I urgently needed to find a conference venue for a 1-day session for 22 people, at short notice. Went onto the internet and found Villa Vittoria in Hyde Park. Looked absolutely stunning, but how very deceiving. The first inkling I had of something going wrong was a call at 7.45am on Friday asking me to come through and 'sort out the breakfast'.

I had booked two people in the night before, and the breakfast ordered by one of the executives was a cheese omelette. It was the size of a postage stamp and was ice cold, as was the coffee. On arriving at the venue in the morning, the coffeetea setup consisted of one pot of hot water which had to be constantly replenished. The urn was broken and no spare available..

The venue itself is pleasant, but definitely not a conrference venue. One tiny room, everytime the door opened it hit the person sitting next to the door. Right next to the conference room is the staff bedrooms! They have a kitchen but use an external caterer. The lunch was the biggest joke as a microwave was provided so that delegates could warm up their lunch. Not many ate lunch. When I called round in the afternoon I found the staff having the lunch!