Citadines Aparthotel South Kensington

My husband and I have lived in London for 6 years (near West Kensington/Earls Court) and as we now live abroad were keen to go back to London with our 2-year-old son, for a few days. We were looking for an Aparthotel, in case we needed to cook a quick meal for our 2-year-old son. Location for us was key as we wanted to be in the Earls Court/High Street Kensington or South Kensington area.

This Citadines South Kensington Aparthotel is in a great location & we were lucky with our modern Large studio (3-night stay). There were no 1-bedroom apartments available (these are duplexes with the double bed & bathroom upstairs on a "mezzanine") so we were given a Large Studio (503), slightly more expensive than the small studio, on the 5th Floor & we asked to be on the quiet side of the hotel: little hallway with seperate toilet & seperate bathroom, door leading into main room (with two very comfortable single beds in an L-shape) with a large window & door leading into small well-equipped kitchen. They provided us with a Graco travelcot (free of charge) for our 2-year-old. Single beds are also available at a cost of 12 Stg pounds/night. Bathroom and small kitchen were very modern and single beds very comfortable.

Two minor negatives, one of which the hotel could easily improve were: 1. Light-coloured curtains which let the light through at sunrise. Blackout curtains would be great, for those who like it dark! 2. Walls between studios/flats are not fully noise-proof. This only bothered us on one night (out of 3) when our neighbours came back at 3am and chatted animatedly, with the music turned on (I forgot to mention that the Large Studios have a small Hifi in the main living area, which I suppose all rooms have, as well as a TV). We didn't hear our neighbours on the other side at all...

This Aparthotel is close to Goucester Road tube station which we used several times (Piccadilly Line Westbound to Heathrow or Eastbound to Green Park/Covent Garden, also District or Circle Line in both directions, Eastbound to Sloane Square for Kings Road which is great for outdoor Duke of York Square, with its little cafes...). It is also walking distance to Exhibition Road (for the Science Museum) and Hyde Park/High Street Kensington. As several travelers have mentioned, the large Waitrose in the station is very handy & well-stocked and there are two good Indians nearby (one of which we tried and had a good meal), a Starbucks two doors down and a couple of pubs/bars, as well as other little places! More eating options at Gloucester Rd Tube station (Organic pizza place, Paul's patisserie...), if you need to have a meal around here. We didn't try these out as we went back to our old haunts.

This place is great for families with a baby or young/older children, or those who want to eat in to save money & are looking for a place with a seperate kitchenette. Last but not least, Central telephone reservations were very professional and did their utmost to meet our room requests & the reception staff were very friendly while we were there.

We're from the USA and were visiting our student daughter in London over Thanksgiving. Through an agent, we found a one bedroom apartment with Citidines near our daughter and secured the room with a credit card deposit. The Citidine staff accidently cancelled our reservation two days before our departure. We were placed in another Citidines property in South Kensington which was way across town and a 40 minute tube ride from our daughter.

We were promised a one bedroom but on checking in, found that we were given lesser accommodations instead - a studio and not what we had already paid for. When I inquired about another room I was told none were available - the hotel was full.

Additionally, it was extremely cold, raining and windy our first night in the room but we had no heat. The heater was broken and repeated calls to the front desk for repair or a space heater fell on deaf ears. The TV didn't work either - we waited 3 days for it to be addressed.

Finally, on checking out (management had not returned any of my messages) we discovered the hotel had charged us an extra $125 for a spare bed when we had neither requested one nor used one. It seemed par for the course.

We will never return to another Citidine property again, regardless of their "promises" and promotions.

P.B. Denver, CO