Hyde Park Apartments

The only things I can praise are the cleaning service and the location. Paddington Station is a five-minute walk away and connects well to the rest of the city. But I won’t be coming back to Hyde Park Apartments. The stay left me feeling cheated, and for a hospitality business, failing to provide a decent night’s sleep is unacceptable. We booked for three people and were promised a double bed and a sofa bed. The sofa bed was just a folded couch, with no mattress at all. It was hard, worn, uneven, and had a hollow in the middle that hurt our backs. We slept that way for 9 nights. The double bed was small and not especially comfortable either, though at least it was a proper bed. We paid €1,500 for 9 nights. We weren’t expecting luxury, but I don’t consider a couch without a mattress a bed. The room was tiny for three guests. We could fit only one suitcase in the small closet, which was already partly filled with blankets, an iron and other things. The other two bags had to stay on the floor. The couch was so close to the kitchen counter that some drawers couldn’t open unless we moved it. It also blocked access to the hob, so we had to cook while kneeling on the couch. The induction hob had just two zones, and the supplied pans were wider than them. Using both at once meant the pan on the right touched the controls and activated them, so in practice we could use only one zone. It was weak too, and water took forever to boil. The closet door only opened halfway because the spring-loaded door closer blocked it. The room also became unbearably hot and humid. It’s only a few square metres, with a tiny sash window that barely let in air, even on windy days. When it was over 25-26 degrees Celsius outside, it was impossible to sleep at night in the heat and humidity. There was no air conditioning or dehumidifier, just a noisy, ineffective fan. We had to prop the front door open with a suitcase to get some air. The bathroom had no outside opening either, and became extremely humid after a couple of minutes in the shower. I’ve travelled a lot and can adapt. Cooking on my knees, sleeping with the door open, and sharing a tiny room can be the sort of compromises that make funny stories later. But paying for a sofa bed and finding a dirty, hard, uncomfortable couch with no mattress and no level surface made me feel frankly cheated. With climate change bringing hotter temperatures, places need to adapt. I hope to visit London again, perhaps Paddington, but I won’t return to Hyde Park Apartments.