Kings

We stayed with two couples four days at The Porchester Hotel. Typical British courtesy and savoir vivre. when the gentleness, the delicateness and the elegance were handed out, the British were clearly at the front of the queue. A big feather. The hotel is charming, not large but centrally located on the park. The manager clearly has an eye for detail. He learned that it was someone's birthday in the group. When we arrived after a day of London visits in the room there was a nice attention on the bed! Nice surprise. Thanks for this, is definitely recommended, we will return in the autumn. Emmanuel

On arrival at The Porchester Hotel, and after a long & challenging train journey from up north, on the hottest day of the year so far, I was told that there was no reservation for the twin room I had booked via Hotels.com, for myself and my daughter for 3 nights, and that I would have to pay again if I wanted to stay there. Whilst my daughter went looking for another hotel in the area, I contacted Hotels.com for help, and they telephoned reception, however the lady on reception hung up on Hotels.com and so the issue was not resolved. I don't believe this was done on purpose, more like a language barrier or miscommunication issue. After a lot of confusion and waiting around, reception agreed to give us a double room for the 3 nights. Whilst not ideal and not what I had booked, I accepted this offer as my daughter and I were hot, tired & fed up. Since arriving home after our trip, I have tried to take this up with Chapter Hotels who own The Porchester Hotel but up to now they have not been helpful and I am still waiting for a response from customer services. Since raising the issue with them, I have been unable to get in touch again to chase this up as the phones lines are difficult to get through on and I keep getting put on hold to listen to music for 40 minutes before I lose patience and hang up, and that's before even getting to speak to someone. I see in other reviews that people have had similar experiences with their room not being available, with some even being relocated to other hotels. If you want guaranteed accomodation, I would not recommend this hotel.

It's just been bought by Chapter Hotels and my original booking was at their Falcon Hotel near Paddington Station, see my review there for the start of this story. Basically, they confirmed my booking at Falcon but then claimed there was no room for me, and offered me a room at J Hyde Park. My booking at Falcon was for a deluxe single room. At J Hyde Park I was offered a tiny single, but went with it as didn't fancy trying to find a new hotel. Rapidly discovered the bed was narrower than a standard single and the TV didn't work properly, and so complained. Having been moved here without consultation, no properly-working TV and the narrowest bed I've ever seen, I thought they might offer a complimentary breakfast . . . But no joy. I complained to booking.com who were useless, and decided to ring me to discuss it at 6.05 am. But it was lucky they did as it meant I was already awake when the fire alarm went off at 7. Arriving back after my day of business I tried to clarify what the bill would be, but no-one seemed able to say. On the second day, the wifi died (it never returned) and that was the point at which they offered me free breakfast - but still no word on room rate. I suspect the wifi died as they hadn't paid the bill. They also continued to claim they could not find my original booking. More of that later. The original rate was £460 for three nights and for that I don't expect powdered egg and the cheapest of catering sausages at breakfast, plus a member of staff wandering through with a bag of deep-frozen hash browns to go in the fryer. On the evening of day 2 I asked again to clarify the bill . . . No one could say. I pointed out I would be leaving early and so it needed sorting. That's when I looked online and saw they were selling the room for a lot less than I had confirmed at Falcon hotel. I guess because the hotel was nowhere near full. And I can understand why. Still no wifi . . . Final morning. Having claimed they could not find my original booking at Falcon, it magically appeared and they tried to charge me the full amount for a deluxe single there, despite the fact I had been in a tiny single with no wifi, a tv that didn't work properly and no door on the shower. There is no on-site manager, the minimum wage people were very nice but they can't authorize anything, and I refused to pay. So the manager was called on phone, and he had the nerve to tell me me it had been my choice to stay there and I had accepted their terms. I told him he was attempting fraud and I either paid a reduced amount or nothing at all. A compromize was reached, with a substantial reduction. Basically, they are moving bookings from the more expensive hotel near Paddington to unsold rooms further away, not bothering to tell you what is going on, pretending they are doing you a favour and still trying to charge you the full amount. I was not the only person disputing their bill. The hotel is an absolute shambles, run by dishonest conmen and my advice is to avoid it at all costs. Staying there ruined a three day visit to London and I will never, ever, stay in a Chapter Hotels place again.