We stayed in this hotel on our last night in London before moving back to Australia (we had been living in London for the last 2 1/2 years).

We were given a room on the ground floor as we had a lot of luggage. The room was an ok size - we could just fit all our luggage. The bathroom was also ok. Overall the room was ok.

Now let me get on to the really bad bits... We went out to dinner with our friends for our last night in London. We returned to the hotel at 11pm and entered our room. On the desk was a birthday cake with a bite taken out of it and some hair pins and hair ties next to it. These were not ours!!! We go to the reception and complained. The attendant at reception came in to the room and at first wouldn't believe that the cake and hair ties weren't ours!!! We were not happy. He finally understood/believed us and took them away. We obviously didn't want to stay in that room but were told they were fully booked but the hotel down the road had rooms. The hotel down the road turned out to be a budget hotel currently in renovation with no air conditioning and very, very hot! So in the end we begrudgingly stayed in our existing room.

The handling of the situation was not good. We were told the Night Supervisor was on the way and would look at the video footage from security cameras but when the Night Supervisor was called (who was apparently at the hotel down the road), he mysteriously couldn't come over to our hotel and wasn't able to review the footage. We were then told that we would have to wait until 10am for another Supervisor to go through the footage and speak to us. We informed the reception staff that we had to leave by 9am to catch a flight so that would not be possible. We were then told that the Supervisor would review the footage and speak to us at 8:30am.

In the morning at 8:30am, the Supervisor was unavailable. We were offered free breakfast, ate that and came back at 8:50am. We had to wait for 10-15 mins for the Supervisor who was then completely uninformed about what happened. Once we explained the situation he questioned the believability of our story insisting multiple times that perhaps the cake had been ours!!! We were astounded!!! When we got angry and insisted we were told the footage would be reviewed and we would be emailed.

So, our room was broken in to, our privacy was violated, things were left in our room, we were not believed by staff and the only compensation we received was a free breakfast!

We did receive an email back from the hotel to say that there were no cameras in that corridor. They offered us a free upgrade the next time we stay - we will not be using this upgrade as we will never stay in this hotel again!

We got a great rate for this hotel, there was complimentary wine, water, fizzy drinks and a fruit bowl. The room was in the basement it was clean and comfortable and the housekeeping staff were helpful when asked for anything. The only downside was the sound of the fridge in the room but by the second night it wasn't that noticable. The hotel is in a good place for transport into the centre, I would definitely stay there again.

I recently booked at the Best Western Shaftesbury, Paddington Court. Unfortunately I received a mail from reservations saying that they were over booked and they had moved me to Best Western Heathrow. For those of you that know London, this is some distance away. However because of short notice, I had no option but to accept the option. That is the bad news. From here on in, I have nothing but admiration for the way in which the staff looked after me. They asked me to check in as usual at Best Western Shaftesbury, they then provided a cab to take me to Best Western Heathrow, I was provided dinner on arrival and they also provided a cab to get me back to London in the morning on time. The hassle of the over booking issue was completely removed by the excellent response of the Best Western team. They turned a potentially poor experience into a rewarding one, and this review is my thank you.

The hotel is in a good location being just a few minutes from Lancaster gate tube. We stayed in a club room which was a good size and had an immaculate bathroom. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. We had breakfast on both mornings which was very good. We look forward to staying at this hotel again in the near future.