Brunel Hotel — Hotel in London

If you can, book somewhere else. My personal experience was very poor. Due to some refurbishment in my place here in London, I had to book a place to stay for two weeks. I booked this hotel via Agoda. At the time of completing the booking they didn't offer a refundable option, so I went ahead and booked a room hoping that the pictures were accurate. On arrival, the receptionist wasn't welcoming nor friendly and didn't inform me that there was no lift for the last floor, where my room was allocated. I carried the heavy suitcase on one floor and as I read in other reviews the room was tiny, but that wasn't a big issue to be honest, though it was pretty disgusting to find hairs of previous guests in the shower. The worst came later. Due to a family emergency, I had to check out way earlier than the original booking, as I needed to take a flight asap. I talked to one of the receptionists and he said that I needed to speak to the manager, who was supposed to be there next day 7-3 pm. I asked to notify my notice, but he refused to say that the manager didn't like to receive anything after 5 pm. He wouldn't even leave a note at reception. That night around 2 am an alarm went off and I didn't know what the problem was and no one came to tell me either. After a few minutes. The next day, another receptionist didn't know what happened or why. No signs of the manager. Finally, managed to see him after 11 am. After explaining my situation he said that he couldn't give me a refund because I had paid to Agoda, but might be able to let a credit to use another time. I told him what if I speak to Agoda which I did. Agoda had a very good predisposition and they were willing to proceed with a refund but it was up to the manager. Unfortunately, I had never had the chance to speak to the manager in person again, and they took two days to come back to my emails. The lack of communication and misinformation that the staff provided me was incredible. I also had to report problems with the alarm again, ask more than 3 times for the shower to be cleaned, the housekeepers were rinsing the coffee cups in the toilet sink! (no detergent, or hot water to clean them properly) there was a nail on the floor dangerously uncover as the carpet was pulling out, there were pieces of the wall falling from a crack in the ceiling, the lift door was working properly only at random times, and on top of all that, one of the mornings there was a leak in the room... The manager response to that was "We apologize for the inconvenience but a leak is something beyond our control and we will make every effort to fix it"... Unbelievable. I had to refuse to accept their offer for a credit to be used in 3 months (initially they said that credit was going to be for 6 months and transferable) because I didn't feel safe in that building at all and the level of hygiene was very poor... you should have seen the dust in the kettle on the room. Now, on top of my personal situation, I need to embark on a consumer rights battle to get my money back. So again, if you can, book...

Do not waste your time and money at this hotel. We checked in late because the train broke down. I did not think this would cause any issue as the room was booked and pre-paid a week ahead. The employee lied to me that they are sold out. (He got caught lying as he checks in someone else that came after us asking for a room). He tried to keep our money that we pre-paid. He also lied that he emailed me to find out if we are going to show up. (we checked our email and there aren't any from them. He actually asked for my email when I checked in). I tried to contact the hotel after the incident and they do not reply. This is a scam establishment. Check out other reviews on here. There are many hotels in Paddington. Stay away from this one. The room is small and dirty. Elevator does not work. Employees are horrible. I will be looking into what else I can do to report them.

Response to Lanka: Lenka, Your response is not truthful. Your level of “have done as much as we possibly could to accommodate you” is very low if you do not reply to my request for my concerns until I posted this review here. I’ve emailed twice to Rhianna in the last 30 days with no reply. I doubled checked with Agoda and they assured me that is her email address. The reception staff on duty was not mindful. He asked for a passport to copy, my signatures on papers stating that I am checking in and my email address. He then takes the papers and tells me that they are completely sold out for the night. “No room at all” That he emailed me which he did not. I asked him how can there not be a room for us since we reserved a room and paid. He laughed at me and says yes, we got your money but there’s no room for you. He said this proudly even with other guests siting close by. We did not get a room until another couple came in asking for a room and he gave them one without any problem. He wasted and scared us for over 20 minutes to then gave us the room that we booked and paid for when it was there all along. Your morning manager was aware of this situation. She never bothered to follow up with me on the resolution. This is by far the worst hotel Experience in my life. My kids even asked me why the receptionist try to scam us. Take our money and try to sell our room to someone else. I will report your business to the appropriate authorities if this is how you operated...

I had a terrible experience staying in the hotel mostly because of the mouse in my room. I arrived at midnight last sunday and left the room at 8AM the next morning. Needless to say, the noises from the mouse in my room made it impossible to sleep as soon as I turned off the lights. It took me a while to understand what were the noises as I've never experienced something like this before (the noises where as if I could hear a small dog's steps very quickly running through the room - I never thought such a small rodent could be so noisy with its steps). I kept turning the lights on and felt I was imagining it as I couldn't see anything until at 4AM I actually saw the mouse. I called the front desk they were very kind to come to my room in the third floor and give me instructions to put a towel underneath the door to prevent the mouse from coming in again...still...this is something that you wouldn't expect when paying $100/night for the room and also if you have mice, you should give me instructions to block them from coming in BEFORE going to sleep (although I wouldn't have stayed there if I knew). Certainly I didn't turn off the light after that, and the mice didn't come back but I wasn't able to sleep at all. The next morning I saw that a closed pack of almonds in my bag had a whole in it and you could easily see how the mouse had eaten through the plastic. It's disgusting to know that the mouse went through my luggage, which also, the hotel should have informed me not to put in the floor considering they had mice. The next morning they said they were aware and they would call a specialist but they never offered any compensation for the fact that I booked a room and I wasn't able to sleep. They also saw my bag of almonds clearly eaten by the mouse and just apologized. That really was too little of an apology for someone that really needed to sleep that night to head to an important interview the next morning. Also, needless to say mice transmit diseases. So overall, a horrible experience, and even though the staff was very nice and apologetic I still can't believe I was charged a full price and not offered any compensation despite the gravity of the situation.

Update: The hotel was kind enough to reimburse me for the night which I...