Harrington Hall Hotel

I am greatly disappointed by this hotel. Maybe it was because it was my first business trip to London and I had no idea what to expect, but it was not worth the price.
The positives:
–Excellent location. You are near the V&A and the Natural History Museum. Gloucester Road Station is a block away. It is super easy to walk around the area and if you suffer jet lag like me, a jog through Kensington and Hyde Park is really nice and only a couple of minutes away.
–Concierge was helpful. He told me about the bus tours and where to check out for being in London for the first time.
–Breakfast was standard… the same foods everyday, but at least you know what you are getting and it is somewhat decent.
The negatives:
–I do not know if it is just a crappy ventilation or just my room, but I had the heater on at the highest level and at max output, but my room still felt cold.
–The décor is old… I cannot hold it against them that much, because I was told all of London looks like it. But still, it had this outdated floral print with uninteresting wallpaper.
–My carpet had holes and I could see the wooden floor underneath… they never bothered replacing the carpet.
–Internet is way expensive! And even then you are limited to the amount of bandwidth. I tried also connecting my iphone with the wifi, but no success. Instead, I had to upgrade my AT&T international service because it could not locate any wifi.
–Front desk IT services seems convoluted or outdated. Having to book an extra night was an ordeal and even then they ended up overcharging me, because they charged me for a better room for my extra night.
–The gym is this litle cramped room with only one treadmill, bike, and a few lighter dumbells.
Overall I would not come back unless I am willing to fork over the extra money for its location.

I liked this hotel because it was clean, efficient, and a great location. It’s not the Westin or anything like that, but it does have a simple, old school charm about it. The bedrooms are decorated in floral print and have the basic amenities needed, don’t expect super comfy beds or silky soft sheets here. The people were fine and provided us everything we needed except early check in. They don’t have free Wi-​Fi in the room and you can only get it for 30 minutes in the lobby, so that was a little drawback for me. But the location was really great, a block away from Hyde Park, a tube top away from Harrods, and right next to Glouster Road tube station. In short, Harrington Hall was convenient, but not a place I would go if I wanted a fancy or unique hotel.

I’ll start out with the positive… Harrington Hall Hotel is fabulously situated – in the heart of a charming, village-​like area in South Kensington. From the façade and remaining original detail it is obvious that it once was an exquisite and stately hotel. I have stayed here several times over the past ten years and I have to agree with other reviewers… This hotel was at one point the quintessential British hotel but has apparently been bought by a Spanish organization (restaurant menuse listed in Spanish in the elevators) and the hotel is now in a state a rapid decline with management that has little understanding of the level of service that international business travelers expect from a 4-​star establishment.
Recent repairs to walls and ceilings were poorly done and clearly visible. Wallpaper was badly patched, if at all, as well as dirty from wear. Textiles were frayed. Toilet flushing functioning was a process. The gym, which has only ever had a few essential pieces of equipment but most of them were broken and according to the front desk staff have been broken for quite some time now. Internet was VERY expensive.

Harrington Hall Hotel is fabulously situated – in the heart of a charming, village-​like area in South Kensington. From the façade and remaining original detail it is obvious that it once was an exquisite and stately hotel. However, the hotel is now in a state a rapid decline with management that has little understanding of the level of service that international business travelers expect from a 4-​star establishment.
Recent repairs to walls and ceilings were poorly done and clearly visible. Textiles were frayed. The bath plug and shower head didn’t function properly. Recent tilework in the bathroom was beyond shoddy. The front desk staff divulged that they were prohibited from lending plug adapters to guest (although they had extras), but instead had been ordered by management to sell adapters to guests.
For the likes-​to-​be-​connected guest (you’re reading Unilocal,so that’s probably you):
Internet connectivity was not included (common in Europe, but frankly unacceptable in modern times in a 4-​star establishment). Basic Internet connectivity was £10 (US$ 16.61 right now) and provided a connection up to 256 kbps and up to 500 MB per day of data transfer – with the caveat that the bandwidth would be allocated to Business Internet connectivity purchasers first. The Business Internet connectivity package was £17.25 (US$ 28.66) with unlimited data transfer and first priority for bandwidth. I opted for the more expensive package (although this more than offset the «great deal» I had received on this hotel through
). The quality of the connection was poor, and certain third-​level domain designations were blocked (URLs starting with «www.» were fine, but ones starting with «upload.» and many CDN URLs were inaccessible). Finally the connection went down for the whole hotel (including the business center) for over 24 hours, and had not been restored when I checked out.
If you want an unexpectedly-​disconnect-​from-​the-​world-​and-​annoy-​your-​coworkers-​and-​clients retreat in a depressing-​freefall-​from-​grandeur hotel, then this is the perfect place for you! If you want a fine hotel that focuses on providing a great guest experience for the modern traveler then you need to keep looking!

This hotel is in a great location, just a couple minutes from the Gloucester Road tube station. If you go up the road towards the Tube, there are a number of restaurants, a pub, an internet café, and a little shopping mall with Boots and Waitrose. Very convenient!
We were with a group and my friend and I stayed in room 101 which is large and comfortable. Some of the other people on the group were unhappy with their rooms but we thought our room was great. Part of our deal was breakfast every day (which I’m sure is expensive) and it was very good with a wide variety of things to eat.
I’d stay here again.