This hotel is a three star budget hotel located a few minutes walk from the Kensington museums, that being the natural history museum, The science museum and the V&A museum. It’s also a couple of minutes walk to Gloucester Road tube station.
I managed to pick up a couple of nights here mid week for £65 per night and, because I booked direct, complimentary continental breakfast was included in the price.
I was greeted warmly at reception and although it was before noon and check-in time is 3 pm the guy on reception said he would endeavour to get my room available ASAP and would store my suitcase while I had a look around the area. He also offered to call me when my room was ready, which turned out to be 12:30 pm. So very impressed with that.
The room itself (406) had relatively modern fixtures and fittings. I’d booked a single room, so it had a comfortable single bed with decent quality linens. The room is modest in size but without feeling particularly cramped, not one you’d want to spend much time in but when you’re out all day and really want somewhere to shower and sleep it’s perfectly adequate. The room has tea and coffee making facilities, a small but sharp and clear TV, hairdryer, writing desk and chair, wardrobe with mini safe inside (the mini safe isn’t screwed down, so partially defeats the object of having one). Four ceiling spotlights make the room quite bright, this is complimented with a bedside lamp and a flexible reading lamp, so reading in bed isn’t an issue. The room has Aircon. The complimentary WiFi is a bit slow by today’s standards but useable.
The bathroom is compact, modern but perfectly serviceable with a rain shower. Shower gel, shampoo and soap are provided (but disappointingly in single use plastic tubes). A modest sized bath towel was provided but no hand towel.
For those light sleepers you could clearly hear people in other rooms and the windows are not double glazed. That said it’s on a relatively quiet side road so I didn’t hear much noise and got a good nights sleep.
The continental breakfast is served in the basement in a decent sized room and contains the usual fare e.g. cereals, pastries cold meat and cheese. Coffee and juice is also available and a water cooler is available for complimentary use in reception 24/7. As a complimentary item the breakfast was perfectly adequate, however, the normal price is £7 which in my opinion is too high when, for instance, The Hub offer a similar Breakfast for £6 which includes hot bacon, sausage and scrambled egg.
From an accessibility perspective, the hotel has a lift but I think it would’ve been touch and go if a wheelchair could fit through the door of the room I had. Prospective guests with mobility issues should check direct with the hotel to ensure their needs can be met.
In many ways this is the Ronseal of hotels, it does exactly what it says on the tin. All the basics are there, the staff are pleasant and helpful, the rooms are comfortable and clean. I would certainly stay here again if I could get it for a similar price.
