The Lavender Guest House — Attraction in London

Lots of other reviewers mention the small rooms, so you know that before booking and if you need more space, look somewhere else. But for me and my partner, a room is just for sleeping and washing, and we don't ask for much more. We opted for room 8 as it has it's own ensuite bathroom, but some rooms have their bathrooms next door and that would have been fine as well.

The rooms are really fresh and clean. The carpet on the floor is nice and warm, no visible stains, no buildup of dust. You can tell it's being kept tidy on a daily base, the whole house smells fine, not like an old dusty hotel. Same goes for the bathroom. The toilet was a bit funny as from the outside it looked like it was built into an old closet and had no lock (no problem if you travel alone or with your romantic partner in my opion), but it was fully tiled and maintained. Oh and the towels are soft and smell really nice! I don't know what detergent they use, but please keep using it because drying my face in the morning was an odd pleasure.

Tony and his sister run the place together and are quite accommodating to their guests. Our flight was a bit delayed and the underground we needed got suspended for the day, so we arrived 2hrs after our scheduled check in, but we kept them up to date in the chat and they were very welcoming once we arrived.

There's a shared room downstairs outside in the garden which hosts a small kitchen with a fridge, two tables and some chairs where you can hang out for some reading, coffee or -in our case- make ourselves a small breakfast that we got from Asda supermarket.

The place is located a bit south from the city center, but it offers pretty much endless public transport, both the underground (Clapham Junction) or multiple busstops are available at walking distance. Shops, supermarktes and multiple restaurants/(fast)food chains are plenty so you shouldn't go hungry at any time of the day. There's even some shops like Boots and TKmaxx if you need anything else. You can be in the city center within 30mins using any form of public transport. The underground is faster, but a bus fare is very low and gives the option for some sight seeing as well.

For London's average hotel price, I would chose Lavender Guest house again in the future. Being out in the city all day, we would not use any of the more luxurious facilities bigger hotels have to offer, and it's nice having a more quiet place where you can retract from...

NOISE: Between two side roads, this is possibly the quietest place to stay in London. If that’s especially important to you, ask for Room 3, which is small but has no adjacent or above-floor rooms around it, and opens up to the back courtyard.

SERVICE: Everything was great. The Internet dropped out for a day in the area because of a lightning strike and they actually credited us $10 for the brief outage…something I wish more places would do. They were also very communicative.

LOCATION: 5-10 min walk from a huge railway station so it’s very convenient. Also, we found out our London tour guide lives here, and was very impressed that we were staying in the area. Not huge for tourists but some of the best food in town, and a real good part of the city. Also, make sure to go to Jack’s. Extremely cheap and friendly place to eat, especially with the 15% discount.

LAUNDRY: This was a very, very minor downside. If you plan on doing laundry there are 1-2 places close by but they don’t accept credit cards for some reason (I know other places definitely do). So, you can either bring cash (annoying becuse this is probably the only time you need cash on your trip) or else pay a few GBP extra and have them do your laundry for you…but it’s a bit pricy.

OTHER: There are also indoor and outdoor kitchens and dining areas you can go to to eat/cook (helpful if your room is small like ours).

Overall, great value, great place, would...

Very helpful and pleasant communication from the moment the reservation was made until after we got home. Lovely staff, very welcoming, service minded and kind. We (my two adult sons and I) felt during our 4 nights stay 'home away from home' at The Lavender Guesthouse. Nice garden with chairs and tables. There is a designated smoking area in the garden too. We could use the two well equipped kitchens with dining areas, which was very convenient. We stayed in room numbers 2 (ground floor) and 4 (first floor). They are spacious, clean and with modern bathrooms. Towels, shower gel, hand soap and toilet paper provided. Electric kettle with coffee/tea amenities and an electric power converter also available in the rooms. If needed, do ask for extra power converters. Free high speed WiFi. No noise from other occupied rooms. The guests (solo and couples) staying at the same time all were very polite adults from different countries. The Lavender Guesthouse is situated in the save and nice Battersea district with lots of great restaurants, supermarkets, shops, bars and pubs. Battersea district is very near the city center and has a variety of efficient low cost public transportation offerings. Buy an Oystercard, which you can use for all trains, busses (coaches), metro (tube). Except for the Stansted Airport Express, you have to book separate tickets. We will stay at The Lavender Guesthouse again, during our next...