Thistle city Barbican Hotel Reviews

Bit tired this hotel!
Wooden windows with paint peeling, cheap TV with poor quality picture, no phone charging sockets.
Not really an expensive fix!

Great hotel. .had fantastic deal by booking direct...3 days over the weekend fir bed and breakfast for 339...

Very comfortable and efficient staff even if very young

Hotel located in the center. 10 minutes from the metro. Hotel with 2 buildings including 1 old. The latter is very poorly isolated at the phonic level.

Poor sized room, shower would not maintain temperature. We went for a couple of drinks in the bar which was expensive with horrific service. Don't waste your money here.

Unfortunately I only give the hotel one star. Booked it through my tour operator TUI for Wellness (SPA). Since I go on wellness holidays more often, that was my priority. Steam sauna, Finnish sauna and pool are also available - but something unhygienic! In the pool all deck, snot, hair, ... it is not cleaned. This is also the case with the showers, where wet dust, hair, etc. collects. The steam sauna has no cleaning option for the user to rinse off from the previous one with a hose. In a manner of speaking, msn is forced to sit in the sweat and secretion of the previous guest unless you use a towel. Furthermore, there is no indication whether this area has a dress code (swimming trunks / bikini) or not. Because as a rule, you go to the SPA area for the saunas unclothed. I did this too and then stood in the middle of the pool right in front of the steam sauna. All other guests were dressed. So I put on appropriate clothes again. Directly across from the steam room was a man with a cell phone and a direct view of and into the steam room. Despite the ban on cell phones (signs are posted). The staff does not pay attention to compliance with this prohibition or cleanliness. The dirt is passed by or only roughly cleaned. The SPA area is also visible to all guests who are not in the SPA area through a glass front. So I was annoyed to stand completely naked at first. I booked the hotel for six days and was only 30 minutes in the specially requested SPA area.
To the room: 6th floor, good view. The only plus point for the room. Otherwise it is very old, the furniture strips are broken or missing. The bedside tables are broken, torn from the wall and dirty. The wall mirror is partly dirty from previous models. The bathroom is ok, but a toilet brush is definitely missing ....
The windows are not really tight, air is constantly drawn in and of course the volume increases. Tear open the heating, then you won't freeze at night either. (in January)
The staff: very friendly and helpful. The hotel scores too!
For breakfast: that's okay too. There is a typical English breakfast, muesli, fruit, coffee, tea, ... only as a German do I personally miss bread rolls. But what can be coped with, since there are enough alternatives and not a basic requirement.
All in all, I still cannot recommend the hotel. In any case, I'm not coming back.

Very clean room, extremely courteous staff. Price ( 145 single) in line with the average of the hotels of the same level in central London.

This hotel is very tatty and the service is dreadful. Avoid it.

Nice views. 2 Insect traps in the rooms do it felt posh... I was working so was a place to crash it did the job

Tired rooms, badly stained carpet (red), a hole in the floor and a room that had more in common with a bunker than a hotel. Really do not recommend this place

Decent enough hotel in London with easy access to surrounding areas.

Room was dated but clean and a good size. Bathroom was good with a bath / shower and plenty of toiletries provided. Staff at reception were very helpful and courteous and there is plenty of choice to eat and drink on site or nearby.

My stay here wasn't perfect however I would recommend.

When I arrived the room I was given wasn't fully clean and the shower was broken. Within 5 minutes of the duty manager hearing she had moved me to a bigger and better room to apologise.

Futher to this I stayed again for longer and saw just how fantastic the staff are at this hotel. The food was fantastic and the facilites are great.

Don't expect perfection however if you want great service and to feel like you are valued then this hotel will certainly do that.

This Hotel is ok, I have expected more service

The rooms are super old, not in a good condition. You can seriously sleep somewhere else for less money in a better setting.

This is Def. not a recommendation to stay here.

The Breakfast Buffet was very poor and small. They did not even realize that somebody burned a toast, so the whole lobby smelled burned, nobody took action on it. So I stood up and made it happen, very very strange service mindset.

The hotel looks fairly nice at first glance when you walk into the reception, and I was upgraded as they had ran out of standards rooms.

The premium room was average - no better than a standard room in a decent hotel, so it did make me wonder what the standard rooms were like. It was quite tired looking inside, but it was clean, so no complaints there, however, the tap was stiff to operate and the sink was partially blocked.

I went to use the gym, but it was absolutely hammered so didn't even bother going in, which was unfortunate.

The restaurant looks nice at first glance, but the service isn't great, one of the waitresses were quite abrupt and the main course was brought out before my soup bowl had been cleared away, and barely after I had finished the soup. Nobody asked if everything was alright with the meal either, almost like they didn't actually want to know.

Speaking of the food, it was mediocre. The soup was watery and rather tasteless and the chunk of bread had been toasted(!), so it wasn't nice and soft and suitable for soup.
The main course didn't fare any better. The chips were awful, very greasy and tasted like they had been cooked in old oil. The half chicken breast was partially dried up, quite bland and generally not the best.

When I came to get the bill, a 12.5% service change had been added, but I'm not entirely sure what for, because the service was poor.

