George Hotel — Hotel in London

Where to start?||This is going to be one of those reviews where you think “It cannot have been that bad. This must have been written by one of their competitors to try to trash them.” But it is real. If I had not prepaid, I definitely would have moved.||Let me preface the comments by saying nothing here is meant to cast aspersions on the staff. To a person they were kind, helpful, professional, and polite. Also, I have not stayed in many London hotels, so maybe my experiences are typical for the area. I do not know. OK, here we go.,||(1) The room was tiny. As I recall, they told us the square footage when we signed up, so my bad for not thinking about what it meant. See attached photo that shows there is about the width of a hat between the bed and the wall. Practically, this meant I walked into the TV every time I walked by.||(2) The only desk was perhaps 2’ x 2’. There was no desk chair—just a little stool. Really unfortunate if you are trying to do work there.||(3) The carpet was filthy, especially on the stairs. Really needs to be cleaned, and likely replaced.||(4) The room was loud. I mean really loud. Friends with us stayed on the other side and did not face this, but our room faced the street and every night we dealt with what sounded like drag racing on the street outside. There was also a pub around the corner that has LOUD patrons until late at night, including one night where there appears to have been a fight. Since there is no air conditioning, we had to have the windows open, so we had no protection from the noise. Nothing anyone in the hotel could do about that, but you should know to expect this and perhaps insist on a room that does not face the street. We should have.||(5) The room Is not built for tall people. There is a bar in the shower that stabilizes the glass shower wall that is about 6’ off the ground. If you are tall, you are going to hit your head almost every time.||(6) There is little water pressure. Made it REALLY hard to get clean. And in fact some friends of ours that stayed on the top floor said that at times they literally had no water at all for several minutes at a time.||(7) The daily breakfast was OK, but barely. The same thing every day. Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, a few meats, baked beans, mushrooms, premade hashbrowns, sliced cheese, cereal, peaches, yogurt, juice, toast, and croissants. So not awful. But some variety, and some fresh fruit would have been nice.||(8) Our sheets were stained. I mean they had clearly been washed, but they were also clearly stained. We complained, and the very kind, apologetic, and embarrassed desk clerk brought us new sheets, but they were stained too. While she went to get a third set of sheets, we snuck a peak at the mattress, and it was filthy and stained as well, clearly from multiple spills or bed wetting. Disgusting. That night they did not have an alternative mattress to offer, so they gave is a mattress wrap, which had to work for the night. And the third (or was it fourth?) set of sheets was not stained, so we survived. The next morning they brought us a new mattress while we were out exploring and sent us pictures that showed that it was apparently clean(er), but frankly, we deliberately did not look at it because we did not want to know.||(9) I am surprised it meets fire code. We were on an upper floor, and there was apparently only one way down. (Unless we jumped out the window.) Worse, there were multiple fire doors between us and the ground floor that were marked as fire doors that need to be kept close but were instead blocked open.||On the plus side the bed was comfy. The wifi was stable and fast enough (50 Mbps). The location (on a park, and an easy 5-10 minute walk from the Kings Cross, Russel Square, and Euston tube stops) was lovely. And the...

I have stayed at the George three times--most recently in May 2013--and I have been consistently impressed with the service there. The staff are helpful and friendly and the service during the (free) breakfast is fast and efficient.

The overall quality of the George is good for a budget hotel. My rooms there have always been clean, with comfortable beds. It goes without saying, of course, that they are on the small side. (The single I had most recently was so narrow I could almost touch the walls if I held my arms out straight.) And, like the three other London B&B's I've used, there is no air conditioning beyond a fan and opening the window. I would hate to be in a London B&B during a heat wave, but those are thankfully rare. When I visited in May 2013 I had to wear a coat and sweater every day! Oh, and also, it has no lift/elevator and even the reception area is not handicap accessible.

The location and the pricing of the George are its main attractions.

Bloomsbury has always been a great place to be for museums (British Museum and British Library) and cultural events and over the years I've visited it the number of restaurants and coffee houses has grown and grown. Moreover, the once hideous, poured-concrete Brunswick Centre (two blocks away) has evolved into a lovely spot for dining and shopping. Nearby Euston and Kings Cross rail/Tube stations make it simple to get to any other location in London. (Avoid the Russell Square Tube station and its rickety elevators if you can.)

The room pricing cannot be beat for the quality you get. For my most-recent visit, my single room cost about US$90 per night, and the free breakfast was so filling (eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, fruit, cereal) that I could subsist on small lunches. Even modest hotels in London without free breakfasts can cost two or three times as much.

That single room had a sink, but no toilet/shower, which brings me to my main complaint and the reason I've rated the facilities as poor/fair. The shared bathrooms were kept clean, but the George's aging plumbing was a constant issue during my two-week stay. I tried all four shared bathrooms and only one had a toilet that would, shall we say, clear the bowl. And the showers were utterly unpredictable. One morning the cold water stopped mid-shower and I was forced to finish with only hot water. Another morning, the shower flow stopped entirely just as I was finishing. And the day I arrived, the radiator in the bathroom was not working (the boiler had just broken) and the room was quite cold.

In sum, the George's positives outweigh its one negative (its plumbing) and the time I stayed there and had an "en-suite" (in-room) toilet/shower I did not encounter the plumbing issues I detail above. Before booking a room at the George that is not en-suite, I would recommend checking other nearby B&B's to see if their prices are...

George hotel review

My husband booked a surprise London visit for our 7th anniversary, and chose this hotel because it was close to the theatres and St. Pancras Station. We arrived before check-in to leave our bags, which we were able to do, although there was not a proper luggage store and the bag had to be left in the dining room.

When we checked in to our room, there was only one bath towel and no hand soap, but we told the receptionist and she put them in the room for us.

Generally the hotel seemed nice enough - a little dated, not very convenient due to the building’s age (many flights of stairs up to the room on the third floor!), but otherwise okay.

Where the hotel fails massively is the comfort of the bed. It was horrendous - the mattress was extremely hard and had no give, which meant I was unable to sleep. It gave me pins and needles in my legs, I could not find a comfortable position. I was tossing and turning until 3:52am, when I had no choice but to get up and wake my husband. We tried to find a way of making the bed more comfortable, including lying on all three pillows provided to soften the bed, but nothing could make it comfortably enough to stay asleep.

By 6:00am we gave up and packed our bags, utterly unrested, and went downstairs to find the reception unstaffed and the dining room empty. We waited until the receptionist arrived at 7:05am and tried to explain how unhappy we were that we were unable to get a good night’s sleep due to the very uncomfortable bed. However, she seemed unsympathetic, and only offered a curt “sorry”, and an excuse that lots of people have used the bed without complaint. We asked if we could speak to the manager, only to be told they were not available. We asked if a refund could be arranged as we had not had the service expected, and were told the hotel is only a small business.

The function of a hotel, whether it’s an international chain or a small business, is at the very minimum to provide a comfortable bed for the night; The George Hotel did not provide this, and did not offer any form of compensation, not even a complimentary breakfast (which we had paid for already).

The message is, there are lots of very good hotels in London; this is not one of them. Choose somewhere else where you will have a better, more...