easyhotels [rewind]

i know the suspense has been high regarding the infamous pod-ish hotel i booked for my arrival, so i will describe what can only be summed up as, well, orange.

so the first place i stayed at in London was the EasyHotel, London Victoria. I booked this accommodation mostly because of its price and location close to Victoria Station. I have stayed in this area before (adria, you may recall our "homey" B&B fondly from last year!) and wanted to be somewhere in Central London for my first few days, so i could be close to school and what i hoped to be the areas i was to find an apartment in. And i DID NOT want to stay in a hostel. No. Thank you.

So i booked the EasyHotel for 4 nights, http://www.easyhotel.com/, which is owned by EasyJet of course, and operates a basic hotel with no frills for a decent price. My room was small, some 6-8 square meters including the bathroom. You pay seperately if you want cleaning more often or extra towels, or if you want to rent a remote to watch TV. To save money, i of course did none of those things, and thus just had my silent little room with no windows. For sleeping, actually it was quite great!

The tough part was that i couldn't check in immediately when i arrived, so they stored my bags and i had to go walk around for a few hours to wait until 3pm to get in. Off of no sleep that was a little hard, but i just went out and got some food nearby and tried to find a cafe with internet. Finally i could check in and it was amusing trying to get my heavy suitcases down the stairs to the room (unfortunately there were no ground floor rooms available.) They had this poor 12 year old kid to help me with my bags, and i thought he was going to fall down the stairs with my one bag. F!Once i got into the room i took a much needed shower in the hilarious little bathroom and changed into fresh clothes. I was tempted to go to sleep, but wanted to stay up until the evening to atleast have a more normal sleep schedule. So I then went on the tube to the neighborhood my school is in and went cell phone shopping, got a phone and grabbed a few things at a grocery store to eat. I returned to my easyhotel around 8:30pm and was deep asleep by 9! Ahh.

Later that week i moved out to stay in an apartment in Greenwich, which i'll describe seperately, but I did also stay at the easyhotel again a week later, when I still hadn't yet gotten an apartment. That time, i stayed for 2 nights in the EasyHotel South Kensington (different neighborhood, the Victoria hotel was full) and my room - which was supposed to be the same size - was even SMALLER than before. There were literally, walls on three sides of the bed!

All in all, though, i'd probably recommend the place to anyone needing a similar "easy" situation. It wasn't fun or comfortable or anything, but it was super clean, super easy, and nice to just have a zone to keep my stuff. There are B&Bs around the same price available, which probably have a better atmosphere, a more helpful staff, and atleast windows, but this was good for me, and i don't mind orange. : )