Crowne Plaza Docklands, London

First impressions were very good, nice location just by the docks, warm welcome, good sized room. The rest was a disaster - after checking-in we left for the city centre and came back fairly late, decided to have a cup of tea and realized we didnt have enough sugar or milk to go with it. I know how busy and under-staffed can a hotel be around midnight since I'm an employee of a hotel myself, I decided to go to reception myself and ask for a few more sachets. The receptionist couldnt understand what did I want of him and offered me to go to the bar and ask the bar maid - so I did. The barmaid said that shell give me some sugar cubes, but she didnt have any milk, so advised me to go back to my room and phone room service and they'll bring it straight up. So I did. When I contacted room service I was advised that they are "only room service" and I would need to contact houskeeping for that and they are all long gone home now (as if I thought they had 24hrs houskeeping anyway). I had given up!!!! we ended up just going to sleep and decided to forget about it. Next morning we all decided to spend half an hour in the pool, tried to phone reception to ask whether there were changing rooms downstrairs or did we need to come ready for swimming, but there was no answer for about 15 minutes (as a receptionist I'd get a disciplinary for that). When we came downstairs we were told by the "lady" who was supervising the pool that we needed our towels from the room although the girl had a big pile of fresh ones just behind her. OK, we went back to the room, took the towels and came back, had to find the changing rooms ourselves, the staff were too busy doing their nails and chatting, then it turns out we need a pound coin to operate the locker!!!! I really gave up and decided not to go back to the room again and we ended up leaving the locker with our clothes etc unlocked. Luckily, nothing went missing. My advice for the hotel would be to start managing the staff better, to get rid of that attitude - especially the pool girl had a horrible one - and start caring about the customers.

I can't believe all of high scores for this hotel. Staff is OK. Check-in staff were nice, effecient, and helpful when needed. Restuarant is OK I guess. Problem is that to eat breakfast in the restaurant requires buffet evidently. Buffet cost 20 pounds, which is a little steep. Don't have much for ala carte breakfast. Service was OK, coffee wasn't good. Hotel is showing wear and tear, which is odd for such a new hotel. Beds are small, too soft, pillows foam too big to use two, two small to use just one (my quirky preference maybe). They also aren't very high off the ground, like being in Japan. Location is off the beaten path with only two restaurants within walking distance, don't try the Jamaican restaurant, it's terrible. The Tai restaurant is very good. All in all, I wouldn't stay here again, anywhere in the area but here.