Smart Hyde Park Inn

Smart Hyde Park Inn is located in a trendy area of London.

The Location

It is located on Inverness Terrace, about a two minute walk from Bayswater station and a four-minute walk from Queensway station (both of which are good stations to go to depending on your route. It is also located near many bus stops that run all night.

Rooms and Bedrooms

The eighteen-bed coed room is what you pay for. It is located in the basement next to the kitchen, where breakfast is served. Also, check out is at 10 a.m. so it gets very noisy at this time. Also, the cleaning staff talk noisily during the day. This is a place to sleep at night, don't expect to sleep during the day.

The washrooms seem like toilets and sinks installed into wherever there is room, like a closet or underneath the stairs. They are clean but sketchy. The showers are the same. There is little room to change and the hooks in some of the shower rooms are broken off. The doors have a key card to enter, but sometimes did not close properly. For an extra charge there is the option of a storage locker (using a key) in the bedrooms, and these are big enough to hold a backpack. The room gets hot and damp in the summer and the pillows are old and stained, and also very thin. This is a cheap hostel and you get what you pay for.

Luggage storage is provided before you check in for free, but after you check in there is a fee. The hostel has a lot of backpackers looking for cheap accommodation. Because it is a budget hostel with very cheap rooms, a lot of the people staying there are backpackers on very tight budgets, which adds colour to the place but may be a little sketchy for the more upscale hosteler. The breakfast in the morning is toast with some jams and butter, and cereal. Nothing more. It will give you something to eat but it is not worth a lot since you can't really get full on bread.

Common Spaces

Internet is provided in the front common room, but it is on high chairs that provide no place to rest feet and there is a charge to use them. If you need to use the internet a lot it might be better to find a hostel with free internet. There is also no way to print things if you need to print tickets or boarding passes.

Summary

This is a budget hostel, and you get exactly what you pay for. It is a safe place to sleep for the night -- not a comfortable place -- and you will have to put up with loud noises in the morning during breakfast if you stay in the eighteen-bed dorm.

— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
May 2009