Buyer Beware the Abbey House!

Posted by Libby from United States on 7/12/06

The photographs on the hotel's website (www.abbeyhousekensington.com) and brochure make the Abbey House look very nice, but the elegance ends with the exterior and foyer. The room that we stayed in was, at best, dingy and run down. The plaster on the ceiling was cracked and crumbling and the furnishings were well worn. The hotel advertises that "All rooms are refurbished annually to ensure that [their] high standards are maintained." However, if this is truly the case I would not have expected to see large yellow stains on the pillows. We even found duct tape holding things together! One of our mattresses was nothing but springs covered by a thin padding. I have no idea how old it was but it was certainly unacceptable for a hotel that advertises orthopedic beds in all their rooms. Our room had a television, a fan, and a desk lamp but only one outlet. There are no telephones in the rooms, the only telephone is a pay phone in the basement. Bring your own alarm clock because you won't find one in the room! Towels and soap are provided but neither of these were in our room when we got there and instead of bringing some up for us we had to go down and get them ourselves. The shower in the bathroom on our floor was unusable. Consequently we either had to use the bathtub faucet or go down a floor to get clean. There wasn't even a toilet paper holder. I remember thinking that it seemed very cheap not to have installed something as simple as toilet paper dispenser. Perhaps most concerning was the lack of a fire escape from our floor. In order to exit, a sign suggested that we go up one floor and escape to the adjacent building. Sorry for the long review but I cannot recommend this hotel.We left and got accommodation at a chain hotel in a charming restored Edwardian townhouse for LESS money...with excellent facilities.