We recently returned from our visit to London and a one week stay at the Andaz Hotel. We (two adults and one 11-year old child) stayed in the open suite plan. The purpose of our stay was for a family vacation.

Overall, we really enjoyed our stay at the Andaz. and plan to return during our next stay in London. We highly recommend this hotel.

Customer service is really important to us and we very pleased with the service provided by each of the Andaz staff members we interacted with. Staff members were quick and responsive whenever we called for assistance (extra towels, etc.)

The open suite plan is quite spacious. It provides a sleeping area (with a true king size bed), a work desk area, a sitting area (large sofa and ottoman), a small eating area and a nice sized bathroom. The room includes two LCD televisions (one in the sleeping area and one in the sitting area); a safe; a mini-refrigerator; and two wardrobes. Our room was on the second floor in the corner, and had extensive windows (overlooking Bishopsgate and Liverpool Street), as well as vaulted (at least 20 feet) ceilings.

The hotel as a whole and the room in particular were very clean. There were absolutely no issues with cleanliness over the period of our one week stay.

We found our room to be fairly quiet, even with its location on the second floor. While I did hear some outside noise the first Friday night, every other night was very quiet. There is the occasional sound of street traffic and sirens, but these were not very noticeable.

The hotel and the rooms do have certain characteristics that might be awkward or unusual to visitors that are not expecting them. But, if you have read this and the other reviews, you should not be at all surprised and there should be no concerns. Additionally, once you are checked in, a hotel staff member should offer to show you the room and demonstrate its "unique" features. Take advantage of this.

Numerous reviewers comment on the greeting/check-in (the lack of a formal check-in desk). We really saw no issues with this. We were promptly greeted and assisted upon arrival. During high traffic times, it is easy to see how it could become difficult for the hotel staff to keep up with who arrived first. But, the Andaz seems to have responded by providing extra staff members.

To operate the lights in the room, you do have to insert your key card into an electronic device attached to the wall just inside the entry way. The room's main lighting controls (switches) are also located just inside the door. There are secondary controls in the sleeping area on each side of the bed. A peculiar annoyance, though, is that there are no lighting controls within the bathroom. The bathroom's lights are controlled by the room's main switches (just inside the entry). Peculiar and annoying, but you do get used to it.

We particularly liked the location of the hotel - immediately next door to Liverpool Street station. Within minutes of leaving the hotel you are able to pick up breakfast inside the station (at one of many choices) and then hop on to one of the major tube lines. Nearby (within quick walking distance) is the Old Spitalfields Market with several options for dinner.

One important note. If you plan to arrive before the check-in time, I highly recommend that you call to confirm availability with the hotel. After years of travelling in the US, we have never had an issue arriving early and obtaining a room. If you read the Andaz reviews, you will notice that several reviewers (including us) encountered this as an issue. In our case, our flight arrived earlier than expected, our bags were the first off the chute and our shuttle left within 30 minutes of arrival. As a result, we arrived at the hotel around 9:30 AM. The hotel had been booked the night before and the room initially assigned to us was not available, as the current guest had not checked out yet.

However, we worked with the hotel agent and he made arrangements to assign us to another room, which was vacant, but not ready. We were offered access to their gym and spa (to freshen up/change clothes) and they held our bags. We chose to wait for the room to be made ready. While we waited, we were provided drinks and cookies and the hotel agent came by frequently to give us updates, as it did take awhile for the room to be prepared. While we certainly would have preferred to have rolled straight in to the hotel and into our room, the reality is that we were there earlier than the posted check-in time, and we had not confirmed the availability before hand. We were quite pleased with the service we received during check-in, despite the delay in obtaining our room.

We did not eat at any of the restaurants, and so I can not offer any reviews here. We received our express check-out information and everything was exactly as it should have been. I always prefer to check out in person and was quickly and pleasantly assisted with this as well.

We chose this hotel in part because of its affiliation with Hyatt, which we prefer within the US. I was not sure what to expect based on the mix of previous reviews. The hotel easily met and exceeded our expecations. We really enjoyed our stay here and will easily stay here again in the future.

My initial review of the hotel was going to be average as I had a couple of issues but the hotel went above and beyond in trying to resolve them and make sure that my stay was a good one. I checked in early morning after a trans-Atlantic flight from New York and a room wasn't available. The hotel did give me access to the fitness club that actually had great private shower and changing rooms which was very welcome after my overnight flight.

As I was about to head out to my late morning meeting, I was offered a room that had become availabe although it was not on a high floor as I had initially requested in my reservation. Despite my better judgement, I decided to take the second floor room as it gave me a little time to at least unpack and download emails before leaving for the day. I came to regret that decision that night as there was quite a bit of both street noise (people yelling from the bars around Liverpool station) as well as interior noise from people getting in and out of the elevator (the room was two down from the elevator).

I asked to switch rooms the next day and the hotel did accomodate me despite being sold out. Unfortunately they moved me to a room where the air conditioning controls were broken and it was sweltering. I called the front desk and they said they'd have the engineers fix the room temperature through the central controls and to give it twenty minutes. After thirty minutes, it was still uncomfortabley hot so they sent an engineer to the room to work on the problem while I went to the gym for a work out.

I came back to the room an hour later and the room was relatively cool but the lights had stopped working. An engineer came up quickly to try to fix the problem and both he and the front desk was very apologetic (especially since this was my fourth or fifth call to the front desk). The engineer was obviously doing his best to help and he eventually fixed the problem after another fifteem minutes or so. Basically this more or less was a text book case of Murphy's Law but everything was eventually fine.

The hotel manager came and spoke to me personally the next day at check-out to apologize again and gave me her card and told me to contact her directly for my next stay in London and they'd be sure to take care of me. So good job overall on service recovery...

As for the hotel, the public spaces are great and the rooms are clean and modern. The bathrooms are probably the best feature of the room as they are oversized and well appointed. The location isn't my favorite but it is easy to get around since Liverpool tube and train station is right around the corner. Definitely ask for a room on a high floor though and away from the elevators.

The website looks amazing but the whole place is an absolute rip off. We paid £130 for one night in a pokey room that was no better than you would get at a Travelodge for alot cheaper. It's like they have put a funky facade on an old hotel but not bothered to improve what's beyond reception. It gets worse when we tried to eat something. I ordered a bowl of fruit for the room that i estimated to be around £6 but was charged £11 for 2 apples, 1 pear, 1 banana and some wrinkly grapes. I then ordered 2 sandwiches. Again, not being aware of the price i assumed these would be around £8 each, imagine how shocked i was to geta bill for £33.95 for two average sandwiches. £33 can you believe it? I just feel like such an idiot for not checking but would never have imagined in my wildest dreams that a hotel company would so blatantly rip people off. I assume this hotel (being in central business London) is preying on business people and tourists. I am ashamed that this practice is going on in our country. Tourists - stay away from this place. You can get much better quality and value for money elsewhere. London has some great hotels with excellent food and service at a reasonable price and this place should be avoided at all costs.