Holiday Inn Kensington or Millenium Glouchester?
 

I am taking a package tour to London in September. We have a choice of two hotels- the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum or the Millenium Glouchester. Both are supposed to be four star. The travel agency says the rooms at the HI are larger, but the Millenium is a bit more luxurious. Drawback -- the Millenium apparently has a strict dress code, and we would be asked to use the service entrance if we wore jeans or sweats?! Can this be true?<BR><BR>Do you know anything about either hotel? I don't mean to sound snobby, but I don't usually consider Holiday Inns "four star". Am I wrong? Any experiences would be helpful!!

We stayed four nights at the Holiday Inn Kensington two weeks ago. To make sure: Are you talking about the Holiday Inn Kensington or the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum? The Forum is just down the street from the H.I. Kensington and is an ugly high-rise and they are doing refurbishment so it's kind of messy. We stayed at the smaller H.I. Kensington which is a hop, skip and jump from Gloucester Road tube station, lots of restaurants nearby, walking distance to Kensington High Street with lots of shopping and Kensington Palace. It looks like all those old hotels look in Kensington -- rows of white Victorian-looking townhouses strapped together to make a hotel. However, inside, the H.I. was very nice. There were four of us and we had two double beds, a large bathroom (we arrived very late from Rome and were put in a business-class room). Breakfast was not included and was pricey but fairly good. We loved this location and enjoyed the American-type H.I. after staying in lots of B&B type-hotels in France and Italy.<BR>I saw the Millenium while walking about (it is not far from the H.I.), it didn't look like anything special. <BR>Make sure you get a good rate with your package. The rack rate for the H.I. was 215 Euros, but we got an Internet rate of 115 Euros.<BR>Have fun!<BR>Pam B.<BR>

Sorry, Michele, re-read your post and saw you are talking about H.I. Kensington Forum. With the work they are doing on that hotel, I would suggest you take the Millenium instead. If you can stay at the H.I. Kensington, try it.<BR>Pam B.

I just got back form London and stayed at the HI forham it was very nice and the room was larger than other Hotels I had stayed in and had A/C.<BR> As for the refurbishment it was not a problem hardly heard it at all. and its not after 6 pm any way did not botter us at all we were on the 22 floor with a beautiful view.<BR> Contanental breakfast was included and a full one for 3.50 Pounds more. any more info E mail me<BR>

Thanks so much for the info! I've checked with the booking agency and they've assured me that the rooms we'll be in have already undergone refurbishment. I think I'll go ahead and risk it at the HI Kensington Forum (although the other HI sounds nicer, it's not an option. Can't be too choosy on a super-cheap package!!)

Stayed at the Millenium Gloucester about two weeks ago, found it to be just fine. Room large by London standards, nice bathroom---basically felt exactly like staying in a high rise hotel in any large U.S. city, though I wouldn't have described it as luxurious (by U.S. standards, anyway)---beds not triple-sheeted, for instance. Very convenient to the Underground, a Boots and Waitrose grocery there as well. <BR><BR>I don't remember hearing anything about a dress code while we there, but then I didn't attempt to cross the lobby while wearing sweats (nor have I ever attempted to do same in my life in any hotel anywhere). Lots of hotels in the U.S. deliberately route sweat pants/bathing suit traffic in such a way that it circumvents the main lobby.<BR><BR>My husband wore jeans, but they weren't blue.<BR><BR>I will say that the AC was not quite able to deal with the pretty warm days we encountered during our visit (not uncomfortable, just a bit stuffy), the breakfast was technically an English breakfast, but was served buffet style and was not particularly great, and the concierge recommended an okay but not great restaurant to us (Lou Pescadou's) and then gave us the wrong directions (even circling the location on the map) such that we ended up walking about 12 blocks out of our way.<BR><BR>Millions of Americans staying in this area of London, many of them at the Millenium Gloucester.