Sonder Kensington Gardens

We had BED BUGS on our second night. I wish we’d been wrong, but we found four on the bed. There’s no daily housekeeping, and requesting it costs £25? I wish there had been service to keep the bed clean. The bathroom was old, the shower drained so badly that water piled up, the door creaked and slammed hard, and the floor creaked too. When we arrived the first night, the lights didn’t work for five minutes, then worked normally after we kept switching them on and off. We also asked for a taxi to another hotel, but the postal code was wrong and it took us somewhere a little away from where we were going. I would have rated the place three stars for its great location, very kind staff, and delicious breakfast. But the bed bugs were the final straw, so I lowered my rating to two. We’d planned to stay a week, but there were no spare rooms to move to, so we left after the second night. The location was amazing and the staff were very kind and patient, which I appreciated. Please fix the bathroom, or provide regular housekeeping without charge to keep the room clean.

We stayed for about a week in October, my girlfriend, some friends, and me, and the hotel was just what we wanted. There were lots of places to eat, drink, and sightsee nearby, and the subway and buses were easy to reach. The staff were fantastic, especially the main guy at the front desk. Breakfast was great too, with plenty of pastries, yogurt, different kinds of coffee, and fresh orange juice. We’d absolutely stay again.

The breakfasts seemed like a safety hazard and were odd. There were old, unpeeled carrots left out that may have been from a previous breakfast, old cucumbers, and cheese that didn’t look very fresh. Everything was vegetarian, nothing was made to order, and the breakfast was very poor. I also have questions about the cleanliness. Please renovate the bathrooms, clean the rest of the hotel and not just the rooms, and stop serving old breakfast. The Italian lady on staff was really lovely and did everything she could to help me, with top service. Sonder Kensington is in a beautiful spot a stone’s throw from Kensington Gardens and not far from The Royal Albert Hall. The hotel is typical of Kensington, with dust and old infrastructure, but the rooms are spacious, nice, and have high ceilings. The bathroom was poor and looked like one in a guest house.

The location in Kensington worked well, but our basement room was cold enough to leave frost on the windows, and much smaller and more dated than the website photos suggested. There was very little light, and using the bedside lamp kept cutting the room’s electricity. We had to haul our luggage up the entrance steps ourselves since there was no ramp or staff help. Reception also wasn’t staffed around the clock as advertised, and the staff we encountered weren’t friendly. I wouldn’t recommend it.