OYO St George Hotel — Attraction in London

I am writing to follow up on my earlier email, sent nearly two weeks ago, regarding the inaccessible room I was assigned during my recent stay and my outstanding refund request. Despite your invitation to correspond by email, I have yet to receive any substantive response from your team.

Briefly, I booked through Booking.com and, upon arrival, discovered that the room provided was unsuitable for my respiratory condition. I immediately requested to be moved to a lower-level room with either a double bed, a twin configuration, or two single beds that I could safely access. Unfortunately, the staff member to whom I spoke reacted dismissively—laughing and walking away—rather than offering an alternative. Subsequently, Booking.com informed me that you have declined to issue a refund.

Moreover, the response I did eventually receive from your property included a comment stating, “we always help folk that are nice to us,” accompanied by a smile emoji. This dismissive tone is not only unprofessional but also deeply hurtful, particularly given that I was seeking reasonable accommodation under the Equality Act (or applicable disability-rights legislation).

Because of your handling of this matter, I have been compelled to inform several disability advocacy organizations, local media outlets, and travel-industry press about my experience. My intention is not to tarnish your reputation unduly, but rather to highlight the importance of proper training and sensitivity when serving guests with disabilities.

To resolve this situation amicably, I request the following within the next seven (7) days:

A full refund of the room charge for the affected nights.

A written apology acknowledging the inadequate service and staff conduct.

Confirmation of any policy changes or staff training initiatives you will implement to prevent similar incidents.

If I do not receive your constructive reply within seven days, I will have no choice but to pursue further action through consumer-protection agencies and to advise future travellers of my experience.

I hope we can work together to find a fair solution. I remain available to discuss this matter at your earliest convenience.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this serious issue.

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Terrible Experience – Only Good Thing Was the LocationI deeply regret not going through all the reviews before booking this hotel. I chose this place because my husband was scheduled for surgery at a nearby hospital, and the location was indeed convenient for commuting back and forth. I stayed for three nights.However, just like many other reviewers have mentioned, the hotel environment was awful. The moment I stepped in, I was hit by a strong, unpleasant smell. The hotel has no elevator (which I only found out from the reviews afterward), and the stairs are steep, narrow, and poorly designed. Each step is small and hard to manage. As a woman carrying a medium-sized but heavy suitcase, it was extremely difficult to carry it up four flights of stairs. If you have large luggage, there’s no way you could bring it up—there’s simply no space.The cleanliness of the room was average. At least it didn't smell as bad as the lobby. The bed was decently clean, but other areas were dirty—especially the carpet and windows. None of the bedside lamps worked. The most horrifying part was the bathroom. There were more than 30 insects and ants crawling all over the floor and bath tray. Absolutely disgusting! The shower hose was leaking, which made the already weak water pressure even worse. I reported it to reception the next morning and was told it would be replaced, but when I returned that night, nothing had been done.The housekeeping was unacceptable. They simply stuffed the used towels and bathmat from the previous night under the sink without replacing them. Because the bathroom conditions were so appalling, I ended up using the shower at the hospital, where thankfully my husband had a private room with an ensuite bathroom.The room itself was extremely hot and stuffy, more so than other places. Although there was an old-style fan provided, it was so noisy that it made it even harder to sleep. It didn’t help with the heat much either.As for room amenities, they were fairly standard: a hairdryer, fan, TV, electric kettle (very old and the heating coil was rusted), cups, tea/coffee sachets, toilet rolls, towels, and basic shower gel and shampoo.Summary: Apart from the convenient location, which I’d give one star for, everything else was unacceptable. Not...

We were always exhausted when we got in our room, that's the only reason we didn't complain or left. We had the feeling, that they simply just don't care... The price was pretty low for the central location (the location is probably the only factor to choose this "hotel"), but even if something is cheap, it shouldn't be filthy and used to the end. We had huge luggage, so the 1st floor room without an elevator was alright. We arrived quite late, we didn't expect much but we were even shocked (3 of us worked before in hospitality and had to deal with cheap bosses). The window was left open, so the room didn't smell that bad upon arrival, but as a small favour, the bed next to the window was full with various bugs. The carpet and the curtains were dusty, unrecognisable (maybe better this way) stains everywhere (on the corridor I could recognise urine and just have been hoping it was a dog). On the ceiling spiderwebs were everywhere, not new ones, they were dark grey. We didn't place our belongings in the wardrobe, it was also covered in a thick layer of dust (and the mirror, night tables, etc.) . We were surprised, that the bedsheets were clean (smelled like bleach and at this point it's important). 3 out of 4 mattresses had their springs pointing out, it's not simply uncomfortable but dangerous. None of the bedside lamps worked. The only corner of the room where I saw a little effort to get it clean was the bathroom (it's old, paint is coming off here and there, but it was not the biggest issue). In the shower we also found other guests, ants were camping there. I can't imagine this is a new problem and nobody has reported it before, It was again late at night when we got back, so we tracked where they came from and we stuck a chewed bubble gum in the small hole next to the shower to stop the invasion. (It worked but would have been nice if they noticed the issue and fixed it in 3 minutes really.) The all together experience was like an episode of Hotel hell... The young lady at the front desk was helpful and polite, and again, I felt it was useless to complain to her, she was just working there.

PS.: don't get fooled by the answer, as I felt free to contact them and discuss it further, 3 weeks ago, no...