Huttons Hotel — Attraction in London

I booked a room at this hotel over a month ago for our anniversary, when we arrived, the receptionist said that our booking was not in their system. I got my phone out to show our confirmation emails. Having prepared for such an important date, I was very adamant that I had planned and booked this well in advance. Only for the lady to repeat herself and say the hotel is fully booked and "there's nothing she can do about it". I had to call costumer services just to confirm my booking, which took them 20 minutes to answer. And when they finally did, the only thing that happened was they sent an email to the hotel with yet another confirmation of my booking. To which the receptionist said my booking is still not in her system. When the receptionist finally decided to do call management rather than sit there doing nothing, she handed the phone over and I was told that they had changed me to a different hotel. I was absolutely stunned by this revelation, having not received any forewarning or request for them to do so. I explained that I booked this hotel over a month ago and am not prepared to travel to some other hotel, which I never even knew about (which as it turns out, is a 2-star hotel that was miles away, nowhere near where we wanted to be, and has a catastrophic review section. Take a look yourself if not convinced - OYO Somerset Hotel, here's some I quoted: "The hotel was unattended. Didn’t answer the phone and I had to find alternate accomodation. Totally disgusted" "There was bed bugs on my family member bed, the toilets are dirtyyyy like the stain in the toilet looks like sh*t and the shower was just cold water."

Obviously after researching their property, I refused to stay in the sh**hole and demanded my money back over the phone. They then claimed that it is not up to them to refund my money, but the booking agency. I exclaimed that I will speak to the booking agency, and then I will have my money back. Having called the booking agency, I explained my situation to what could only be described as a meek representative. He tried to call OYO management himself but couldn't get through (Isn't that a surprise!), and only told me what I already knew: "they have relocated you to a different hotel". I reiterated that I was calling for a refund, to which he said that it's not up to them, its up to OYO to arrange refunds. WHAT A F*ING JOKE! I genuinely thought at one point, am I dealing with a bunch of clowns?

As it turns out, the entire OYO company chain has not only done this to me, but to several people as you can see from the somerset reviews. They are horrible scammers, conning you out of your money and then sending you to a disgusting hovel that they proudly claim to be a hotel after your money has gone to them. The sheer audacity of this company is ridiculous, I don't understand how they are even allowed to operate.

Overall I had spent over an hour sitting in the reception trying to sort out this awful mess. We ended up travelling around London desperately searching for somewhere to stay for the night. This entire ordeal ruined our weekend holiday

Also, when I asked for a pen and some scrap paper to write down details for my calls. The receptionist had past me a paper with personal details of another costumer, including their name, number, email and which room they were staying in! VERY UNPROFESSIONAL!

BE CAREFUL. DO NOT TRUST OYO. THEY...

2nd Edit: We did approach the front desk and ask for a bigger room. We were told that was the only room available and rooms in London are small. We responded that we couldn’t stay in that small, hot room and we were going to call our travel agent. We sat in the lobby messaging with our travel agent. After awhile we were offered a slightly larger room for the second night of our stay only. We declined as we could not stay in that small room even for a night. After continuing to talk to and message our travel agent, we were then offered two separate rooms after what we believe was a called received from the travel company to the hotel as we heard the desk person talking on the phone. These rooms were smaller but only had two beds in them so there was marginally more room in them. We talked to travel agent and that was the best they could offer. Since we had already wasted 2 hours of our short stay in London and didn’t want to spend more time and money looking for an alternative hotel, we decided to accept the rooms. These rooms were the same quality in lack of cleanliness and deferred maintenance. While at the front desk I heard another guest ask for a larger room and was told nothing available as well to which she responded the reviews aren’t going to be good. I spoke to those guests and they had the same complaints… extremely small, hot room and not very well maintained or clean. I stand by my review and advise anyone who is looking for a cheap small room with deferred maintenance this might be the hotel for you. Otherwise, traveler’s beware.

Edited after owners response: I stand by my original assessment of this hotel. I could go on but here are some additional facts: the room was warm despite it being 70° and rainy. The window only opened 4 inches and was in the back of the hotel which opened to a small alley closed in space so there was no breeze. The fan they provided was held together with duct tape, there was only 1 outlet in the room way in the corner by the bed, so ladies if you want to style your hair, it’s impossible as that plug was no where near a mirror. The TV looked like it was going to fall off the wall and two of the screws were half way hanging out. The lime scale on the faucets and shower was gross… can’t imagine what the water quality was. Travel agent booked this hotel ( which I will never use again) so I mistakenly didn’t do enough research. Stayed two nights but if I was staying longer I definitely would have found some place else to stay, London was my last destination in Europe and this hotel was a huge letdown.

If I could give this hotel 0 stars I would. This place is a dump. Rooms are tiny and barely bigger than a closet. Hardly even room to turn around and certainly can’t turn around with luggage in the room. The hotel is dirty, old and dingy and the whole hotel needs to be bulldozed. Don’t be fooled by the pics online… real rooms look nothing like that! Awful…...

If you want a reasonable place to stay in London, I would recommend Huttons Hotel. I emailed Huttons that we would be arriving very late at 11pm and wanted to insure that someone would be there to check us into our hotel room. They emailed back and said: they are staffed 24/7. Upon our arrival we were warmly greeted by the Hotel's staff member who was wide awake! Check in was smooth and quick. One thing that many 1st time Travelers to Europe do not realize that overall Hotel rooms are MUCH smaller than American Hotel rooms. When we travel to Europe, we know we are going to be out all and day and will not return back to the Hotel until after 10pm. We just need a place to sleep, shower and eat complimentary Breakfast meal.

The rooms are small at Huttons and there is NO under the bed storage. It would be nice to stow your suitcases under the bed to make a little more room for walking between the beds and bathroom (like a Cruise Ship). The bath offers a large walk in shower. Just be cautious: there is a step up into the bathroom, which again is a common feature in older Hotels, along with no AC. Usually London does not get as hot as the US so, opening a window is common practice. There are wall heaters for the Winter months.

The negative: The mattresses were an "upgrade of an overnight Camp mattress", extremely lumpy and full of hard coils, pitched to the right. They really need to replace them, quickly!

The positive: Good Location, very helpful staff, good English Breakfast.

1st NOTE: Huttons is in the process of remodeling their Hotel from October, 2017 thru January, 2018. We did not observe or experience any noise or construction staff, didn't even know they were remodeling had they not sent us an email informing us 2 weeks before our arrival. Very quiet for our 3 day stay.

2nd NOTE: Book directly on their website, you'll get a better rate and it will include the FULL English Breakfast. Other websites just offer the Continental Breakfast. You'll need protein to keep you nourished during your explorations of London. Enjoy!

3rd NOTE: If you need a Taxi, have the Staff ORDER a Taxi the night before you need it. They will tell you how much it will cost and the Taxi arrives on time! Much easier than trying to flag down a taxi, which are pretty much...