Phoenix House - Sloane Street/Chelsea Apartments

We prefer to stay in rented flats or houses instead of hotels. So we thought this would be a good fit for us. The neighborhood was lovely, not touristy at all and we took the Tube everywhere with a very close stop (Sloane Square). Great restaurants and grocery stores close by, we even went to a movie theater within walking distance. We were not thrilled with the extensive "lease" they made us fill out for just a week and had us check off every item in the studio! (I would suggest they have a separate form for short stays.) I suppose someone must have stolen a bunch of stuff so now we all have to suffer. The studio itself was lovely, clean and well appointed and we very much enjoyed having the kitchen and high speed (which I got for free when I booked the room, every other place we were considering staying it was free). The doors were annoying for such a small space, I would suggest they just remove them all together or supply proper doorstops so we could prop them open. (too bad they didn't do pocket doors)

The one unfortunate "con" that really dampened our experience here was the price I was given for a our stay (which I had confirmed in an email and a signed contract) ended up being a "mistake" on the hotel managers part, he gave us the price for 7 nights instead of 8 nights and when we arrived, my husband noticed they had us checking out a day earlier, than what our contract specified. I tried to explain to him that his mistake was not our problem and we made our decision based on the price he gave us, he would not budge, so what were we to do, find a place to stay for 1-night? So we paid for the extra night. When we got home, we discussed it again and felt like it was a bait and switch. We emailed the hotel manager thinking he would realize it was his mistake and he still would not budge, so we filed a dispute with American Express and they took it off our bill for now...it's too bad he didn't just do the right thing the first day we checked in.

We were originally booked into one of our usual 5-star hotels in London, but a few weeks before our trip, we read about Phoenix House in Gourmet magazine and decided to try it. It was a great decision. For far less than we would have paid for the hotel, we had a very luxurious 1-bedroom apartment with every amenity you could want, in the upscale neighborhood just two blocks from the Sloane Square Tube station.

We really enjoyed the kitchen, which was equipped with granite countertops and stainless appliances including a combo microwave/regular oven (which worked surprisingly well in both modes), cook top, dishwasher, good-sized refrigerator/freezer and washer/dryer. It was great to be able to visit the street markets and gourmet shops and bring back outstanding local food ingredients. We had a great time sampling goodies that we would never find at home. Plus, sometimes you just want a simple salad or a cup of cocoa in the privacy of your own "home" and this apartment made that possible.

There is daily maid service Mon-Fri and the cleaning people do an outstanding job, with everything scrupulously clean. They even loaded and ran the dishwasher if we left any dishes in the sink.

The heating and air conditioning worked well and we enjoyed having windows that opened. Our bathroom was spacious and well-appointed, but there did seem to be a slight problem with a sulphur odor in there. It seemed as if there might have been some sewer gases backing up at times, despite the ventilation system. This didn't bother us very much and we never even reported it.

The front desk concierges were extremely nice, friendly and eager to help with anything we asked.

We had friends who visited from another part of England and they stayed at Phoenix House while we were there. They were very impressed with it as well.

This was a great experience and now we can't imagine staying in a hotel next time we're in London. We'll be going back to Phoenix House.