NOX Waterloo — Hotel in London

I paid close to £1,000 for a stay at NOX Waterloo, and it quickly became clear that this hotel doesn’t just miss the mark on the finer points—it struggles to provide even the fundamentals of a decent hotel stay.||Communication breakdowns were a recurring theme. Not a single staff member I interacted with was English, and all spoke English as a second language. While I value multicultural teams, I saw no diversity in this hotel as every staff member I interacted with was East Asian. The lack of local representation combined with repeated misunderstandings made for an unwelcoming and disconnected experience.||To start, the room lacked a basic phone to contact reception, which set the tone for what became a frustrating and impersonal experience throughout my stay. The bed was uncomfortably short—my feet hung off the end—and the pillows were flat and offered no support. With no rugs or carpeting, every footstep and chair movement from the room above echoed loudly through the ceiling, making rest difficult. For a hotel that brands itself as sleek and modern, the sound insulation was shockingly poor.||Cleanliness and housekeeping were well below standard. Several body towels provided were frayed and clearly overdue for retirement. At no point during my stay were face towels or a bath mat supplied. Dust was visible on multiple surfaces in my room since check in which remained uncleaned throughout the duration of my stay. The housekeeping staff often carried a strong body odour that lingered in the hallways, and despite my polite greetings to them on several occasions, I was met with no response (not even a smile) every time. These small moments reflected a broader lack of care and attention throughout the property.||The hotel also overlooked basic guest experience details. The keycard was handed to me in a flimsy, poorly stapled paper sleeve—something more fitting for a youth hostel than a contemporary hotel. A cheaply printed piece of paper in the room encouraged guests to leave a 5-star review, which quickly felt tone-deaf given the actual quality of the stay.||One of the most frustrating parts of my visit was the way a simple maintenance issue was handled. On the first day, I noticed the BRITA water filter in the sink was blinking red—indicating it needed to be replaced. I reported it to reception the next morning and was told it would be addressed that day, but nothing happened. I followed up two more times over the following days. The second receptionist I talked to had no record of my initial report, and the third misunderstood the issue before eventually calling maintenance. Maintenance claimed the red light was just a low battery. As someone who uses the same filter at home, I knew this wasn’t true, and told the receptionist such. Despite my explanation, the receptionist insisted there was no issue and then, bizarrely, handed me their personal phone to speak directly with maintenance myself. Maintenance continued to insist the filter was fine, so I eventually gave up and the matter was never resolved. Maintenance had simply misrepresented the issue to avoid dealing with it.||In the end, NOX Waterloo fell short in every major category—comfort, cleanliness, attention to detail, and service. Beneath its modern branding is a hotel that cuts corners and lacks the basics of good hospitality. This was a disappointing and overpriced stay, and one that has completely turned me off from booking with NOX again. I strongly suggest looking elsewhere for better value and a more professional experience, as I have stayed at 2-star hotels that have exceeded NOX Waterloo...

I would stay at this hotel if you want to be faced by continuous problems and headaches. Otherwise, I would 100% avoid.

Firstly, the room has to be paid in advance. But we didn't realise that the prepayment gets refunded, so the card you pay with has to be present at the time of check-in, which is a problem when a company has paid for your stay, for example. You then get charged the same full amount on whichever card you want. When we were checking-in (in a rush and with an impatient baby in our arms), we didn't have the original company payment card (out fault for not knowing this) and were confronted by unempathic staff and manager that asked us to provide the company bank statement, pay for room ourselves and ask our company for a refund or go to another hotel, as an alternative. As anyone that works in a company can imagine, providing a bank statement from a considerable sized company is not a 5 minute job. We suggested that our company  speaks to them on the phone and provide their card details but they said that it is against their policy and didn't understand that they can input those card details into their card machine to proceed the refund. In the end, we were left with the only option of paying for the hotel ourselves with a money that we didn't have and that we would struggle to get back from our company, which they were very happy about indeed. So we missed my graduation and £275 thanks to useless policies and staff!

When we got to our room, we realised that they hadn't provided us with a cot. Their response was that, even though we booked through their website stating that 2 adults and ONE BABY were going to stay, we would have had to ring the reception beforehand to tell them the age of the BABY and ask for a cot, which apparently is chargeable too! But that information isn't in their policy, you just have to guess it. In fact, they said we should have just booked a normal double room and ask for a cot but when you add a baby to the booking, you are not allowed to book that type of room, just a triple room as a minimum. So we paid for a more expensive room and they were expecting us to pay additional money to give us a cot at 8pm, or wait until the next day when the manager would be back. I do wonder where this person was expecting our baby to sleep!

When you walk around the corridors, you can see the poor quality of the installation but seeing fire doors unapologetically held open with a large bottle and no supervision, does make me worry about this hotel's "policies".

Our double bed (and the cot we were eventually provided) was very small as both our feet hung from the end of the bed.

All-round a very disappointing experience for a one night stay that could have been made much easier with good management. It may be seemingly one of the most cost effective options in the area but I would certainly spend a bit more to get the treatment you expect from a...

I don't know how this place can have a good review! I am staying here and they are treating us really bad. We arrived, after our check-in we brought our luggage in the room. Soon as we entered in the room we find out that was not really clean the floor but i just took it easy and I was not really worried about it, it can happen! I been in the toilet and I found hair in the shower so I been in the reception to ask if someone can please come and have a look and clean our shower! The receptionist follow me and took some pictures for the management that was not there. Finally we see that the bed was not done properly and we take out the duvet and find that the linen was dirty! The room was not cleaned from previously guest because was also full of dust and also some hair on the towel that was in the toilet! Some sugar next the coffee machine was also opened and mirrors was dirty. We do take pictures and the guy from the reception took some pictures too. He told us that if we can wait in the reception he will contact the management and see what he can do as he is not authorized to do anything. The management don't authorized him to give as a refund to give us the opportunity to leave as he cannot give another room because the hotel was fully booked. Finally we been told that they will clean the room in the next day so basically we have to sleep like this. As I start to be really upset at this point and the management that work remotely refused to speak with me the guy from reception offer as to change our bed in the best way he can, so finally I had to help him to change my bed and to clean the shower! This morning before to leave I want speak with the manager from housekeeping just to ask if she can make sure someone will clean my room but she was not happy and start to say that was not true what I say and that she personally checked this room yesterday before to leave.. Finally I told her that I have the pictures and she told me that she do not want speak with me anymore! I will never be back but this will go to higher authority as I paid for a room that was not been cleaned and this was also not safe for me in this period with covid and everything and they didn't give me any choice. The only choice I had was the one to leave and to don't get any refund and find at last minute a hotel where to...