Grange Clarendon

“Not 4 star worthy” If you have heard the saying shabby chic well this was just plain shabby. Very dated decor and not well kept. Pealing wallpaper, paint dirty, bathrooms with mold, bed a saggy hard mess. Fire alarm went off for 2 seconds early morning and woke us all up. Also, this booking via Agoda said that it included breakfast. Be aware the breakfast is NOT a full breakfast. Also, getting down to breakfast 15 mins before ending elicited negative reactions from chefs in the form of shouts of “we are finished” from kitchen and not a full English breakfast for those in our party that had to pay an upgrade fee.

We’ve been staying at the Grange hotels in this area for the past 20 years, and I’ve always had good experiences. But this is the first time at the Clarendon. We arrived before lunch, and our room was not ready. Normal check-in time is 3 o’clock. We’ve done this at other locations and they’ve usually been able to fit us in, or they prioritize the cleaning staff to do our room next. But instead after roaming around outside for a while, we ended up hanging around the lobby till close to three. The room only had two outlets that were convenient and one of them did not work. Despite it being in October, the room was hot. We could’ve cooled the room down if we’ve been able to open the three windows, but they only allow them to be open a few inches. I would warn anybody thinking of staying here during summer months. We would leave of our keys in the room slot so that we could charge stuff while we were gone. Each time the cleaning staff came, they took that key and kept it. We also had our stuff laid out on the sink including the hotel soap. With each cleaning session, they would move all of our stuff to a corner of the bathroom and take the soap. The weather turned midway in the trip and it got very cold. The radiators were not on and could not be turned on and so the room got very cold. We complained about it and they did do something so that the next day the radiators were on. but they were on to the max and the rooms were very very hot. It makes me laugh just explaining this there is a thermostat valve that you can turn down. But one of them was broken off and there was no way to fix it we complained again and a few hours later they had fixed that. it’s a big room with three chairs and what looks to be like a comfortable couch. But the couch is actually a convertible bed. And when you sit on it, the cushion sink down into the bed area to make it very uncomfortable. we would also arrange the chairs and table to be by the sofa so we could sit around it when we are in the room. With each cleaning, they moved all that back to the other side of the room. One of the bedside lamps had to be turned off and on about 10 times before the condition of a lamp would change. The bed is a king size comfortable bed, but the duvet only goes to the top edge, so there is always a draft coming in on the sides, resulting in a battle for the duvet during the night. The location is one of the best in London. And the rates are very reasonable. But for all the other reasons, we probably will not stay here on any future trip to London.