Huckster Hoxton (The Hoxton Hotel (London))

Member Name: jojoegypt2008

Product:	The Hoxton Hotel (London)
Date:	29/01/09 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Deal is a scam, company is worse, when you peel back the surface

PLEASE NOTE: This is NOT a review of the hotel itself, as I have NEVER stayed there. This is a more general review of it as a business, particularly its website.


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I have heard from a number of people that the Hoxton Hotel often does £1 room sales, and that if you can bag a room, they're great. I'm sure they are. What's not so great is that the "competition" (which it essentially is - the winner takes all) is NOT actually open to all.

Allow me to explain. I tried today, to book a £1 room. They release the £1 rooms at 12:00 noon exactly. I was online from 11.30. First, I checked my clock against GMT, to make sure I wasn't late.
Then I cleared all cookies and temp internet files, then private data, using Firefox.
I thought I'd done everything you could do to ensure a chance at booking this bargain.
I had two browser windows open.
The only link for hoxton hotels that worked this morning, took you to a page with a large timer counting down to 12:00. There was a tab for "Normal Bookings" - obviously not for me then, and the tab for "January Sale" - the timer, an FAQs tab, a T&Cs tab, and an advice tab on how to book. No link, no button, no tab saying "Click here to book a room".

I'd even been on the website the night before to check out the system. I thought I had it down. The system had changed entirely.

And so I waited until 12:00, hitting refresh every few seconds to make sure nothing had changed. 12:00 arrived. The counter re-set to 24:00:00 and started another countdown. Refreshed again and again, and again. Nothing. Tried the normal bookings - no cheap deals there.

Finally, having navigated away from the page and then back on to it, 15 minutes later, I get a message to say that all the rooms sold out in 13 minutes. So, basically a PR scam then. If they won't even give you a chance to have a go, it's like telling a child there's a race, with a great prize, then locking them in the car half an hour beforehand.

But that's not it. No, no. I did some more research. I was angry, and I wanted to know who to be angry with. The man who runs the hotel is Sinclair Beecham (no, that's apparently a real name). He also runs Pret a Manger, with his business partner Julian Metcalfe. Pret, I hear you say. That sandwich shop that prides itself on freshness, naturalness, ethically-sourced-ness of food? Yup, that one. The one that claims to be 'obsessed with providing good, natural food'....

The one that is 33% owned by McDonalds. Yes, £25 million squids will buy you a share in a "good, natural" food outlet, if you are a big greasy burger chain. Seems totally logical and above board to me.
So, the advertising slogan for Hoxton, which rather charmingly is "a no bullshit hotel", well I'm not sure what bovine excrement means to you Mr Beecham, but perhaps you need to spend more time on the farm. Smells terrible to me.

Summary: Avoid like the greasy plague it is.