Holiday Inn Kensington?

[jspirit]

I see that there are two Holiday Inns in Kensington, right near eachother. One is at 100 Cromwell, and the other is a high rise called the Kensington Forum. Is anybody able to compare the two?

Are they in a good location for walking to the major sites? Seems like the cruiselines use the Forum.

Thanks for any opinions, and yes, I have read Trip Advisor!

[bigwally]

The Holiday Inn Kensington will be a number of Victorian row houses cobbled together. It must be a recent aquisition for Holiday Inn, so I'm assuming the rooms have been refurbished. But I've never stayed there, so I may be speculating too much.

 

The HI Kensington Forum is a typical hi-rise tourist class hotel. I've stayed a couple of times, but truly prefer the slightly more upmarket Milennium Gloucester across the street.

 

However, the Forum does have a really good pub with excellent food!

[Bobblsc]

Like Bigwally, We have not stayed in either, but the Gloucester Street area is our preferred location in London. We stayed at the Millennium Baileys which is almost next door to the Millennium Gloucester. I walked into the high rise Holiday Inn one time and it looked fine, although we prefer a hotel with more character if it is well maintained.

 

There is a tube station right across the street from Baileys and both Holiday Inns are close. This station has three lines, one of which is the Piccadilly which goes to the theater district. If you haven't done so already, I suggest that you obtain a tube map from the web. You can also get a Goggle map which will show the real locations of tube stations. That may help you decide where you want to stay.

 

The Piccadilly line also goes to Harrods, if that is of interest to you. The Gloucester Street area is also only a very short distance from the Museum of Natural History, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Royal Albert Hall is a bit farther.

 

There is an enclosed shopping mall next to the tube (or subway or underground) station. Here you can find a Boots drug store, a large grocery store which has beer and liquor, and an inexpensive, if not all that good, cafeteria.

 

Wherever you stay in London you will not be far from a tube station. It is usually suggested that you purchase a day or longer pass to avoid individual tickets.

 

You may already have stayed in London, and therefore much of that I write is "old Hat", but one final bit of info. If you like theater, try the half price ticket office at Leicester Square. Half price tickets are available for several shows on the day of a performance. Go to the real ticket office, not one of the other places along the way. The real thing is at the lower side of the square. It has a small clock tower.

 

I hope this helps. If not, what the heck. It was fun writing , anyway.

 

Bob :p

[jspirit]

Every little bit of information helps a lot! We have never been to London so I am learning all that I can from these boards!

Thanks again.

[Bobblsc]

Every little bit of information helps a lot! We have never been to London so I am learning all that I can from these boards!

Thanks again.

 

Happy I was of some help. I'll try to keep my eye on this thread for a few days in case you have other questions.

 

Bob ;)

[handfordr]

The Kensington Forum (the high rise) has the feel of a business hotel with conference rooms, airline personnel passing through etc.

The Kensington opposite has a more leisure feel. A lot of families use the Kensington and the family rooms are very nice. Some of them are split level with a spiral staircase going up to the bedroom and the lounge/2nd sleeping area on the ground.

 

Both are next door to Gloucester Road Underground and there is a Waitrose supermarket, coffee shops etc around the station.

 

The Holiday Inn chain in London is more upmarket than most examples of the Holiday Inn chain in North America.

[bigwally]

I'm still looking for feedback on the nearest Internet Cafe to the Gloucester Rd. tube station. Or someplace place with a free-wifi signal (even if it's from a private network in one of the flats over the station ;) ).

[jimc_usa]

http://www.visitlondon.com/

http://www.londontown.com/

http://www.timeout.com/london/

http://www.virtual-london.com/

 

Kensington both hotels

 

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hotel/lonke?_requestid=240598&crUrl=/h/d/6c/1/en/hotelsearchresults&rpb=hotel&_requestid=240602

 

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hotel/lonhi?_requestid=240944&crUrl=/h/d/6c/1/en/hotelsearchresults&rpb=hotel&_requestid=240953

[PhilbeachTraveller]

I'm still looking for feedback on the nearest Internet Cafe to the Gloucester Rd. tube station. Or someplace place with a free-wifi signal (even if it's from a private network in one of the flats over the station ;) ).

 

Hi there

 

There are loads of coffee shops in Gloucester Road and most have wi-fi. There's a Starbucks which definitely has it (but you may have to pay for credits). Also you can check www.thecloud.net which will show you where the free hotspots are (although it'll take some trawling through the UK list). Most hotels over here also have WiFi, again not many are free though.

 

Alison

[bigwally]

Also you can check http://www.thecloud.net which will show you where the free hotspots are (although it'll take some trawling through the UK list).

