La Baguettes — Hotel in Reading

I needed somewhere cheap to stay over for a work meeting (I work for a charity so we always try and get the cheapest possible). This was perfect location for my meeting and a good price compared to the other options so I booked it.||||You are given all of the information you need to access your key cards (via text and email) and it's easy enough to access your room.||||It smelled strongly of cooking oil (when I got home I could still smell this on my PJs and clothes, that's how strong it is) but this was then overpowered by paint/gloss as they were obviously in the middle of decorating my room. The doors were sticky and there was masking tape still all around the fittings and on the floors.||||There was a net in the window but no curtains (I made sure that I undressed in the en-suite bathroom, which was very clean and tidy). A light shone through this window all night so I'd recommend taking an eye mask. ||||This B&B should clearly state that they are located on a road surrounded by clubs and pubs. My room backed onto the Walkabout Bar, so from around 8.30pm until the early hours of the morning you could just hear music, screaming, shouting and cheering. It was like being stood outside an American Frat Party! :D Even with ear plugs in it was hard to sleep as it was so loud and the vibrations from the music just rattled through the room. ||||If you're staying here because you're going for a night out, it's the perfect place. I wouldn't recommend you stay here if you have children and definitely don't stay here if you need to function the following day :) ||||I didn't go for breakfast in the morning as the smell was making me feel nauseous and I needed to get an energy drink - but the café looked clean and the food...

This is a budget BnB with no lobby, no on-site personnel, dark and dingy hallways, barely acceptable rooms and an included breakfast from a cafe downstairs that doesn't start serving guests until 8:00 am. I had to leave before that so did not get a breakfast. It is only a couple minutes walk from the main train station but you could easily miss it as it is just a doorway with the number ‘7'. No signage of any kind. Access is awkward and requires that you call for an access code. The confirmation email I received had no instructions whatever about check in procedures. Don't even think about needing anything extra. I arrived in the morning and stopped by to leave my luggage until the time to check in. There was no one there. I called the number indicated on a sign in the window of the front door. No one answered so I left a voice-mail message, that was never returned. I had to schlep my luggage around all day. The beds were comfortable, but the towels were worn and not a complete set. Nothing was terribly clean. The room was hot and stuffy, even in mild weather. A bag of dirty linens lay in the entry hall during my entire stay. In my opinion, this property does not belong on any hotel listing service such as Expedia, Hotels.com or HotelTonight. If I wanted to stay in a low-rent hostel room, I would have booked that elsewhere. Be advised, this is a very...

Regrettably, this is my first "Terrible" review as this B&B is the worst accommodation we’ve had in last 10 years of travels. First up, There’s no La Baguette cafe which is what we looked for on arrival. Eventually found a very narrow recessed entry door next to CUP cafe which has nothing to do with the B&B except for an arrangement to provide breakfast. Fortunately the B&B cleaner was just leaving and handed us our key as the instructions for retrieving it from a safety box was only sent via email that morning. We were already en route and didn’t read the email as our devices were wifi dependent (we are from overseas). The room was utilitarian and furnished cheaply. The bathroom was awful: there was mould in grout in the shower, no shower rack (2 little hooks suggest there should have been), handwash container looked grubby and walls covered in horrible plastic instead of tiles. Then the room key failed to work on return from sightseeing and we had a 20 minute wait for someone to let us in. Our request for discount for inconvenience fell on deaf ears. The only positive is the friendly staff and nice breakfast provided by CUP cafe. How this place managed even an average review is incomprehensible - they must have been written by friends and family! I wouldn’t choose to stay here at one-third...