For our brief two-night stay in London with Vannesha’s sister in tow, location, convenience and above all, cost was the name of the game. And so it was strictly under these criteria that we wound up staying at Huttons Hotel, located in Pimlico, London.
The location was very promising – about a 10-minute walk from Pimlico underground station, although unfortunately there are no lifts and the ‘down’ escalator didn’t work throughout our stay, then past a selection of local shops and conveniences, before making a right turn onto the road the hotel is located on.
The property is located in one of the typical, traditional buildings of the area, and we found Huttons Hotel easily.
We were quickly informed that the rooms wouldn’t be ready, as expected, until much later, but luggage was promptly taken off us for safekeeping and we were sent on our way. The reception area is tight, and the sole receptionist did her best, but there was no doubt, with three separate groups vying for attention, that things took a while.
Returning to the hotel later on, we were promptly checked in fully, with Room 102 allocated to ourselves, and Room 104 to Vannesha’s sister, Relina. You can view the (very compact) floor plan below. Incidentally, we spent a solid 10 minutes wondering did Room 104 simply not have a bathroom, before finally deciding the floor plan must just not have accounted for it. It does, in case you're wondering.
As you can see, maximising floorspace is very much the name of the game, and as a result of the internal placement of both our rooms, we could see both our rooms from our respective windows, as well as – for ourselves – the occupants of Room 118 at times, and the bathroom to our right.
I’ve nothing particularly against internal rooms when clearly marked out, although privacy wasn’t great and the light well did make for an extremely grim morning wake-up.
The wooden lino flooring outside our bathroom didn’t seem to be doing so well, and looked like it was reaching the end of its days, although that was the least of our issues. The bathroom, generally, and throughout the stay, smelled pretty ghastly – as if the sewage smell from several rooms was being vented into the bathroom itself. Then, at least initially, there were simply no towels – so back we went to reception where we were told the cleaners had just forgot.
Notwithstanding the nausea-inducing smell of the bathroom, the facilities were otherwise compact but adequate. As you'd imagine, ventilation in such a small bathroom is tricky and most showers involved leaving the bathroom door slightly ajar, no doubt further shortening the lifespan of the troubled lino.
The bed itself was perfectly fine, although as we’d come to realise later on when trying to actually get some sleep, the location of Room 102 right behind reception and on one of the main corridors meant that sufficient silence to actually sleep was all but impossible between talking, noise, footsteps, and then once again at the crack of dawn.
I wouldn’t have said our stay was even particularly cheap to begin with, so overall we were very disappointed with the shortcomings of this property between the poor attention to detail in terms of cleaning, towel supplies and basic maintenance, and the pack-them-in rooms philosophy that led to us trying to sleep almost right behind reception and on the corridor to the breakfast room.
Anyway, thankfully check-out time approached and we packed our bags ready to dispense with them once more and head out for the day. To my absolute surprise and disgust, we then discovered Huttons Hotel charges a £3.50/item luggage storage fee – specifically only on check-out of course, when you least expect it and they couldn’t care less what you think anymore. Incidentally although the hotel contends on booking.com that this is communicated at the time, it was communicated to us literally as ‘£10.50 please’ with the card machine all ready to go.
I paid it given we didn’t have much other choice and hadn’t been aware ahead of time to make other plans – although almost laser-focused on making sure I never allowed any friend or family stay there again between what had already been a disappointing stay and then this final underhanded tactic.
In conclusion, there’s probably not much more I can say to wrap this review up other than, for a ‘value’ property, even that as a proposition comes with a real caveat – our stay was certainly of questionable value, notwithstanding a good location, given the issues, and before we come to the surprise luggage charge. Certainly, I can say we won’t be back!
