basically no human contact, apart from that housekeeper and WhatsApp, which may have been a bot or a broken toaster. Ten out of ten service, Bob. Really.

At £180 a night, I expected a decent shower, but the water pressure was low and the temperature kept changing. The location is good, though the price feels high for what you get. The room was cramped for four, with very little space.

The neighborhood is lively, with plenty of places to eat, drink, or get coffee, and I’d stay here again. The apartment was spacious, the bed very comfortable, and check-in was straightforward. They also store luggage, and customer service is easy to reach on WhatsApp.

Booking and getting in were both easy, and the place was clean and looked after. It’s in a great spot and good value. I liked having a full-length mirror, which wasn’t listed or shown in the photos. The shower was weak, but usable. I’d have preferred climate control or central heating to electric radiators. Because of the mezzanine layout, the downstairs heater mostly warmed the upstairs.