Athena Hotel

Small row house type hotel on relatively quiet shaded street in a near park like setting yet convenient to Paddington station. Family run with helpful attentive staff. Clean throughout. Only downside is no room air conditioning for those sultry summer nights. A small room fan is provided but you’ll want to ask for another more powerful fan if you want to be relatively comfortable. Lobby is air conditioned. If you need a cab, ask the staff to book a black cab, not the private cab service that the staff suggests. I had a very bad experience with that company — bad enough to file a complaint with the Transport For London government agency — which ought to suspend their taxi operator license, in my opinion. This was my second stay and I would return again, despite the above comments.

We booked the Athena for one night in London after returning via the train from Bristol (into Paddington). We had an early flight the next morning. The Athena was a perfect accommodation for this one night. It is a quick walking distance from Paddington as well as several restaurants in the area. The room was a reasonable size, and the hotel is set back from the main street and fairly quiet. Compared to other London hotels in this area, the price was reasonable. The bathroom was clean, and the beds were comfortable.

Breakfast was not included in the price. You had to pay extra to get breakfast. Location was nice. The property will be even better when construction along that bank of hotels is finished. We loved that we could store our luggage locked up there since we were too early for our room to be ready to check in. It is a lovely neighborhood only a few blocks from the Paddington station of the Underground.

The location of the hotel was excellent and the staff were pleasant. The rooms were clean and it was a nice touch to have tea, coffee and some toiletries in the bathroom. The rooms were serviced and bed made after each night which was pleasing and not expected. We did not have the continental breakfast but it looked nice and the breakfast room was busy. Nice hotel and would stay again.

This is a very good value stay. The hotel is in a great location, just a 7min walk from Paddington Station and very close to a number of bus stops. The room was comfortable, clean and neat. While slightly small, I believe it is more spacious than similarly priced places in a similarly central location. The breakfast spread, while not extensive, was more than sufficient with decent options. The staff were extremely friendly and helpful.