 

That site is great! Coffee Republic and the Hereford Arms look to be the best bets from the ones listed under SW7.

 

It shows quite a few that are BT phone booths. Do you know anything about that access? Is pay access only for BT broadband customers?

[rsquare]

I just did a post about the area in a thread on the Copthorne Tara. I've been staying at the Forum for years, back when it was an Intercontinental, and my wife and I consider the area, which is largely residential, "our" neighborhood in London. The Gloucester Road tube station, about a block from both hotels, is very strategically located. If you haven't got too much luggage, it's a cheap ride in from Heathrow on the Piccadilly Line, and it is the westernmost station on the Circle Line, which is a subway loop that hits many of the tourist areas within Central London, and all of the train stations.

[shorning]

We will be traveling around for two weeks (1 week in US and 1 week in London) before getting on ship in Southampton and I'm wondering if there is a laundramat near the Fourm. I would like to do a little laundry without paying ship prices! Thanks.

[rsquare]

We will be traveling around for two weeks (1 week in US and 1 week in London) before getting on ship in Southampton and I'm wondering if there is a laundramat near the Fourm. I would like to do a little laundry without paying ship prices! Thanks.

 

Last time I needed laundry in that area was a while ago, but there was a laundromat on Gloucester Road about three or four blocks north of Cromwell Road, somewhere around Elvaston Place, on the east side of the street. Like most London launderettes, they'll do a "service" wash, which is wash and dry and your clothes back folded but not ironed, wrapped in paper. Used to be closer one on Brompton Road, but when I was at the Forum last November, I noticed that it had closed.

[bigwally]

Now I'm back I thought I'd report back on how I found the Millennium this time round.

 

It's been about 3 years now since I last stayed there, and it has to be at least 10 years that I can recall since they went through the last big room refurbishment. Well I'm sad to say that it shows. Even the Club floor room we upgraded to looked quite tired. Rubbing salt into the wound was the bad exchange rate, making this the most expensive visit we've ever made there - $370 a night (£150 plus £30 additional for the Club floor upgrade, which is down from £40 on the last couple of visits).

 

So I'm afraid that I can no longer recommed the Gloucester with as much enthusiasm as I have in previous years. It's not that anything has changed much, just that the experience is just not as special anymore. In fact, I might be looking at recommendations for alternatives the next time round. How were those rooms at Bailey's?

 

Another bitter dissapointment is that the great little 24 hour supermarket is now a Tesco Express! I can see why they had to sell out, what with the massive competition from the Waitrose now inside the tube station. But the Waitrose isn't open beyond normal business hours, and there is a huge hole in the offerings that used to be available with the old setup - all the hot food is gone and the fruit and veg offerings are just a shadow of what they used to offer. Even the standard fare is extremely limited in breadth.

 

Oh, and I found that the video rental place just south on Gloucester Rd. from the tube station (left hand side just before you get to Harrington Gardens) now has an Internet cafe with around a dozen stations. I don't remember the name, but it's the only one so you can't miss it. No wireless that I could see, just hard wired workstations provided for your use. Basic rate is £1.50 a half-hour and 15p per printed page, with discounts for additional usage (for example an hour is £2.50). This, I'm afraid, will go down as the high point of an otherwise dissapointing visit to what I consider my London neighbourhood.

[bigwally]

Ooh, glad I found this again. I'm booking rooms in London for our summer visit and was pining over the Gloucester and how I didn't want to pay $370 a night to stay there. Glad to remind myself that not only was the rate equally as bad the last time we visited but that I also didn't find the quality of the accomodations justified it!

 

So if we stay in the area again (we are actually considering staying at LHR), it looks like the HI Forum will be our front runner @ $217 a night.

[handfordr]

 

It shows quite a few that are BT phone booths. Do you know anything about that access? Is pay access only for BT broadband customers?

 

BT broadband customers including residential can opt to join the FON network for fee WIFI worldwide. To do this a chunk of their connection is available to others. From experience some come up with a FON login barrier others do not, there are also BT Openzone places where its completely open.

According to the BT web site, the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum hotel is a BT Openzone site itself.

 

http://www.bt.com/static/wa/wifi/pages/findhotspots.html

 

All Weatherspoon pubs (see their web site for locations) and most McDonalds also offer free wifi.

[itsjb1]

We have stayed three times at the HI Kensington. The Forum is a busy hi rise hotel. The Kensington is a smaller hotel. Not a new addition as one of the posters said, as the first time that we stayed there was 1993 and the last time was 2004.

 

Well located on the "main" tube line from Heathrow and that goes to Picadilly Circus. The rooms were very clean and fairly large for London. When we travelled with our 2 kids we were able to get a room that was split level.

