The Gore London - Starhotels Collezione — Hotel in London

The Gore is billed as a 5-star hotel and the room and service prices reflect this as one might expect. (For example, the continental breakfast is £24 per person per day.) Given these prices one expects a superior experience.

First the good news.

The location is excellent for visiting the museums, Albert Hall & parks in Kensington. The room we were given has a balcony overlooking Queen's Gate although some furniture would make it more usable. The bed is very comfortable and the shower is good. A basic Android mobile phone comes with the room with free international calls, Google Maps and so on which you can take out with you. Bathrobes & disposable slippers are provided.

Now for the problems.

The desk staff were superficially polite but didn't strike us as at all genuine. The concierge insisted on escorting us to our first floor room despite our protestations and lack of luggage other than the backpacks we were wearing.

I was not encouraged when reaching the door of room 109 to see that the lock was an old and worn Yale cylinder instead of an electronic system where each guest is given his or her own key-card.

On entering the room, my suspicions were confirmed. The 'Classic' rooms look lovely on the web site but are in reality tiny and shabby with very insecure doors onto the balcony, a tatty desk unlike that shown on the web site, a small and badly finished wardrobe, loose power socket plates, scuffed shower surround and all the other deficiencies you'd normally associate with a £60 B&B room in a provincial UK resort.

The concierge then proceeded to show us the facilities - 'this is your bathroom, this is the television, there's the balcony, here's the [non-functioning - see below] air conditioning control’ - all of which were within six feet of each other and blindingly obvious. He slammed the door behind himself when we didn't tip him for this unsolicited and unnecessary 'service'.

The web site advertises that there is free high speed Internet WiFi throughout but actually the free WiFi is slow and congested and not fit for video streaming. There is a charge of £15 per device to upgrade to high speed Internet access but we didn’t take this so can’t comment on how much better it is.

The web site claims that the TV has international channels when in fact it has only UK Freeview HD coverage with some channels not available due to weak signal. The TV is small and placed in a cabinet on one side of the room so that it is impossible to watch from bed without straining one's neck and the person lying on the left of the bed is blocked from seeing it by their partner. The clock on the TV was not automatically updating and not set - I had to do that manually - and the channel list had not been updated since 2016 or earlier as it was still showing BBC 3. The menu was locked down so I was unable to update it myself meaning that some current Freeview channels were not available.

The iron and ironing board advertised on the web site were also conspicuous by their absence.

Despite being a double room, there was only a single desk chair and only one set of shower toiletries provided.

When we returned to our room around 11 o’clock in the evening we discovered that it was very cold because the air conditioning was not working - a flaw reported by other reviewers. This is clearly a common problem as the staff had a store of electric heaters available two of which we were given once we complained. If we'd been there in a hot summer, this wouldn't have been much help, of course.

Despite the hour, there was a lot of noise in the hotel with music blaring out from somewhere, random plumbing sounds, thin walls between rooms letting other guests’ conversation through and no double-glazing to keep out the traffic noise on the busy street outside.

Problems like these are annoying in any hotel but are especially disappointing in a so-called 5-star one where the room rates start at around £190 per night. I recommend that you...

The Gore hotel is a jewel of London. A hundred years of history, which hasn't lost any of it's charm, even though it has everything required for the twenty-first century visitor. From the outside, a impressive, and beautifully, grand white stoned building, and on entering, you are met with a warm, friendly greeting from the receptionist and shown to our suite by the concierge. I had booked the Queen Elizebeth suite as part of my partners birthday celebrations, and the look of delight when she saw the room was a joy to behold. The suite was magnificent, it felt as is we had entered a time capsule, with a magnificent half canopy bed with crisp white linen, catching the eye as we entered the high ceilined room, which had been decorated to capture the essence and opulence of when it first opened it's doors to the public.Then entering into the en-suite and you step into the modern world. On the bedside table is a short, but concise history of the Hotel and makes for an interesting and must read. It's not shy about name dropping a few of the good and great who have graced their walls, including Sir Henry Wood, which was apt, as we were going to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall that evening, which is only a few minutes walk from The Gore. On our return we went into the hotel bar, Bar 190, for a couple of nightcaps, not wanting the evening to end. We were sat in tall backed chairs and discussing what it was like in the mid sixties when the Rolling Stones had one of their infamous after concert parties here. Unfortuntanly,we didn't dine at The Gore, as we had already made arrangements to catch up with friends for the evening, and lunch the following day. Before booking out, we did go into the hotels library with it's chairs around an open fire, ready to warm your feet, while reading newspapers or one of the many books on offer on the shelves. Another oasis in this charming and delightful hotel. We only stayed the one night, but our stay at The Gore has left a lasting memory, for all the good reasons, and wouldn't hesitate to return, hopefully for a little longer and to taste their culinary delights. Wouldn't hesitate to reccommend The Gore hotel to our friends and relivtives, and to anybody that's visiting London. Thank you one and all at the The Gore for making our stay...

We would like to leave our review immediately after our stay at The Gore Hotel. The hotel is in a great location, the rooms are clean, the reception staff are friendly. The main downfall of this hotel is the food. The breakfast is poor and tasteless for a rather high price of 29 pounds. Save your time and find another place for breakfast. The breakfast staff are not as friendly as the reception staff. On the last day of our stay, they brought us toasts (they were lying one on top of the other). Imagine our surprise when we discovered that the bottom toast was bitten and stained with egg yolk. We did not eat eggs that morning. We kindly told the girl about it and asked her to bring a new toast. Unfortunately, no one apologized or brought a new toast. Then, on the way to the airport, the hotel told us that we took the room key with us and immediately wrote off 25 pounds for the key. Despite the fact that we said that we put it on the reception desk and you need to look at the cameras and sort it out. You didn't look into the situation, wrote off the money, but later found the key and sent a letter of apology. Which I am attaching here. Below I attach the exact quote from the hotel manager J-J Pollak in Google that they never found the key. + I attach the photo of the letter from hotel The Gore that they found the key. Which indicates dishonest behavior.

"Regarding the key charge: as is standard practice in many hotels, a fee is charged for unreturned room keys. Had the key been found after your departure, of course we would have refunded the charge without hesitation. Our team did investigate but unfortunately were unable to locate the key. We understand this may have been frustrating, but we did follow standard procedures and acted fairly in this instance"

A 5 star hotel cannot be so inattentive to customers and serve half-eaten toasts.

This really spoiled our impression and left us...