Ashburn Hotel — Attraction in London

4 - Stars - are you kidding me!

My experience at this hotel recently was very, very disappointing. It was a recommendation from my sister who had stayed there several times (admittedly a while ago) so was expecting a good stay.

The property must have changed hands as the owners have not spent a cracker on it for a long, long time, there were red flags from the start. The entrance is tired and looked somewhat disorganized, void of any comfort and the welcome you expect from at a 4-star establishment. You can’t make a second, first impression. Fortunately, we had not paid yet due to a clerical error.

The room was as displayed on the website, but it is the finer details that you experience in person. For approximately $500AUD per night for a “boutique” 4-star hotel and we had just stayed in several 3 and 4-star hotels, this was a BIG step down and would have expected a much higher standard all round. If you’re not a 4-start hotel don’t advertise you are, this hotel would struggle to make 3-stars in my view.

This was not helped when the bed was presented in such a way that exposed an obvious repair job. This was in plain sight because they had neglected to prepare the room satisfactorily. The chair at the desk was coming apart at the joints, the safe would not work and the space between the new (inside) windows and the original (outside) windows were full of dust and grime. It was adding up, our experience vs value was declining very quickly.

But the final straw was the bathroom, where under the bath in the corner was a 5cm by 5 cm hole in the plastering. On touching it, it was damp and crumbled away further. The place is old and requires maintenance which is clearly not happening.

We decided to go have a chat with the “manager”, that went along the lines of “there is nothing we can do for you”. She begrudgingly offered us another room, alternatively we could leave, so we left. Thank goodness we had not paid, although they were constantly following us up for payment - no wonder.

We ended up finding a far superior “4-star hotel” in the West End, 250 meters from Covenant Gardens at a similar price. This hotel (Waldorf) met and exceeded the minimum requirements of a 4-star hotel. On hearing our story, they even up graded our room. Fellow travelers, read the reviews, and STAY AWAY from the Ashburn. Faulty Towers as nothing...

We had a 3 night stay at this hotel.

Location is handy being near the tube and is fairly quiet considering the busy road nearby. Kensington is lovely.

However, the hotel itself was a bit of disappointing. The pictures and decor on the website really sold it for us and we were so excited but it feels like we got let down.

The room states it comes with a bath, however we didn't get one as 'only the bigger rooms have them'. We booked a standard double which states bath and has pictures of a bath with it. When we questioned this at reception. We were told we had a 'nice desk instead' and a 'lovely walk in shower'. It wasn't a walk in; it was a tiny corner unit that didn't close correctly.

But in fairness, not having the bath may have been a blessing as we wanted to spend as little time possible in the bathroom due to the smell. The bathroom stank of sewage, badly. Made going in there something to dread. There didn't seem to be an extrator in our bathroom either, so there was no was to get rid of it. It was very off putting.

The room itself was nice enough, bed was comfy. It wasn't as pretty as the picutres we saw. We did have a back room so it was a bit dim and all the sockets were on the wall away from the bed, which was a bit annoying.

I got this hotel on a deal but if i had paid £800 for it, I would have been incredibly disappointed. I presume we just had a bad experience but I wouldn't be rushing back or to recommend this...

We had a two night stay at the Ashburn Hotel and wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again. We booked it because it’s really handy for the Royal Albert Hall, on a direct Underground line from King’s Cross station and it had really good reviews. We had a really nice large room and felt that we were really well looked after by all members of staff, who went out of their way to be helpful and friendly. A special mention to the lass in the breakfast room who was just a delight! Talking of breakfast, the continental breakfast spread was excellent. Really nice. There were also cooked breakfast options you could pay more for, but by London prices I thought they were very reasonable, not at all rip off prices. The same could be said for the whiskies in the lounge for a night cap. It’s a relatively small hotel, but all the better for it. Our room was available earlier than we thought so we were allowed to book in early at no extra cost, they looked after our bags for us for free on the day we booked out, and we were even given a complimentary wine each on our first evening. All in all, a really nice hotel in an excellent location near the Royal Albert Hall and the big museums. Easy to get to, great staff, nice atmosphere. We will most definitely return. Just as an aside, we had a fantastic meal literally on the other side of the road at the Thai Taste Restaurant! Thanks to all at the Ashburn for making it such a...