Portobello Hotel | A Curious Group of Hotels — Hotel in London

I’m so sad to be leaving this review because we had such high hopes when booking the Portobello Hotel for our honeymoon.

We had booked one of the Roomy rooms because they had a private patio and we wanted a place we can enjoy not just at night but also during the day. Upon check in we realised there was scaffolding stretching INTO our patio, making it impossible to use. Not to mention, there were builders working on the scaffolding all day, making it too loud and disruptive to stay in the room during the day. We were really surprised as we weren’t given fair warning - 2 weeks prior to our arrival, we did receive an email from the staff as they were trying to sell us £40 chocolates (insanity), and at the very bottom of the email they added “Please also note, that the back of our building will be going through a summer face lift starting from 13th June, and this is expected to last for approximately 4 weeks. This shouldn’t impact your stay, but please be aware that there will be scaffolding in place on the exterior of the building during this time.” — this was absolutely not an accurate description as the scaffolding DID severely impact our stay. After I complained to the front desk, they said they would provide a 40% discount on the room rate, but we really wished they were just honest about the level of disruption upfront because we would have never stayed there if we had the full information, even with the 40% discount.

The breakfast was also abysmal. There was some mix up with our rates (again) so the woman at the front desk told us we had breakfast included when we didn’t. After checkout we were charged £11 per person per day for breakfast - which was just 4 pieces of cold toast and a stale croissant each, mind you - plus an extra £3.50 for a tiny cup of orange juice! We tried disputing the costs with hotel management given we were misled about the inclusion of breakfast in our rate, but they just said they were sorry “I felt misled” when clearly their staff gave us the wrong information!

After leaving, we’ve had a short exchange over email about the disappointing experience and the hotel management hasn’t shown a shred of empathy. They knew it was our honeymoon and used that information to their advantage when it suited them (as mentioned, they went out of their way to try and sell us £40 chocolates and a £50 bouquet of flowers…) but not when they knew it could potentially impact us during a really important and emotional moment in our lives (like warning us the incredibly expensive room we booked was going to be unusable during the day because of scaffolders).

Needless to say, I would not recommend this hotel to anybody. But if you do somehow find yourself there, prepare to be disappointed. And avoid the breakfast - it is absolutely...

I’ve been sitting on writing this review for a few months now but it stays on my mind. We paid in our home currency about a $1000 for a single night in this room. I desperately wanted to come back because I stayed a couple years ago and loved it! This trip was not that and I’m so glad we only booked one night. The room was gorgeous until you started looking closer. There was a massive (really gross looking) stain that looked essentially hidden by room service under the duvet on the bed. We ignored it thinking it’s only one night but then breakfast in the morning was laughable supposedly. My partner ventured down there and returned saying other guests were audibly laughing at the pathetic “breakfast” that was available. I had to take a business call right at checkout time, I asked front desk (young man) for 15 minutes of grace to quickly take it in my room before departing. He smiled and seemed like he would help but then this older woman entered the hotel in the morning to start her shift by the look of it. Before even hearing out the situation she very firmly and loudly barked “ABSOLUTELY NOT”. I am not joking when I say it was raining and she still had her umbrella in her hand and coat on. She had no real idea of what was even going on when she rudely spoke between us. I recognize her from a couple years ago when I stayed so unfortunately I believe this was some form of manager. Regardless, we left with a horrible feeling in our stomachs that we just wasted a grand on a dirty room, sad food, and incredibly rude service. My partner even told them off on our way out when they said “hope you enjoyed your stay”. He replied “you need to learn hospitality”. Im so torn on the Portobello because I truly want to love it but they really turned us off during our last stay. Good...

We spent 2 nights at this hotel before Xmas, and had a somewhat mixed experience. Firstly, the decor and style of the hotel is wonderful. We loved the Christmas decorations and tree in the main lounge downstairs, as well as the style of the rooms. The honesty bar in the lounge is also very nice, and the location so central in Notting Hill (as well as next door to the wonderful Michelin Star Core Restaurant) can't be beat.

Having said that, some things let the stay down. There was a fire alarm at 10pm on our second night and we had to evacuate. This can happen, however with a 6 month baby who was previously sleeping soundly, this was quite an inconvenience and led to us standing on the street in our pyjamas for 15 minutes, followed by an hour of trying to get our baby back to sleep. There was no acknowledgement of the inconvenience afterwards or at check-out, and for a hotel of this price and quality, we think a small gesture to the people who were in their rooms when the alarm went off might have been appropriate.

We also had a small issue with housekeeping who seemed to not focus on the sign hanging on the door, but rather whether you had handed your key back in at reception as a indication for whether you room was free to be cleaned. This would have been helpful to know in advance as again, with a baby, there were certain hours of the day that he was asleep.

Overall the hotel worked fine for the main purpose of our trip (a lunch at Core), however we'd hesitate to book again as the overall experience didn't quite meet the price tag. It's certainly not a poor hotel, and we wouldn't discourage anyone else from staying there if Notting Hill is where they wanted...