a restaurant with tables and chairs

Review: Hotel Indigo London Kensington (London, England UK)

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Introduction
The Qantas Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific The Wing Business Class Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific The Bridge Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific 239 777-300ER Business Class Hong Kong to London Heathrow
Hotel Indigo London Kensington
Eurostar 9018 E300/British Rail Class 373 Standard Premier London St. Pancras to Paris Gares du Nord
L’Empire Paris
Cathay Pacific Lounge Paris Charles de Gaulle
Cathay Pacific 260 777-300ER Business Class Paris Charles de Gaulle to Hong Kong


After we passed immigration at London, we made our way in a cab over to Earl’s Court, about a 45 minute ride from Heathrow.

a building with lights on the frontHotel Indigo London Kensington District

We were escorted into the (very small) hotel lobby, where the bellboy offered to take our bags up the stairs, which we declined.

The lobby, while very, very tiny, was crowded, and spanned the size of the smaller of our two rooms at the hotel (the one I will base my review on).

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Lobby

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Signage

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Lobby Lights

There was a lift on the hallway from the lobby to the restaurant, Kensington Quarter, which led to our room. We never used the lift, as our room was on the ground floor.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Lift

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Lights

We checked in with the friendly receptionist and were assigned interconnecting rooms 013 and 014 on the ground floor.

The rooms were located past the restaurant, which apparently is highly rated – I’ll get back to that later.

a restaurant with tables and chairsHotel Indigo London Kensington Kensington Quarter Restaurant

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Kensington Quarter Restaurant

The rooms were located past a back door, which led to a pink, stylish hallway.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Hallway

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Hallway

Our rooms were located past another doorway. Double’O Seven, here we come!

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Rooms Past Doorway

I was assigned 013, though our final bed arrangements brought me under the bed of the bigger room, 014. For review’s sake, I’ll review 013, as I was originally assigned to the room.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Entrance

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Floorplan

Hotel Indigo London Kensington
Check-in: Saturday, August 1, 2015
Room Type: Guest Room/Interconnecting Room
Room Number: 013
Stay duration: 4 nights
Check-out: Wednesday, August 5, 2015

The entryway was small and featured a doorway to the other room, as well as the main door (duh).

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Entryway

The room was kind of small and featured a bed, a desk and a few pictures engraved on the walls.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Bed

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Desk

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Bed

There was a rotating flatscreen TV which was slightly too hard to use.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room flatscreen TV

There were also a few colourful, “hip” lamps.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Lamps

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Lamps

The desk featured 110V and 220V power ports.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Power Ports

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Desk

There was a free minibar, though it only featured water/sparkling water, Coke and European Fanta (yum). I do think it was a little lackluster, but for what it’s worth a free bar beats a paid bar.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Minibar

There were also some classy cups.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Classy Cups

In addition to that there were paintings on the wall. Classy…

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Paintings

There were views of Earl’s Court, though we were on the ground floor, so it really wasn’t much of a view.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room View

In addition to the room, the bathroom was also very well designed and was blue in its design. It featured a sink, a toilet and a walk-in shower.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Bathroom Sink

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Bathroom Toilet

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Bathroom Towels

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Bathroom Shower

Water pressure was phenomenal – from both the handheld shower and the rainforest shower, especially the latter.

The shower controls were also intuitive – though the shutoff didn’t center exactly in the middle, resulting in the rainforest shower dripping. Also, with those controls, I ended up spraying myself with the handheld shower every time I finished showering.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Bathroom Shower Controls

The bathroom featured Aveda amenities, which had a kick to them – though rosemary kind of has a smell like that of toothpaste.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Guest Room Bathroom Amenities

Overall, while small, the room was really nicely designed, and I loved it.

The other room (where I ended up residing in, on the floor – more on that later) was bigger, and had a “grassier” theme to it.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Deluxe Room

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Deluxe Room

That room was considerably bigger and featured some chaise longues.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Deluxe Room Chaise Longue

In terms of amenities, we visited the hotel’s breakfast spread each morning, located in the hotel’s (rather famous) restaurant, Kensington Quarter.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Kensington Quarter Restaurant

There was a continental food spread, which had quality ingredients – but as with all continental food spreads, I didn’t come in expecting much, and they didn’t exceed my expectations.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Kensington Quarter Breakfast Spread

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Kensington Quarter Breakfast Spread

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Kensington Quarter Breakfast Spread

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Kensington Quarter Breakfast Spread

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Kensington Quarter Breakfast Spread

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Kensington Quarter Breakfast Spread

On the first day, they apologetically told us that there was a problem with the gas in the kitchen, thus hot food wouldn’t be served. However, hot food was served after that, all included.

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Hotel Indigo London Kensington Kensington Quarter Menu

For some reason I can’t find the pictures I took of the food, but every item I tried (the eggs benedict, two poached eggs and the full English breakfast) was phenomenal.

The hotel also has a gym, though I didn’t get to use it.

Service at the hotel was phenomenal. We expected three beds at least coming in, and wound up with only two. Immediately we told the front desk about it. They set up this little mattress with duvets once we came back, and managed to set it up every night for me.

Also, the hotel, for some reason, doesn’t offer toothbrushes, but remembered to give us toothbrushes every night since I asked for one the first night. It’s those little touches that make hotel stays memorable.

BOTTOM LINE ON HOTEL INDIGO LONDON KENSINGTON

Overall I thought this hotel was an amazing little boutique-y hotel with awesome service. Like every hotel, there were downfalls, and I thought I would have made done better if they had rooms with two beds.

In terms of the hard product, I’ve had better hotel stays this year, I think. But overall, with the service around the hotel, it’s hard to beat the Hotel Indigo London Kensington.

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