Tried & Tested

Hotel review: Z Hotel Covent Garden

14 Sep 2019 by Tom Otley

Background

Z Hotels are a fast-expanding budget hotel chain with ten hotels in London and a further three hotels in Bath, Glasgow and Liverpool. It was set up by Bev King, ex CEO of Thistle Hotels and some business partners, and their knowledge of what works and what doesn’t mean the hotels are a pleasure to stay at. We have reviewed a few of these previously

Hotel review: Z Hotel Tottenham Court Road

What’s it like?

This property opened in November 2018, and is behind a red brick façade in the centre of Covent Garden. After having considerable difficulty in finding the property and eventually having to phone ahead to find out where the entrance was, I was welcomed at reception and had a quick check in experience.

As with other Z Hotels, each evening there’s an hour or so of free wine and cheese offered. By the time I got there this had long ended, but I was offered a complimentary glass of wine, which was very welcome after a long day in the office. Drinks are also available for purchase from here, though there is also a largish Tesco on Bedford Street opposite the hotel.

Where is it?

Just off Bedford Street. Walk past the HSBC and Paul patisserie, and you’ll see some iron gates. It is through these. If it is late at night as when I was looking for the property, you need to ring the bell by the side. It’s very easy to get to since it is only a short walk from Covent Garden tube on the Piccadilly Line, or a slightly longer walk from Holborn which is on the Central Line.

Rooms

The 113 rooms all have dark wood floors, making them easier to keep clean. Walls are white, and the bed board is a form of synthetic suede, with this also continuing along the side wall by the bed, important because the size of the rooms means that one side of the bed is pushed against the wall – which isn’t a problem if there’s just one of you, but requires some athleticism if there are two of you.

The rooms have complimentary filtered water in glass bottles – which is a nice green approach to avoiding single plastics, although the bathrooms (shower only) still have single use plastics for the combined shower and hair gel. Each room has a large (49 inch) flat screen TV which also allows you to stream your own content via the fast and free wifi.

There isn’t a wardrobe but there are plenty of wooden hangers for your clothes. There is a kettle with complimentary tea and coffee. The air conditioning is very effective, although I couldn’t find the wall control and had to ask someone to come to the room to find it. It was hidden behind the kettle.

The back of the door has a full-length mirror and there are some potentially annoying lights in the room, but these can be covered by bags once you have the lights off. The panel by the bed controls the blackout blinds and the lights, and there are various settings for dimming the lights and also turning on the bathroom lights for a visit in the middle of the night without turning all the lights on.

Sound proofing is very good, and I didn’t hear any noise from neighbouring rooms. I suppose one concern is whether with the wood floors you might have noise from overhead, but since I was on the top floor (floor 5), that wasn’t a problem.

There are 12 family rooms with bunk beds for younger children.

Food and drink

The café offers an extensive continental buffet breakfast from 0630 which is available at an extra charge of £7.50, or £9.50 with the addition of a hot item (sausage, egg, bacon and tomato in a bun, is one of the options, and there is a vegetarian option as well). In the evening (5-8pm) there is also cheese and wine, as at all Z hotel properties.