The Kensington Close Hotel & Spa – London

Just what we expected. everything was good except the wash basin drain was full of hair and drained poorly. surprised that the maid service didn't report it

Hubby and I were very dissappointed by our stay at Kennsington Close Hotel/Spa. After a 9 day business trip in outer London, I booked 2 nights for pleasure in Central London. My "find", a 4 star hotel at a reasonable rate on hotels.com, should have been caveated with the precaution "Tiny room, a mile walk from the closest working elevator... BTW, the […] hotel is under major rennovation!" At check in we were informed of minor ongoing rennovations. Understatement! A ladder blocked the lobby entrance, workman with large wood planks were roaming all around the lobby, corridors had plastic everywhere due to painting projects, some elevators and stairs were corded off as inoperable etc... We were told as compensation we would have free Internet, in-room movies, and access to the gym/pool area. Nice gesture, but the Internet was out in the entire hotel our whole stay, and the pool and hot tub were closed with electrical issues. Vowing to stay out of the hotel as much as possible, we never tried the movies. But we did need sleep, and returned at night to our poststamp room (the bed touched the door of the bathroom so that one of us had to climb over the other in bed to get to the bathroom). Glorious sleep.... NOT. The bed was next to a window facing the back alley of the hotel. Hotel workman shouting and carrying on, throwing metal pipes into piles, dealing with garbage past 2:00 a.m. Tried calling the front desk, but the phone didn't work (another charm of the room!). Lesa meira

Bad experience. Specifically went because of swimming pool. Even called to check first that it was available. Then got told at checkin that it is being renovated. The whole point of our stay was negated despite due diligence on our part beforehand. Lobby was lovely but rooms not upto same standard. Location was excellent. Sadly the pool made the trip […] a diss appointment. If they don't have a working pool then they should not advertise a pool bboth online and on the phone. Lesa meira

It's one of the horrible place I have ever stay, there are engineering work going on .... the builders start working at 8am while guest are sleeping... the room were very small, not the standard of 4star hotel, lift wasnt working, our room were on 6th floor, swimming pool and wireless were out of order... the evening polish receptionist were very rude, […] we ask to change the room cos the Air condition were too nosy... they refuse and ask us to pay more to get an upgrade... sorry for my poor english but I do Not recommand anyone to this hotel while it's under the hammer... Lesa meira

The current renovation was a bit of a nuisance. Dusty corridors and almost all of the spa area was out of order including the pool. Terrible wifi connection in rooms. Final insult was being charged to store bags (after check out for a few hours) per item! Never been charged anywhere else around the world! Location is good and rates (maybe because of […] renovation) are reasonable for the location. Lesa meira

very well located for High St Ken, friendly staff. Noise from internal building works was horrendous, room was not too clean under the bed apart from that bed was comfortable

Building nicer on inside than it first appears on outside. Contemporary interior. Room was very nice. Stairwell was messy / under construction? Overall good stay.

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The hotel is undergoing renovations in anticipation of the Olympics. The rooms are small, probably to pack more people in for the Games. The carpet in the hallways could use replacement. For the price I paid, it was a good deal.

Large que at check in,,Radio in room does not work,.Matress has hollow in centre. TV Reception poor.

This hotel has potential, but until their remodel is done I would avoid. Since construction is going on 8am-5pm, we were given free WiFi, which is nice but you really are in a construction zone. Protective plastic in the hallways, furniture being assembled in the lobby, construction workers everywhere, etc... We had to change rooms the first night because […] the water for all the toilets had been shut off. In our next room the TV didn't work and we asked to see about it being fixed while we we're at dinner. Came back 3 hours later to find they hadn't even checked on it. When maintainance did come, he tried to fix and couldn't. Told us we could change rooms. Since it was 11pm we didn't. Next morning at checkout I mentioned that the TV wasn't fixed, only to find out that they had disruptived service everywhere in the hotel, so changing rooms wouldn't have helped anyway (glad we didn't make the move for nothing). Apparently desk staff knew no one could get TV, but just kept sending the poor maintainance man around to work on a problem he couldn't fix, just to make it seem like they were trying. That morning while we were checking out, alot of people were complaining. We were still charged to hold our luggage too, even after all the problems we encountered Lesa meira

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Big hotel, free wifi and gym (not sure if that's normal). Breakfasts were fine, but could have done with a bigger fruit selection. Full English was decent though. Undergoing maintenance right now, but never heard any noise from that. I was in a single room which was perfectly nice. Small, yes, but I didn't need much room. 3 minute walk to High Street […] Kensington tube. Busy shopping areas 5 mins walk. Lesa meira

Great location! Relatively good rates due to off-season and renovation, but our room was ridiculously small and not especially clean. The adjacent health club/spa made up for much of the room's shortcomings, however.