Breakfast want great in the morning either. The bacon looked disgusting and grey, the sausages were mediocre, the scrambled eggs were clearly cheap powdered mix. So again, not great, and you have to request coffee refills which always infuriates me, particularly when all the staff don't come anywhere near for five minutes.

The best thing about the stay was the express checkout. No waiting, just stick the card in a box.

I won't stop there again if I can help it.

Room small, bed excellent. Breakfast is varied, rich, one word excellent

Spacious large bath room.
Only negative point air conditioning

Stayed here the weekend. The star is for the breakfast , pool and gym. The staff were appalling. Took us about an hour to check in after paying a large amount of money and was told didn't have any more to pay but get our receipt on checking out. Went to do this and was told what we paid was for 1 night. By this time we were very angry and refused to pay this balance. After a lot of talking they took some money off us but not the full amount. This checking out took about half an hour or more. Rooms were not that brilliant and hotel wasn't a 4 star rating like it originally said on website. Will not be returning here again.

BAIT & SWITCH!

Booked again this year and had horrible experience compared to last year. Stayed here on a work trip last year and had a wonderful experience: nice rooms and bathrooms, great breakfast, etc. This year upon arrival and checking in, we were told our double beds that we booked were not available and they only had twin available. Okay not that bad if the room was up to par (even though my coworker is 6 foot 5).

Then we were told that we had to go across the street to a different building - right there I should've known something was up.

The entire building had no air ventilation - at all. Our rooms were probably 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) when we walked in. After traveling for over 13 hours, you want to walk into a nice cool room and shower before heading to the office. Our windows barely opened, our sinks and showers were rusty, dirty and very tiny (you couldn't sit on the toilet and close the door). The shower curtain had to be in the shower with you or the water would get everywhere but then the curtain would touch you while you were showering which is absolutely disgusting. The twin bed was on wheels so if you moved in your sleep you moved the entire bed. We had to order vans to get delivered to our rooms but there was no outlet near the bed so I had to prop up the fan on a side table and put it in front of the bed.

Worst of all, we were a party of 5 and 1 one of us got a room in the nice building while the 4 of us went into the bad building. So we are all paying the same price but basically were at different hotels and to be honest, 150 GBP is NOT the value we were provided other than the one of us who stayed in the nice hotel.

After many complaints and no responses, I went to the manager. He just kept smiling at me and my coworker like we were crazy and high maintenance. While telling me there was nothing he can do, we most likely were 'upgraded' last year to a premium room and premium rooms are the only ones with air conditioning and that they also overbook double beds and that's why our actual reservation wasn't available. I told him we should have been told the accomodation difference between standard double and premium double when we booked. The least he could've done was discounted our room rate to a more suitable price. He told us he could accomodate us on Thursday (this was Monday) and we were checking out on Thursday anyway so clearly - not helpful.

This is just completely and utterly unacceptable. They should be ashamed of themselves. All I wanted to do was to get out of that room everyday as soon as I woke up. OUR COMPANY WILL NEVER STAY HERE AGAIN!

The rooms are in dire need of renovation. The decor is tired. The bathroom smelt like a gym changing room and was very pokey. The shower cut out several times and want the most enticing of places to spend your time.
All of this is a pity add the rest of the hotel is quite nice.
Beware of parking although it says there is a cab park there are only a handful of spaces anger you must pre-book.

It's just dreadful from a room perspective. The bar is fine, all the chairs are wipe clean, check in was fine but pretty silent. Pool does not look like the photos, its dirty and small. Room was tiny, clean but very very dated. Location is dreadful, not near any tube, certainly not in barbican and I wouldn't want to walk around by myself.

Swimming area absolutely disgusting! Tiles are broken or missing, pool has scum embedded inside the pool, filthy! Would not stay here again.

Rooms are a tight squeeze if you are staying for more than a week. For good food, the pizzeria next door is a must visit.

Very worn out, for sure the most I have ever paid for such a small and nackered room

Staff amazing but did feel as if we were in a 1 star hotel due to apparent renovation. Over hot in room and cramped for 3 people per room

Attended a training event. Pretty good. Refreshments fine.

Fantastic breakfast, friendly staff. Room was clean too.

Nice rooms and enough choice on the menu. Health suite is good although sometimes the steam and sauna rooms are not hot enough. The staff are always friendly

Went there for an audition in a conference room. Nice staff, lovely hotel

Room very small but warm. Room service polite and helpful. Breakfast was good with plenty of choice.

The room was small and absolutely not modern. The morning buffet was very good, however the fruit salad for dessert at dinner ... it was water ... and no gesture from the waiter. When you call the front desk you really seem to be disturbing them, apart from a very friendly young man.
Well located hotel for visiting London.

Room and bathroom too small, old fashioned. Super breakfast

Alright hotel with great, friendly staff. Bit of a maze to find your room in some of circumstances.

Rooms were very warm in winter, and the air con was far too loud to have on whilst sleeping.

Alright place to stay when there for business, a little bit out of the centre.

