Thanks for the gen Mr Mugridge, that could indeed prove handy and worth a look. If my easyHotel choice is unavailable it'll be worth a look. Now let's bang in a few recent reviews of my own. I still have a mega ton of them to post on TripAdvisor, but I'm currently putting off my RailMiles update in preference to catching up on here:
Vitkov Hotel, Prague, Czech Republic
I stayed here for 3 nights recently. The reception staff were friendly and welcoming, and the lift to take my case up to my room with me was welcome. Worth mentioning as not everywhere has a lift...
The room I had was absolutely enormous, with plenty of space in the wardrobe for putting clothes and hanging them too. The same area had a small fridge in it too, which did come in handy. The TV was of the CRT style, not that I used it. The WiFi was excellent, and I used it a lot as a result.
The bathroom was a most decent size too, with a most powerful and very good shower.
Sadly the bed was rather hard and uncomfortable, and it took me a long time to get to sleep in it. The air conditioning was good though.
It was very placed for getting to/from the city centre though, a 15 minute tram journey on line 9. Prague does do trams well, unlike some cities. Vienna, I'm looking at you here...
York Hotel, Ilford, London
Very close to the station in Ilford, within a 3 minute walk, but that's the best I can say about this place.
Reception took forever to check me in, and be warned you WILL be charged a £20 deposit for damages and so on. Thankfully I had that with me!
No lift and some steep stairs to my room, 27 for me, and I could have easily gone flying over the hoover left out in the corridor and it was still there the next morning! A stiff door meant it took some effort to open and close it. A fridge and microwave in the room, but that didn't compensate for the ultra uncomfortable bed! Good grief that thing was rough, worse than what I'd had in Prague and what I was to have the next night!
No TV in the room and no WiFi anywhere in the building.
It was incredibly hot in the room and the window didn't open very far. No air conditioning so you had to have the little bit of air coming in and suffer the noisy people outside.
This was a shared bathroom deal, and the shower was OK but not great. I've had better but I've had worse.
Check out was far quicker thankfully, and yes I did get my £20 deposit back which I was convinced I wouldn't! To say I was glad to leave and get to the airport is an understatement!
Sant'Ambroeus Hotel, Milan, Italy
Check in involved some paperwork, including photocoping of the passport, and my receipt for arrival was printed on a dot matrix printer. I thought they had all been long consigned to history!
My room was 311 on the third floor, and finding the light switches was a big mission it has to be said. Good size room, small bathroom but excellent air conditioning. Considering it was still around 28 degrees Celsius at 10pm this was a good thing! I had a mini bar in the room, but instead of taking anything from there I put my own drinks in the fridge to cool them down.
Sadly the bed was very hard and took some doing to sleep in it, but at least it didn't creak and wasn't worn out like the bed I had in London!
Check out was super easy and I was soon on my way to the city centre, about 3.25 miles away by foot and around an hour's walk from Centrale Station at a brisk pace.
I probably would stay again at the hotel in Prague, and the one in Italy, but definitely 100% not the one in Ilford. I'd rather spend a night on Night Buses than do that again!