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Smart Hyde Park Inn

London (Bayswater)

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Address
48 Inverness Terrace, London (Bayswater), Greater London, England   Map
Price
Location/Contact
Details
Smart Hyde Park Inn Online Booking
Arrival Date:   Nights:  People: 
Their Description

Features

  • Free Breakfast
  • Kitchen
  • Lockers
  • 24 Hour Free Hot Showers
  • Washing Machine (laundry)
  • Lounge / Common space
  • Currency Exchange
  • Travel information provided
  • Gameroom
  • Phones (public or in room)
 
The Hostelz.com Review
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


Ratings & Comments

2.4 Average from 22 Ratings

This is an open forum, and unlike other hostel guide websites we don't censor out the negative comments.
We can't validate the legitimacy of comments posted on this site—so take what you read here with a grain of salt.
Comment by arthur conan doyle, de somewhere
February 2009
5 The best place i have ever been
Is the best place you can go. The best hotel, the best room, everything is cool, and the staff were very friendly. Huge sauna and swimming pool for the hot english summer. I recommend this hotel.
Comment by Tereza, Brasil
March 2008
2 Handy but greedy!
Good things first -- it is really close to tube station, has late night food stores and all other facilities just around the corner, really practical. Rooms are ok. Bathrooms are ok, except they are not in the same floor as your room. There is a funny divisions of floors and doors, so you feel like you are in a labyrinth of twenty floors and fifty secret doors, and that can be a pain. if you wanna go pee late at night, when it's cold! But then again, if it is summer, you won't be cold. On the contrary, you will be roasting inside! Seriously, it is the most unpleasant sensation ever. The worst thing, as mentioned before, is the fact that for everything little tiny thing you have to pay or leave a deposit. It is not about the money, but it's extremely annoying having to take your wallet along just to use a pan in the kitchen or getting an socket adapter, a key, or anything you can imagine. Staff is very often in a very cranky mood too. I also hated that the only common area had this huge TV, so no one would really talk and interact with each other, just stare at the screen almost drooling. Not laid back and conversation inviting at all.
Comment by Wendy, Netherlands
April 2007
3 I stayed in this hostel for two nights in March 2007. I booked a double room with shared facilities, as there was no room with private facilities available online. But when I arrived I got a triple room with facilities. The room, toilet, shower were all clean. I haven't had breakfast there because I preferred to get coffee at Starbucks and drink it in the park. I'd definitely stay there again, as very it's conveniently located.
Comment by Luisa
June 2006
1 I had never had such a negative experience in a hostel. The position is ok, near the tube station and easy to reach, it is quite cheap and you can also leave your luggage after the check out and they keep it safe (you have to pay for that though, which doesn't happen often). It is also quite clean. But there was only one tiny bathroom with tiny sink for twelve people! And with other people coming from other floors to the same bathroom as well. I had booked for two nights but when I went back to the hostel the second night, I found out that somebody else was sleeping in my bed, because the staff had given that away without checking if it was actually already taken! So I had to wake people up in the room and after an hour one of them was offered by the staff to have a bed somewhere else, and so I finally had another bed (I had to prepare it again though). If you want to lock your things you have to pay for the key (1.50£ a night)! I had to pay everything when I booked and I didn't even had an email confirming the booking, only the booking code. To sum up, I can promise you that I am not that demanding, but I would never go to that hostel or recommend it to somebody else!
Comment by K-G Co
May 2005
1 This is really bad. The staff wants your money. The breakfast is terrible with big bugs on the floor. It's hot and noisy. Just don't visit Hyde Park Inn.
Comment by Julie
March 2005
1 The pictures make it look so clean. Don't let them fool you.
Comment by Seriously Speaking
February 2005
1 Important — do not book in this f***ing hostel. This is really the worst hostel I have ever been to during my entire life. In fact, it is owned and managed by real blackmailing bastards. The receptionists keep asking you for money against anything you want to do: 5 pounds for borrowing a dish and some cutlery for the kitchen, 1.5 pounds for the locker key, 1.5 for every bag you deposit in the luggage lounge (however small the bag is!!!), 10 pounds for the room key and if you don't check out before ten, then you can say bye-bye to your 10 pounds. I reckon there will be soon another 10 pounds for using the toilets and the showers. To summarize, the people who manage the hotel are just practicing what is called "legal swindling." Do not go there, otherwise you're gonna be so frustrated.
Comment by Anonymous
January 2005
2 This hostel was just ok. The rooms were spacious and clean enough, and there are lockers in the room for your backpack. I found the kitchen to be filthy, and I therefore couldn't eat the free breakfast that was offered. The bathrooms need a good clean and the water in the showers was barely lukewarm (a problem if you are in London in October).
Comment by Ivan
November 2004
3 The staff here are good. I slept in the same room they did (?). For this reason, I suppose, the room was very disorderly, but I felt very safe leaving my baggage there. The showers in the mornings are a problem, because there are too few for the number of people in the hostel. The breakfast is very good.
Comment by Nicole
October 2004
5 I stayed in this hostel while I was in London on a rugby tour. I had by far the best time in this hostel. The staff were very friendly and fun. If I were to go back to London I would stay in this hostel again.
Comment by Anonymous
October 2004
3 This isn't a bad hostel. Before you book here you have to know where you are going, of course. If you want to stay in a three-star hotel, you have to discard this place, but if you just want to sleep some nights in a smart hostel, this is the cheaper option. I did not have any problem with safety and I have not used the lockers. I stayed in a six-bed room with the two young boys who worked in the reception (curious). The showers are not a problem if you use them in the afternoon or in the morning before people wake up (at 7:30). This place is near the tube, but far from the city center (it's three tube stops away, I think).
Comment by Emily
September 2004
4 I stayed in this hostel six nights, and aside from the showers (which were few and broken half the time), it was clean and safe. (I left my bag on my bed the whole week and had no problems). The staff and the other guests were very nice, the breakfast was better than at other places, and most people tried to be as quiet as possible. It is in a great location and isn't very expensive. I do, however, recommend a little patience when it comes to the showers, because they are a little difficult to deal with.
Comment by Rosalia
August 2004
4 I spent a weekend (21st-22nd August) in a single room of this hostel, and I found it very comfortable, clean, and quiet! For me, it's absolutely recommendable!
Comment by Monica
July 2004
1 What a crappy hostel. It's dirty, and they steal things that you leave on your bed, such as an alarm clock, flip flops and cheap sandals. And by "they" I mean the staff. So sad...
Comment by Patrick
July 2004
1 Do not waste your time and MONEY on this hostel.
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