Blandford Hotel — Hotel in London

One word to describe this hotel: AVOID

Let's start with the POSITIVES: NICE RECEPTION STAFF – Jyothika and Antonio were very pleasant and patient in solving the issues that I encountered during my 3-nights stay. They helped me settle down in a nice room after all the issues on the 2nd day, and after 3 room switches. GOOD LOCATION – very central to everything, ex. restaurants, shops, touristy sites COMFY BED BREAKFAST INCLUDED: vegetarian options

A lot of NEGATIVE things: FIRST ROOM DOOR DIDN’T LOCK (RM46)– after I unpacked and organized my things, as I’m leaving, I realized the door isn’t locking. On-site maintenance came in and tried to lock but wasn’t successful and left without saying anything. I had a few hours to do some sightseeing, and the reception said it’s safe if unlocked so door was left open. After 4 hours, still wasn’t fixed. I had to pack up everything and change room for the night.

SECOND ROOM DIDN’T COME WITH A BATHTUB AS DESCRIBED + PHOTO (RM22): after moving 1/3 of my stuff to second room, I realized there’s no bathtub. When booking on Agoda web, it clearly said “shower + bathtub”. Reception then switched me to another room, but he said the “bathtub” description shouldn’t be there. The reason I booked this hotel is for the bathtub. I think whoever that’s responsible for hotel marketing messed up.

THIRD ROOM BATHROOM LEAK (RM14) – Reception moved me to third room with bathtub. Once again, I moved my things and made 4-5 trips up and down. Took a bath at 9:30pm, 20 min later, he knocks on my door at 10pm, and said there’s a leak downstairs. I had to shorten the bath and take a quick shower. He came in for a quick look at night. He thought I made the water overflow (which was not true + irritating), but it was likely the overflow malfunction or old caulking around it

LOUD STREET RM 14 – the room is facing the street on the 1st floor, whenever there’s a car passing, sirens or people playing music on the street, you can hear 100%. It’s like you’re sleeping on the street. I slept only 3 hours that night

FRUITFLIES in the rooms

OLD BATHROOMS WITHOUT PROPER VENT (RM14) – after a shower, all my stuff on the bathroom counter (including makeup) were drenched

LOUD HEATING FAN (RM 14)– sounds like an airplane in the room. unable to upload the video

THIN WALLS + DOOR – you can hear people in the next room walking or taking a shower, and in the hall whenever people open their hotel doors.

HOUSEKEEPING STAFF ENTERS YOUR ROOM WITHOUT PERMISSION – I had my “do not disturb” sign on my door in the morning, and when I came back in the evening, they had rearranged things. This is an INVASION OF PRIVACY.

Another gentleman at breakfast was also complaining to the staff that his room was dirty when he checked-in. He told me that the management has changed recent and they’re outsourcing everything. The service has gone downhill in the past year.

There are other things, like dirty/mouldy walls, very tiny rooms, plugs don’t work .. which were trivial compared to the points above.

OVERALL, this is an old building that tries to do lipstick renovation, but the foundation is simply broken - leaks, thin wall, non-soundproof window. What can I say… if you dare to charge customer $250-300 Canadian dollars a night, you must deliver the hotel quality that matches the price. Blandford hotel failed to deliver. In my opinion, it’s a SCAM!

SUGGESTION: If you want a good travel experience with no headache,...

3 out of 5 and I have been generous with 3!

We stayed at Blandford Hotel for 1 night with breakfast included. Overall, good location, good breakfast, friendly staff, not good night sleep and definitely not a 4 star hotel!

Welcome – 5 out of 5 Receptionist was friendly and welcoming. We also found out that our room has been upgraded to a family room which was a pleasant surprise.

Amenities – 4 out of 5 Most of it on “paper” was there, however slightly underwhelming apart from the location. Coffee and tea making facilities, safe and key card door entry. I would expect WiFi and TV as a standard in every hotel now so I would not even mention that as an amenity. No iron or ironing board. The biggest selling point is the location, walking distance to Regent Park and Baker Street.

Breakfast – 4 out of 5 Breakfast with continental and traditional English was simple and good value for money. Liked the variety of danishes offered. For a 4 star hotel I would expect a restaurant on site with evening menu and a room service.

