The Marker Hotel

The central London location is great, the hotel and room were clean and well maintained, the hot water worked well, and the WiFi was reliable. They’ll store your bags, though check-in isn’t until 2 pm. The room itself was below average. The old mattress squeaked and made it hard to sleep after an international flight, and the 24” TV was about 12’ away. You can get continental breakfast, but it needs scheduling because the breakfast area can’t fit all 17 rooms. In winter, the owners control the heat. At check-in at 2 pm, the front desk told us it wouldn’t come on until 7 pm and said it would stay on overnight. It switched off at midnight on the first night, and cold air from a broken window quickly overwhelmed the unheated radiator. Although they say the front desk is staffed 24 hours, nobody answered my 12:45 am call. I eventually went upstairs and found an attendant, who said he couldn’t fix the heat. The owners turned it on at 5 pm on day two, then it was back to 7 pm by day three. You could buy a space heater at Robert Dyas for 18 lbs if you stay here. I’d spend a few more dollars elsewhere. Portable heaters and larger TVs from Amazon Shopping might help. I also wonder why so many Google reviews have 1 star when Expedia shows 9 and 10 stars.

Our room was over 87 deg, with a window that opened only a crack and no air conditioning. It was too hot to stay, even after we tried a cold shower. They gave us five fans, but we’d already asked our travel agent to move us. The room had two poorly fitting twin beds and was tiny. We were put on the top floor, up four levels with no elevator. This is a converted townhouse, not what I’d call a hotel, despite its three star rating. We moved to Park Grand Hotel for the same money, and it was a real hotel close to the rail and underground.

Getting around was easy because the hotel is near a shopping area and several train stations, so you can reach most places in London by train. The rooms are nice and a good size, though we found the shower area a bit small, and someone cleaned our room every day. Breakfast was amazing, with hot vegetarian and non-vegetarian options. The staff were all really sweet, and they’ll hold your suitcases before check-in or after check-out if you ask. I’d highly recommend it.

Our three-person room was clean, but really small and up on the third floor. There’s no lift, so there are a lot of stairs. The little bathroom with its shower was nice. It was a very hot night, 26 degrees, and the air-conditioning wasn’t working. We had a fan, but the windows only opened about three inches, which made that small room stifling. Breakfast was okay, with continental and full English choices, though not brilliant. The location is good, check-in was easy, and they let us leave our bags before the official check-in time.