This is the second time we have stayed in this hotel and both have been a pleasurable experience. Have recommended this hotel to a lot of friends and family. I am trying to book again for a weekend with my partner for his birthday.

Priced at $200 a night and ranked at four stars, this hotel was about four times too expensive and too highly ranked for the service and accommodations provided.

At the last minute, we ended up having to add another person to our room. After giving us a dirty look and muttering about not booking correctly ahead of time, the lady at the reception desk charged us 20 pounds, a fee which included nary a cot or spare towel--only breakfast. We lugged our suitcases up to the room, only to discover that the card reader on our door was broken and wouldn't read our key card--even the maid's master key card wouldn't work. The maid called reception, then waved over the housekeeper, who called reception, who didn't pick up, then the housekeeper called someone to have a few words, explained to us that the door had been broken for a while (apparently, that was supposed to help us feel better), and then he sent us down to reception, who cut us two more key cards , which still didn't work on the door (obviously)...and we continued walking up and down the stairs between the lobby and our room for about an hour, repeatedly explaining the problem to individuals with various levels of indifference or comprehension, until finally we were informed that maintenance had been called to fix the door and that we should wait in the hallway outside the room until it was fixed. Overall, I felt that in addition to not providing very uniform or high-quality service, that the hotel employees (especially those from different departments) didn't get along very well.

Needless to say, even before we saw our room, our impression was not very good. Inside the room, the tiles were falling off the bathtub, the lampshades were severely stained, the mirror on the wall gave a great shudder every time the bathroom door was closed, and everything was generally in shabby condition. Additionally, we couldn't find a single contact number for the hotel so that we could call reception and find out when breakfast was served, though we finally managed because we remembered the number the housekeeper had repeatedly tried yesterday, to no avail (the silver lining in the cloud, I suppose).

However, I have to admit that hotel service was not terrible all around--for what it's worth, the waiters and waitresses at breakfast were quite good.