Given a plastic key for the door that did not work. Checked in a 5pm and at 9pm(very tired) had to join a lengthy queue to renew the key and stood for 30mins waiting. Luggage receptionist very unhelpful and totally disinterested. Two receptionists on duty for a large queue of new visitors not yet checked in. Hotel should have know this from their data. […] Prepaid on-line, left a credit card impression at reception and having checked out found that they had taken the money twice. Would not return. Lesa meira

Hotel is in great area, right off Kensington High street, full of fun shops and cafes/restaurants. It was an amazing price for London but rooms are tiny compared to US, little 13inch TV, etc. Hotel is being renovated so can't speak for new rooms, but at least they tried to make up for the construction look with free internet, free movies, free gym (yes, […] in London you have to pay extra for this...). Lesa meira

Check-in took very long time, filling out papers, which we had done when ordering through hotels.com. Very small rooms -we couldn't hardly walk around the other twin-bed when we wanted to enter the toilet! The bar was closed early - we were around 20 people who wanted a drink at 1, but no one to open the bar. The next day they wanted to charge us for […] breakfast!! We thought it was included in that relativ high price! When we wanted to use the swimming-pool, they wanted us to charge again!! We had to stay another day- and that was really difficult for the stuff to organize...and we had to fill out papers again, haha...it was ridicolous! No, we won't be back! Lesa meira

Paper thin walls and worlds thinnest mattress. A night in the cells probably gives you more comfort in mattresses! Location is walkable to Olympia and you are right near the tube. All round stay, very average. Took ages to get checked in and not even busy

You can ask for a mini fridge for your room and stock up on food from Whole foods.. DONT order room service.. they never answer the phone and when they do, the order will be wrong. One day it will be good, the next day it will be horrible!!! BUT they do have a gym and tanning bed!! thats a plus in London.

Stayed at this hotel for one night and had booked a single room. Hotel is no doubt a fairly good one but they're having major building work done at the moment and it's evident everywhere. I guess the price was good so all was acceptable.

Close to tube and generally good value - Nice to stay somewhere with single rooms at single prices.

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The pool was closed when we were there which was a major disappointment but the hotel was in an excellent location for our needs. We were very satisfied with our stay.

the hotel will be lovely when its finished but when we stayed the hotel pool was closed & when i tried to book some spa treatments they was fully booked. the whole reason we booked this hotel was for the pool & spa so very disappointed. if your going to book this hotel make sure all the renovations are finished before booking.

Tiny bedroom, hotel under further construction. Fine if you are on a budget.

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I stayed at the Kensington Close Hotel in 2003 and was glad to return this February. It is a nice hotel in a great location. Indoor pool and spa is also great. No disturbance at all from the construction.

Great hotel, got upgraded for free from a single room and an executive triple. Breakfast in the room amazing!

Stayed 2 nights. Didn't know that hotel was under refurbishment and unfortunately had to stay in 'old' part of the hotel. Swimming pool was not available but jacuzzi and steam room was and due to all works that went on it was free of charge. Great location of the hotel. Staff were very friendly and did their best to compensate for construction works […] that were carried out. Future plans for the Hotel look very promising but until then it was a Hotel under construction. Will recommend this Hotel in the future as it has a great location of shops, reastaurants and all the major sightseeing areas. Lesa meira

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The price was right. The hotel is currently under going renovation. The clerk was upfront and state dthat construction was between 8am and 5pm. Those hours suited me as I was there for business. The hotel was very nice even though rooms are small, but what room in London isn't small. Overall I would reccomend it at a discounted price.

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The refurbishment programme is timely - the hotel was getting tired. It is going to look good. The building work is having minimal impact on guests and for now, they are offering free internet access, free leisure centre use, free movies and offers on meals in the bar. Not bad eh?

Nice hotel in refurbishment mode, so no heating in Jan cold room.

very poor, loud room fan, tv didnt work ,room small building works going on cold room,

Twin Room but Tiny and Awkward shape. Only one small tablet of soap.(is it so expensive?) Nice Lounge.

