Marlin Apartments - Queen Street St Paul's — Local services in London

Utter dump.

Listed themselves as a four star hotel, which is not even remotely the case. At best this is a one star, and frankly we’ll never stay in any of their properties ever again.

The photos posted on their website are not even remotely representative of what the suites actually look like, nor the state of the place. For a starter, there was only a small hideabed couch, no additional chairs other than a crappy little dining table and chairs to sit on. No garbage in the kitchen, just a commercial office freestanding garbage in the living room.

The photos don’t begin to do justice to the state of the walls and baseboards. Scuffed, grimy, dirty, and stained is what we got, stains on the ceiling as well. Curtains frayed, dirty, water stained, and falling off.

Towel dryer rack didn’t work, phone didn’t work, washer dryer broken, and no hair dryer. For a family of five staying five days we were generously given one whole roll of toilet paper, enough dish and clothes washing soap, for two whole loads.

The mattresses were literally the worst I’ve ever been on in any motel or hotel, and I’ve travelled a lot over the years. They were almost cartoon caricatures, you could feel and hear all the springs, and I’ll be damned if any of us could get a decent sleep on them. Think of the worst hide a bed or roll out cot experience you’ve had and imagine worse than that.

Maintenance staff had to come in and literally replace the washer dryer, and rebuild the towel heater.

No offer to bring in any additional furniture, and had to demand to see another room in the hopes it might be better. It was actually worse.

The suite was so shabby and depressing one of our kids was in tears the first night that we had to stay here. We’re also not particularly fussy people but when you’re paying over $800/night for a “four star” property, you’re going to be pretty damn angry and depressed with the state of this dump.

Management made no offer to refund us any portion, nor move us to one of their other properties. They just expressed their sadness we weren’t happy.

Under no circumstances should you consider staying at...

Long story short - Within 30 min of checking in the receptionist broke into our room. We came back and caught her. Police were called and we have a court date later this year. Management handled the situation very poorly and only apologised, nothing else. No compensation was offered until I asked and then that was only for 1 night which we missed due to being in the police station for hours until 1am giving our witness statements. We were moved to a different room and that was it. After checkout any emails/texts I sent regarding the situation were ignored by the same area manager.

Even despite that nightmare experience on 1 day, I would've rated the place extremely poor anyway. The first room before the crime had a fan with exposed wires where you could electrocute yourself, and the bathroom door didn't shut as it didn't align. In the second room the glass TV stand was broke and you could see it had just been glued back on. With a slight push the whole stand could've collapsed and sent the TV falling (could fall on a child). The fridge had multiple broken shelves which were just thrown on top of the kitchen units. There was other broken or faulty items in both rooms too.

AVOID this place like the plague. All the staff member are rude and have zero care for customers. They take a HUGE damage deposit at check in and it's highly likely they would try and charge you for something as things are badly damaged before you even arrive. Other reviews even state this and that they try and fine you for smoking in the rooms when you haven't. Please take my warning...

Excellent apartment in a perfect spot for our recent visit. 24/7 desk security was friendly and (mostly) helpful, we only had one interaction that was not great and even had kind of had a heads up about that - the evening desk staff said the overnight guy was usually in a mood. Anyway, I have few complaints about anything related to this stay, other than a couple inconveniences. I had recently broken my foot and was using a scooter, so we could only use the lift - it's programmed for direct trips and on multiple occasions, it passed us several times before the doors opened. During busy times it took quite a while to get downstairs just from the second floor. Also, again an accessibility issue with my scooter, after exiting the lift on the second floor my apartment was up a short flight of stairs. After being out and about, it was exhausting to have to carry the scooter up the steps. When we checked in we were told the apartment we were given was the only one available - otherwise I would have preferred to have been in one that was accessible without steps or doors between it and the lift. The apartment was quite spacious and clean, and had everything we needed for our week.

Again, overall a great location, and a well maintained and safe building. Very quiet too - I never heard any neighbors, although the trains do rumble a bit and can easily be heard, but that adds to the character of staying in an...