Nice hotel. Good beds. Heating fits so well. Really good breakfast, plenty of choice. Friendly helpful staff. Cleaning is fine, both in the room and common areas

I had a very pleasant two and a half week stay. A little bumpy checking in but other than that my room was reasonably big, comfy king size bed on the 5th floor. The room was extremely well insulated from outside noise and the curtains blocked out the early morning sun (4am when I was there) so I got plenty of sleep. The breakfast service was excellent every morning, although in busier mornings the cleanliness of the buffet area slipped quiet a bit. The staff are fantastic. Really friendly. Over all it is a really nice hotel.

Friendly and very busy. Key did not work first time and as we were I the annex it was quite a trek to reception

Responsive walls. You hear the neighbors quite well. The rooms were a bit shabby and would need a refreshment. Lobby, bar and lounge were top and breakfast was good.

Stayed in the usual part not the new one.

3 stars ? Not at level. Room small and not soundproof, omnipresent compressor noise, old, metro station quite far. Restaurant to avoid. Price and especially taste almost not devilable. Breakfast catching the note.

No air conditioning... In despite need of a room refit

Very nice room. Delicious food. Friendly quick service. Pool looks good, wish I'd remembered my trunks! The only downside is the rather confusing layout!

It was cool you know. Wasn't bad. Met my expectations anyway.

By the London standard it is very good located practically in the city in a very quiet location. The abundant and varied breakfast is also good

Had a great 2 nights sleep and the staff were really welcoming and polite

Nice and clean, not too big but god location and price

Long wait to check-in at reception, small rooms, room had two beds but couldn't push together due to wall-fixture . Bathroom had separate taps for hot and cold which was annoying. Six floors but only two lifts means waiting around for a lift to be available. Breakfast was good, although no granola in the cereal section. Chef was rude when I asked if non-meat options prepared separately from the meat (they are). Every time I got off my table to get something, the staff would take stuff off my table I wasn't finished with, e.g my cutlery and a full cup of tea! Overall, the place isn't bad.

Nice hotel. Staff on reception were very slow and the rooms quite basic for the price!

This was a reasonable place to stay for the weekend. It's a shame I struggled to get onto the WiFi and the health suite closed so early. The room was spacious, clean and comfortable, and nice that the gave a free upgrade. I enjoyed my stay overall

Very nice foyer upon entry. Bedrooms a little dated with awful tv. Not bad for a place to stay for a night or two. Stayed here for work but doubt I d have paid the price if I was on a leisure trip.

Booked a double room and were told we had been upgraded - dread to think from what. Couldn't control the radiator in the bedroom so we were uncomfortably hot in the night, the one in the bathroom didn't work and the shower was a nightmare to operate either scalding hot or freezing cold. The tiles were cracked and there was black mould at the top corners of the windows . Horrible bathroom. Staff however were very nice, and decent food selections including good breakfast selection. This was our first time staying at a Thistle hotel and based on our experience we won't be staying at another one.

Decent 3 star in a pretty good location. No complaints but nothing special either. Good price though!

Really hot room or really loud aircon. Pillows wernt very comfy.

The buffet is very large and delicious. The rooms are sauna but very small and old-fashioned the staff is very accommodating

Very warm welcome at reception with a quick easy check in. Room was very spacious with comfortable bedding. Good location, not too far walk from old street station!

It's okay for what it is. No air conditioning which is not great in the hot weather. Haven't had a chance to use the pool or other facilities so cannot comment on them. Staff are friendly.

Comfortable hotel well connected to the center. Friendly staff. Cleanliness ok

Great hotel such good value & perfectly situated for night on town etc

The staff went above and beyond to accommodate us. The hotel manager was really helpful and kind to us. Their flexibility and personal touches of staff not what you would expect from a big hotel in London. Would recommend.

Excellent conference venue. Well equipped and catered

Hello arrived January 25 room and average because the tv had a problem with his wooden desk viellot more it takes trod place levels no more taken to bed levels cleanliness of the sheets nothing to say breakfast full of choice and correct for the price against the big negative and the restaurant very long dishes to have more server that do not understand a word of French and next to us a table where he was cheated on the bill and they were a 3 for the solve for 5 minutes

I was in a wing of the hotel the bed 2 places stuck against the wall, no double glazing, it seemed that I had the traffic that passed in the room, no cold water the first night of the day. boiling water on the side of the bath but quickly repaired the next day.
Catering too many expectations and staff not bilingual.

Located in the Barbican area of London. Hotel itself is ok. Nothing to shout about reasonably clean, but aged decore and electrical items in the rooms. Restaurant food is average to poor standard. 2 bar areas if you fancy a standard drink. Staff pleasant natured and the gym has a neighbouring pool and sauna which was nice to see. Restaurants and a traditional pub in walking distance. I would say ok for a work visit, but would shop around if coming for a short personal break.

Good location comfortable rooms but obviously need a refresh.

Quite a good hotel, room was clean and well equipped. Good breakfast. Wi-fi works. Staff is friendly

Good location, good sized room. Staff are courteous

Nice enough hotel. Rooms a little tired but think they're being renovated.