Dockside Apartments at Excel — Hotel in London

Avoid booking here at all costs!! We booked this apartment weeks in advance for a day out in London and had been looking forward to this day for so long. We contacted the property weeks in advance to arrange early check in so we could drop our bags off. We called, messaged, texted, emailed- everything we could do to make contact and heard nothing. We did not even have confirmation of our stay. We began our drive to London and when we were an hour away from the property we received a message asking for photo IDs of each person staying at the property before they would confirm our booking. As we were already travelling to London some people could not access this (they were even asking for utility bills!!!) and we were told if we didn't provide these we would not be able to access the apartment. We were also told we had to give over a £500 security deposit with no further details before we could access the house. We were not told where this money would be stored or when we would get this back. Once we had ironed out these issues we were able to park at Dockside. We pay nearly £25 for parking by the apartment and headed in to London.||||||Then we went from bad to worse. Whilst out in London we received a phone call to say that we would not be able to stay in the apartment we had booked and instead we would be moved to a flat in Stratford. As we had parked at Dockside all of our belongings were miles away from Stratford, as were our plans for the day. We were told there was no other option of somewhere to stay and it was apparent to us that they had double booked us or made another huge error. We had to completely adjust our plans for the day and ended up carrying bags across London to Stratford. When we arrived at the apartment it was below average. We were told that this apartment was normally £200 extra but from the goodness of their hearts they would not charge us extra (!!!!) This apartment was cheap and poorly located (25 mins from the train station on top of the 30 mins travel from our cars parked at our original apartment!)||||We had a terrible experience in London due to the terrible communication, last minute changes & this property not fulfilling our booking. On top of this it took nearly 2 weeks for us to receive...

Avoid booking here at all costs!! We booked this apartment weeks in advance for a day out in London and had been looking forward to this day for so long. We contacted the property weeks in advance to arrange early check in so we could drop our bags off. We called, messaged, texted, emailed- everything we could do to make contact and heard nothing. We did not even have confirmation of our stay. We began our drive to London and when we were an hour away from the property we received a message asking for photo IDs of each person staying at the property before they would confirm our booking. As we were already travelling to London some people could not access this (they were even asking for utility bills!!!) and we were told if we didn't provide these we would not be able to access the apartment. We were also told we had to give over a £500 security deposit with no further details before we could access the house. We were not told where this money would be stored or when we would get this back. Once we had ironed out these issues we were able to park at Dockside. We pay nearly £25 for parking by the apartment and headed in to London.||||||Then we went from bad to worse. Whilst out in London we received a phone call to say that we would not be able to stay in the apartment we had booked and instead we would be moved to a flat in Stratford. As we had parked at Dockside all of our belongings were miles away from Stratford, as were our plans for the day. We were told there was no other option of somewhere to stay and it was apparent to us that they had double booked us or made another huge error. We had to completely adjust our plans for the day and ended up carrying bags across London to Stratford. When we arrived at the apartment it was below average. We were told that this apartment was normally £200 extra but from the goodness of their hearts they would not charge us extra (!!!!) This apartment was cheap and poorly located (25 mins from the train station on top of the 30 mins travel from our cars parked at our original apartment!)||||We had a terrible experience in London due to the terrible communication, last minute changes & this property not fulfilling our booking. On top of this it took nearly 2 weeks for us to receive...

Summary: If you're planning a visit to London (business or leisure) I'd recommend opting for a serviced apartment, in particular the Dockside apartments. Why? See below for details.

Context: Having stayed at several different serviced apartments throughout 2019, I've had my share of experiences which put me in a good position to compare and judge the quality of service.

Location: Dockside apartments is located just next to the River, overseeing the London City Airport. This provides a loverly view, with planes flying by throughout the day, as well as an unobstructed view of East London. One concern I had was level of noise due to the proximity to the airport. However, by closing the windows all noise was isolated very well. In any case, the planes flying by was quite entertaining.

Apartment: I stayed in two different apartments (one on the 8th floor and another on the 9th). Both were very clean, well presented and decently equipped. Only thing missing is a clothes dryer but if you're creative enough, you can manage. Of course, you can ask the staff, who are already ready to help (see below).

Staff: I was fortunate enough to interact with most of the staff, these being the manager, receptionists, security guards and cleaning crew. Everyone I spoke with was smiling and offered to help me. In particular, one staff member (special thanks to Farhat) was kind enough to provide me with an apartment which suited my requirements in terms of view, peacefulness and space.

Overall, I'm very satisfied I chose to stay here and will recommend this place to friends and family alike.

Thank-you Dockside Apartments staff members for your hospitality. Please do keep it up and continue to improve in as many aspects, from small ones...