Canary Riverside Plaza Hotel, Ballroom

This hotel used to be a Four Seasons - large rooms, excellent location. A bit dated, but I don’t mind. It was clean. What really made a difference were the friendly staff working there. Breakfast food offering could have been better, but the staff did their best. I’ll book again!

This is one of the more expensive hotels in canary wharf perhaps because of its location. Stayed here 10 or so years ago when it was known as the Four Seasons. The décor unfortunately hasn’t changed and is starting to look tired with lots of dings and dents in the wordwook in the rooms. It could do with a refresh given the 5 star rating and high prices. Another niggly point for a 5 star hotel is that you need to call reception for tea/coffee facilities to be brought to the room. That’s crazy! Most hotels of this calibre have a Nespresso machine as standard with complementary biscuits etc. The L'Occitane toiletries are a nice touch though. The swimming pool next door is a Virgin Active Gym and has seen better days with lots of mould in the jacuzzi areas and the showers smell of stale urine. The swimming pool does have a nice view of London though! But, don’t expect a luxury spa experience as instead it is full of sweaty locals exercising after work. The sauna room was packed with hairy overweight men with their body odour percolating around the room. Also don’t forget to bring a padlock for the changing room lockers. If you don’t you will need to carry your belongings with you or risk leaving it in the changing room. The service staff in the hotel is 90% made up of south Asians and they are polite, attentive and helpful. Not a bad thing, but, it does make it feel like you’re holidaying abroad not the UK. Often it felt there were more staff than guests especially for breakfast where it was virtually empty. The breakfast itself is ordered from a menu not buffet style like so many hotels nowadays which is a nice touch. The cooked breakfast is expensive at £33 so see if you can get it included as part of a special offer the hotel sometimes does. In summary, it no longer feels like the 5 star hotel that it was when it was the Four Seasons, but the service is still good. Perhaps better suited to the business traveller where the company is paying for you or the deep pocketed overseas traveller or maybe even for somebody who wants a quiet hotel to relax in with no rowdy kids running around as it was not very busy at all. Overall I rate it 3 stars as its so overpriced for what you get.

Services and facilities are very bad, it is not worth at all. No hot water, broken hair dryer and random Amenities; Very bad client services. Imagine in the early morning you do not have hot water in the standing shower or in the bathtubs, and wash you hair in the hand washing sink (Anger +30). You thought they provided the shampoo, but at that time you realized that it was shower gel only. Would you like to call them and wait in front of the hand washing sink with wet hair? Emmm, need to leave at 7.00, no time to wait, just wash it with water. (Anger + 20) Finally finished washing your hair, then you turned on the hairdryer, and you found that it was already broken. Would you like to call and wait again? Or just borrow one from my friend? The latter is faster maybe. (Anger +20) It was a very terrible morning, you rushed to the front desk and complain about everything. The guy said sorry, and said that you are the first one to complain about it. Well, should you care about the ranking? Should you feel happy that you are the first one? Of course you should, as others did not have a such awful experience as you had. They all left with happiness and smiles, only you, got every issues they had. Anyways, you do not have enough time to argue with it, and they promised they would follow up with you via email. In one week, they sent you a standardized apology email and saying that '...... however we would also like to convey that we would do all the necessary for your next visit and make that one a memorable one... ', which means that they would do nothing for this time, but if you spend your money on them again, they would consider to treat you better. Would you like to give them a second chance? It was me, so I will not. My anger reached out to 100 already. After back and forth communication, I am so tired for it. I did everything I could, being politely, nothing personal, but this hotel did not make me feel better during the stay in London. It was supposed to help me relax from my business and my life, given that I paid 250 pound per night. But in fact, they did the opposite. That is my story, just for sharing.