Photo: londondrum.comUseful things to know before your stay
Star rating: ★★★★ Address: Mercure London Paddington Hotel, 144 Praed Street, Paddington W2 1HU. Telephone: 0207 706 8888. Website: all.accor.com
Is the hotel a good base for sightseeing?
Not really. It’s almost next-door to Paddington station which isn’t the prettiest part of town, and you’ll have to catch a bus or tube to everywhere except Hyde Park and Marble Arch.
How much does it cost to stay at the hotel?
Prices can change from day to day depending on availability, but a rough guide for single rooms is £144 to £205, and for double rooms it’s £157 to £219 per night.
How many rooms does it have?
Mercure Paddington has 86 rooms.
What facilities does the hotel have?
The hotel uses the restaurant next-door and has a tiny bar (and I really do mean tiny!). It also has a small fitness centre, currency exchange services, and luggage storage facilities.
What facilities are in the rooms?
You get room service from the restaurant next-door, tea & coffee making facilities, a desk, telephone, TV and wi-fi, and an ensuite bathroom with a hairdryer, iron and trouser press.
What time is check-in, and check-out?
Check-in is from 3 PM and check-out is by 11 AM.
Which buses go to Mercure Paddington?
Bus routes 8, 26, 35, 42, 47, 48, 78, 135, 149, 205, 242, 344 and 388 all stop close by.
Which is the closest train station?
The nearest station is Paddington, which connects with the Bakerloo Circle District Elizabeth and Hammersmith & City lines. It also serves National Rail trains. It only takes a minute to walk to Mercure Paddington.
Does the hotel have its own car park?
No, but here are some car parks near Paddington.
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Email My review of Mercure Paddington
Let’s get straight down to the important stuff: number of teabags = two (but one of them is apple flavour); milks = two; biscuits = three. So straight away that is more than you get at The Ritz, which is a good start. You also get a wardrobe without any walls – just a load of coat hangars on a pole. But there’s a very good reason for that: because there isn’t enough room for a cupboard!
This is without a doubt the smallest room that I have ever slept in – and it’s supposed to be a 4-star hotel. If they put two single beds in here then the room would be totally full up without an inch of space leftover. It’s a good job that I’m skinny otherwise I would never have got in.
I’ll give you an example of how small the room is: they’ve put a trouser press on the wall but you can’t actually lower it down because it’s budged up against the mattress. The plug socket is flush against the sheets and if I turned it on then I’d be worried about setting fire to the bed. (Luckily I never do any ironing anyway, so it’s a moot point.)
Photo: londondrum.comAnd here is something that I’ve never seen before: a hotel window with frosted glass. All of the interior rooms look out over a concrete courtyard so they’ve obviously decided to frost up all the glass to stop people staring at each other. So that basically means that I’ve got a window I can’t look out of. I can’t see a thing through it.
So how are we doing so far? Let’s have a quick little re-cap… it’s a 4-star room about the same size as my shed with a frosted window in it. And there’s a wardrobe without any walls – just a metal stick with coat hangars on it. And an apple flavoured teabag.
I might steal one of the golden stars from the sign outside because they are taking the mickey calling this a 4-star room. The only thing that you’d have to do to turn this into a 2-star room is take out the trouser press that you can’t even use. Then you can knock a hundred quid off the room rate.
Photo: londondrum.comIt gets better… because the cleaner didn’t bother to wash up the cups up or replace the teabags. I know they are only piddly little problems in the grand scheme of things, and who really cares about a dirty cup (I’m perfectly capable of washing a cup up myself!), but it’s supposed to be a 4-star hotel, and when they charge you over a hundred quid for a shoebox room the least they can do is replace a 2p teabag.
As for the bar… well that is even smaller than my room. I’m being serious! It’s literally just a desk next to the reception with two tables in front of it. Maybe I’m being a bit cynical here, but I reckon they just shoe-horned that in there so they could claim their fourth star.
The only redeeming feature of this hotel is the breakfast room and restaurant, which is the high street restaurant next-door (they’ve got their own door into it from reception). They give you a voucher and you can go in there and choose whatever you want from the menu. And because it’s a proper high street restaurant it’s actually quite good. If the hotel ran it themselves then they’d probably give you two baked beans and a chip.
Here is my final review, summed up in a single sentence: I’m not coming back here ever again. I’d rather stay at home – and that’s the truth! Luckily I don’t mind when I get a lousy room because I’m only here to write a review, and this at least gives me something to write about. But if I’d just blown a load of money on it as a tourist I’d feel like I’d been ripped off. To me it’s not a 4-star hotel, it’s more like a very average 3-star.
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What do you think? (2)
Ask a question, or share your experience of the Mercure Paddington Hotel
dan I’ve stayed here a few times and I quite like it. I do a lot of traveling so it’s useful being next to Paddington Station. (reply)
PBury This is pretty much the definition of a no-fuss hotel. The room has everything you need for an overnight stay. (reply)
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