Commodore Hotel

This hotel is dreadful. Shoebox sized rooms that could use some cleaning and updating. Rude staff unwilling to be bothered with your requests. Cheap. But it comes out in the staff and unbelievably tiny rooms and narrow halls. Stay somewhere else if you can.

Remember Fawlty Towers? Want to stay there? Come here! On the pro’s: it is relatively cheap (£69 for a ‘superior’ room), a stunning building from the outside, great potential inside (grand, original features), good location just along from marble arch with regular busses on the doorstep straight up to oxford circus, free upgrade to a 2-​storey suite with a four poster bed which, at first blush, looked very impressive. Sounds great, right? No. Better get yourself a cuppa and get comfy for the cons list:
1) my parents also got an ‘upgrade’ to a room so small, they couldn’t walk round the bed, and so shabby they must have been ‘upgraded’ from Colombo’s shed, (2) there was no heating in my room (more on that later), (3) the 4 poster bed was so rickety, I genuinely feared for my safety during the night (4) it had that weird smell like the soft furnishings hadn’t been replaced since the smoking ban was introduced, (5) language barrier with staff made it all very awkward, (6) maintenance guy can’t fix stuff (7) half the walls were scuffed and scraped (8) the remaining walls, whilst freshly done in rich colours, were clearly painted by Stevie Wonder without any masking tape; what a ruddy sloppery mess (red walls + white woodwork = murder scene).
The heating palaver was a farce. I checked in late afternoon on a bitterly cold January day. I’d been standing outside for hours and was chilled to the bone so was gutted to get to my single glazed suite to find it just as cold as it was outside. The radiator was stone cold. The aircon could be set to ‘heat’ but you couldn’t adjust the temperature, and it turned off automatically after about 3 mins. I called reception and they said they’d get maintenance to call me. Maintenance guy turned up instead, turned on the aircon, pointed at it and said «heat». I explained to him that it kept turning itself off and he said «off?» and showed me how to turn it off. Argh! The language barrier was infuriating. I explained that the radiator was cold and he smiled and nodded and said «radiator, yes!». I began to wonder if I was in a hidden-​camera prank show. It would have been hilarious if I weren’t so cold and hadn’t just come from a funeral at a very cold cemetery. I wasn’t really in the mood for this. I mimed being shivering with cold and tried to explain that the main radiator wasn’t working, but the one in the downstairs toilet was working. He went away, saying he was going to turn on the heating (surely it is already on because it is freezing cold January, and also the other radiators are on!). He came back. The radiator was still cold. He went away again ‘for tools’. He came back with a single screwdriver. He unscrewed something and said «15 minutes!» and went away again. I don’t know what he meant by that because nothing at all happened in 15 mins. 20 mins later, still nothing had happened, he hadn’t come back, the room was still Baltic and I had to change (in that freezing room!) and go out for dinner. On my way out, I tried to explain to another member of staff about the cold room and the inexplicable ’15 minutes’ comment, and that I had to go out now but could they please make sure my room was warm when I came back, but there was another language barrier and the guy also clearly couldn’t have cared less about my cold room. I went out for dinner. I came back well after midnight, very tired and very cold, and desperate for my cosy bed after a long and miserable day. But my room was still freezing. I couldn’t face the grief of explaining the problem again, only for it not to be fixed again, or having the upheaval of getting a room change at that time of night, so I just went to my bed FULLY CLOTHED. Extra fully clothed, in fact, as I put on all the rest of my clothes from my suitcase on top of what I was already wearing. If it weren’t for the fact that the next day my wee parents were still a bit fragile from the horrible funeral day before, I would have unleashed hell and refused to pay the full bill for our stay. Instead, we just paid and quietly left. Lucky for the hotel, none of the staff were even interested enough to ask if we had enjoyed our stay.

Hotel staff wasn’t very friendly, rooms were small but that’s to be expected in europe. Location is pretty good, close to convenient bus stop. Free breakfast was nice. The view of 3 nasty old water heaters laying on their sides wasn’t the view I was looking for when I opened our window. The hallways are really narrow. I don’t think a fat person could even get to their room. The place seems like a fire hazard. So glad we only stayed there three nights. That was too long.

The staff seemed friendly. Hotel looks bigger from the outside than it actually is. If you have a big suitcase you only will fit in the elevator with it, extra small elevator making it almost claustrophobic. Our room was on the top floor, 7^th floor, we had to take the elevator up to the 6^th floor and walk up a tiny spiral stair well to the 7^th floor. So, try to stay between the first 6 floors!!! Stairwell and hallways were very narrow. Room was very small but comfortable and it served its purpose. A bit pricey though for what it was. In terms of location, it seems like a nice enough neighborhood. We got back to the hotel using London’s buses at almost 2 in the morning and there were only a couple of people out and about. It almost felt like we were in the suburbs at that point. It was pretty conveniently located for several bus stops within a quarter of a mile. If you plan ahead and find something around the same price, I would probably look closer towards Soho in Chinatown. That’s where most of the fun seems to be! Almost felt like being in Times Square in that area.

Service was awful checked in at 6pm went out for dinner returned at 9pm our room had been robbed all our electronics iPad etc were gone along with my camera and lenses pretty sure it was the staff since they were the only ones around when we checked in and they did nothing to help when we reported hotel has key card system they were unable to tell if anyone entered the room?

Service in other countries for the most part just is not the same as it is in our country. This hotel was very pricey as the pound crushed the dollar for one. Secondly I found the people working at this hotel to be really cold and unfriendly so I avoided staff as much as possible during my 5 night stay, which made lounging around the hotel uneasy. When I walked up the door man did not even offer to help me with my bags and I was so tired and I was hoping for a little love. Then the check in was icey.
The room was very cool though. All the furnishing were well appointed and the room was super comfortable. The bathroom had a towel warmer, which was sublime since I was at the hotel in January and it was so cold. The bed was super comfortable and the location was good and everything around the hotel was really clean with lots of shops and pubs nearby.

Commodore serves international cuisine which is so-​so. This restaurant is actually in the Commodore hotel so there is a bit of everything on the menu which would suit international guests. It was ok, but pricey though with prices starting from £35 and up for dinner. I personally would not go back as it was a bland meal, expensive drinks, and only an ok service. The meal we ordered was Spanish but I didn’t like the flavours and the portions were quite stingy and small. I expect more when i go out to eat and this was just borderline. Try somewhere else