La Baguette B&B and Cafe - Reading

I have two pieces of advice for anyone staying here: bring earplugs and phone the cafe or its owner (both numbers are easy to find online) to make sure you can get in - if the cafe's shut, you'll have to retrieve your keycard from a combination locker by the door. You'll need the earplugs because the cafe you'll be staying above is next door to O'Neill's […] and round the corner from Wetherspoon's. If you can handle both of these and don't mind not staying in the lap of luxury, this is a great little B&B - it's clean and a (pretty decent) cooked breakfast in the cafe is included in the price. The location, while noisy after dark, is otherwise pretty hard to fault - it's literally round the corner from shops, pubs and the station and opposite the Town Hall / museum. My room (a single) was small but had plenty of storage, an en suite shower room, TV and digibox and tea and coffee facilities. Everything was spotless, although I think the mattress was getting a bit tired. It was slightly strange not meeting the landlord at any point, but apparently they do live on the premises. The staff in the cafe were all very friendly and pleasant. I would recommend this hotel if you are looking for a convenient location for a short stay and prepared to forego a couple of comforts. I don't think I'd want to make a long stay of it (I stayed for 2 nights), as I think the noise from the literally neighbouring pubs would have got to me, but it was very nice to be so handy for the station. Mehr

Very close to the station and excellent value for money. What it had to offer was no-frills, but very clean and well presented. Excellent for overnight stay before catching the bus to Heathrow and much cheaper than the London alternatives. Unmanned check-in worked well and breakfast from 7am was fast and tasty.

I am an experienced traveler, having staying in B&Bs, hotels, university dorms, and tents. I even slept on the pier once in my youth. HOWEVER, I was severely disappointed with La Baguette. I arrived at 10:00 pm and found the building locked up. A passing couple allowed me to use their mobile phone to contact the manager, who said he'd sent me an email […] with details, but I received no such email. The key card had been left in a lock box. I found this odd as I had specific "24 hour reception" in my search for a room because I knew my train would be coming in late. (What would have happened if I hadn't happened upon this couple?) The room was incredibly small; once my carry-on was set next to the bed (the only place for it), I had to climb over it to get to the bathroom. I couldn't get to sleep until around 3 a.m. A bright blue light from a nearby pub shined brightly through the window, even with the curtains drawn. The music from the pub was so loud even earplugs didn't drown it out. There was no breakfast provided, which made the relatively low price a moot point. Again, no notification was sent to me regarding this-- otherwise I'd have chosen other lodging. There wasn't even anyone to ask about breakfast, nor did I see a place to eat nearby. I really thought booking a room at a place connected to a bakery guaranteed a place for breakfast. No dice. The listing said internet service was provided, but there were no instructions on how to access that, so yet another selling point was misleading. In the morning, there was no one around to leave the key card with. I left it in the lockbox and wondered if that was the right thing to do. Overall, I give this experience 1/2 a star... one step above sleeping on the street. I spoke with an older gentleman in the morning and saw that his room was a reasonable size, but even if I'd had a larger room, I'd still be disappointed. "Disappointed" is an understatement. I left exhausted, hungry, and annoyed-- not exactly the best wa Mehr

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I cabn't fault the location of La Baguette, just a couple of minutes walk from the rail and bis stations, but arriving late in the evening (after the take-away has closed), the unstaffed entry is thoroughly offputting. Entry is via a smart card obtained from a locked security box, having obtained the key code by phone. The room was small but clean enough […] (apart from the slightly mouldy shower cubicle), but was far too hot, very noisy at night and first thing in the morning (bottle recycling from pub next door), and TV and some other electrics didn't work on first evening. These were fixed by next evening, having asked at breakfast, but lack of maintenance regime is disappointing. Breakfast was acceptable, but choice and quality could be better. Mehr

Ok the hotel is not luxury but it is cheap and room was fine. had furniture, ensuite etc. ensuite was clean. My bed though definitely seemed to be giving off an odour that i noticed as I put my head down to sleep. Kind of faint but presumably coming from the mattress itself. I'm really not familiar with the smell but I became slightly paranoid that […] it could be a stale urine smell from an old mattress. Now this is obviously a big deal and I don't know for certain that’s what it was. I was only staying for one night so never said anything. If I was staying on I would have asked to move room. the baguette shop downstairs operates as the "front desk" and the staff there were super nice. So I'd still go back but might just ask for a different room. The bathroom was super clean and they supplied the usual body gel etc. Breakfast was actually good quality as the place is a cafe anyway - not like one of those B and Bs where they give you horrible food. Mehr

The hotel is located just 1 min walk from Reading station. The rooms are small but clean. The major problem is there are no phone numbers to contact. My flight was delayed by 10 hours but still they wanted to charge me for the day, which I did not stay. They do not pick up phones nor respond to emails. My request for an additional day was turned down […] and they refused to refund the amount paid. Mehr

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