http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/hotel/1e33b7i/the-hoxton The Hoxton - London, 81 Great Eastern Street, EC2A 3HU, United Kingdom en http://cdn.trustedplaces.com/i/uploads//.140.jpg http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/hotel/1e33b7i/the-hoxton http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/hotel/1e33b7i/the-hoxton/1o0pb8
Review by queenie1

Rating: 5.00
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The Hoxton hotel was recently voted number 2 in a list of the best hotels in the UK by Guardian readers. It is one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in. I was lucky enough to obtain one of the 1 pound rooms (standard stay is from about 109 per night for a double). There were fantastic perks including a free pret a manger breakfast left on a hook outside your door on a morning to a reasonably priced small 'shop' located in reception downstairs (in opposed to ridiculously high priced mini-bar prices - the only thing in your fridge in your room is free water and milk - fantastic). The room itself was quirky and original with an immaculate stylish bathroom. Location wise it was close to the tube station and a short hop skip and jump to Brick Lane for a curry. Fantastic location, wonderful hotel.]]> Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:48:02 +0000 /review/uk/london/hotel/1e33b7i/the-hoxton/1o0pb8111608463 queenie1 51.524783871583 -0.082789767461415 http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/hotel/1e33b7i/the-hoxton/1j0na9
Review by jan08

Rating: 5.00
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Great modern hotel close to Liverpool St station. Contemporary styled, spacious rooms with flat screen TV and WiFi. Luxurious bathrooms with plenty of fluffy towels and Aveda toiletries. Very helpful desk staff - on my visit they fulfilled my request for a quiet room on a higher floor. The hotel's bar is popular with locals and includes an open fire and lots of deep comfy chairs and setees. It's reasonably priced and often runs deals (register with them to get email alerts of each sale). Only drawbacks might be the location, as it's not convenient for the West End, and the lack of sit-down, hot breakfasts (pret-a-manger breakfasts are brought to your room and left outside the door).]]> Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:04:06 +0000 /review/uk/london/hotel/1e33b7i/the-hoxton/1j0na91948595051 jan08 51.524783871583 -0.082789767461415 http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/hotel/1e33b7i/the-hoxton/1a2e08
Review by mynameisrui

Rating: 5.00
Tags:
We recently stayed in the Hoxton Hotel a few weeks ago after getting it in one of their £1 sales (I'll come on to that later) and we loved every minute of it!

The hotel itself is still fairly new and calls itself an 'Urban Lodge'. It only opened in late 2006 and for a long time was booked up solid due to a lot of good reviews from the press and customers who managed to get a room there.

It is located just by Old Street station with exit 3 being no more than a few minutes walk to the hotel. For anyone who has ever been to Club Aquarium (where the 'Car Wash' event often happens) then it is slightly further round the road from that. Old street itself is on the Northern line so to get into the centre of London you will need to change but that is no problem. The actual area around the hotel seems to be a very fashionable area with numerous boutiques around and a few trendy restaurants and bars. The area does seem a tad worn down but I'm told it is up and coming so we will see what it is like in a few years. I would say that we didn't manage to find a cash point near by that didn't charge you for withdrawals so it might be an idea to take some cash to save you being charged a fee to take money out. There is a cash point in the hotel but I didn't see if it was free or not.

Once you walk in the hotel the first thing you will notice is a VW Golf Mark 4 that has been chopped in half and the two back ends of the car have been stuck together to make one very interesting sight! To the right of the entrance is the bar area where they also have the restaurant. To the left are the check in desks, lifts and computers to use the internet.

Check in was very simple and the staff were very polite. The member quickly gave us our key and told us where to go for the room. Our particular room was on the 6th floor which is the top floor. Before we entered the room we noticed that each room number had a purple illumination behind it which gave it a very nice feel. The whole décor in the halls and lift were also very modern and trendy.

When we got into the room we were amazed at how nice the room was. There was a lovely double bed there with 3 big cushions on it and each one had either paper, rock or scissors written on it with the appropriate hand gesture as well. There was also a flat screen TV on the wall which extended outwards so that you could watch TV while in bed. There was also a safe, air conditioning, little sofa, desk and fridge which included a free pint of milk and two free bottles of water. These were to go with the tea and coffee which were in the room. There were also 2 cups and 4 wine glasses as well as a corkscrew in the room. Again, the décor of the room was very trendy with a plain coloured walls which had some light drawings of London scenes on it mixed with dark objects such as the desk, bed and TV cabinet thing.

