Ace hotel is the Ace among Boutique Hotels
I am not sure if I even need to write about Ace hotel. It is so well known among millennials and no doubt it is one of the coolest, hippest and YASTastic hotel in the world. If you have a fedora, flannel shirt, skinny jeans, boots or a mustache you have to stay in the Ace hotel in Shorditch, London.
**If you are lazy to read the detail, “page down” will give you the pros and cons of Ace hotel.
LOCATION
Ace hotel is one of the hotels that follows the definition of boutique hotels. Boutique hotels represents the culture of the city, and it’s an extended self of the city culture. Ace hotel is Shoreditch and Shoreditch is Ace. The hotel represents the people who visit there. It represents boutique. It is like if you think of Shoreditch, Ace hotel pops up on the top 5 list of where to go.
Soreditch, London is an upcoming area where all the hipster, techies and fashion people gather. According to Wikipedia, Shoreditch is:
Now synonymous with the concept of contemporary ‘hipsterfication’ of regenerated urban areas
It is true. Shoreditch has been gentrified in the past twenty years with rising real estates. It has slowly replaced the working class people to creative industries people and dot-com industries. You will encounter with all the Cool bars, restaurants and retail shops.
If you are a Williamsburg person, Shoreditch is right up your alley. So if you are, you don’t have to read rest of the article. Just go and book your room. Cause I guarantee you that you will love the stay in Shoreditch. When I first stayed in Shoreditch, I didn’t even leave the town and just stayed there most of the time.
For some recommendations, check out the blue pins. Those are the streets you have to walk around (click on the blue pins for more information).
The only problem will be that you will have to take the subway to do any sight seeings. But if you are looking for some taste of young local London, staystaystay in Ace hotel or at least other hotels (in rank: 1. Shoreditch House 2. Hoxton 3. Boundary 4. Citizen M) in Shorditch.
PRICE
Ace hotel in Shoreditch price varies, but you can easily book it from $150 dollars off seasons to hooping $350 during peak seasons. The rooms are relatively bigger than Soho, Covent Garden area, and is nicely decorated.
If I give you a comparison, Mondrian hotel in South bank would cast $300 dollars to stay in a same room or $350 in Saint Martins Lane in Soho. There is def a ying and yang. If you are really not into hipster culture, I would rather stay in Mondrian Hotel or Citizen M in South Bank.
LOBBY
What makes Ace hotel the Ace hotel is probably the lobby and its culture. The lobby has a big communal table and sofas with coffee tables. During day time, a lot of people bring their computers and work. I am not sure if it is open to public, but they do not say anything if you just bring your own computer and work (even if you don’t order anything). At night, it becomes a bar/club with all the hip and cool people. It is literally poppin. One of the biggest reason I love staying at Ace hotel is because of the lobby culture. I am not a cool and hip person, but whenever you walk in to the hotel, you feel like you become one of them 🙂 Yes, you can call me that shallow, but what can I do?! hehe
ROOMS
Before we go to details, we did a video tour of the double deluxe room in Ace hotel.
The rooms starts from standards to suites. We stayed in a deluxe double with a king bed, table for dining or work, a daybed. If you stayed in other Ace hotels, you will see the rooms are basically designed exactly the same.
So Ace hotel is not perfect. Because of the poppin club/bar at the lobby, the second floor rooms can slightly hear the music sound. It is not to a point you feel disturbed but you can still hear it. So when you book a room ask for a higher floor (Just tell them you stayed there before and you heard the music sound when you stayed last time).
That is not the only problem with the rooms with lower floors. Because of the young and fabulous neighborhood, the streets could get a little noisy on the weekends. Also, this time I stayed at number 11 which is on the other side of the main road. The windows were quite small and it was quite dark without any lights. So if you are a natural light person, I would rather stay at Citizen M Shoreditch.
THE RESTAURANT & COFFEE SHOP
The restaurant resembles the 60s with mid century interiors. The food is decent and if you are feeling lazy to adventure out Shoreditch, why not just stay in the hotel and enjoy the restaurant.
They also have a coffee shop in the lobby. It is ok but overly priced. Yes, really expensive. So, your choice to spend 4 pounds on a iced coffee.
GYM & SAUNA
OVERALL
PROS
- If you are all about style and coolness, Ace hotel is for you
- If you are looking to take instagram pictures in the room, this is the hotel for you
- Are you in to bars and restaurants more than going to the London Eye? This Is for you
- If you are not a tourist but a traveller, this is for you
CONS
- It’s a bit of a ride to the London bridge.
- Lower floor could be slightly noisy because of the bar at the lobby, and the city view rooms can be noisy at night as there is a club next door.