Piccadilly Palaver (Regents Palace)

Name: stoffy

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Product:	Regents Palace
Date:	08/09/03 (250 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: excellent location, very cheap if you look around the bargain accomodation websites

Disadvantages: quite shabby in places, horrible bathrooms

A month or two ago, I booked a hotel for a three night stay in London. After trawling around the Net for bargains and failing miserably, I stumbled across activehotels.com, which offered much better rates than the likes of lastminute.com, whose reputation has been built on providing cheap travel and accommodation options for the spontaneous despite the fact that it’s probably the most expensive site of its type out there.

After browsing for a while, I plumped for the Regents Palace Hotel – an absolute snip at £44 a night for a non en-suite twin room in early September. Even better, it is located slap bang in the centre of London, just off Piccadilly Circus. With a 2-mile taxi ride on a Saturday night in the capital costing around £10, it made even more sense to book somewhere within walking distance of the sights, sounds and smells in Theatreland and Soho.

A few days later, ITV featured a programme called ‘Hotels From Hell’. As the introducer said that they were going to focus on London, I joked to my flatmate that our bargain hotel may be featured… in a somewhat spooky case of foresight, the Regent was chosen out of the hundreds of hotels in London to be analysed and criticised. It also occurred to me that the price of the hotel had probably been dropped in foresight of the programme, and is probably not quite as cheap as £44 a night all year round.

Somewhat reluctantly watching the programme, I was relieved to find whilst other hotels were deemed hellish by virtue of bodily fluids on walls and bedbug infestations, the Regent’s main faults were the lack of view and a bit of peeling wallpaper – possibly a cause for concern if you’d paid hundreds of pounds, but surely par for the course for a budget establishment.

Last week-end I actually stayed at the hotel in person. Location wise it is absolutely perfect – just 50 metres from Piccadilly Tube station and the famous statu
e of Eros. With 24-hour security and 900-odd rooms (a combination of singles, twins, doubles, en-suite, non en-suite, smoking and non-smoking), it’s not exactly a cosy a B&B. However, the reception area was well manned and the staff were courteous.

Located on the 7th of the 9 floors our room was bigger than expected and came complete with the usual TV, tea/coffee & kettle combo and ample bedding. However, it was a bit shabby, with peeling wallpaper and the worn carpets taped over in places, but this was hardly to be unexpected.

However, because we didn’t opt for an en-suite, we had to use the collective bathroom. It appeared as if there were a male and a female bathroom for every 20 rooms or so, each containing 2 toilets and two showers. On our block, only one of the showers was working and that had a rancid smell eminating from its plug hole. The door jammed shut and required a mighty yank to open it again, which would have been a little bit tricky for any elderly or frail resident. Seemingly modelled on Eastern-Bloc chic, you almost felt like you needed another shower after using it. Added to the fact that you need to call a member of housekeeping to unlock the shower before you use it (although admittedly they were always there within 3 minutes with fresh towels for you), it is most definitely the hotel’s worst feature.

Whilst the lobby walls were getting a new lick of paint whilst we were there (prompted no doubt by the TV criticism), they too were shabby and looked as though they needed renovating many years ago. The ironing rooms were also disgraceful. Overlooking the basic irons and burnt ironing board covers, there was a slight problem in the fact that there was no light to let you see what you were doing and no hanging space for clothes. It’s also worth mentioning that it’s not the quietest hotel in the world, although once again, this isn’t such a surprise given its size and location
.

Sadly, I can’t comment on the breakfast served at the Irish bar on the ground floor of the hotel thanks to my inability to wake-up before the clock strikes ‘pm’, although this was not included in the price of the room, and a trip to the numerous cafes and restaurants in the adjacent Soho is sure to be more rewarding.

However, despite the above, it was certainly tolerable – after all, you don’t go to the capital and stare at the four walls of your hotel all day long and there were no security issues. Its obvious selling point is its location, unbelievable considering the price. With regard to prices though, it’s best pointing out that there are dozens of agents which sell rooms on behalf of the Regent – it might be best to scout around on sites such as activehotels.com to see if there are any bargains to be had rather than to book directly. We paid for the room upon arrival at the hotel, which can reassure those who are reluctant to pay money to a third party rather than the hotel directly.

Whilst perhaps not a hotel from hell, the Regents Palace is very basic, and anyone expecting a shred of luxury with be bitterly disappointed. However, for unfussy people who’s budget is the most important factor in choosing accommodation and for those who prefer to spend their time in London sight-seeing rather than hailing taxis and getting crushed on the Tube, it comes highly recommended.

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