The Chelsea Townhouse — Hotel in London

Pros: |1. Terrific location. I love the Chelsea neighborhood. 30 seconds from Pavilion Road mall, 5 minute walk to the local Whole Foods, and 18 minute walk to Harrods. |2. Very accomodating employees. They really try hard to make your stay enjoyable and everyone is very nice. I loved the room service. And the building is quaint. And they share a private garden/yard which is just delightful. ||Cons: It was not cheap. I am just not sure it was worth the money. London is expensive. Last year we stayed at the Millennium and Chelsea Townhouse is so much nicer.||Full story: We got in late Wednesday night. Shirlun greeted us and had our bags brought up to our room which was room 43. Room 43 is the attic. There were two large dormers which made the room feel small. The next day was Thursday. London set a record for temperature for that day, 81 degrees. All the heat in the building rose and into our room. The air conditioner was totally inadequate. We called down to reception and said we can't spend a week in this room. I think it was Shirlun who showed us room 33, right underneath room 43. The room was wonderful. The air conditioner worked better. We moved down and moved in. Then the TV went out. Poor Shirlun tried to get it to start up again and it would not. Maintenance came and restarted it. A few hours later, the TV went out again. But Maintenance had left for the day. So Shirlun moved us down to room 23 which was right below room 33. Interestingly, the closet in room 23 was larger than the closet in room 33 but the bathroom was much smaller. Tiny I would say. We went to bed. At 3 in the morning, I was unable to sleep in the bed. It was high in the middle and sloped to the sides like a volcano. I do not recall the name of the on-duty person but Shirlun had left detailed notes so the person on duty knew our history, advised us the TV in room 33 was working again (he said it was old and would go out on occasion), and moved us back into room 33 (at 3:00 a.m.). I loved Room 33. We stayed there from Friday through Wednesday. I did not have a chance to see the rooms on the Garden side of the building but I would recommend staying on that side of the building for the view of the garden. But all the employees were nice. Shirlun, Anna, they all tried to make us feel welcome. I felt bad we did not tip the room service but it showed up on our invoice as a discretionary expense and I did...

I'm extremely sad and disappointed with the management of The Draycott. My family and I have been staying at The Draycott for over 25 years (at least one trip per year) beginning when my two daughters were kids (and now adults). Every experience was always perfect, with afternoon tea, an evening glass of champagne and, of course, hot chocolate in the late evening. The staff has been and still is terrific. They watched our kids grow up! The Draycott has been our "home away from home" in London.

We are booked to stay in mid-February, a reservation I made last August.Two days ago I received an email informing me that the hotel had been sold to the owners of 11 Cadogan Gardens Hotel around the corner and that the hotel: "...........will begin a series of refurbishments on the 3rd January 2023 [note: I received this email after 3/1].The hotel will be operating with altered facilities and services to normal while the works are undertaken. Houses 26 and 24 will be closed, meaning you will need to use the entrance of House 22 to enter/exit the premises. There will be a scaffolding in House 22,24 and 26. The Drawing Room, Library and Dining Room will be closed and the complementary Tea, glass of English Sparkling Wine and Hot Chocolate unavailable.Unfortunately, breakfast will be room service only and limited to a continental offering."

In short, it will be a construction site and they will not be providing the quality services nor have the amenities that have historically defined The Draycott.I asked the reservationist why they had not offered to honor my reservation with comparable rooms at Number 11 (given the common ownership), especially given it's the slow season. I didn't get a satisfactory response. I asked that the manager, who's been with the hotel a long time and knows we are a longstanding and regular hotel guest, call me to discuss. I have not heard back from anyone.

I would think the owners of Number 11 would be interested in keeping longstanding guests of The Draycott and I'm pretty sure they would be surprised that no one has followed up with me.

Sadly, we will likely cancel our reservation at The Draycott and look for a new "home away from...

Having lived in the UK, I was very keen on choosing a hotel that was profoundly British. I wanted the creaky floors, the regency building, the coziness of a small place - all of it. And when I arrived, it was lovely.

That said, the day prior to my arrival I began reading reviews and one in particular caught my eye : it spoke of fire alarms going off every morning. It was dated 4 months ago. I thought - well, they’ve clearly fixed that by now, that’s ages ago. However, throughout my week long stay, the fire alarm did go off every morning at 7. And a couple of times during the night. There was a night when it went off at one am and then at seven. And every morning when I talked to the staff, they’d come up with a new excuse for why it was doing that. For example, a power outage, which makes no sense because by law fire alarms are battery operated.

My second issue was that halfway through my stay my shower pressure just disappeared. I had to go to the reception three times, three days in a row and ask for it to be fixed. And on my last day, showering before my six am flight, it still wasn’t….

Those were two really disappointing points for me. However, I thought the hotel was charming, I loved the breakfast staff. And I loved the coziness of the garden room and the garden itself.

Furthermore, I enjoyed having my room be on the top floor. I liked the reading chair, and spent many an hour under its lamp.

My brother came a visited for a night and his room was on the lower ground floor - that I, honestly, would not recommend. Your view is of the spikes and the laundry baskets, so essentially you don’t see the sun and there’s people walking by your window constantly, and it’s more comfortable to keep the...