I stayed at the Grand Royale for 3 nights in Feb. It IS in an excellent location, a few minutes from the District/Circle/Central lines, shops and restaurants. The public areas are very nice, old-English style. My room(s) were clean, and the bathrooms were modern. Unfortunately that's all I can recommend about it.

I was in London for job interviews, and booked a Deluxe Single, thinking "hey, I don't need a fancy room, just somewhere to sleep". Unfortunately, sleep was impossible!

My tiny (TINY) room was in the basement, and looked out onto an external stairwell that was filled with rubbish bins and bags of linen (check out the traveller photos, there are a few pictures of it from Julesbusiness). I didn't initially care about the "view", but was worried about security. As I said, the window is right next to the stairs and is of the old pull-up style, held closed only by a small latch. But, it was late, I'd been travelling for hours and was tired, so I decided to ignore it and go to sleep (wearing an extra jumper because there was a cold draft from the window).

Unfortunately, all night long, people were in and out of the stairwell, emptying bins and throwing down more bags, talking loudly and laughing. Every time I started to drift off, there would be another almighty crash of bottles or loud conversation. Didn't sleep a wink, even with earplugs. Around 4:00, in desperation, I put headphones on and tried to drown it out with music (to no avail). At some early hour, guys in hi-viz vests came to collect the bags or do something with them, I'm not sure. They yelled to one another for a while until I ripped the curtains open and gave them a look of murder. They then quietened, but there was still the noise of the bags being moved.

So, started my first day of interviews with zero sleep. Finished the last one at about 6pm, and went back to the hotel to demand a different room. They were obliging, and swapped me to another Single room on the third floor, which was even smaller (no more "Deluxe" for me, and no refund of the price difference). There was barely space for the single bed and a tiny table and wardrobe. The room was clean, but sweltering (poor aircon), the door lock was broken, and there was no network cable, which was a drag because I hadn't brought one. However, despite being next to the stairs and lifts, this room was relatively quiet, so I did manage to sleep for the next few nights. Hence the two stars instead of one.

I'm sure there are nicer rooms if you're willing to pay a bit more, but I certainly wouldn't stay here again on a budget!