1st time on Cunard line

Hi,

My husband and I will be doing the Cunard 3 Queens cruises, starting 10th May. Prior to these cruises, we will be staying in London for a few days.

We are super concerned by the reviews regarding the standard of the London hotel we have been booked into (Ascot Hyde Park).

We made this known to the company. They told us it was a 100% cancelation fee to change hotels (In our case it’s $800AU)...significant loss.

Has anyone else stayed at this hotel recently and if so, was it reasonable and clean?

Thanks in advance

That hotel is ~£40, you get what you pay for.

I checked Trip Advisor and it doesn't have very good ratings, but one thing I noticed is that one customer said they paid 70 pounds sterling for two nights, so maybe you could do some investigating regarding the price. The customer ratings are not usually SO wrong. I would be on the attack, in the nicest way possible way, and tell the cruise company "How dare they put you there?" Good luck.

That hotel is ~£40, you get what you pay for.

I know what you mean, We ourselves would never have booked this ourselves.

I checked Trip Advisor and it doesn't have very good ratings, but one thing I noticed is that one customer said they paid 70 pounds sterling for two nights, so maybe you could do some investigating regarding the price. The customer ratings are not usually SO wrong. I would be on the attack, in the nicest way possible way, and tell the cruise company "How dare they put you there?" Good luck.

I’m in the process of emailing them and saying exactly that. Thank you

Can you just book another hotel and not go to the Ascot Hyde Park ?

AUD 800.00 to change or cancel the hotel? I checked the hotel on line. It is a 2.5 star budget hotel! Marginally above a Backpacker standard. A very weird proposition to make to someone to go on a luxury cruise. Was that the only hotel they had on offer or did you ask for the cheapest? Ask them to pay an upgrade to a better hotel. But keep in mind hotels in London are expensive. Even the most basic Ibis hotel in the city will likely be more expensive. Unless you are planning to spend a lot of time on your room, it may not be worth it.

I put your booking company on my "careful to deal with" list.

Tell them you are posting on Cruise Critic 😉

Hi the hotel you are looking at seams quite expensive for what it is, if you have to forfeit you $au 800 to change why not just book some where else your selves and not give your agents the satisfaction of making more money out of you.

We are from the UK and have stayed at the Premier inn Waterloo stataion hotel a few times it's not the Ritz but most of the Premier Inn hotels are clean and tidy. I've added a link to there web site. (no I don't work for them):p

https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/greater-london.html

We didn’t ask for a specific hotel. This was the only hotel offered to us. Our agent allocated it to us. We would not skimp on the hotel after spending a decent sum on the rest of the trip.

Clearly it is a budget hotel ( we were not aware of this at time of booking). We trusted the agent and “assumed” for such a trip, the whole package would be of an acceptable standard. ( silly us!)

I'd tell the agent to cancel the hotel at no cost to you, with the implied threat of widespread negative publicity locally and nationally. Clearly, they're making huge profit on the hotel booking.

If they have a FB presence, I find that bombing every thread on their page with your complaint can be quite effective, lining friends up to do likewise if they block you.

Stuart

I'd tell the agent to cancel the hotel at no cost to you, with the implied threat of widespread negative publicity locally and nationally. Clearly, they're making huge profit on the hotel booking.

That's what I was about to suggest as well.

The hotel is showing £40 for today because it's last minute and it's January. If you look at prices for May, it is showing £101/106 per night.

Poor reviews on Trip Advisor though.

The hotel is showing £40 for today because it's last minute and it's January. If you look at prices for May, it is showing £101/106 per night.

That is true, but as someone who semi-regularly has to stay in London for work, and has to book at short notice, I find that the time of year has no bearing on prices in London (because it's bonkers all year round). And booking last minute often makes it more expensive.

Have you done this booking through some package by a tour company? They've got you on a Cunard voyage and before that put you in a London hotel or a few days? I ask because a 100% cancelation fee of $800AU to change hotels seems inordinate. Just dead wrong! Is this company telling you that is their charge to go into a computer and alter a booking? That isn't the Cunard way, and it certainly can't be the way of the Ascot Hyde Park, at best a very budget hotel.

I know the area, the street, have walked by the hotel many times, never gave it a thought, it being little more than a doorway. It looks like any of the very modestly-priced tourist hotels in Paddington. The Paddington area is very busy, quite safe, "international." Just about every doorway that isn't a cafe or small shop is a hotel. None of them are the Dorchester. Paddington is not elegant. You ask is the hotel reasonable and clean? Well it certainly is reasonable enough, and several notches above a backpacker hotel, probably thin towels on the beds, a sample-size bar of soap, all very simple. The hotel is just a small half-block down from Paddington Station … which fronts on Praed Street, good subway connections there, and down to the right becomes Craven Road. Walk down nearby Glouchester Terrace or Craven Terrace to the Bayswater Road, Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens, the buses, the great-fun Swan pub, the Lancaster Gate tube stop. If you're a walker Marble Arch and the Oxford Street shops are just a bit east. I've always liked the area .... fly into Heathrow from America, take the Paddington Express train 21 minutes to Paddington Station, enjoy walking down the street a few blocks to a family hotel (closed now doing renovations for four months and already one month behind) I've stayed in close to 30 years ... I'm home! Paddington is simple, like Greenwich Village in New York. Always active 24/7. It's very central to London, easy to get anywhere else.