The bathroom was lovely and was exactly how I'd decorate mine if I could! The whole thing had brown tiles with granite tops and this was complimented by the white toilet and sink as well as the silver fixtures and fittings. There was also no light on the ceiling, instead they obviously decided that they would go for more subtle look and the lights are on the side on the main mirror which illuminate the room well. The shower was the bit I loved. The actual shower unit bit was massive. You could comfortably fit 2 people in there and not be cramped. The shower itself was a large head on the ceiling so the water fell vertically and was lovely. It also had plenty of pressure which I personally loved! The mirror was also a self demisting one which meant that no matter how hot the shower was the mirror would never get misty.

With each room you are also given a small breakfast. For this you need to fill in a little carrier bag and hang it on the outside of your door at night and they will fill it up for you. In my case I got a yoghurt, banana and a small orange juice from Pret a Manger which was very nice.

The TV in each room is fairly nice. I believe it is about 26" and has the usual free TV channels including 1-5, ITV and the usual news channels. For £7.50 you can also purchase various films. There is free internet TV and there is a keyboard in one of the draws to help you but I didn't use it so have no idea if it is any good.

As you'd expect each room also comes with free towels, soap, hair dryer and free wi-fi connection which is handy.

We had a nice big window in our room but it was facing the other half of the building which meant we had no view at all and had to be careful if changing to close the curtains otherwise people could have had a look in. This was a big annoying but we weren't bothered considering what we paid for the room.

Downstairs there is the main restaurant and bar area. We didn't try the restaurant but we had a look and the prices seemed fairly reasonable but the menu did seem to be a bit limited.

During the evening we decided to stay in the hotel and have a drink as there was not a great deal around there and we felt most comfortable in the hotel. We found a seat in the bar and there was a waitress offering table service which we used. Be warned though, they charge a fair whack for service (about 12%) when it might be easier for you to get up and go to the bar. The wine list was fairly good and reasonable. We got a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio for £19.50 which was a middle of the price range white wine. There was also a good cocktail menu and it is quite fun to watch them make the cocktails. A DJ was also in the bar playing some quite chilled out music which made the atmosphere nice. Owe to it being a Saturday night, the bar was busy at least until 1am which is the point at which we went back to our room. Again, the whole bar/restaurant area kept in the style of the whole hotel and was very trendy and well decorated. The lighting was very gentle and there were 2 fireplaces which was very nice. There was also a good level of people in the bar so that it wasn't cramped but it wasn't empty.

One thing the hotel doesn't have is its own fitness area. This, however, isn't a problem as for £5 you can have access to the local gyms fitness activities which include a 25m swimming pool, sauna and steam room. This gym is no more than a 5 minute walk from the hotel so its very convenient.

Finally onto the best bit, every 3 months of so the Hoxton hotel has a £1 sale where they release 5 rooms per night at £1 to be booked over a 3 month period. For example, they had a sale in April where you could book rooms between 1 May - 31 July. They only have 500 rooms available so you need to be quick. They recently had another sale for 1 August - 31 October and all the rooms sold out in about 20 minutes. At the same time as the £1 sale, they also offer a further 500 rooms at £29 so in total there are 1000 rooms on sale for up to £29 which is pretty good considering you'd be looking to pay about £100 for a normal room. In order to find out about the sale, just go onto the website and sign up to be on their mailing list and you will be told about the sale a few days before it is due to start. A word of warning though if you are going for the sale, make sure you are at your computer at the time the sale starts as you need to be very quick to get these rooms.

Our experience of the Hoxton was brilliant and it's just a shame we did not manage to get another room in the sale. There was nothing for us to complain about and I'd probably be happy to pay full price to stay there again. I will definitely be recommending it to any family or friends who are looking for a hotel.

For more information (and pictures of the hotel for you to see how nice it is) see the website:

http://www.hoxtonhotels.com/


Please note this review is also posted on Dooyoo and Ciao by myself under the same username]]> Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:25:28 +0000 /review/uk/london/hotel/1e33b7i/the-hoxton/1a2e08526516291 mynameisrui 51.524783871583 -0.082789767461415