Balmoral House Hotel, London

Since I first discovered it in March 1999, I have stayed seven times at the Balmoral House Hotel (156-157 Sussex Gardens, London, W20 1UD, U.K.; phone 020 7723 7445, fax 7402 0118), my most recent stay ending June 4, 2012. In all, I’ve stayed there over 50 nights.

This is the cleanest hotel I have ever stayed in, and I have slept in Hilton and InterContinental hotels in London, Vienna, Munich and Zürich. Sure, the rooms are small, but who spends time in a hotel room in London other than to sleep? I appreciate that this is a no-smoking, family-run hotel. The only caveat is that there is no lift.

In June, the rates were £65 (near $105) per night for a single with a shower and sink or £105 ($170) for a double with facilities en suite. This is less than half of what a friend of mine paid at a “name-brand” hotel on Bayswater Road — and his room was smaller than mine.

The included breakfast is outstanding: orange juice, a selection of cereals with fruit, scones, muffins, croissants, etc., followed by a full English breakfast.

The hotel’s location is excellent — two blocks from Paddington Station, where four Tube lines cross, and three blocks from the Lancaster Gate stop on the Central Line. From Paddington Station, you can continue by train to Heathrow Airport or, say, Windsor, Oxford, Bath, Cornwall, southern Wales or a port for the ferry to Ireland.

A.J. CAVENAUGH
Wallace, NC