Premier Inn London Kensington (Olympia)

Bedroom - immaculately clean, bedding too, room smelt fresh, all amenities in good working order, no missing sundries. Bottom sheet on bed not tucked in at the bottom. Loads of condensation on sash window in morning and after using shower (with door shut) and same with the mirrors. Bathroom - as clean as a cleaner could get it using the limited products and time they’re given. Premier Inn should add a monthly deep clean to their regime to keep problem areas from becoming problems - tile grout, shower trays and baths, door handle areas etc. A few scrapes and knocks here and there and some poorly done repair work takes the shine off. This runs through to the corridors, carpets, reception and restaurant. Being budget shouldn’t mean mediocre maintenance. Food - Had to wait too long for restaurant to get started up and get food ordered. This was early evening, there seemed to be nobody around and the place was empty, all a bit strange. Eventually had to go and ask at the bar about the food situation, not great after a long journey. Was absolutely ravenous by the time we were served, the food was ok but the portion was not enough even for this petite woman. London prices, somewhat mean London portions, not great for the hungry traveller. Staff - polite and sufficiently proficient though not always present. Quiet night? - One of the most important things for me in a hotel besides the obvious is quiet nights. Fans in Premier Inns are often a noise issue for people and this stay was no exception. Not an on site management issue, something for upper management to resolve. The sound of children being loud and running around, people rolling in from pubs and clubs and doors swinging is difficult to control in budget chain hotels of this size but I do wish they’d make those Quiet Zone posters bigger and stick them everywhere. Sometimes even ear plugs don’t cut it. Premier Inn really needs to get the work being done on this buildings structure finished too, it’s been covered in scaffolding all this year. Plus the flags need replacing, they’re tatty and this contributed to a shabby looking frontage.

We usually always book Premier Inns if we are travelling and have a good experience, however this one didn’t really live up to expectations. We booked a superior room, the space was good and the bed was nice, the room smelt damp and there was no working extractor fan in the bathroom and the shower drain was very blocked so the shower would flood every time we used it. Not great considering it is a superior room. After having issues with our breakfast due to system changes, we ended up paying double to actually get a breakfast and although the breakfast was good, the service was poor. Waiting over 5 minutes just to be seated as no staff there and both mornings asked for vegetarian sausages, which was the worst part of the experience. The first day the lady in the restaurant completely forgot and wasn’t seen again to remind her, the second day a different lady ALSO forgot completely and we had to remind her and another member of staff twice. They took 40 minutes, by that point we had already eaten our breakfast and needed to go. The whole experience was a bit of a shame, I usually have a great experience at Premier Inn’s but this one did disappoint. Wouldn’t stay at this one again.

We had a great stay here. Despite looking a little lacklustre outside (currently undergoing a facelift so scaffolding up) the inside was very pleasant and made all the better for the friendly welcoming staff. Whilst we were there, Jason, the regional manager was also on site and he was SO wonderfully helpful and friendly and leant me a phone charging cable after I’d left mine behind by accident and the one I’d bought to replace it didn’t work, he leant me his own. So so kind and thoughtful and really came to our aid as we had tickets on my phone we’d have been very stuck without! The location is great, we were able to do a nice 25 minute amble to the Royal Albert Hall, it was close to the station too and shops and food eateries. The room was comfortable and clean and we were in the back of the building which was quiet and we got a good, peaceful nights sleep. All in all a great stay.

Avoid at all costs - rooms covered in black mould. Our first room smelt very damp and we discovered thick black mould on the window frame. A bathroom tile was cracked and the shower not clean. We asked to change rooms. This room smelt better, but still musty, and we again discovered more mould. The lift also broke during part of our stay. Black mould is a health hazard - I would not stay here again.

My family stayed here for a few nights not long ago. Overall we were satisfied with our stay, but of the three different Premier Inn's we stayed at during our trip this was clearly the least Premier. I'm surprised it qualified as a Premier Inn given how many flaws it had, and I'd be surprised if it stayed one much longer. On the upside, the rooms are quite large, and the hotel is well located within easy walking distance of Earls Court. It's also only a few mins walk from a large Tesco. It's fairly quiet inside, we didn't have any problems with traffic noise. On the downside there were are number of small issues. - The extractor in the bathroom doesn't work, so steam and smells make it into the bedroom - The bed we had was somewhat busted, with a piece of metal poking out the side of the bed. It was still under the fabric so not dangerous, but the bed wasn't particularly comfortable, and if you sat on the side of the bed you would just about fall off. - The duvet is super thick, making it difficult to sleep. We had to crank the air conditioning down quite a bit to make it possible to sleep. We asked if they had anything thinner and was told they'd have housekeeping have a look, but they didn't get back to us. - The clean towels smell faintly of smoke - the whole stay even fresh ones - The floors are very, very squeaky, you can hear people walking around upstairs so loudly it makes sleep more difficult. - The door stuck in the frame. Our 8 year old couldn't open the door from either side, and even as an adult we had to give it a big push to get the door open. - WiFi is so slow it's near unusable - 0.9Mbps down, 0.5Mbps. That's between 2G and 3G speed, using my 4G mobile plan was much, much faster. I think they do this to try to sell you their more expensive offering. This was the worst WiFi we had on the trip, across the 10 or so places we stayed in England. - The toilet flush isn't very good. Sometimes we had to flush it five times to clear the bowl. - The breakfast is ok, just ok, but clearly the worst of all the Premier Inns and other places we stayed. The food was not very warm and the eggs not that good. All in all, if you need to stay in this location it's ok, but I would look elsewhere first myself. There are Premier Inn's all over, try another one first.

Room was huge and felt very cold and empty. The carpet next to the bed was absolutely sodden like there had been a leak. Room was damp dark and cold. Hotel very old and grubby on outside but did have scaffolding up over full front so assume they upgrading this. It needs it. At the price they charged for 1 room for a night and following this experience it really has made me think premiers are no longer a hotel I wish to stay in.