Thistle Barbican Shoreditch

Good sized room

A little difficult to find

Ok value and the triple room was fine for our requirements (2 night stay).

Not a good experience at all! Check in advertised as 2pm, got there a little early and told room not ready yet, we were pre checked in and we wanted to grab lunch anyway. Customers waiting all over the reception/bar area, so difficult to get a seat as 'not allowed' to sit in restaurant area as set up for a group that never materialised. Ordering lunch was a joke as member of staff kept wandering off, half way through serving customers and could not seem to remember what he was doing - finally got served and food arrived promptly, shame it then took nearly 10minutes to get some cutlery. Back to check in, had to queue again for 20 minutes, told room not ready (2:45pm) - explained that we had been told ready at 2pm. Staff kept disappearing into the back room (at one point the door held open, 4 of them were just stood there looking confused). Asha came back said she had checked with housekeeping and it would be another 10 minutes, then disappeared again, came back and then said (in one sentence) that it would be 10 to 15 minutes and we could see that they were very busy and that she was clearly doing everything she could and then it would be at least 20 minutes longer. I queried how the time could have gone up from the start of the conversation to now (about 1 minute) and she got quite shirty saying that I had to understand that they were very busy but she could offer us a complimentary drink. Accepted but explained that we were on a tight schedule and needed the room. Getting a drink was also a joke, the gentleman in a suit jacket ended up getting it for us after we had waited 15 minutes and he then went and sorted out a different room - we got our room at 3:30pm! Impacted on our evening as had to change plans as missed the water taxi, thankfully we did make event in time but not in the relaxed way planned.

Pool and gym (although need aircon in gym)

Dated, old fashioned and not that clean. Room more like a cell. In drastic need of a refurbishment.