Virgin Hotels London-Shoreditch — Attraction in London

My partner and I stayed at the Mondrain this Easter weekend as a little treat and to catch up with some friends we hadn't seen in a little while. The hotel from the exterior looks rather inviting with an industrial yet vintage feeling about it. We decided to stay in the standard room and our friends stayed in the most expensive loft studio apartment.

Parking is a little tricky but Finsbury Square carpark is an eight minute walk away, so very walkable even with a few pieces of luggage. We checked into reception and was greeted by some really friendly and welcoming staff, they made us feel at ease and the whole process was very simple. We left a £100 security deposit which we were informed would be refunded at the end of our stay.

The room itself was a little small but was finished incredibly well with high quality fittings, however the Bluetooth stereo was broken and missing an aux lead which was frustating as we wanted to relax a little with some music at the end of a four hour drive. The bathroom was incredible and by far the best feature of the whole room, it was spotlessly clean and had a steam shower feature which was rather nice after a long drive.

That evening we enjoyed drinks in the ground floor bar and we were served by lovely, attentive staff who always had an smile on their face, it was also the same when we checked out, the staff we interacted with are a credit to this place.

Now reading this review you are probably thinking it sounds rather fabulous and the pictures on various travel websites look amazing, to a certain extent you are right but there are a couple of rather nasty stings in the tail to watch out for with this hotel which I will detail. I have stayed in hundreds of hotels mostly across Asia and Europe and these issues are rather unique to the Mondrain sadly.

Firstly just a small issue of keycards being locked to the floor, the lift won't work without a keycard and then it's locked to your floor for security, if you wish to visit friends who are on a different floor and get ready together that's not possible unless you wait in reception for them to escort you up.

Secondly do your research, there is close to £600 difference when we went between the standard room and the loft apartment room. Yes you get a long outside balcony and a few extra feet in space / included breakfast but it nowhere near warrants the price difference having seen both rooms personally.

Now for the big one and the reason I can't recommend this hotel sadly. You have probably seen the pictures of the gorgeous roof top pool / bar and like myself was enticed in with the idea of an evening swim at the end of the day and some drinks. This is rather misleading, as the pool and bar is only accessible to guests from 7am to 11am and both are completely closed to all hotel guests after 12pm. Having delved a little deeper it seems you need to be a private member of "The Curtain Club" in order to gain access outside these hours (at over £1000 membership per annum). We were not informed of this when we booked and when we approached the bar we were quickly told along with our friends that it was members only. A feeling of humiliation and rejection came over us as we did the walk of shame back to the lift. In short this hotel uses its pool and rooftop bar to pull in sales whilst then denying hotel guests the right to use them and taking over a thousand pounds a year off private club members - which we found to be immoral, misleading with a nice tinge of Victorian snobbery thrown in to boot. The couple we were staying with had already spent £850 on their room and were also rejected for their rooftop evening drinks much to their dismay.

I have attached a few pictures of our room but wouldn't stay here again, it's pretentious and has an elitist feel about it no matter which room you...

Good Friday it was not! I am absolutely appalled at the way I was treated at the Mondrian shoreditch. I booked one of the top rooms (loft with a terrace at £560 per night) as an Easter bank holiday treat to myself.

Room was fine upon entering. Nothing spectacular but I had primarily booked for the use of the rooms private terrace and access to the roof / pool.

I quickly dropped off my bags and made my way to the 7th floor to dine on the roof terrace in the sun. I was embarrassingly turned away due to it being for ‘members only’ - despite my booking coming with access to the roof and it’s facilities. A trip back down to reception promptly sorted the issue out but it would have been nice for this not to have happened and my check in experience more thorough and accurate.

Once I was eventually ‘allowed’ on to the roof. I ordered a tomato and burrata salad with a side of fries. The salad that arrived was frankly pitiful, and an embarrassment to the hotel - poorly presented, runny, wilted basil, accompanied with a scrap of burrata but given I was here to enjoy myself I decided to let it go.

As there was so little burrata I decided to ask for some more to eat the remaining tomatoes. Having chased the waitress as my request seemed to have disappeared into the ether, once she did return I was told that i could only have extra if they charged me. I challenged this given the initial poor quality of the salad (not the mention being a resident of the hotel). I was met with excuses as ‘it’s not my decision it’s the kitchen’ etc. When I asked for someone who could make the decision, I assume what was the restaurant manager came to speak to me. I was met with the same curt response about it needing to be charged. In theory I actually have no issue with that but the salad was already poor quality and eye wateringly (almost as much as watery the tomatoes) expensive for what what served. When challenged the manager told me that burrata is expensive (lol) and that I was rude and that I would definitely be paying for it now as aggressively threw said cheese on the table and stormed off.

Actually what is expensive is having to refund the £560 room and meal because of the way I was treated. Having spent approximately 1 hour in the hotel and not even used my room I retrieved my bags and left. Mondrian you are a shambles. I came up to shoreditch to stay as a treat. I live in London - I picked this hotel as I thought it would be a nice experience. Somewhere I could relax for the evening, catch up on some work, have a nice meal and enjoy my room. I have retreated back to my house in south london where at least I can be assured no one will ruin my day further. Get a grip Mondrian- you can’t solely rely on your location. If want to charge big boy prices you need to start acting like a big boy premium hotel. Reading other reviews of late it seems my experience is not isolated. Continue to treat residents and indeed Londoners like myself who have frequented Christina’s bar many times for work meetings or on nights out and we’ll quickly find elsewhere to go...

Wow we just got home after an amazing weekend in Shoreditch. I have travelled the world staying in 5 star hotels as a full time professional DJ and i have to say this was one of the best. I was Djing in a nightclub nearby and we had asked for an extended stay on for another night to make it a whole weekend leaving on the Bank Holiday Monday.

Very chilled vibes with all the staff. Rooms were really quiet, i barely heard anyone else whilst we were in the room. So many awesome touches in the room.

The beds were amazing we both slept very well.

My only tip is that it would have been even better if there was a door on the toilet in the bathroom. It looks like there should be but some reason not installed. As the bathroom sliding door didn't really do much as far as privacy goes. No matter how close you are as a couple some privacy is nice in any hotel. We've stayed in hotels with frosted glass for the toilet and big gaps above and below the glass doors. The wife and i always joke.. Who was the designer and what fetish does he / she have to oversea such simple privacy details. But that really was the only thing i could suggest.

The hi-fidelity vinyl lounge was mind blowing. I didn't expect that at all. The huge speakers that were of the highest quality. My wife and i were enjoying the cocktails and i kept thinking i was hearing someone tapping or singing it was that surreal how top quality the sound and acoustics were in the this amazing room.

As a vinyl junkie Dj myself i was in my element sat between the two large speakers in the perfect position. The DJ Jamie Reynolds, i had to go and speak with and praise him as he was playing such amazing records from his own collection he said. One record i have never heard any other dj play from the 70's.

So if you love your vinyl records and appreciate quality this is gonna be an amazing place to stay.

Great staff, great breakfast, great cocktails.... I could go on and on

WOWWWWWWSERRS .. we will be...