The Other House South Kensington — Hotel in London

September 2022 I do all of our travel planning and when it comes to booking where we will stay, I make perusing the reviews a must, especially for the most recent stays. “Star” ratings are a good indicator but reviews are what makes it or breaks it. I’ve stayed in London many times both for pleasure and work and I am thrilled to have found The Other House (“THO”), which will surely be our go-to “Residence” for future visits. What drew us to The Other House was the exceptional and well-deserved reviews, as well as the positioning as a “member residence”. Our stay in London was 2+ weeks so we were looking for something that provided more comfort than the typically smaller, hotel rooms. When first contacting THO in July, they were going through some learning curves since they’d only just opened and were in the early stages of a soft launch, with only two floors open. I’d had some issues checking in on-line, so called directly and the staff couldn’t have been more helpful. Checking-in is not your normal wait at a front desk queue, rather we were promptly greeted by Keegan in a well-appointed lounge area. With iPad in hand, check in was seamless…Sylvi provided a tour of the “club member” private areas, which included a library, lounges, sitting area, pool, bar/café, spa and gym….. First impression walking into our room was “WOW”. It was spacious and absolutely beautifully decorated. We’d requested a top floor room off the street and that is exactly what we got (the 5th floor was open by early September). The location couldn’t be better, on a quiet street with access to everything nearby. The amenities are many: • Overall décor throughout TOH and in the room is impeccable, hip, chic, delightful • Three elevators that are super-efficient, we never experienced a wait time • Water pressure is incredible, especially welcome if you enjoy a nice vigorous shower • The A/C was fabulous, not the noisy built in the wall units many hotels have, rather centrally built-in so it was quiet & efficient • King size bed (two twin/full beds put together but not noticeable), was large, very comfortable with plush pillows – we requested extra pillows that were promptly delivered • Towels were of high quality and toiletries like shampoo, bodywash and conditioner were in larger refillable pump bottles, which we appreciated as part of TOH commitment to sustainability • Large sunny window with excellent black out curtains • The kitchen area is wonderful – stocked with real silverware, plates, glassware, cups etc. Microwave, toaster, Nespresso type (Opal) coffee machine, full size instant hot water pot, sugar, creamer, coffee, wonderful Tea bags. The mini fridge is more like a midi fridge which holds a substantial amount of food/drink. • The TV was large and made using air play extremely easy if you wanted to broadcast shows like Netflix, Apple + etc. from an iPhone. One call out, at least in our room – there was a beautifully designed metal partition between our bed and the TV. It was designed to separate the bed from a “sitting area” with a nice small couch right in front of the TV. The set up does prevent you from watching TV while in bed, which might be a good thing. • Storage space was amazing with two huge full-size closets (though no dresser drawers) and there was plenty of room to store large luggage, backpacks out of the way • Other amenities included: heated towel rack, motion activated night lights under the bedside night stands, separate can for recycling, fresh bottled water, many plugs/outlets, terrific bedside reading lights….

Our time at TOH was exceptional and definitely made us feel like this was our home away from home. We love, love, LOVE The Other House, will certainly be back and would recommend it to anyone and everyone...

Manage your expectations. This is NOT a 5 star hotel.

“We are a lifestyle hotel and not a 5 star hotel” this is what reception told us which is somewhat misleading because it states that The Other House SK is listed as a 5 star hotel here on Google.

My husband and I were travelling with another couple. We were so underwhelmed with our stay that for the first time in my life, I cancelled the booking with The Other House SK for the second part of our journey and we booked ourselves into another hotel.

