Astons Designer Studios London

Only 4 blocks from the metro. Staff was friendly and helpful. Rooms were clean. One of our relatives stayed in a downtown hotel. Astons is so much better. Great places to eat nearby.

If you are an American worried about the exchange rate, this is a way to stay in a safe, clean place and enjoy some London shows and save your hard earned dollars.

The best thing going for the Astons apartments is the location - it is within EASY walking distance of an underground station that gets you everywhere you need to go. The rooms are tiny - upgrade to an executive room if you can - I can't imagine how small a regular room must be! Lots of stairs to walk up and down - tough when you arrive with luggage, but the desk agent carried both of our suitcases up the stairs with no worries! Having a fridge and microwave were fantastic - easy to grab a quick bite in the mornings and have a snack before bed. There is a wonderful supermarket in the tube station and a mini-mart right across the street. I would recommend this place if you know what to expect and are ok with it.

The facilities themselves are quite nice, although our room was quite small, had a view of a brick wall and reeked of cigarette smoke. The real problem was the management's decision half way through our stay to move us to another room to facilitate the arrival of another guest who wanted sleeping arrangements apparently only supported by our room.

This would have required that we wait for an existing guest to check out, that we re-pack all of our belongings, and move to the new room (which we didn't think was as nice as where we were). We chose instead to cancel the remainder of our stay and move to another hotel.

The room was good, small but do-able, bathroom is TINY! The staff were not real helpful when it came to checking out. I wanted to pay cash for phone calls, staff refused to show up to do that and was rude on the intercom box. Ended up with a charge on my credit card that I didnt want when I got home.

The location of Aston's is perfect. Close to shopping, pubs and the tube station. On a very quiet street in a nice neighborhood. We were up 4 flights of stairs and the room itself was adequate. Clean but stark.

Overall, the only thing I didn't like was the bathroom. A pre-fab fiberglass "room" if you could call it. Probably 3ft. x 3ft. If you stretch your arms out to the sides and touch the walls you can't straighten them! Good for a short stay but I stayed here to preview for a longer stay when I come back and I don't think I can do it! I looked at their Executive apartments and they are very nice with real bathrooms. Worth the extra for a longer stay. Also, they had nice big bath towels but no hand towels.

I traveled to London in early June 2003, making my hotel reservations through Expedia with the suggestions from the Rick Steves London travel guide and chose Vancouver Studios. Upon my arrival at Vancouver Studios; I found that they had overbooked and had been transfered to another hotel. I was dumbfounded, tired, and afraid what awaited me at this new place. They hired a private car to send me to Aston's, which we had a little difficulty finding because it's on a nice, quiet residental street. Check in went smooth considering that I had been transfered, but I had to switch rooms after one night because all of the singles were full for the first night. The rooms are in a couple different buildings on the street. The first night I was in a double, which I was pleased to find pleasant and larger than I expected. The inroom bathroom are very small (even smaller than cruise ship's bathrooms), the kitchenette had everything you needed, a table, tv, table top fan since there isn't A/C, and a bit of a closet. The next day, I had to check out of the first room, and wait for the seccond room to be available, they allowed me to leave my bag in their office, and went on with my plans. The second room being a single was smaller but I didn't feel cramped. It had the same set up for the kitchenette, smaller table, tv, tabletop fan, and the same small bathroom.

Everything was clean and nice. Be prepared though, you might have to walk several flights of stairs to get to your room. The room's previous occupant was a smoker and the housekeeper left the window to the room open to aid in airing the room out, which I felt was very thoughtful.

One evening, somebody had accidently set off the fire alarm and everyone had to evacuate the building. A member of the staff promptly arrived to deal with the matter. It's location to the tube station was fantastic and easy to find, making travel around London simple. It is also walkable to the Science museum, Natural History Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. As mentioned in previous reviews there are some nice resturants and nieghborhood grocers nearby as well. I was happy and content with my stay at Aston's and if the opportunity occurred to return I would definately do so.

The previous reviewer pretty much nailed all the good things about the Astons, its staff, and the neighborhood, so I would just add that between the reasonable rates and saving money on meals by using their kitchenette, Astons is an excellent value if you need a place to stay in London. I recently visited London for the fourth time, and with each visit I stayed at a different hotel because I was never completely happy with the previous place. With Astons, I have now found a home base whenever I visit London in the future.

My husband and I spent the first week of April, 2003, in London. We stayed at the Astons Apartments four of those days. They have a number of things going for them:1) Great Location - On a quiet street just between Gloucester Road and Old Brompton Road and only a five-minute walk to the Gloucester Road tube station which has 3 lines (Piccadilly, District & Circle) for great connections.2) Great Price - We paid 69 GBP per night for an executive studio apartment with two large windows that opened to a lovely garden, a queen-sized bed, marble bathroom with a heated towel bar, and a kitchenette with everything you need if you'd rather cook your breakfast instead of getting dressed and going out for it. There was even a dining table! A nice sized room, by any standards.3) Great Neighborhood - In fashionable and safe South Kensington, with many pubs serving great food, as well as upscale restaurants. Nearby was a wonderful grocery store called Waitrose where we shopped, just next to the tube station. (Also very cool - a car dealership that sold Lotus, Ferrari and Masserati at the end of the block!)4) Great Service - Steve, Ross and John were marvelous and let us check-in early since our apartment was ready. They let my husband use the internet for free each evening after 6PM so he could stay in touch with his office back home. We never saw the efficient staff who made our bed and washed our dishes every day, but they made our stay so pleasant.I wish we'd stayed there the whole time. We will certainly stay there again. Highly recommended!!

I travel to London frequently, and when I do I stay at Aston's. Extemely easy to make reservations - I use their handy toll free number to call direct. Clean, friendly, residential,quiet, no nonsense. The rooms are comfortable, maid service is included and the little kitchenettes are handy. There are grocery stores are close by - Waitrose and Sainsbury, pubs, restaurants, banks, post office, a 24 hour convenience store. Close to the V&A Museum and a 15-minute walk to Harrods. Gloucester Road is the tube station. I fly into Heathrow, hop onto the Picadilly Line at the airport and get off at Gloucester Road - Aston's is a 3 minute walk from the tube! Ask for a ground floor accommodation as there are no elevators, also showers only, tubs - minor inconveniences for the price. Highly recommended.

I have stayed many times at Aston's and some for up to 5 weeks at a time. Not

only is it clean, well kept and convenient, but also friendly and accomodating.

The staff is unfailingly helpful and kind. The kitchenette is small, but contains

everything you need for cooking meals. It is so nice to stay in a neighborhood.

The Gloucester Road tube stop is close as well as neighborhood grocery stores

and good restaurants and pubs. The Victoria and Albert museum is a easy walk.

When I go to London, I always feel as though I am going home when I get to

Aston's.