When you arrive at the hotel, you experience the highest standards of luxury and olde world charm, with dark wood and sumptuous leather. Contrast that with the surly and uninviting welcome from the reception staff who managed to check two consecutive parties into the same room, hence as we were unpacking another couple let themselves into our room. A mistake that could happen anywhere maybe, but surely an apology would be forthcoming, no.
The room itself was clean, and had most things that you would expect for its rating, with the exception of glasses and sufficient space to swing a cat. The furniture is all you would require but squeezed in.
The location is excellent, just a short walk from two underground stations and over the road from Hyde Park. Lots of restaurants nearby.
From reading other reviews we may have been lucky with the room we were allocated, but can only review as we found it and would return assuming the room rate was as reasonable as today.

Judging by similar recent reviews this place operates a scam whereby you book this hotel but in fact get redirected upon arrival to another. I fell for the nice description but was moved elsewhere into a (Deluxe) noisy basement cell with no window, no wireless, no mobile reception, no TV remote (no controls on TV) and the breakfast was rubbish. For the money I was ripped off, but more annoyingly got a bad nights sleep. The reason I overnighted in London was because I had a late work finish and early start so needed some rest. There were other couples being redirected elsewhere that night, the excuse was that due to painting the rooms were fume filled. Several of us asked to see our rooms - access was denied. In my opinion this was a lie. The management of this hotel is an utter disgrace - they deliberately operate an overbooking policy, take your cash and dump you somewhere inconvenient. Trading Standards should punish them. Don't stay with Shaftesbury unless you want to get Shafted!

Booked via Laterooms.com on the basis of cost and location. Seeing the reviews on Laterooms, I decided on the 'Club' upgrade. On arrival there was fruit and wine in the room but the room was smaller than expected. Later that evening I checked the hotel website and concluded that we were not in a 'spacious Club room' and complained at the front desk. The receptionist seemed embarrassed and guaranteed to move us the following day. The move went seamlessly and we were put into a bigger, family room which was quite acceptable.

All in all the staff were very good, the room was clean and comfortable, the location in Bayswater with two tube stations just around the corner was very good and the breakfast was excellent. I considered it good value for money and would return - as long as the hotel could guarantee that the room I booked was the one I was allocated from the first night!

I stayed for 2 nights on business. The website attracted me. It was however fairly misleading in my experience. The building is absolutely stunning, stained glass, wood panelling and many, many more original features on a gorgeous Georgian street, right next to Hyde Park. However, the welcome was cold to say the least. The receptionist did not even acknowledge me for about 5 minutes. Another person at the desk was busy too, dealing with complaints from other guests. The room I was given was described as deluxe and it was pleasantly decorated and the bathroom was spotless but there was no full length hanging anywhere (just a small cupboard with hanging for shirts/tops only) and no coat hooks. My room was in the basement with an external storage area directly outside (3 feet from the window) which was brightly lit day and night and people noisily loading and unloading from it day and night. The room was therefore not private and i had to have the curtains closed permanently and i had a terrible night's sleep. As a woman travelling on my own i did not feel particularly safe either with people right outside my window all the time. The hotel is supposed to have a restaurant but when i enquired about it i was told there was no food available (whether in a restaurant or via room service) ither than breakfast. Instead i was directed to Bayswater road where there are shops and restaurants, but again as a woman travelling alone, i did not particularly want to go wandering around London on my own at night. Breakfast was adequate, but the staff were miserable and obviously do not want to be there. A real shame - the place has such potential but the poor facilities and dreadful atmosphere created by the miserable staff really let the place down. I would never stay here again.