Hilton London Kensington — Hotel in London

What a night. Very very disappointed:( location wise it was great for me and my girlfriend. We stayed for Valentine’s Day and my birthday  so was an important night.. upon arrival we were met with a very fed up looking lady on reception. She took my name and my driving license to confirm identity (after being shown my confirmation email and PIN code) after that she wanted my email written on a form and signed three times even though Hilton clearly already had my email as they had sent my booking confirmation. Continuing on we made our way to our room. Or should I say box. The room was very small and claustrophobic. The heating had not been on at all so it was almost as if we had stepped outside. Girlfriend went straight to the heating panel and put it on full power as she is anaemic and goes purple very quickly from cold temperatures. The room was outdated design and poorly constructed/decorated. I’m a carpenter by trade and I would have kicked whomever fitted these rooms off site immediately. The bathroom was around the size of two public toilet cubicals with just enough room to dry yourself off after a shower. Speaking of the shower. What in the world was the builder on when he fitted it I don’t know. The door was hanging in the wind off it’s rail/slider. It had also been fitted the wrong was round in that when you opened the door it bifolded and covered the knobs of the shower so you could not turn it on to let it heat up without getting into the shower, turn it on and run like hell before the cold water hit you. The headroom in the shower was non existent (I am only 5’10 and had around 6 inches of play from my head to the ceiling) wouldn’t like to imagine showering in there as someone who is 6 foot upwards… There was also no extraction fan (or one that was on and working) Leaving the bathroom hotboxed like a smokers den after a warm shower. Moving out of the bathroom the room was still freezing cold after a couple of hours of continuous full power heat. So of course I called down to reception to let them know our situation and they replied we can “switch your room if you’d like” this was 10:30pm and we had settled down and unpacked ready for bed. So I declined their kind offer and settled on a space heater. Moments later there’s a knock on the door, I answered wearing just my boxers (was about to go to sleep) there was a man standing with a space heater from the 70s. It was missing one leg/wheel and looked as if he’d dragged it out of the basement. I poked my head around the door and thanked the man for the heater and said not to worry I will plug it in myself becuase little does he know I’m half naked behind the door. The man insists he will plug the heater in and barges his way through the door. Luckily my girlfriend was in her pjs and under the covers. I understand the man had good intentions and must’ve not thought his actions through but my girlfriend could have been getting charged or something of the sort. I on the other hand stood in the door way flabbergasted over what just happened. Stood in my boxers thinking what in the world is going on. The man continues to tell me our room probably has a draft due to our room having a balcony. I told him the balcony was locked and we can’t unlock it (it needed a key) he told me they’re all locked due to the risk of people jumping. Understandable but there are suicide preventions put in plane on a lot of balcony’s elsewhere. After staying one night in this hotel I must say I see why they lock the balcony door… I don’t usually write reviews on places I visit but I felt that others needed to know these issues before spending so much money to stay in what you would think is a top notch hotel room. It’s a Hilton in Kensington London. Yet I have stayed in Travelodge’s in Luton that are kept to a higher standard and had nicer staff. Our room was 2098 and we stayed on the 14th of February 2025..

I hope this reaches the right people. Sorry for all the negativity but it’s all that I got...

