Way back in the mid-90s, before Sharon and I were dating (we’re married now) — and before I had any thoughts about miles and points — we booked a trip with two friends to visit London and Paris. We found a package through British Airways that included airfare, Eurostar train tickets, and hotels, making it an easy choice for a group of young travelers.
First Impressions: The Charles Dickens Hotel
Our hotel in London was in Kensington, a neighborhood our friend recommended based on his prior trip. He was the only one of us who had been to London, so we took his word that this was a nice area. And the hotel? The Charles Dickens Hotel. What could be more British?
From the outside, it looked charming; exactly what we expected a quaint English hotel to look like.
And then we got to our room.
As we inspected where we were going to stay for the next several days, we quickly noticed it wasn’t exactly luxury. The beds, for instance, didn’t even have box springs. It was just a mattress on the frame! We shrugged it off since we were only staying three nights and were just excited to be in London. Ah, youth!
But the real surprise came after our first day of exploring the city. I entered our room to find an army of ants marching from the window, along the radiator, and straight into my suitcase.
The Ants Go Marching: A Memorable Complaint
I called the hotel staff, who were clearly used to these complaints. They offered to fumigate our bags and move us to another room. Since Sharon and I were just friends at the time, I was sharing a room with another one of our friends, and the two of us were relocated to another wing of the hotel.
The new room, while basic, was clearly reserved for “special” guests. And it had something our original room didn’t: box springs on the beds.
“I’m Afraid of the Possibility of Ants”
Sharon and our other friend — who later became my best man at our wedding — were still in an older room, so they went to the front desk to ask for an upgrade to one of the “nice” rooms. At first, the staff refused, insisting there was no reason to move them.
Then our friend delivered a line I’ll never forget: “There is most definitely a reason. I’m afraid of the possibility of ants.”
The desk agent paused, nodded, and added a note to the reservation. Sharon and our friend were promptly moved to a room next to ours in the new wing. The rooms weren’t luxurious, but they were far better than what we’d been in.
Lessons from a Memorable Stay
Over the years, we’ve laughed about how we could always try to use “I’m afraid of the possibility of ants” as an excuse to upgrade our room. Who knows, it might even work if the hotel has a history of ant problems!
And if you’re wondering, the Charles Dickens Hotel is no more. It’s now the Lancaster Gate Hotel, and it looks like they’ve renovated the property since our stay. (Note from Sharon: I just clicked on the link, and the lobby still looks the same, LOLOL!).
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7 comments
Did you get to the Mitre pub around the corner?
Nope. Unless if it was by accident. We were totally newbie travelers.
The old Antaphobia ploy, eh?
We’ve contemplated using at other hotels when they’re not wanting to give us a new room even when our has obvious problems (smoke smell, broken fixtures, etc.)
London has a lot of substandard hotels that look like that on the outside but are crummy inside.
Incidentally, the Lancaster Gate Hotel is on the short street called Lancaster Gate. This was, according to Instagram’s @ideas2day , the filming location to a British TV series. Disclaimer: I am not this Instagram person but only know of Lancaster Gate through that Instagram account’s posts.
Funny. My teenaged daughter and her friend stayed at the Lancaster Gate last summer on both layovers of a trip to Spain. It was there first big independent trip and I arranged hotels and flights for them. It was perfectly fine for them and the best combo of price and quality in that neighborhood, which is jam-packed with fleabag hotels. Also, that neighborhood is not really ‘near Kensington’, but is Paddington, because of the eponymous train station in its center.
Pro tip: the Hotel Indigo in that neighborhood is both relatively nice and a solid points hotel.
We’ve stayed at the Hotel Indigo near Earl’s Court and loved it.