I secured a "Superior" room at Best Western Ilford through Expedia. When my wife and I arrived in the evening, the front desk clerk seemed to have a hard time finding my booking. She then said she needed to take an additional £50 "cleanliness" deposit on the card through which the room was booked. I stepped out to get my wife and bags from the car, and when we returned to the desk, the clerk says "there is a maintenance problem with your room" and then she sends us across the street to The Lucky Eight hotel "with whom we have made an arrangement", but which is very sketchy looking. The room was tiny (barely a foot on either side of the less-than-double-width bed) and it was dirty, smelled very musty with peeling paint and marks on the walls and a soiled box spring mattress. The bathroom smelled of mould, and I had to go and request a second towel, even though it was supposedly a double room. The pillows were flat and hard, which just added to the charm of the undersized bed for the two of us. There was a single small window, which looked out on a roof which was covered in rubbish and cigarette butts. Overall, I would have preferred to have been back in a military tent on the edge of the airfield in Qatar during the war than in this scuzzy flea trap. Absolutely my worst experience with Expedia and Best Western. I will never voluntarily stay in a Best Western hotel again - ever - and I will happily dissuade any friends and family from doing the same.
