Other than the penthouse floor, what do you consider the best floor on which to stay?

Thanks

Other than the penthouses, every floor is just about identical. So I'd try to book as high as possible so you have a better chance for a decent view . . . .

The Scala house in our family is synonymous for, in the words of my youngest daughter, " an awful place to stay". I do not think the floors are all that different but each apartment is. Bear in mind that if you stay there and do not like it, you are stuck with having paid for it.

mjs: Care to explain what you don't like about Scala House? Just slamming them w/o any reason isn't very helpful - sort of like the "drive by" posters we complain about on here.

Scala House definitely isn't posh - but it is value for money. You can get much fancier flats in London - but they mostly cost an arm and a leg, or other body parts.

&quot;<i>Bear in mind that if you stay there and do not like it, you are stuck with having paid for it.</i>&quot; would apply to ANY flat.

I actually posted a report on the Scala house a few years ago on this board. The worst hotel/apartment I have stayed in for a few decades. Location is ok as it is close to the tube, West end, shopping, supermarket etc. The people who work there are quite nice and are helpful. The two bedroom flat was quite spacious by London standards and certainly larger than any of the bedsitters I used to rent as a student.
The kitchen was small but quite usable with a combo/washer, stove, frig, toaster/oven etc.
The livingroom was good size with color TV, sofa, chair and dining table. Furnishing 1970's era but in decent shape. All this was fine by us.
There was a moldy/disinfectant odor about the apartment which we tamed by buying scented candles. There was a broken window mechanism for which we were given a screw driver to operate.
Multiple broken handles on furniture, broken hair dryer, toaster oven.... 30 year old Ikea type platform beds with mattresses of similar age. Uncomfortable. The worst part of the Scala experience was the hot water situation. Each apartment has it's own water heater and our's would give us about 3 minutes worth of hot water every hour or so. It would take my family of four about three + hours to bathe. The staff worked on the hot water heater but could not fix it. They also could not move us to another apartment. I therefore asked for a refund of our unused rent so we could move elsewhere and they refused. I understand that when I rent an apartment that the rent is not refundable but when one rents an apartment there are in my opinion some basic services unless otherwise noted that one should be able to expect like a decent supply of hot water. Even a Motel 6 can give you this. We have been traveling alot as a family for the last 8 years and I suspect we have stayed in all manner of lodgings from B&amp;B's, apartments, to hotels, to the tune of about 10 establishments/year and the Scala has so far been our worst experience.
A hotel in Athens and a hotel in Ubud have come close to the poor quality of our Scala experience but they do not match it. Now it may be that our apartment at the Scala was a lemon and now fixed.
I can however only report on our times at the Scala as we experienced them.

Well, I can say that in June of 2004, when I stayed in an apartment there with my daughter for a week, we thought it was great. Rooms and furnishings as reported by MJS, but no moldy odor, nothing was broken that I can remember, we had plenty of hot water, and all the staff were really helpful.

Perhaps our experience was more recent than MJS's? It certainly was different.

I also stayed at Scala House in 2004. No problems with broken things, hot water or odor, and I don't remember the beds being uncomfortable. Very spacious apartment, great location. I don't know whether the floor would make a difference, as we only stayed on one of the middle floors, but that was fine.

Thanks for your replies. I just wondered if it did matter as the booking form requested a floor.

DCJones: That may be a hold over from their previous practice of charging more for the higher floors.

I think there were 3 price bands (besides the penthouses). Something like floors 1-3 &pound;100 per night, floors 4-6 &pound;130, and so forth. I assume that was because the higher floors have views. But now they have simplified things - 1 rate for the flats, and another rate for the larger penthouses.