Zedwell Underground Tottenham Court Road — Hotel in London

The good: the location was great. Very close to train station, British Museum, Soho and other attractions. Very reasonably priced. Very clean with an artistic and trendy design. The toilet had a suction effect that emptied the air out if the room, sort of like flushing at 30k feet. It's 5 stories underground, so it's very quiet and the stone floor is always cool to your bare feet. The 24 hour Reception desk was very nice and helpful. Had a large common sitting room that was occupied by people who probably couldn't find a comfortable place to sit in their paid room. More on that later.

The Bad: Bedsheets weren't changed over 5 days. Not enough freshwater provided in the dining room. The hotel has an "ironing room" for clothes to be pressed by yourself, and also had many hair dryers that I never saw being used. The space would be more functional hosting a few laundry machines. No snack machines, ice machines, drink machines or any types of useful items sold on the property like toothbrushes. The reviews advertised that we could leave bags if we arrived early, but It failed to mention that we would be charged 30 British Pounds per article left behind, even for only 1 hour. We had 3 large suitcases and 3 more backpacks, so that wasn't going to be an option. We could not check in any earlier than 1445. Service desk was kind enough to change our room to one with a little more floor space after we presented photos that showed we had much less space than advertised for our room. I think we were originally given the Cocoon I stead of the Double. (Cocoon was an apt description for it.) Ventilation never felt adequate and temperature controls didn't seem to work. It always felt a little hot and stuffy for my tastez and was humid after morning showers. It was only really cool enough for me first thing in the morning.

The Bad: Rooms are very small. So yourself a favor and actually concert the metric measurements to feet and you might be surprised. Also there was no TV, no tables, no chairs, no desks for computers, no shelves, no closets, no refrigerator to keep anything cold. No space for a family. If I was a travelling monk, with only a robe and a prayer rug. I'm sure it would feel minimalistic and ascetic. With my family, it felt like sharing a small RV camper, tripping over suitcases, all piled on one bed trying to look at our phones and laptops while connected to a spaghetti of cables running across the bedframe. Floors were always wet in bathroom because the shower doesn't have doors. Towels are always on the floor to sop up the water and prevent dirty shoes from making footprints everywhere. We stayed for 5 days because it was prepaid with no refunds. If not, we would have found a budget hotel with a little less style, but much more...

Very interesting hotel. Highly recommend if it fits your needs. Absolutely do not recommended if it doesn't. Take some of my negatives as a review of an inexperienced traveler; I genuinely did enjoy my stay but advise considering the tradeoff between lower price and convenience.

Be aware: there is zero cell signal in rooms but the WiFi is very good and you can still make/recieve calls with WiFi calling enabled.

Consider staying here if you want a pitch black, quiet room and have minimalist needs. The distant rumble of the Underground trains stopping & going is apparent but I found it to be a welcome part of the ambiance. It feels very opposite to the robust surrounding Soho.

Location is great if you want Central London bustle by day and a quiet, dark spot by night. Highly recommend in this regard.

Rooms: The rooms are 4-5 stories underground and very quiet. Isolating almost if you're solo. Very clean upon arrival. A bit damp with weak airflow but by UK travel standards serviceable. Good luck hanging any clothes up to dry; they won't. My "Cocoon 2" room had two hooks above the toilet and two doorknob hooks in the main room for hanging clothing which is definitely not sufficient considering the room also lacks table, chairs, or anywhere else to place items. Needless to say these minimalist rooms do not have a TV, desk, or even a bathroom counter, though there is an Ironing and Beauty room on the same floor. My Cocoon 2 room only had one outlet bedside, another in the entry hallway, but none in the bathroom.

Service: Invisible on purpose, but not unhelpful. I arrived an 90 minutes after my check-in but my single bed room was not available. Staff "upgraded" to a double bed with no hesitation or prompting. I never had to ask staff for further assistance, but they seemed inattentive and on their phones any time I passed by the main desk.

Recommendations:

The hotel has no bins for recycle, nor any feasible option to take out trash except for rely on room service, of which I never requested since staff do not feel approachable. Would be nice to have a bin for recycle in the room or common areas.

A minimal line for clothes or options to hang more than two articles on the doorknob style hangers.

Would have been nice to have a room pamphlet for services, procedures, and guidelines for a hotel stay. I appreciate the minimalism otherwise.

Rating 4 stars, would rate 5 if the hotel had a few more means for self-sufficiency due to the otherwise minimalist surroundings and maybe a bit more clarity in marketing to help discerning travelers determine if this is the right...

The positives: the location is fantastic—managing to be a few paces from a major Tube station while still on a street you can almost cross without checking for traffic (don’t actually do this!). The rooms were clean*. I heard no noise from other guests while in my room, at all.

Everything else: This hotel advertises itself as having a minimalist, sleep-focused vibe, which was correct. I expected the lack of window, TV, telephone, clock, minibar, etc. What I didn’t expect was that there’s also a lack of any way to store your things—no luggage rack, no closet, no hangers/coat rack, no shelf, no bedside table, no counter in the bathroom. There’s a narrow edge to the sleeping carrell (about 3 inches wide) where you can put your phone to charge, and there’s the floor. That’s it. They provide you with one towel per guest—no washcloth, no hand towel, no bath mat. That’s it. Shampoo, but no conditioner. Not even a solid door to the bathroom—it’s made of (frosted) glass that slides and leaves a gap on all sides, plus a 2-inch hole that serves double-duty as doorknob and anti-privacy device. There’s one pillow per person, though staff will give you more.

Two major concerns (apart from the metastatic minimalism): staff was sometimes combative and never helpful—getting fresh towels after our cleaning day was skipped took three attempts; the extra pillows took 18 hours, fresh sheets were delivered at the front desk after the towels showed up instead of the room being serviced, and then only one sheet per bed to replace the two sheets, pillowcases, and duvet cover we started with. Second, the room was air conditioned but not dehumidified—the lowest humidity we got (after leaving the room door open for 90 minutes) was about 75-80%, whether the AC was off or on, and despite humidity being low to moderate outside. Everything was damp—the bath towels never fully dried, toilet tissue was soggy, our books we purchased to take home became limp and bent out of shape. Both of us had coughs by the time we left from the constantly wet air. The worst part? The toilet smelled of sewage. There wasn’t a leak, but the chemistry of human waste means that the microscopic particles that normally lack much odor in dry environments are constantly active, and the entire place smelled of port-a-john. Not very lovely.

So—it’s a safe enough place to stay if all you need is a crash pad and don’t mind humidity. For more than an overnight? Choose elsewhere.

*I don’t count the odor issue as a cleaning problem, but that type of odor always decreases the perception of...