Excelsior Hotel, a Nozio affiliate is a bed & breakfast (B&B) type accommodation located at Argyle Square, a merely is 3 minutes walk from King’s Cross & St. Pancras tube station.

For £80 a night (VAT & breakfast included) this newly refurbished B&B is value for money to stay in.

Although the room is small but it is undeniably comfortable. The refurbishment work is touched up with good colour scheme of yellowish cream and maroon that makes the room feel so conducive. However, the blind used is rather small that it let sun to peek through in the morning waking you up early. Below the window is a heater unit that is centrally controlled. During our stay there, it was not operational and I was told by the hotel operator that they only turn it on during the winter.

The room comes equipped with 14-inch flat screen tv, mounted to the wall. Unfortunately the remote control went missing hence it has to be operated manually. There’s a total of six 3-pins power socket in the room that you can use to recharge your gadgets simultenously. I realised that the built-in dressing table is rather cramped when I placed our toiletries, food items and other stuff on the table. The attached wardrobe is a basic DYI unit comes with so many diferent kinds of hangers left by previous occupants of the room.

The queen size mattress is quite comfortable but it is on a wheel bed. The wheel has no stopper lock that if you move too much, it will roll. On the right of the bed is lighting control unit that’s equipped with dimmer functionality.

It is common that B&Bs normally share facilities such as bathroom, tv room and kitchen. However, I made sure that I booked one that is attached with a bathroom. Just outside the bathroom door is an electric towel rack that can be used to dry damp clothes.

The en-suite bathroom is unfortunately a very confined space but I still can make do with.

The piping system is inherited from the old days where hot and cold water comes separate. Water pressure is low hence while taking warm shower, be prepared to get shocked by sudden gush of ice cold or boiling hot stream.

The shower and the toilet are separated by a curtain but as the shower area is too small, curtain use becomes almost  impractical.

The hotel management is kind to offer complimentary coffee and tea. We didn’t make ourselves any drinks because the jug’s electric coil was rusty.

Breakfast is served at the Albion House Hotel. A point to note, Albion House Hotel, Melville Hotel and Excelsior Hotel are affiliated. Even though I stayed at the Excelsior but its check-in counter shares common facility at the neighbouring Melville hotel.

We had to stand outside, waiting for other guests to finish their breakfast before we could find a seat. The small dining could only cater for approx 15 people at one time.

The B&B serves complimentary continental breakfast. Their fixed menu offers:

• toast
• juice - orange and guava
• ham
• cereals - cornflakes and cocoa crunch
• boiled eggs
• fresh milk
• coffee and tea

Located at the basement, the kitchen and dining room have a very little space.  As the saying in England goes, there’s no room to swing a cat.

The kitchen is run by a mother and son team. From their accent, I believe they are originally Eastern European immigrants.

The hotel is four storeys high. There are no elevators in the hotel and the stairways is narrow and steep. This could be a problem if you have big luggage.

Opposite the Excelsior hotel is Argyle Park. During the night the gates to the park is closed. I guess this is to prevent crimes and vandalism. By morning when the gate is opened, you’ll see homeless people sleeping on the park’s bench.

These homeless are joined by backpackers, napping in the park.

Booking is easily done online via the hotel’s website. Do expect full payment is to be made upfront at the hotel’s reception when you check-in.

Excelsior claimed their rooms come with wireless internet. Unfortunately, the signal is so weak that coverage is very intermittent hence do not expect too much that you can go online. However, there’s a nearby McDonald’s that offers free wi-fi to their patrons.

As a conclusion, if you’re travelling on budget and are not fussy about space, Excelsior Hotel comes recommended because of it’s reasonably cheap price and strategic location.

 Email This Post . This entry was posted on Sunday, October 12th, 2008 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Hotel Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.