Maitrise Hotel Maida Vale - London — Hotel in London

I have never stayed at such a poorly run Hotel, Let me take you through our stay at Best Western Maitrise Hotel.

I arrived at the hotel at 2300, no one was at the reception, I walked around to the bar and asked the staff if I could check she was puzzled that no one was at the reception and asked me to wait. 15 minuets later I went back to her and asked what the status was about checking in. I was asked once again to wait in the reception. Around 2330 the bar maid re-appeared this time in casual clothes and about to leave, I asked her again what was happening to which I was told she didn't know where the other members of staff were. I asked "what would you do in an emergency ? ".

She went behind the desk and was looking on the wall, she then pressed a button on the fire panel which set an alarm off. Shortly after two members of staff ' Alexandra' and a male run down the stairs holding bedding and turned the alarm off, the bar maid told them 'customers waiting' and left, nothing more.

The two receptionist answered phone calls. Presumably from rooms about the alarm. Other guests arrived at the desk in nightwear, stressed as they had just been woken by a fire alarm. This is all on CCTV.

At this point I should have left.

Alexandra then started the check-in procedure, took my ID and looked up my details. She informed me that she had emailed me earlier that day to tell me that my card had been declined. I initially thought this was a mistake as I had no missed calls nor emails in my inbox and had booked the room a week ago.

I checked my spam emails and there was an email, this is my fault I did not check my spam emails. However I am surprised this was not sent out earlier in the week or that no-one called me.

She informed me that my room had been booked out and that there was one spare room. it was now 2345 I had no choice to take this single room for the two of us. Alexandra was very nice and discounted the room and gave us both a complimentary breakfast.

The room, 007 , was in the basement, under the reception by the lift. Two lights were flickering one in the bathroom one in the bedroom. At this point all I could do was laugh as it was my only option.

I have no idea how I slept in the room, it was so noisy from people stomping around reception all night and the lift clanging up and down.

It was all going to be okay, because I could go upstairs and have a nice breakfast. At about 0900 I stood waiting by the 'wait here sign to be seated' and was approached by a member of staff with a clipboard whom signed my room number off. She then walked away. I assumed she was checking which table to seat us at, she did not return.

I found her and asked were to sit, we were sat at a table which had been recently vacated and not cleaned, She told me she would be back with cutlery, she did not come back. I went to the bar and asked for what I needed, cleaned and laid the table myself.

I went to the buffet, it was empty, all but toast had been ravished and not refilled. I waited 10 mins for it to be restocked. While waiting I watched other guests clean there tables and look at the empty buffet.

The restaurant was clearly under staffed. Much like the reception/ hotel last night.

I returned to my room and packed. I returned to the reception to check out. But before I was to check out I tried to use the toilet in the restaurant/bar, this was out of order.

I checked out, I was going to complain then and there but there was a que of other guest complaining, I had to catch a train so could not join the angry mob to claim my money back.

I have no idea what I paid for, there was no service, I did not sleep and endured one of the worst continental ( coco pops and toast ! ) breakfast ever.

This catalog of un-believeable events cannot be blamed on all the staff but only one, the manager. Staff are clearly stretched and stressed beyond...

I don’t think I’ve ever left a negative review before. To me a negative experience typically isn’t worth harming the reputation of a business - it’s really hard to run a business of any kind and there are always going to be bad experiences at times.

But this hotel is truly awful. This is compounded by management and employees who are rude and simply do not care about the customer experience at all. Not all of them - we were fortunate to have some positive interactions with some of the staff. But it all depends on who you get. One man who was in front of us in line had been wrongly billed and the woman at the desk was incredibly rude, told him to come back the next day, rolled her eyes and uttered “oh my god” in disgust when he insisted that he be helped in the moment. He left in frustration.

The hotel doesn’t tell you that to get to your room you have to walk through a maze of narrow corridors with multiple sets of stairs - a terrible experience if you have a large suitcase, or in our case two of them. We had to get help from a cleaning staff just to find our room. You assume that each floor is just that - a single floor. No, we went up stairs, down stairs, and then down more stairs.

And then there’s the smell. The hallways smell like sewage, it’s awful.

Our room had multiple hairs on the sheets, and we were so far from the lobby that our Wi-Fi didn’t work. There were stains on the comforter. We didn’t have hot water. They blamed it on it being “so cold” out - it was 50 degrees.

If you need anything, they either charge you or tell you no. There is zero desire to make you comfortable. Good luck stowing your luggage - they have only a small closet and you have to wake up early in the morning to be the first to stow your bags or there’s no space. And they only let you store them until 5pm, incredibly inconvenient when you’re trying to enjoy the city for the day.

My partner and I got food poisoning on our trip, and had to extend our stay by one night to recover. They told us all that was available was a new room, a windowless sub-floor room with two twin beds. Worse - they price gouged us even though we’d already been there for 3 days by charging £184 for a single night! Our first three nights combined were less than twice that amount! All for an awful room that wasn’t even ready at check-in time.

It’s ultimately a management and ownership problem. When we mentioned to an employee how much we were forced to pay and the other issues we’d had they expressed shock and told us much nicer hotels in the neighborhood didn’t charge more than £150. When our room wasn’t ready, the person behind the desk said she’d like to upgrade us but she would “get told off” by management.

TL;DR, awful customer service, employees afraid of upsetting management so they don’t help, gross facilities, Wi-Fi and hot water work infrequently at best.

Avoid at all costs, it really soured our trip and wasn’t worth it at all. They’re inhospitable in...

WARNING: STAY AWAY FROM THIS PROPERTY!!!

Absolute nightmare of an experience. We booked through Agoda and this hotel was at the top of the list. The prices seemed attractive and we booked it for 4 nights (27th to 30th July 2025). We paid the full amount of ₹38,000/- or £ 323. When we read the reviews we found that the window less rooms were stuffy and the air conditioning was not too effective. We decided to modify the booking to a better room. The moment we tried to modify the booking at Agoda, it was cancelled without giving us a warning and the entire amount (₹38,000 / £ 323) was deducted. No refund was issued. We tried calling Agoda and the property, each passing the buck to the other. We tried to convince them that we had erroneously tried to modify our booking and would now make do with the original booking and stay in the window less room. We repeatedly informed both parties that we DID NOT want a refund. While the Agoda team seemed genuinely interested in trying to resolve the issue, the staff at the hotel were a different sort altogether. The lady at the reception was offhand and cavalier to the point of being rude. She just kept parroting the same line, "I'm sorry but you should have read carefully. This is a non refundable and non modifiable booking. That is our hotel's policy and there's nothing that I can do. You can rebook and make payment again. No we can't refund the earlier amount." She then abruptly hung up on us. Later in the day we spoke with a gentleman at the reception who was extremely polite and promised to escalate the matter to one Ms. Carol who is the General Manager of the property. He assured me that either way someone from the hotel would get back to us over the phone. We waited for the call which never came and decided to call them back again. The same inefficient woman at the reception received my calls and she parroted the same lines. When we informed her about the conversation with the gentleman earlier and about the escalation / call back which has been promised, she told us that he was a newcomer and didn't have any authority to escalate the matter. Thereafter, unbelievably, SHE HUNG UP AGAIN! This woman doesn't deserve to be employed in the hospitality industry. I am an HR consultant to the Hospitality/ Healthcare / Service industry and one of my specialisations is the area of Achieving Customer Delight. I have previously been a part of the Radisson group and held the position of a Deputy General Manager of Training and Development. Never ever, in my experience of 30 years in this industry, have I experienced anything as unprofessional as this. Money gone, invaluable...