What a night. Very very disappointed:( location wise it was great for me and my girlfriend. We stayed for Valentine’s Day and my birthday  so was an important night.. upon arrival we were met with a very fed up looking lady on reception. She took my name and my driving license to confirm identity (after being shown my confirmation email and PIN code) after that she wanted my email written on a form and signed three times even though Hilton clearly already had my email as they had sent my booking confirmation. Continuing on we made our way to our room. Or should I say box. The room was very small and claustrophobic. The heating had not been on at all so it was almost as if we had stepped outside. Girlfriend went straight to the heating panel and put it on full power as she is anaemic and goes purple very quickly from cold temperatures. The room was outdated design and poorly constructed/decorated. I’m a carpenter by trade and I would have kicked whomever fitted these rooms off site immediately. The bathroom was around the size of two public toilet cubicals with just enough room to dry yourself off after a shower. Speaking of the shower. What in the world was the builder on when he fitted it I don’t know. The door was hanging in the wind off it’s rail/slider. It had also been fitted the wrong was round in that when you opened the door it bifolded and covered the knobs of the shower so you could not turn it on to let it heat up without getting into the shower, turn it on and run like hell before the cold water hit you. The headroom in the shower was non existent (I am only 5’10 and had around 6 inches of play from my head to the ceiling) wouldn’t like to imagine showering in there as someone who is 6 foot upwards… There was also no extraction fan (or one that was on and working) Leaving the bathroom hotboxed like a smokers den after a warm shower. Moving out of the bathroom the room was still freezing cold after a couple of hours of continuous full power heat. So of course I called down to reception to let them know our situation and they replied we can “switch your room if you’d like” this was 10:30pm and we had settled down and unpacked ready for bed. So I declined their kind offer and settled on a space heater. Moments later there’s a knock on the door, I answered wearing just my boxers (was about to go to sleep) there was a man standing with a space heater from the 70s. It was missing one leg/wheel and looked as if he’d dragged it out of the basement. I poked my head around the door and thanked the man for the heater and said not to worry I will plug it in myself becuase little does he know I’m half naked behind the door. The man insists he will plug the heater in and barges his way through the door. Luckily my girlfriend was in her pjs and under the covers. I understand the man had good intentions and must’ve not thought his actions through but my girlfriend could have been getting charged or something of the sort. I on the other hand stood in the door way flabbergasted over what just happened. Stood in my boxers thinking what in the world is going on. The man continues to tell me our room probably has a draft due to our room having a balcony. I told him the balcony was locked and we can’t unlock it (it needed a key) he told me they’re all locked due to the risk of people jumping. Understandable but there are suicide preventions put in plane on a lot of balcony’s elsewhere. After staying one night in this hotel I must say I see why they lock the balcony door… Alongside all of this every single hotel room door has a little sign stating “non smoking room” this indicates how very outdated this hotel is because I don’t know when the last time the UK had smoking rooms...

My wife and I had to stay at this hotel on two different occasions in July due to Trafalgar's usage of this hotel for their Amazing Britain tour.

During our first stay, our flight arrived in London early due to a redeye from the States, leading us to check in at the hotel before 3 PM, the normal check-in time. While we were assured they could get a us a room sooner and that they'd let us know as soon as it was available, the person at the desk must have somehow completely forgotten about us despite us asking multiple times if a room was ready. I understand that we were asking to get to our room sooner than the standard time, but every time we spoke with the same attendant, it was like they suffered from amnesia and had never spoken to us before. There were plenty of other people like us waiting in the hotel lobby that started getting rooms at about 2 o'clock, but we still didn't get a room until after 3. When we finally made it into our first room, we found they first put us in a room with two twin beds when we asked for a double/queen. Had to get the room changed, and things went smoothly after that.

The problems kicked in during our second stay. While we had no issues checking in, the room we were handed this time around had non-functioning AC. Called down to the desk, were assured that they'd send someone up quickly. Waited 30 minutes, no one shows up, we call again. Same deal, except this time they hung up on us and didn't answer when we tried to call back. We gave it another 30 minutes to see, at which point we wound up calling Concierge to see if that would work. Someone came up immediately to fix the system. Once that was confirmed working, we went to dinner and came back only to find the AC was dead again. This time we walked down to the desk and speaking to someone this time, we were again assured that they'd send someone right up. Of course this did not happen, and repeated visits to the desk demonstrated that the team was actively not working on dealing with the issue. When I eventually asked for a different room, I was told that all rooms were booked and they had no other available rooms for the night, but that they would send somebody up. While no one ever showed to fix the system, the cleaning crew showed up and hung around outside our room before the desk attendant claimed that he "suddenly had an available room" and moved us to a room that had some functioning AC.

TL;DR: Good points: fantastic breakfast, also a good hotel restaurant for dinner if you don't want to go out. Also near a large shopping mall, bus stops, and the underground if that's your thing. Bad points: In the 4 rooms we stayed in, each room had a different layout, different furniture, and different AC system/input. AC is spotty at best. All rooms are incredibly small, and some look like they've taken a lot of abuse over the years with no repairs made to correct it. The front desk is more often than not unhelpful and can actively work to ignore/avoid your complaints instead of actually dealing with them. It's only when you keep pushing that anything gets done. This is a Hilton hotel that does not deserve the Hilton name- I would strongly advise anyone thinking of staying here to stay far, far away. Of the 3 hotels we stayed at in London (this, Tower Hotel London, and Tower Suites by Blue Orchid), this was hands down the...