Spend Your London Nights at the Days Hotel
Written: May 04 '04 (Updated May 04 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap, Clean, Accessible Rooms, Good Location
Cons: For Americans not used to it - smallish rooms.
The Bottom Line: A better than average hotel at a great price. If you're traveling on a budget in this expensive city, you'd be hard pressed to find better.
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| heckonwheels's Full Review: Days Inn Waterloo London Uk |
We needed five things in a hotel in London. First and foremost, it had to be wheelchair accessible. Next, it had to be within walking distance to a wheelchair accessible Tube station. After that, we wanted a place that was clean and inexpensive. And last on my list – but high on my son Tim’s – was that it have a decent, preferably cable or satellite, TV system.
Exhaustive searches on the Internet revealed little in the way of accessible accommodations. Travel Inn wanted to require us to use two rooms because my son was over 16 years of age; Copthorne Tara requires that you book their accessible rooms through a charity, which you must pay to join; the Hiltons and Thistles were too expensive – and so it went.
Accessible travel “specialists” wanted to charge us an arm and a leg, literally 20 to 25% more than if I booked the hotel myself and would impose a cancellation fee of 50% if I cancelled more than a month ahead of time, 100% if less than that. That is completely unacceptable.
Finally, I narrowed it down to two hotels near Waterloo station. The Novotel Waterloo and the Days Hotel Waterloo (part of the Days Inn chain). The Days Inn was about £20 less than the Novotel and about two blocks closer to the accessible station (Waterloo) and looked to have comparable amenities so we went with it.
Upon arrival, we were assigned a room on the third floor. The sleeping area was small by US standards but on par with European rooms. The bed was full-size and a double-sized sofa bed was also in the room. The staff had already folded this out for us.
It was a clean room with a small closet and a dresser with three medium drawers. There was a foyer with plenty of room, but nothing in it. This served as a little escape area from the small sleeping area…we’d pull a chair over and read or just relax when we had time.
The ensuite bathroom was large with plenty of room for a wheelchair to maneuver in. The shower, however, was tiny. A four-foot square (two feet on each side) cube in which a grown adult could not turn around fully. The shower head was on a hose, providing just a little mobility.
I went back to the front desk to ask them how this was going to be accessible and the counter person (not the same one that checked us in) informed us that we were not in the accessible room. She showed me the accessible room on the ground floor. It did have a large bathroom like ours and a roll-in shower (basically, the same shower but without the walls and a fold down bench mounted on the wall). The sleeping area was even smaller than our room and there was no foyer at all. She offered to move us but I declined and instead found a small, waterproof chair in their storeroom that would make do as a shower chair for Tim.
There was a satellite TV system for Tim. Unfortunately for that Sportscenter addict, the sports channel (Sky Sports) only seemed to follow cricket, soccer, and golf. Tim did grow a little fond of British reality shows by the end of our stay. Included in the TV system was a wake up alarm that grew progressively louder if you didn’t turn it off quickly.
The mattresses were adequately comfortable. The pillows were flat as pancakes (our inflatable neck pillows for air travel came in handy here), but the blankets were very plush and cozy.
The hotel location was close to perfect. As said before, within five minutes walking to the enormous Waterloo station. Half that to the non-accessible Lambeth North Tube station. It was also within walking distance to Westminster (Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey) and the London Eye. Heck, we even walked from Piccadilly Circus to our hotel in less than 30 minutes.
Across the street is the Imperial War museum. There are five pubs within a block. Two I recommend are the Bar Room Bar for the great wood-fired pizzas and the Steam Engine (located directly behind the hotel) which also served pizzas but more for the friendly locals who inhabit it.
The hotel also serves a full breakfast for £5.95 but with many shops nearby serving decent breakfasts for £3-£5, we never took advantage of it. They also serve a dinner but again, we didn’t have any with so many other places around. There is also a full bar in the lobby along with many chairs and sofas to relax around a large, wide-screen TV. The lobby is smoky, as are most indoor areas we found in London.
Two lifts let you avoid the stairs and the hotel has a small, free parking lot if you drive.
Staff for the most part were very helpful and performed many favors for us such as procuring a taxi, breaking large bills, giving us newspapers, etc. The manager had the habit of doing his work at the front counter and, as such, was almost always available.
Price-wise, I could not find a cheaper hotel. My rate (booked on the Days Inn website) was £58 per night (about $94). The next lowest rate I saw anywhere was £74.
My overall feeling? This is not the Ritz but a very clean, decent hotel with good service. Just a bit above average but since it’s one of London’s cheapest hotels, I’ll give it four stars.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
heckonwheels
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Location: Los Angeles, CA USA
Reviews written: 77
Trusted by: 14 members
About Me:
Southern California native who travels around the country a lot.
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