Kenton House Hotel

This is easily the worst hotel I have ever stayed in, and I am completely astounded that it has a 3 star rating.

Yes, Kenton House is cheaper than a lot of other London hotels, and this was part of the reason I booked it. However it should be cheaper because of it's location. I needed a hotel in West London, but if you are a tourist who will be spending most of your time in the city, the return journey on public transport could use up a few hours of your day. Also, you will end up paying more for travelcards than you would if you only travelled within zones 1 or 2.

Location aside, it was the service that was the worst thing about this hotel. When we arrived I asked for an upstairs room as London was going through a heatwave and I wanted to be able to safely leave my windows open all day and night (they don't have fans or air-con). The receptionist was not happy about this and told me had already designated us a downstairs room. When I insisted he change it he did so very begrudgingly and for some reason very slowly.

Once we reached our room, we immediately regretted our decision to move. The room was tiny with no room for our luggage, there were no toilettries (not even soap) and the windowless bathroom wasn't much bigger than a cupboard. The television didn't work properly because someone had replaced the ariel cord with a teaspoon and the shower was unusable. Despite London being in the middle of a water crisis, the shower could not be turned off and had been left running for who knows how long. Then when we tried to control the temperature it got stuck on scalding hot and could not be returned to cold.

Less than half an hour after check-in, I went back to reception to request a room change. The first question I was asked was had we actually used the room. When I told him we had attempted to have a shower and used a towel, he said that he had just given away his last room and there was nothing he could do about our problem until the next day. There was no appology or offer to fix the television or shower and not surprisingly we saw people still checking-in later that day.

Because the shower was stuck on hot our small room was rapidly being turned into a sauna and my husbands temperature became worryingly hot over night. The next morning I went down about 9 and demanded to be moved immediately. The new receptionist's response was that he's just the night manager, he can't help me, and I would have to wait till someone else came in. When the receptionist from the previous day finally arrived he did his best to avoid me before finally saying I should go out for the day and they would move us in the afternoon. I refused saying that I needed a shower and wanted a room immediately. However, it wasn't until about an hour later when I started talking (quite loudly) to other customers about our experience, that he finally found an empty room.

Not surprisingly, in the almost 2 hours I sat in reception I overheard a number of other complaints including 1 woman who said her television volume had been stuck on loud.

The new room we were given was much better and almost twice the size. It had a working television, toilettries and even a bath.

The furnishings were tired and there were a few cigarette burns in the bedding, but on the whole it was clean and completely adequate. However we were only given one towel on each day and had to ask for a second one. Breakfast was very basic and despite advertising fruit and a selection of cereals, they only had cornflakes and toast included within the room price.

We checked out with a different receptionist who saw we had pre-paid our stay and responded with a "Yep". No "Goodbye" or "Thank you for staying", she just uttered that one syllable - "Yep".

Needless to say, we will never return to this hotel. Should you, for some reason, decide that you definately want to stay here, make sure you don't prepay the whole stay in advance so it easier to walk away with your money.

The staff was friendly, but not helpful at all. The first room we stayed in was on the ground floor and had a lot of traffic noise and noise from the room upstairs. The room was not clean. The bedspread had cigarette burns in it. The remote control had no batteries. There was no phone. The second room was upstairs, so we had no noise from an upstairs neighbor, but still had significant traffic noise. This room also was not clean. The pillows were extremely thin. The phone did not work. However, the neighborhood was lovely, there are pubs and shops within easy walking distance, the tube is nearby, and the rooms are inexpensive. (The Haven Arms pub, in particular, had good food and great service, and outdoor seating.) There is also a park and a trail through a nature preserve across the street.

advantages

----------

1. spacious bathroom.

2. good quiet location, near a beautiful park.

3. reasonably close to underground train service (if

you are used to walking.

4. breakfast included in B&B includes:

toasted bread

jam

butter

cereals and milk

additional charge is 90p per egg (be careful to

specify the number of eggs you want, otherwise you

will be served two, and charged accordingly...)

disadvantages

-------------

1. mouldy smell in the corridor.

2. the room and the wardrobe are very small and

there is no room to place suitcases.

3. no shampoo.

4. rust on the shower curtain rail and the towel

rail.

5. mould and dirt on the shower curtain.

6. the lavatory tank fills up slowly and noisily.

7. old and outdated taps without the "mix" function.

8. the light in the room is insufficient and there

is no nightlight in the bedroom.

9. only one chair in the room.

10. there is no hook for hanging clothes or towels

in the room or shower.

11. the television is small and outdated, without

remote control.

12. windows face the street, without defence against

burglary.

13. a lorry parks every night next to the window.

Carmel and Brian Teacher, ISRAEL.