 

They accepted the Entertainment card, so the price was fairly good.

 

Had a very nice breakfast buffet, and tables out in the garden.

 

The hop on hop off bus stops at the corner, if that interests you. There wwere several restaurants nearby.

[handfordr]

We have stayed three times at the HI Kensington. The Forum is a busy hi rise hotel. The Kensington is a smaller hotel. Not a new addition as one of the posters said, as the first time that we stayed there was 1993 and the last time was 2004.

 

The Holiday Inn Kensington is scheduled to become a Crowne Plaza early 2009 leaving the Kensington Forum as the only Holiday inn in that area of Kensington.

[bigwally]

The little supermarket that is now the Tesco Express, does anyone remember what it used to be before?

 

I remember that the store was painted green and their shopping bags were green and white. But I can't picture the name in my head. I could probably come up with it by looking for old credit card receipts, if no one else can remember.

 

Never mind, I got it. It used to be a Hart's / Cullen's / Europa. Guess Tesco bought them in 2004. Pity, 'cause the Tesco Express isn't a patch on what used to be there.

[rsquare]

Is the issue with the Tesco Express that it is not open 24 hours? There is a small convenience store (or was about 18 months ago) on the southeast corner of Harrington Gardens and Gloucester Road, which we've used for late night soda and snack runs. They also sell newspapers, which is helpful because the big newsstand in front of the tube station seems to close fairly early.

[TenerifeSharon]

Ooh, glad I found this again. I'm booking rooms in London for our summer visit and was pining over the Gloucester and how I didn't want to pay $370 a night to stay there. Glad to remind myself that not only was the rate equally as bad the last time we visited but that I also didn't find the quality of the accomodations justified it!

 

So if we stay in the area again (we are actually considering staying at LHR), it looks like the HI Forum will be our front runner @ $217 a night.

Hi bigwally,

Don't know if you've found a hotel for your summer visit, but I've just spotted an excellent Hilton promotion that will be on for WEEKENDS until August. It's the January Sale on just about all Hilton properties outside of the U.S. They are prepaid rates - including full breakfast, and prices look excellent. But, I have no idea about the quality of the London Hilton hotels. (For example, Hilton Kensington is around 55 GBP, Olympia 50 GBP, Hyde Park 75 GBP). Post again if you - or anyone else - need the promo code!

[bigwally]

Hi bigwally,

Don't know if you've found a hotel for your summer visit, but I've just spotted an excellent Hilton promotion that will be on for WEEKENDS until August. It's the January Sale on just about all Hilton properties outside of the U.S. They are prepaid rates - including full breakfast, and prices look excellent. But, I have no idea about the quality of the London Hilton hotels. (For example, Hilton Kensington is around 55 GBP, Olympia 50 GBP, Hyde Park 75 GBP). Post again if you - or anyone else - need the promo code!

 

Thanks Sharon, but I'm not crazy about any of the Hilton properties in London.

 

We actually found a somewhat decent rate at the Millennium Gloucester so, as much as I want to punish them for not keeping the hotel's standards up enough to warrant a four-star rating (IMHO), we're going back.

 

However, depending on what we find once we're in, this really could be the last time we stay there and/or recommend the hotel. So my advice to them would be that they give me a really nice room. A Club floor room at no additional cost even. ;)

[bigwally]

Is the issue with the Tesco Express that it is not open 24 hours? There is a small convenience store (or was about 18 months ago) on the southeast corner of Harrington Gardens and Gloucester Road, which we've used for late night soda and snack runs. They also sell newspapers, which is helpful because the big newsstand in front of the tube station seems to close fairly early.

 

No, the Tesco Express is open 24 hours. It's just that the little chain store it replaced had much better offerings - fantastic (and cheap!) hot food, and a vastly wider selection of all the pre-packaged foods.

[brazilgirl]

Sharon-

 

Could you post the Hilton´s Promo codes.Thanks -the rates look inviting.

Kim

[TenerifeSharon]

Sharon-

 

Could you post the Hilton´s Promo codes.Thanks -the rates look inviting.

Kim

Hi Kim,

The Promo code I've used is P38JAS for the January Sale. It may be the code to use on the german version of the Hilton site. From a UK newsletter, I received the code P37JAS. Try both and hope that one works for you. BTW, on the Hilton site you can only get the 50% for weekend nights. Without using the codes at all, I received the 50% prices for a Sunday - Wednesday stay at the Hilton Hyde Park (May 17-20) on the website of hotelclub. Similar pricing on the "big 3" websites. Good luck and please report if it works!