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The Best Western Paddington Court Hotel & Suites, one block from Hyde Park, is a perfectly acceptable three-star hotel, offering 195 bedrooms with modern conveniences, including air-conditioning and free Internet access—and usually at affordable prices.
It's like this: The Paddington Court fills itself up with tourists searching for London hotels on online reservation Web sites. Though "official" rates are posted in the lobby, these are inflated so that online reservation sites can claim to give huge discounts, and, thus, customers can feel as if they're getting a steal.
When we last visited, the receptionist pointed to the prices behind her, but then told us that nobody pays these prices. "Search around online to find the current price," she said. EC would like you to know that this is a common practice among big chain hotels. We do not mean to unfairly single out the Paddington Court. It's just something you should be aware of next time you see that rates are "discounted" by 45 percent.
At any rate, rooms are quite fine and reminded us of three-star rooms in the States: surprise-free and comfortable. When we stayed we found our single a bit tight, but packed with amenities. As the hotel comprises several old townhouses joined into one, the difficult part of the experience for us was trying to navigate our luggage through the hallways and stairwells of the hotel.
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