Abba Queensgate Hotel

Average compared to hotels in the states. Arrived around 9:30 and was told our room should be ready around eleven. After flying all night without sleep we were ready for a nap. Went to Starbucks to kill sometime and walked around. Came back around noon and the room still not ready. For a four star hotel, they could have offered a water or something to drink while we waited.
Rooms are quite small with no place to put your bags. Was my first time to London and did not understand the room lighting system. Would have been nice for the staff to have gone over the details instead of making one come back for instructions. Room clean, shower good, bed mattress stiff, noise level from cleaning staff high as well as road noise. Expected something more.

For a four-​star hotel in Kensington (that has very good reviews on
), Abba Queensgate is fairly reasonably priced.
The hotel is conveniently located pretty close to the Victoria & Albert Museum, and less than 10 minutes from the Gloucester Road tube station, which has frequent trains on the Circle, District and Piccadilly lines. These lines got us to the majority of attractions that we wanted to see in London.
The room was reasonably attractive, with a large bed, wooden floors and large windows. It was kept very clean by the staff, and they provide a wide variety of toiletries in case you forgot anything.
Other amenities include a safe and mini-​bar in the room, a bar with an outdoor patio, and breakfast. The rooms have flatscreen TVs, hair dryers, and ironing boards. For those of you visiting from elsewhere in Europe, they have European-​style power outlets in addition to the British-​style ones.
Wi-​fi isn’t free; we paid £30 for a week’s worth, although they have one computer near the lobby that’s free to use. I don’t know if that computer is hooked up to a printer, as it was always in use when I passed it by, but the staff was nice enough to print out some tickets that we purchased online to Madame Tussauds.
The regular «double room» was far enough below my price point that my wife insisted that we upgrade to a «town house executive» room (with 86 more square feet) — and we still came in a little below what I was willing to pay.
There were a couple of downsides.
First, Abba is a Spanish hotel chain, and it seems that most of the employees are from Spain. I don’t think I encountered a single employee who was a native speaker of English. Although 90% of the time they were fine, some of them got a little confused with complicated questions.
Second, the Wi-​Fi access was VERY spotty. It would cut off for random amounts of time, turn back on for awhile, and cut off again. That was very frustrating when trying to Skype with family members or upload pictures we had taken.
Altogether, though, we were quite pleased with our stay.