Single Room G1 (Sandycroft Guest House)

Excellent value for money — basic but clean, with helpful hosts.

7.0

Sandycroft was a very affordable and convenient base for my four-night trip to London. The room was small and basic, but clean, and it provided everything I really needed: somewhere to sleep after long days exploring the city. The hosts were helpful and responsive. There was an initial problem with the room key, but they quickly provided an alternative lockbox so I could get in without too much difficulty. For the price, I thought it offered excellent value for money, particularly as I spent most of my time out sightseeing rather than at the accommodation.

− The accommodation was extremely basic, with very few extras or amenities. No toiletries were provided, so it's important to bring your own. The initial key collection was also a little frustrating because the original key was missing. Although the hosts resolved this quickly, the replacement arrangement meant returning the shared key to the lockbox after each use, which was slightly inconvenient. This is really somewhere to sleep rather than somewhere you'd want to spend much time relaxing.

Guest review

1.0

Nothing

− Everything, explanation below: I am extremely disappointed and angry about my stay at this property. I booked a room from August 25th until September 3rd, but I ended up leaving early because I no longer felt safe staying there. On my very first night, one of the workers at the property came to my door while clearly intoxicated and started behaving inappropriately towards me. He tried to give me his phone number, offered me his keys, and invited me to come to his room. I immediately contacted the owners using the phone numbers provided to me and explained what had happened. I was told that the necessary action would be taken. For a couple of days things were quiet, but then the lock on my bedroom door broke. I informed the same worker about the problem. He contacted the owners and gave me another number to reach them — but for some reason he also gave me his personal phone number again. After that, he started messaging me repeatedly about things completely unrelated to the property or the broken lock. He continued trying to invite me to his room “to talk,” asked me to have dinner with him, and kept contacting me despite the fact that I repeatedly rejected his invitations. Apparently, the word “no” was not clear enough for him. I was a young woman travelling alone in London, staying in a room with a door that could not even be properly locked, while a male worker living at the property repeatedly approached and messaged me after I had already made it very clear that I was not interested. The entire situation made me feel extremely uncomfortable and unsafe. What makes this even worse is that I waited around 3–4 days for the lock to be repaired. I waited until August 31st, but nothing was properly resolved. At that point I had had enough and decided to check out early. As a result, I paid for more nights than I actually stayed and had to spend the final days of my trip staying with acquaintances because I did not feel safe remaining at this property.

I was traumatized and nigh robbed.

1.0

− There was already someone else living in the room. When I checked in and the other guest came in and threatened me and got me to give him 30 pounds for the few hours I was in the room even when I had the confirmation and invoice from Booking.com. I tried contacting the property owner but the contact number was not available. Worst experience ever; it was a very unsafe situation for me in a completely new city. The other guest was getting aggressive at me. He kept me there forcefully for about half and hour until i gave him 30 pounds and saved myself from the situation. I have raised this issue with the booking.com customer service and they have refunded the stay, but it is still unfair and does not compensate for what I put through.

What you pay for.

5.0

Easy to check in. Easy to find room. All good overall. The shower was easy to use.

− People upstairs were very loud. Stairs outside are very dangerous when it's dark and when leaving. Kitchen was used and not cleaned by another guest. The bathroom was a bit smelly. I asked staff 3 times where to park, and no answer. Luckily parking is not hard to find once you get there. A bit of a tip.