The Regent Palace Hotel is situated right at Piccadilly Circus which makes it an accommodation to be considered, especially as it is quite affordable: For a standard twin room we paid EUR 61 (excl. credit card surcharges) per night. Unfortunately, for that price you can otherwise not expect all too much: Although the hotel may still look quite glamourous from the outside, probably reflecting its status of days long gone, it is pretty much worn off. The standard rooms made a filthy impression, the mattresses were in bad shape, and 2 very dirty toilets and showers were shared between 100 rooms! Therefore, for travellers with little expectations and needs or with a very tight budget, this hotel may still be worth considering (especially as twin rooms in HI hostels are at around GBP 50 = EUR 71 per night!). Everyone else should consider choosing a more expensive room or some other accommodation.

I believe that I've recently read that London is the most expensive city in the world, followed by Tokyo. The biggest money black hole seems to be rent. An appartment off downtown (about 1h of subway from the center) with enough room for three single people (in separate rooms) can easily go for 1500 pounds a month. Often, one deals with agencies for the process of finding an appartment. Of course, they come with a fee as well. It is very rare to have a laundry machine included in your place, so that's a treasure to find. Having a phone is an expensive and complex process and you would need it even to get only a high speed internet connection.

On the advise of this website I recently stayed at Ashlee House in London whist doing an internship. I was planning on getting a room, which may have been cheaper, but out in the suburbs. Overall, it was a good decision! Quick review: 1. Location is very central 2. Cool lounge area, which was important as I got to talk to nice people after work. 3. Pretty clean. 4. Friendly Staff. 5. Great mix of young people Downside: Small laundry, which made it difficult to iron my shirts. Also a few inconsiderate fellow guests..not to bad though

IWhy has no one talked of Ashlee House. I went to London recently for an inteview. The Ashlee House is as clean as a YHa yet has some style and great price. A level up from normal hostels

well i am also a former employee of astor hostels and all i can say is that it was not a fantastic time. apart from living in shoebox rooms and dealing with the pill poppers , cokeheads and whatever else they had taken , i had to put up with abuse from managers who act like god. i just wanted to reinforce the point that it is nowhere near as amazing as they rave about and pleae dont go there!!! oh yes , and the hygeine of the kitchen staff........

What ever you rekon buddy.... I stayed in and worked with the Astor hostels for over a year and a half, and the imaginative description you gave of the hostels is complete crud.... the only rats that have been in the hostels are the bitter ex-employees like yourself who go the boot, and need revenge. Have you seen the Victoria Hostel lately??? Completely re-done and looking amazing! Definately the cleanest out of the hostels, however the others are not lacking too far behind. As far as affordable, fun and clean accommodation in central London goes, Astor hostels can't be beaten... I'm not saying they are perfect, but what hostel is? All 5 hostels are going through renovations and are constantly improving in all areas... go see the Vic, and you'll see what I mean. BTW I was at the museum recently... your picture is no longer 'hung proudly', and hasn't been for over about a year now - deal with it.) To every one else; don't deny your self a fantastic hostel experience by listening to this guy.... check it out for yourself (namely the museum and victoria)-then tell everyone what YOU think!

There are many problems with that hostel, I only stayed there because it's a good neighbourhood and it's close to my work. 1) Communication - most of the staff that worked there didn't speak good enough English in my opinion to answer my questions. 2) On top of that, they were extremely RUDE and didn't seem to care about anything 3) I lost my key during my stay and everytime I went and asked them they just didn't know when I could get a replacement key. It was frustrating since I had to wait outside the door until somebody enters the building and it made me like a homeless person.

This place is not worth the money you pay to stay there. Mice everywhere!!! Dirty beds. The bathrooms are filthy and smell bad. The building is falling apart. They don't mention the student discount with your ISIC card until AFTER you have already paid and the sign above the door for this discount is so small you can hardly see it. They move you around from room to room constantly which means you have to check out and check back in every day. The laundry didn't work too well when I was there and when I had to dry my clothes a lot of times and wasted money doing so, they told me the laundry was contracted out so they couldn't do anything about it. The staff really wasn't that helpful except for the one guy with the spiky hair and British accent. If you order food from the cafeteria it is cold when you get it. The milk at breakfast is HOT. MICE EVERYWHERE!!! They assign you to beds in the room which really sucks cuz you always end up having to move other people's shit around and they overbook sometimes and people end up sleeping on the couch in the TV room. For the amount of money you pay to stay here - anywhere from 13-23 pounds - it is definately not worth it.

If you're looking for cheap accommodation in central london, don't hesitate to go to Goldsmid house: a nice place with nice people and cheap fares, besides Oxford street. Nearest tube station: Bond street and marble arch. Double room: 26 pounds per night.

Ok. I walked away from this hostel thinking it was a great first hostel experience. Now I read a former employees version. I guess I wouldn't have seen the behind the scenes view of the hostel in my week stay. But I found the hostel to be clean and fun. Didn't get the impression that people were on drugs, including employees. I'm recommended the place to people already. Not sure what to do now. Are they going to take your picture down now, Rockin' Stevo?