Dolphin House London

What a disappointment. great location. Amateur reception staff. Check out time is 11am I believe, but at 9am, the day I was leaving, there was a very quiet tap on the door and, even though there was a "do not disturb" sign on the door, a housekeeper came in. She had been told I had gone, even though there was still a phone bill outstanding. Receptionist said "it was mistake", supervisor said the same. I asked for the manager (who was not in apparently) to email me with an explantion... It's now 18 days later and not a word. I'm from London and I was shocked at their cavalier attitude. P

Terrible service!!! The hotel was super cheap in terms of providing service, but charged like a 4 star hotel. Very basic things that come standard in most hotels like breakfast, internet access, local phone calls, were charged! On top of that, they don't refill anything. The soap they give you is all you get for the ENTIRE stay. Even if you finished a bottle, they won't refill...they might though but you might get slammed with a service fee. They wash the 2 towels you get every 3 days only; and they don't even feel nice. The towels were rough and get sticky when wet. The door to the room was also faulty. We only realized this the second day we were there only by chance. We pushed the door after we closed it from the outside and it opened to our surprise. The door doesn't lock properly! Every time we left the room, we had to open and close the door like 10 times until it locks...and this is NOT an exaggeration. One time I got so upset that I slammed the door so hard for it to finally lock. And to top it all off, I felt like they treated us like criminals right when we entered. During check in, they not only asked for my passport, but they also wanted to look at my fiance's passport. Then they asked me to put a $200 deposit should we decide to use any of their "wonderful" services like if we wanted breakfast or use internet in our room--um, which should be free. This was the single most expensive place I stayed in, and the cheapest too!

Choose a different hotel

The hotel location was nice and quiet but close to the tube. Two main problems: 1. The room I had was across the hall from the service eleveator. The entire corridor smelled like a garage (I believe it was car fumes from the basement garage). 2. The safe didn't work. I did speak with the manager and the first person said he didn't smell anything. The second person was in the room working on the safe and he said it was food smell until I took him out in the hall and he got on the service lift - where the smell was strong. Oh and they don't have air conditioning so don't go in the summer.

Used the Dolphin Square for the first time in Oct 2011. Location is really convenient to tubes but the room could use a few tweaks. The lighting was very poor - almost impossible to see to read or to put makeup on The lighting made the closet a dark hole and if the closet door was open you couldnt open the bathroom door or get into the room. We resorted to taking the shades off the lamps but it didnt help much. The information book in the room gave another guest's phone number as the number to retrieve messages - Im glad Im not him !

We enjoyed our stay at the Dolphin House Apartments very much. The only negatives were that we noticed some of the staff is extremely unfriendly. The man who checked us in was the rudist stuck up jerk I ever witnessed at a hotel. Note: we are not racist, but we noticed that the only unfriendly staff there were all non-whites. I honestly can't remember one non-white person who was friendly, besides the one in the restaraunt. The ones working in the hotel were either mute, shy or had some communication issues. I am not being racist, really. This is a fact. I even went out of my way to try to be friendly towards a few, just to test it and try to spark a conversation, but they really honestly did not want to talk. This was just the non-whites. They seemed like they could care less about us, which was odd, considering we are the main source of thier income...lol. The white people on the other hand, were super-friendly and went out of their way to help you. I am not racist...really. We are a mixed race couple. Not sure if it was just a coincidence or what, but it was definitely noticeable. Also, just fyi: There's no air conditioning. The room is very stuffy, so you need to keep the windows open at all times, especially at night while sleeping. We were there in May, so not sure how the rest of the year is.

While the rooms were large and beautiful....the lack of air conditioning really put a damper on our stay. It was unfortunate that London was having a heat wave the two days we were there (highs were in the low 90's). We asked for, and received, a fan for our room. It helped, but the room was still very warm. Also, we were traveling with my sister and her husband. They did not have as large a room as we did. It was very awkward because we both paid the same price.

The hotel was in a great location. 5 mins to the Victoria tube line. Within walking distance to buckingham palace, st james & green park. Good restaurants also within 15 min walk. It was also close to the Victoria coach and train station, about 15-2o min walk. The hotel also had a hair salon, a little convenient store, and a little bakery in it too. plus other services as well. Worth spending a little extra money to get a decent hotel in that area.

The hotel is located in a nice neighborhood, close to the subway and a wonderful bus line that will take you all the way to Camden Town. Although there is construction across the street from the hotel, we never found this to pose much of a problem (not terribly noisy). In terms of the interior, we had a lovely studio apartment. It was very nicely furnished and very clean. The rooms are a bit warm but it was sunny, very warm, and humid out, so it wasn't surprising--also, it's hard to find air conditioning in London so we weren't that concerned about it not being cooler in the room. Anyway, the hotel was happy to provide a fan, which helped a lot. We were never actually able to make it to the pool or fitness center but they seem to be top-of-the-line. I would definitely stay here again and next time find the time to try at least the pool.

Great hotel in a first class area. Staff were quite nice.