I've found that Internet forums attract the crazies on hotel posts, the shower was at a bad angle, the television was too small, too big, too loud, too quiet, the carpet had a hole in it. If your booking agency has any experience I'd imagine they've booked the hotel before without complaint. It is a modest one. Maybe they didn't know. If you arrive and find it too modest, leave .. the area is filled with hotels. A Best Western is nearby, the Corus is on the park at Lancaster Gate. Many hotels around at all price points. You'll have no trouble in the area. Nearby Craven Road/Craven Terrace corner has a chemist, hardware store, flowers shop, Nisi …shops to make your hotel room more personal if need be. It won't be the best small room you've ever stayed in perhaps, but I'd not worry.

Great info from Ab Ovo. Love the knowledge on Cc.

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We didn’t ask for a specific hotel. This was the only hotel offered to us. Our agent allocated it to us. We would not skimp on the hotel after spending a decent sum on the rest of the trip.

Clearly it is a budget hotel ( we were not aware of this at time of booking). We trusted the agent and “assumed” for such a trip, the whole package would be of an acceptable standard. ( silly us!)

So it was the agent that found you this Hotel and organised the ‘package’ not the cruise line? That’s such a shame if it was [emoji853]

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I assume your agent has booked you in to the hotel on a non refundable rate for 4 nights (currently showing as GBP419 from 6 -10 May).

If so, your only recourse is through the agent.

This hotel does not show up on the Cunard Australia page as a pre-cruise option. The cheapest choice there is Holiday Inn Kensington (AUD2,280 for 4 nights through Cunard but AUD960 if you book direct - maybe the Cunard rate includes transfers?).

We stayed at a similar dump to the Ascot near Paddington Station one January. We asked at the reception how to turn the heater on and they said - 'heat gets turned on at 7pm'. It was dark at 4pm! We endured it for 2 nights but have always stumped up more for London accommodation since. At least in May the days will be long and reasonably warm.

If it is your first stop you will be jet lagged and you want to be somewhere decent when you wake up at 1am and lie wide awake for 5 hours (ie reasonable TV, tea and coffee, bathroom) etc.

If it was me, I would try and get some compensation from the agent and then re-book yourself somewhere decent. I can recommend Rydges Kensington . Its part of the Rydges Australia chain - basically a 4 star hotel with a nice feel. About GBP 200 per night in May if you join their 'rewards' program (its free to join).

If I couldn't get compensation, I would cancel and rebook anyway and take it on the chin. Or possibly do 1 or 2 nights at the Ascot and then 2 nights somewhere decent. You really don't want to let this spoil your great trip!

Yes, Beagle5. The agent booked us into Ascot. We were not given a choice. As we are spending a week in Paris before London, we concentrated on that part

first. So by the time, we got to looking at London bookings in detail, we discovered this scarey hotel.

We have emailed agent to voice our concerns and requested a better standard hotel instead, at No cost to us and explained that it was not our fault they had not kept up with the current standards of the hotels they use. We also told them that we felt it unfair to suggest that we would have to sort it out once we arrive at the hotel, when sorting it out is their job.

Anyway, Thanks to everyone for your suggestions etc. Once we hear back from agent, I will report back.

I'd tell the agent to cancel the hotel at no cost to you, with the implied threat of widespread negative publicity locally and nationally. Clearly, they're making huge profit on the hotel booking.

 

If they have a FB presence, I find that bombing every thread on their page with your complaint can be quite effective, lining friends up to do likewise if they block you.

 

Stuart

Hehehe, Love the Facebook suggestion.

I've found that Internet forums attract the crazies on hotel posts, the shower was at a bad angle, the television was too small, too big, too loud, too quiet, the carpet had a hole in it. If your booking agency has any experience I'd imagine they've booked the hotel before without complaint. It is a modest one.

Whilst that is true, i.e. people complain on the internet about the most trivial of things, with sites like TripAdvisor, you have to take an overall view of the many reviews posted.

And looking at the overall TripAdvisor reviews of the hotel in question, it's difficult to conclude that the vast majority of those reviews were posted by internet crazies. The only conclusion you can come to is that the place is an absolute dump - so many people can't be wrong.

You are right about the location - it's quite a good location in London for getting around (I used to work in Paddington every few weeks until recently).

But my preferred location when staying in London is Bloomsbury. It's much more a smarter location that Paddington but I'd say the prices of hotels were pretty much the same (I've stayed in the Holiday Inn and The Thistle in Bloomsbury and both are more than acceptable).

I would call that TA and tell them in no uncertain terms that you absolutley refsue to stay in so a dump! It really can spoil your stay. If all i said and done and there is nothing they can do. Just book a hotel for yourself and just do not show up at this lousy dump! A disgrace to put you there in the first place and not a nice way to start voyage with Cunard! I choose the Goring a few years back and loved every minute of it! A bit pricey - but oh waht an expericence!

I agree with just about everyone else who's posted that you should find another hotel. $800 is a lot of money, but in the end four unpleasant nights could well prove to be even more costly. Reviews of the Ascot Hyde Park are scathing not only on Trip Advisor, but on just about every travel website. I've never stayed there, but I stayed in places like it in Paddington when I was a graduate student. I survived and so would you. But this is hardly the way to begin your Cunard vacation.

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We are looking forward to hear how it all ends....