Crowne Plaza London Kensington - www.cplondonkensingtonhotel.co.uk

We have never had such a terrible, upsetting experience throughout our many trips around the world, as well as our countless stays in London for more than four decades. We were very patient throughout it all, and we were incredibly friendly despite our 7 hour flight from Dubai to Birmingham, which took off at 3 am Dubai time, only to reach Birmingham at 7 am, and spending 2 more hours on the road to London. Reaching London, we had another delay of an hour as we were informed by Policemen that all roads leading to our hotel were closed due to some cycling event (that we were not informed of by the hotel considering it was happening on the street they are located on), and eventually we had to carry our luggage walking to the hotel. The way we were treated was unacceptable for ANY hotel, let alone a 4 star hotel and part of the IHG group. We arrived at the hotel at 11 am and after completing check in procedures we were told that check in time was 2 pm however they will try to provide at least one room earlier by 1 pm. As nobody approached us thereafter, we went back by 1 pm and were shocked by the attitude of the check-in staff. No rooms were provided and eventually we had to wait until 2:20 pm until we were given any room (20 minutes past the check-in time). Customer service is highly regarded in Dubai, whether it is a 1 star hotel or a 7 star hotel. In fact, when we told them that we had stayed in 5 star hotels around the world and we are fully aware of the way check-in works, one of the check-in staff, carelessly replied with “well this is not a 5 star hotel”, as if she was trying to justify the complete NEGLIGENCE that we were greeted with. We were met with rude customer service and staff, and the way we were treated was completely demeaning. Many Western/American guests arrived after us, and were shown to their rooms before us, and the staff was very helpful and friendly when interacting with them. This only implied one thing to us, and unfortunately we strongly felt that racism played a part in the whole ordeal. The whole experience was a nightmare, and we couldn’t believe that this kind of service was taking place in 2015, let alone in such a big city like London. Worst of all, one of the staff actually implied that WE were being racist. One of the staff came to us and simply asked us WHY we were very upset with matters, and when I told her “What if you had been in our shoes”, she defensively replied with “Don’t call me “YOU”, I have a name.” She then proceeded to addressing me with “you” countless times after, and when I questioned her as to why it was okay for her to say it to me, she had no answer. Since when has ‘you’ been offensive? After everything that we had gone through and the bad experience, we had decided to leave and find another accommodation, since any self-respecting person would not have stayed after this experience, even if a free room was given. After deciding to leave, the hotel confirmed that they will release the amount that was already blocked (5,400 pounds), however, we were shocked that our credit card was DOUBLE blocked. A total of 10,800 pounds was blocked, and a big chunk of our budget for the trip was cut short. This amount was not released until the end of our trip, and there were no compensations at all despite taking the matter up with the Hotel Manager. Shocking experience.