Castleton Hotel

Its only a short walk from the Paddington station, which is great at day time. At night you need to take buses or taxis, which can be very difficult.

The hotel is small. We had a triple room, with barely enough room for our luggage. The cleaning lady cleaned our room once in a week, and didn't even change the sheets even though they had been spilled soda on. The staff was very unhelpful the entire stay. We delivered the cups from our room to get new ones, but never got any, and had to buy cups ourselves. When asking for them to call a taxi, they called a black cab (a private person in a van) that used three times as much time to go to the airport and had us paying twice as much as a regular taxi. In addition to all this, we all ended up with bug bites from the beds, now concerned on wether or not we've brought them with us home. Not worth the money at all.

On a cold and drizzly winter's day, the warm and cozy lobby here was most inviting, indeed. We required lodging after a horrendous experience at another gawdawful hotel around the corner and the staff here was accommodating, offering an excellent last-minute special rate as well! It's just down the block from Paddington Station, which is a super hub for both the tube as well as Heathrow Express rail service. Fast forward two years...I just stayed here for a transit night recently. My impressions were downgraded from the initial go-round in '03, although the 38GBP rate couldn't be beat. My room this time however was straight out of central casting for Cinderella's quarters. It's proof there are such things as basement garrets! ;-)

Unique Quality: Just FYI, if you wish to make any enquiries re: the Castleton, go to the hotel's own website as listed below. The special vt-provided link above takes you to some totally unrelated property. Surprise.