Great hotel in a gracious location

This was a wonderfully comfortable launching point for my various London activities, both business and pleasure. It's a short walk to Kensington Palace, great High Street shops, and the Tube. The rooms are small but beautifully appointed--very comfortable. The hotel restaurant/bar serves an impressive continental breakfast--and makes a beautiful omelette on request. Dinner, 'though quiet the night I dined in, was excellent. As a solo woman business traveller I found the hotel to be comfortable and well-suited to my desire for something quiet and less cookie cutter than many chains. Staff were friendly throughout. I'll happily return there for business or play.

Superb Location, Helpful Staff, Clean Hotel

The glowing reviews about the Kensington House are all accurate: it's a fine hotel, and the one block proximity to Hyde Park and generous continental breakfast (included) are the icing on the cake. But the hotel has two problems which need to be mentioned 1) the upper two floors have LOUSY ventilation and can get uncomfortably hot -- despite the good but futile efforts of the staff to put fans everywhere. 2) The small rooms are REALLY small -- well appointed and functional -- but SMALL. I don't usually mind a single bed, but I did in this case. The room size increases slightly with each higher category, with only some of the "doubles" and the "executive double" category and above resembling anything spacious.

Great Hotel, Great Staff

I stayed at the Kensington House from 4/4 to 4/10, I found the hotel to be very comfortable, modern and extremley clean. Rooms are a bit small but, for the price, the comfort of the beds, pillows and convience to everything more than made up for the size! Also, the staff was amazingly friendly and courteous. Location is wonderfull, easy access to the tube, buses and a great walking area. I would definitely stay here again and highly recommend this hotel.

Very Nice Experience

Because we are out siteseeing so much when we go to Europe, my wife and I decided to save some money and not book one of the expensive hotels (last trip, the Lanesbourogh). This hotel did not dissappoint. It is true the rooms are small. But the staff is very helpful, the rooms are clean and tidy, the location is super, and the price is (relatively)right. The included breakfast was satisfactory. All in all we had a very positive experience.

Beware the "standard single" rooms

Beware the "standard single" rooms - tiny and overheated. The "cozy charm" wore thin by the end of my five day stay. The bathrooms are new and modern, but the singles only have showers, not baths. I left my window open much of the time because of the heat (the room had a ceiling fan, so this must be a frequent complaint) - but then the street noise was unsettling. Although this hotel appears to be on a quiet side street, there's still lots of Kensington traffic within earshot. The location is good, but for this price I expected more space.

This hotel does get high marks for a very good buffet breakfast and attractive bar. It's an easy walk to Kensington High Street tube. Hyde Park (and Kensington Palace) are just across the street.

Excellent Place to Stay in London

The Kensington House Hotel was an excellent choice. I stayed for 5 days and was very comfortable. The rooms are cozy, that is, smallish but nicely decorated and planned (I stayed in a double that was very nice but note that the single rooms are quite small). The hotel is set back from the main road (Kensington High Street) so traffic noise was minimal. The included breakfast was excellent. The hotel is well-located with easy access to buses and the Underground. Most of all, the staff was exceptional! Very attentive, professional, friendly.

And there were little touches (complimentary welcome champagne, complimentary newspaper the first day, excellent service) that demonstrated that the staff of Kensington House Hotel goes that extra mile to make one's stay enjoyable. I highly recommend this hotel!

"A" Rating from a Fussy Traveler!

My profession is hospitality and I consider myself a good judge of facilities and service. This little hotel was big on both and I would certainly recommend this as your base if heading to the Kensington area. The hotel sits in a quiet section back about a half block from the main road (near shops, sights, restaurants and the Tube). If you enjoy a nice peaceful setting after a busy day of touring, this is the place to be. The restaurant, like the hotel, is small but quite nice and the staff was very friendly and helpful. The meals that I had there were also quite good. Although if you need to watch your dollars, there were some more affordable options available nearby in the Queens area.

I loved this hotel

I stayed at the Kensington House Hotel with my boyfriend in August 2003. I enjoyed the stay very much. The hotel was lovely, nice rooms - good size bed, nice bathroom etc. The service was good. We did not eat at the hotel though, we were only there for 1 night so we went to Covent Garden to eat.

The only thing i found wrong with the hotel was that we had to get out of our room by 9.30am the next morning - we didn't find this out until 9.30am though when housekeeping knocked on the door! we booked on the internet and were told that check out was at 11am. So i would recommend checking the check out time before staying there to make sure. On the whole the hotel was lovely. A nice place to stay when visiting london.

Far enough away from Kensington centre to be nice and quiet but not too far away that we couldn't walk there easily enough. i would recommend this hotel for anyone.

The Quietest Hotel in London

The Kensington House Hotel is a quiet, romantic idyll in the heart of London. The Hotel itself is on a side street, only about one and a half blocks off of Kensington High Street, but that distance made a huge difference! It was very quiet! The service was attentive, our beautiful room [on the back ofthe hotel] had a terrace/balcony nestled between mature trees and overlooking a lovely greensward, and the breakfast buffet every morning was bountiful and varied. We have found our new home away from home in London!

Avoid Room 109!

This small modern hotel (in a 19th century house) is in a great location: just a few minutes walk from bustling Kensington High Street. The décor is contemporary, in shades of oatmeal and white. The staff are friendly and welcoming. There are several nice touches: bottled water, magazines (including Time Out), Sky 1 (and Sky Sports) on the TV, and a selection of newspapers delivered each morning. The continental breakfast (buffet style) was excellent: a far cry from the ubiquitous croissant and coffee. We were particularly pleased to see sugar-free cereals and jams on offer (a rarity). The ambiance was spoiled, though, by the pop-music on the radio. (The music also put us off using the bar/restaurant at any other time.) Our executive double room (113) on the first floor was tiny! (Johansen describes the rooms as intimate.) It was little more than the bay window of what must have been an impressive room in its day. We think it gained its executive status by having a desk but this desk straddled a large radiator, and the chair was too low. However, the four tall windows (with their wooden blinds) helped compensate for the feeling created by the lack of floor space. The first floor has the tallest windows, so rooms on higher floors may feel even more cramped. The wardrobe was small, and the permanently fixed hangers were trapped on one side of the rail by the central support bracket. There was nowhere to store a suitcase. The standard of housekeeping is generally high (though the bathroom could have done with some attention in places). The bed was comfortable, and the all-white bed linen a delight. The towels, however, were rather small and threadbare (and the toilet paper was more two-star than four-star). There were no flannels or bath foam."Room 109?" I hear you ask. We were allocated this first. It is a small (executive) room on the ground floor. The feeling of claustrophobia is heightened by the opaque plastic covering the bottom half of the single window. We later discovered that this was to hide the view of the bins at the back of the hotel. We imagine that opening that window would not have provided fresh air!Despite the criticisms, we would recommend this place for a short stay (the lack of storage space makes it impractical for anything longer).