Garden View Hotel

Garden View Hotel is a great place to stay if all you care about is having a place to stay. I wouldnt say the place was filthy, but I wouldnt call it a Marriott or Hilton. The rooms are extremely small, at least the one we stayed in. The bathroom in our room is probably one of the smallest bathrooms I have seen. I am a little over 6ft and I could barely fit in the shower. No room to move whatsoever. If you are there alone, and just traveling then it should be fine. But if your traveling with someone, it may feel like you are right on top of each other the entire time. Its close to the main metro line that takes you to all the main tourist stuff in london, which is a huge plus. You dont need to make a lot of transfers to see everything. There is a decent amount of places to eat close by, and the area felt safe. It did the job just fine when we were there, but I wont stay there again when we go back to london.

This hotel epitomizes the phrase, «You get what you pay for. .. and not a penny more!» Am I satisfied with our stay in July? Sure. Would I stay there again? Probably not, if I could locate better accommodations. Would I recommend it to others? Absolutely! Because, for what it is, it’s an all around great spot. You just have to be in the right mindset.
Pros:
— Free breakfast! Definitely helped us keep costs down on our trip.
— Friendly staff! They remembered our faces and which room we were staying in.
— Good quality of rooms! We had our own in-​room electric tea kettle for coffee/​tea, a desk, and wardrobe closet. All with floor-​to-​ceiling french windows.
— GREAT location for getting to know how people live in the city! We were a 5 minute walk from grocery stores, laundromats, restaurants, tons of traditional English pubs and hip modern pubs, and a great tube station (within the major city zones).
— Free Internet and en-​suite bathroom with shower for a low (for London) price.
Cons:
— The free breakfast is only cereal and toast, with juice and instant coffee. The room is also quite small for the number of people who try to squeeze in all at once.
— The staff knows you so well because they have old-​school keys and require you to leave them at the front desk when you go out. (I guess that could be a Pro, in that you don’t have to worry about losing your key!)
— The rooms are SMALL. I mean, SMALL. Yes, I’m American, but I understand what «small» means by European standards. These are small by European standards. As in, doors can’t open all the way and chairs can’t leave the room because they don’t fit through hallways type of small. I’ve stayed in small hotel rooms and dorm rooms before, but even I was shocked by the tinyness of … well… everything at the Garden View.
— No A/​C. Again, yes I’m an American, but I knew what to expect with the A/​C situation in Europe. That being said, we were there during a massive heat wave and the ventilation in our room was abysmal. We just sat there and sweat, and sweat, and sweat with little to no breeze. We almost contemplated buying a small fan, even though we were only going to be there for a week.
To sum it all up, this a great hotel if you plan to stay for a shorter amount of time, refuse to give up certain standards, yet don’t want to pay London hotel prices. It worked well for us, but it just wasn’t as comfortable as staying in a more traditional hotel.