Room – 1 out of 5 A few things that could be improved. Cleanliness – stained wallpaper in front of the door and next to the bin. Dirty curtains with stains. Stain on the lampshade. Mucky skirting boards and carpet. Stained pouffe. This all can be improved by putting in some elbow grease and clever reconfiguration. For example for a pouffe, change this to a faux leather one that won’t leave a stain and can be easily maintained and cleaned regularly. Overall décor out of date and standard. This was evident throughout the hotel, starting from the reception to room itself. For an independent hotel, I would expect some clever and boutique style interior that is modern yet timeless, not cheap and tacky. Flimsy welcome letter with the feedback sheet on the back is not professional and very old fashioned. You should have online feedback and as for the welcome letter, print out a nice brochure with general welcome and include things to do in London for locals and tourists alike. Bathroom – nice to have complimentary toiletries but the bath had seen better days. It has lost its enamel, ceiling looks like there was a leak before and it has not been painted since. In every hotel, regardless of the start rating I would expect the cleanliness to be second to none as it really does not cost much and it’s the very basics of Health and Safety. This has been disappointing.

Sleep – 2 out of 5 As a couple, I would expect one big double bed or one king size bed but instead we had been upgraded to a family room with two small doubles so we ended up sleeping in separate beds which was weird and not efficient use of the room. The room was far too hot to sleep in. The sleep itself was not comfortable as there was a constant buzzing noise from the outside. We could hear floorboards/ceiling creaking as the people walked above. Doors slammed in the foyer. Not great sound insulation. Pillows, although 4 on each bed were too high and lumpy.

Overall – disappointed, as it did not meet my expectations. You either need to drop the rating to 2 or 3 stars or up your game and really work on the above points the main two being quality of the sleep and...

I stayed here the dates of the 24th -26th august 2023 I booked this hotel because stated in the description it says a 5 minute walk to the zoo and Oxford street which was wrong it’s much further, upon arrival we was a bit early so dropped our cases off they said to come back at 1.30 as they’re busy and still Cleaning the rooms so we came back at 2:45 and the room still wasn’t ready till at least 3:30 when they first said 1:30 so we was waiting round a while when stated on the website it says check in 2pm, the whole hotel was filled with mess and rubbish and laundry which should of been kept out of sight not just left in the sitting area and all down the corridors, when we got our key card we wanted to go in the lift but that wasn’t working for customers as cleaners was still using it so we had to carry all our bags up the flights of stairs, when we eventually got our room there was rubbish bags and cleaning stuff and all dirty laundry all in the hallways it was a mess and with suitcases and bags it was a safety hazard we could barely get down the corridor, we was quite disappointed as we paid for a executive room that was quite small, the fridge kept turning itself off Everytime you shut the door so everything inside was warm, the air con was on and off wouldn’t work then did and would be freezing then turned down and would be boiling, so we had to have the windows constantly open as it was a hot few days and because we had to have the windows open we couldn’t sleep as the noise outside was to loud but if we shut them the room would of been way to hot, also the extractor fan in the bathroom didn’t work so it was always hot in there and no air when showering,considering we had to wait so long for the room to be cleaned the room wasn’t up to cleanliness standards there was stains and hair on the bed including what looks like a blood mark, stains and marks all over the walls and stains in the shower which is very unhygienic, on the bed was only 1 pillow each it would of been nicer to have 2, also in the description online it says smart tv which would mean you get YouTube etc on there but it was just Freeview so only had basic channels on repeat I will attach the pictures but for the price I paid I’m very unhappy with the service and room we got. I have tried to complain to the hotel since and get in contact with the operation manager but he has been so unhelpful and has just not wanted to resolve the issue and as for the reception staff trying to communicate the issues with them was like talking to a brick wall if you want to pay a high price for a less then basic hotel with not standard needs that every hotel should have then this is your hotel! It is the worst experience in regards of a hotel I’ve ever stayed and and the staff and management are appalling and gave no compensation for all these problems if you want my advice choose a premier inn instead and never come here unless you want to get ripped off have a late check in and a dirty room and staff...