Gresham Hotel — Hotel in London

As part of my job, I'm usually required to come to London once in a while at my company's London office / main HQ. I had to quickly book myself into an alternative hotel room for a couple of days on business due to unfortunate circumstances from the people that paid for the hotel for me to stay in (they didn't pay for the hotel room I wanted to originally stay in). Even though this is my second trip to London, this hotel was a very awkward and yet inconvenient hotel to stay at.

The check-in time was 3pm which was strange considering that its usually 2pm people can check into, but i took it on chin as different hotels might have different times.

The hotel room I was in was actually a few doors down from the main hotel building. So it meant I had to check in from the main reception in the hotel building, then go a few doors down, and gain access to the second building until they buzzed me in (security purpose, which on a plus side was good).

Checking my hotel room, it wasn't a perfect hotel room like you would get in a 3-4 star accommodation, but it was doable for me considering that I was only there for a couple of days. It was a nice space, but the view outside my window was on the ground floor and I saw a broken-up shed and large bushes (room 54). The windows were very difficult to open and close, and the only way you could keep the windows open was to put a small bar of soap in the gap.

The bed was very springy, meaning that if you move at all, you hear a lot of noise from the bed. The bathroom was so small, it was not very comfortable to sit down on the loo etc. The shower itself was okay, the shower-head and controls were easy enough to use. Reasonable amount of space in the shower, so I can't give too much of a downfall on that bathroom.

Terms of other things like television, it was a small TV which was far away from the bed, im pretty sure when I checked what was on, a lot of TV channels had no signal. I didn't even bother watching the TV. In terms of Wi-fi access in the room, there wasn't any at all. If I wanted to use the Wi-fi, I was told in reception I could only use wi-fi in the reception. Which was an extremely-inconvenient downfall. Lastly, plug socket locations were very awkward as they were not located near the bed-side, they were outside the bathroom doorway which you could consider to be a dangerous area, or perhaps ridiculous when charging your phone at a short distance.

In terms of the overall experience at this hotel, I can't really say it's a 5 star or a satisfied stay, but I can say that it was good enough for the only purpose of staying and winding down for the couple of nights in London, thats only as far as I can go. Terms of staff, never had an issue, they were very informative and respectable when I was speaking with them. 2 out of 5 stars is the maximum I'll go. In terms of how much it cost to stay a couple of nights in this hotel room compared to others with better ratings and accommodation (£300-400), that is not really a satisfied price for the room, so I'm glad I'm not the one that paid for it.

I would be willing to give this hotel a second chance depending on whether im in the main hotel next time, or im in a different room, and if a better service is provided. In all honesty, if they want to get good satisfied customers, they got to seriously make changes etc, otherwise the hotel would either close down or perhaps new owners/management would have...

Stayed for one night whilst visiting London with my mum. Walked into reception, pretty grim and gloomy. Felt like I had been thrown back 30 years in time. The lady on reception was rude, and demanded to take a photocopy of my mums ID. I understand the need to see proof of ID, but have never experienced having to take a photocopy? Seemed very strange. Was then informed that our room was in fact in the ‘annex’ which was actually 5 or 6 houses down the street. The door was fitted with a buzzer, which we pressed and were allowed entry. This concerned me, as each time we re entered the ‘hotel’ and pressed the buzzer, we were allowed in without having to speak to anyone through the speaker to give our names or room numbers or anything, so in theory anyone could have pressed that buzzer and been allowed entry. Defeats the point of having a buzzer on there! We then walked up the stairs (carpets looked like they hadn’t been hoovered in 25 years), everything was dusty and the corners were all dark and dirty, very very grim. When we reached our room it was all less than basic. Television, with a remote-but no batteries! One plug socket in the whole room. One small mirror. A dirty, dusty, dingy fireplace. Wardrobe didn’t even have a back to it, it was just pushed up against the wall! Not to mention that both handles were hanging off. Cheap, metal frame beds, no duvet just a cheap silk like blanket with weird stains on. A massive gap underneath the door just like a toilet cubicle, so we could hear everything from other people conversations, to walking around, to other less pleasant noises throughout the night from the couple next door... It let loads of light under the door and I dread to think how quickly a fire would spread with that gap! Very dangerous. Cheap, laminate flooring which was creaking and moving beneath us every time we took a step. Mum was brave enough to try for a shower (looked way too grim for me) but no hot water, lady at reception didn’t care when we mentioned it just said we had to turn the tap to hot which obviously we had? Soap was watered down and the air freshener was cheap (had the price of 89p on it) and smelt worse than the dirty bathroom. Was worried the people above were going to fall through the ceiling with the amount of creaking steps I could hear. View out the window of an abandoned shed and a grim garden. Windows all dirty in the corners and by the frames. The beds seemed cleanish-but the rest of the room and hotel made me feel otherwise. Fair to say it was the worst nights sleep I’ve ever had and we left swiftly in the morning. I urge anyone reading this to pay the little bit extra and stay somewhere like a travelodge where you know it’s going to be clean! Honestly the worst place I have ever been, please do...

We had a few nights booked here for a birthday trip and as soon as we saw the room, I think we both could’ve had an emotional breakdown. It smelt awful, there was rubbish in the bin and on the floor, an empty beer can in the window and the door looked like it had been broken into at some point and it wouldn’t lock or even close properly. We were considering our options. Did we stay here and sleep with the bed against the door to stop people coming in the night?

We decided to complain. We were told we couldn’t have a refund and were just given another room. It was just as bad and had a mould problem. So we had to complain again, which is where it all started. While we were waiting in reception, we weren’t the only ones who were there to complain and I saw other guests complaining about all sorts of other issues.

Anyway, we ended up staying somewhere else. We had to pay for the first night and were told we’d get a “cheque”. The staff were so rude. They walked away downstairs rather than talk to us about the problem. They told us to come back the next day for the cheque, which we did. They then threatened to ring the police if we didn’t leave. All the time, the gentleman that dealt with us had this smirk across his face.

We were in touch with the booking provider the whole time who tried to help us. They rang the hotel and he was just as rude to them. We ended up receiving a refund through Booking.com because the hotel just wasn’t helpful at all, but Booking.com were excellent. I can’t fault them.

We thought it was all over and tried to make the most of the trip we had planned. A few days after returning from London and Gresham Hotel took the money from my bank account again, for the full weekend even though we didn’t stay there a single night. It took over 6 months to resolve this issue. Back and forth through the bank and the hotel, Gresham were providing “evidence” which was just handwritten notes from them. They insisted that they had never taken the money but there was concrete proof on our bank statements that they had. It took so long to get this issue sorted and to get a full refund for all the trouble, which was supposed to be a nice weekend in London.

I regret ever stepping foot in this place and it caused so much misery. Please avoid this place at all costs. It’s not worth the trouble. Wish I could...