Travelodge London Kings Cross Royal Scot

Description: Address: 100 King's Cross Road / London / WC1X 9DT / / Formerly the Thistle Kings Cross

http://www.travelodge.co.uk/search_and_book/hotel _overview.php?hotel_id=258

I have checked their website a few times and never found a room cheaper that £90 per night for a weekend at the start of July. Okay so this isn't the most expensive rates that you could pay, but for what you get for your money, it certainly seems overpriced.

To begin with, when trying to check in, there was an incredibly long queue and hardly anyone checking people in (1 person, while another came and went again without doing much) so it took me a whole hour to get checked in. My first complaint was the fact check in is from 3pm onwards and yet you need to vacate your room by 12pm the next day. That isn't even 24 hours later! Not only that but they wouldn't allow people in the queue to be checked until 3pm, so that it was 4pm and later for those who were waiting.

The next issue was that the lifts were not working. This was not advertised by a sign though, oh no, in fact, a member of staff came rushing through and shrieked "don't use those lifts, they are out of order and you may get stuck in them". Which begs the question, why on earth have you not put up signs to warn people? That would mean that instead of rushing in and out to tell people, the staff member could be on the checking in desk, helping to get through the queue more quickly!

My next issue was the fact that despite being a double room, there was one towel. Hence another trip to reception to ask for more. The staff member who gave us more towels looked rather cross at being asked, certainly not the service that I had expected.

The bathroom was a little dirty looking, with cracked tiles and a slightly damp smell. The bedding was clean and fresh but the double room was in fact 2 single beds pushed together. The rest of the room was clean but looked like it had seen better days. There was tea & coffee, no biscuits or bottled water though.

There was a large air conditioning machine on the wall in the room, and as it was July and the windows only opened about 6 inches (perhaps to stop guests from throwing themselves out rather than face reception again), the room was absolutely roasting. We again trailed to reception and found a different staff member there, so hoped that she might be more friendly than the last one - alas, it was not to be.

"Hi, the air con in our room isn't working, and it is really, really hot" I began. "There is no air con in the hotel" she snapped. "Ah okay, it is just that there is a air con box in the room?" I timidly ventured. "There is no air con" she growled looking at me as if I were suffering quite possibly the stupidest person she had even encountered. "In that case, is there a fan that we could use please, because the room really is unbearably hot?" I asked.

I need to explain that on the way to reception, we had passed several fans on housekeeping trolleys. The hotel was extremely hot throughout and right in front of me, blowing a delicious cool breeze onto said receptionist was, yes you've guessed it, a fan. So it came as a bit of a surprise when she said "There are no fans, they are all in use". I was just about to respond when (I kid you not!) she snapped "I'm sick of this" and stormed out of the reception area!!

Now I can understand that it may be frustrating to have loads of people asking for fans if there are not enough to go round. However, talking to anyone in that manner (never mind a paying customer) is completely unacceptable. I was completely shocked and stood there for a minute or 2 looking at my friend, trying to ascertain whether or not I had imagined the whole thing. Also, if the request for fans happens often enough for her to become sick of the query, perhaps that indicated a need to purchase more fans - just a suggestion!.

It was at that point that we decided to give it all up as a bad job. We were unlikely to find another hotel at such short notice and it was only for 1 night. The hotel was unbearably hot and all we wanted to do was get outside. We left, and didn't come back until quite late. When we did come back, the room was baking and the noise from outside so loud that it kept us awake, we tried closing the window and it made no real difference to the noice, just made the room hotter still.

The next day, when we checked out, we tried to complain to the manager. We were told that we would have to put the complaint in writing. While the manager wasn't rude, he certainly didn't apologise either or sound particularly interested. When we got home, we sent the letter of complaint as requested. This is Nov and I have still not had a response!

Do I recommend this hotel, not in a million years, I was really quite astonished at how bad it was and how disinterested the staff were, not to mention rude. Yes this is a convenient location but you will certainly not be rested after a stay here. Avoid like the plague!