What I did not like: No one assists with luggage so we carried everything up the steps and into the hotel ourselves. There are no phones in the room, any requests would have to be communicated via WhatsApp however, sometimes items are not sent and in my friend’s case there was no reply and no one ended sending them what they asked for even after reminders. Housekeeping is only available if you pre-arrange one day before. The establishment is trying to be sustainable and I have no issues with that or with refillable bottles of body washes or shampoo but there was no hand wash at the sink - instead the body wash was placed at the sink and I had to carry it back and forth between the sink and shower. They also do not provide face towels. I separated my rubbish and items for recycling ie plastic but when the housekeeping came to collect it, he threw all the recyclable items into the rubbish bag with perishables which confuses me as I thought the hotel is trying to be sustainable. Needs better lighting - my room had no direct natural light and there was a small desk with mirror for me to do my make up but no light in that part of the room except for the spotlight over the bed so it was an extremely dark and unusable space (can’t do any work there as there is no desk light either). My friends and husband ordered a cake as a surprise for me but we were heading back to London on the date of delivery and might not be back in time to receive the cake because of the delivery window of 12-6pm. Reception told them they will not accept the cake and will turn reject it if it arrives. After, I tried to talk to the reception that if they were concerned about any health issues, we could sign a waiver but they said no and that they do not have a fridge in the hotel I asked what about the hotel restaurant, they just replied that it would not be possible. I feel service can be improved and instead of rejecting everything, they could have been a little bit nicer/helpful about the situation and given some suggestions on how to get a cake delivered after we get back eg. Cake shops nearby that they can assist with an order, delivery apps that we can check out for delivery when we are back in the city. My friends and I saw a few frustrated guests and overheard that they had some similar issues to what we had experienced. Charged us for storing some of our luggage even though we were set to return a few days later.

What I did like: The small kitchenette area comes with cutlery, a combi oven and a sizeable fridge which can quite handy especially if you want to buy some fruits or prepare some simple snacks to eat during your stay. Area is convenient and near the tube station. Unique and quirky decor (but could be too dark/moody for some). It was a nice touch to give 2 free drinks at the hotel bar if we checked-in online. Gym was quite well equipped.

I feel that the establishment is more of a serviced apartment and if The Other House is listed as more of a serviced apartment than a 5 star or luxury hotel, it would have helped manage my expectations as I feel it’s a bit misleading to be listed as a 5 star hotel when the experiences and services of a luxury 5 star hotel is...

I recently stayed at The Other House with my family for an extended period due to a medical emergency and I have to say, it was the most disappointing and horrendous experience I have ever had while staying at a hotel. The staff was unprofessional, unreliable, and outright lied to us repeatedly. From the hotel manager to the person in charge of the show-around, "V", everyone was blatantly dishonest and made false promises they couldn't keep.

"V" gave us a tour and made several promises that she never kept. When we tried to reach out to her after booking all the rooms, she completely vanished and never replied to our calls or emails. This left us completely stranded and confused, not knowing who to reach out to and how to properly communicate with the staff.

I also want to add that "K" and "C", who are both managers, completely ignored our emails and failed to assist us properly during our stay. "K" only met us once and after that, we never heard from her again. She pretended to be concerned about our issues, but in reality, did nothing to help us or sort things out for us. She put up a very good act, albeit ingenuine, I must say.

Throughout our stay, we felt completely helpless and frustrated due to the unprofessionalism of the staff, and at some point, I even had to challenge one of the guys at the front desk to go check on CCTV for a conversation we had the day prior, in which he gave us a word to fix an issue, then on the next day totally pretended that none of the conversation happened and was actually very rude to us. Obviously he didn't have the guts to verify the truth via CCTV. Moreover, we overheard many dissatisfied guests in the lobby throughout our stay, yelling out of frustration, for the issues they were facing with the staff, just like we did. The only person who was nice enough to finally assist us a bit was Charlie Webb, who helped us after many days of stress. However, his assistance was limited and could only partially alleviate the issues we faced during our stay at The Other House.

The housekeeping situation was also unbearable. We agreed to pay extra for daily housekeeping, but to our surprise, we had several days of missed housekeeping without any explanation or apology. When we asked about it, the reply was "I think one of the ladies had an emergency and we don't have other staff for housekeeping". This was only one of many lies that we were told during our stay at The Other House.

Overall, this was the most unpleasant experience I have ever had with a hotel. I strongly advise anyone considering The Other House to avoid it at all costs. The staff is not qualified to deal with guests and they desperately need a lot of training and most importantly, they need to learn to be truthful with their guests. We will never stay here again and I highly recommend others to do the same. Look for all the other houses in the area (potentially), for a great stay, but stay away from The...