Hotel Oliver

We booked a family room. The only convenience was its location to catch the tour bus (which was our goal) Rooms were outdated and small and our room was located on the ground floor off the reception area. Terrible… Shower low pressure. Our bathroom door was a narrow cupboard door that stayed open and couldn’t close unless you locked it from inside. Walls were dirty (needs a paint) Beds felt springy. I slept on the duvet to cushion the springs and used the throw blanket that I found had dirty marks on it. The bed night light was not within reach. I had to stand up to switch it on or off. Breakfast was terrible. Only given one boiled egg, toast and Kelloggs… no granola, no yoghurt, no fruit salad … I had to buy my own breakfast elsewhere. This is not a hotel , more like a bed and (not so great) breakfast. There was no social space (lounge) for visitors. Walls are paper thin and we could hear the neighbour in their toilet. The doorman was watching tv all night on full blast and we couldn’t get a good nights rest due to the noise and overall late night noise coming from reception area 😱 I wanted to call reception to complain but the rooms had no phones in them!’ They don’t trust their guests and made us pay a deposit to get a remote to watch tv in our rooms … very overpriced in comparison to other hotels in the area that we found was cheaper and neater.

Adjust your expectations and pay attention to the reviews here and on other sites and you won’t be disappointed. Firstly, I can’t find fault with the staff. Every interaction with them was friendly and efficient. The rooms are very basic and extremely cramped (I may be biased, at 6’ 3”/190cm I’m not exactly small). For some reason the heating is on at full pelt which makes the rooms very warm (I stayed in December) and there’s no obvious way to turn this down or off. While I can open the window to let in cooler air, this does let in traffic noise from the nearby Cromwell Road. I wasn’t affected badly, but if you are not used to a noisy night this will be a problem. To be fair to this establishment I didn’t mention this to the staff and it’s entirely possible this was easy to resolve. However, I would expect room temperature controls to be obvious at the price paid. One big complaint is the shower, which has very low pressure and with which I struggled to achieve an acceptable temperature. It was either a very cold or very hot dribble. Breakfast was also very basic. A boiled egg, orange juice and an apple were provide whether you want them or not (the egg was over cooked to my tastes). There is also ham (very cheap but tasty), processed cheese, toast and cereal available. Overall, it left me pleasantly full. The only real disappointment was the lukewarm coffee. Would I stay here again? If I had to but not by choice. Location is good for a budget hotel, but paying a little more gives you a better experience in my opinion.