Review of Park Lane Mews Hotel 4*

The hotel is in a fabulous location, minutes walk away from Buckingham Palace etc, unfortunately, that's where the positives end. On arriving at our allocated room (102), the corridor smelled extremely damp. The rooms were very dated. It had a Versatemp air condition unit that was so loud that it was very quickly switched off. During our first nights stay we were awoken by our neighbours coming in and switching on their tv. We were then kept awake by them moving around the room, closing doors, setting the safe etc. It sounded as if the soundproofing was as thick as the wallpaper, and they might as well have been in the same room as us. This went on for some time. We would have phoned reception, but the phone in our room had a number of buttons missing, and no obvious way of using it to do so. We ended up banging on the wall. Once this noise had died down, our attention was drawn to just how much noise we could hear from outside the hotel. We could hear almost everything, even people walking along having a normal conversation. At one point I checked to make sure our window was fully closed, such was the amount of noise we could hear. My wife mentioned this to reception the following morning. We were advised that we should have contacted them during the night, so she explained about the phone etc. We were told that the manager would be informed of the issue. The second night followed the routine of the first, with the addition of the sound of the neighbouring business's bins being filled and moved. Again every sound could be heard. This hotel is undoubtedly the worst soundproofed hotel I have ever stayed in. On checking out we again complained to reception, and filled in a complaint form for the manager to receive and review. I have now spoken to the manager, but she was unwilling to accept any responsibility for the level of noise that you can hear in this hotel. Aparently she "cannot ask people to stop walking past the hotel talking", failing to grasp that I was not asking her to do so, but in this modern age there are things you can do to prevent every outside nose being heard in a building. On a positive note, if for some masochistic reason I want to stay at the hotel again and not sleep, I can do so in an upgraded room (subject to availability). If you value peace, quiet and sleep, avoid. I have given this hotel one star as, negative or no stars were not an option.