I stayed at the kensington close hotel a few years ago and had a great time liked the hotel. The staff was great and concierge staff was amazing the in house bar was great this a British style pub. the rooms were still small back then lol but they were clean and that's all you really need. We were in rooms 717 & 718 This time around this was not the […] case. Just to start with a few positives, the new bar is great looking..that's it, oh and Miguel & Miguel at night in the bar were great really nice and welcoming as well as very informed, i could get more info from them then the concierge every single day. Also the gentleman who was on the actual front desk at night was very nice and helpful. So unfortunately that is it for the positive. The daytime desk staff were rude and rather abrupt. As well as the bar restaurant staff in the day time. We waited 1.5hours for a sandwich with only two other people in the restaurant, we actually didn't get the sandwich we had a tour booked and had to leave at the 1.5 time frame so who knows how long the sandwich would actually take to get to us, lol. On 3 different occasions i visited the concierge desk and they had absolutely no response to any questions, they couldn't book us tours, couldn't tell us where anything was... nothing, lol that was not the case the last time we were there. There was a lot of construction going on which is not really an issue but it seemed they put all these new people in the hotel who know nothing about the area at all, also there is no business center so you can't check in for your plane or use a computer or printer unless you bring your own. As for the rooms they were small yes, which i knew was the case, but there were some pretty gross stains on the floor, and im not talking just you know one small mark here and there it was pretty bad. There was also quite a bit of black mold on the celing of the bathroom. So hopefully they are going to renovate all those rooms.lol Lesa meira

The hotel was great for London transport and shops. The staff were very helpful and allowed us to leave our luggage with them all day despite checking out at midday. I liked the idea of making tea and coffee in my room ,that way i didn't need to have breakfast in the hotel.The hotel is being renovated at the moment which wasn't a problem for us. I would […] go again as I think it was value for money. Lesa meira

- Bedrooms are so small you cant actually walk around bed properly. one night, I slammed my knee off the bathroom door at the end of the bed. its a sliding door! And I dangerously nearly fell over my luggage as its in the middle of the room. no were else to put. - staff in bar are painfully slow and talk in there own foreign language. - £13 pound for […] breakfast???? lovely muffin man breakfast place up the road. yummy. -renovation works start at eight but not so bad at weekends, - clean hotel - clean bedroom - nice,slightly dated leisure centre, still nice. - really close to underground stop (kensington high st) - nice neighbourhood SURELY THERE MUST BE BETTER VALUE OUT THERE. NO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE STAY HERE IF YOU ARE A LARGE PERSON. ITS JUST PASSABLE OTHERWISE Lesa meira

Front desk service was extremely slow. First room smelled mould, another one was better. TV was from "fifties" with 5 channels. But location was good.

Hotel is basic, rooms are small but clean. Location is great. Area is nice and you can walk from there towards many tourist spots. Internet in the room was not working, and we were told there was free wifi. That was dissapointing. Hotel is now under remodelation but did not afgect us. Noise im lobby from 9am, but its good to get your day started then […] in winter as it gets darl at 4. So not a bother to us. Lesa meira

Booked a single room at a good rate so for a good position in Kensington should really complain Suffice to say the room was small, the TV has seen better days and the safe didn't work On a positive note the room was comfortable clean and quiet - all I needed for a brief stay

Good location, around the corner from the tube station. Busy, well-run hotel, with helpful young staff, currently offering great rates due to major renovation. Some builder noise between 8.30 and 5, otherwise very quiet, good for sleeping unlike many hotels in central London.

Very pleased with my time here - single rooms are always small - but very nicely re-done. Hotel under renovation and looks very promising when complete. One weak point - service in the lobby bar was VERY inexcusably rude to me as a "single" female - all other staff were very gracious.

Hi really enjoyed my stay, i find that the staff where very professional and very friendly and helpful no attitude specially when i wanted directions! so over all it was great i will recommend it to my friends.

My husband and myself had a fab weekend and a willcertainly return again. Staff lovely too.

Pokey uninspiring room, tiny bathroom wide enough only for the slim and trim. The building programme, which continues until 2012/13 I think, means that the rooms are unusable between 8.00 am to 5.00 pm because of the constant hammering and drilling noise, I had to keep the curtains closed because of builders walking up and down on the scaffolding directly […] outside the window making the room even more gloomy in daylight hours. Not a pleasant stay at all. Lesa meira

Good hotel, I'd stay there again.

Hotel is OK but very small rooms

This hotel (as at Nov 2011) is being refurbished. They're focussing on the public areas first (reception and lounge bar) which are fine, but the rooms are still very tired and basic. I'd compare them with a basic Travellodge room - certainly not worthy of the 4* rating they claim. The staff try very hard and are courteous. If you drink/eat in the new […] lounge they will automatically add 15% service charge to your bill, AND leave a place for you to add a gratuity, which just seems wrong. Lesa meira