Oakley Hotel

The Oakley Hotel, in up-​scale Chelsea, London, is a delightful and price-​worthy alternative to both expensive boutique hotels and soul-​less chain hotels. It is a great place to save money in a very expensive city.
It is an on-​going home-​grown renovation, a personal labor of love, a charming spot in which to settle whilst in London. If you are expecting a pricey high-​end boutique hotel, or a cookie-​cutter chain hotel, you will be disappointed by the one-​off, quirky character of the Oakley. Think eccentric and adventurous, in a great location along the River Thames. This is your uncle’s guest room, with a mélange of furnishings and home improvements, with your aunt knocking about in the kitchen, and all your distant relatives chatting with you in the breakfast room. (For us, that’s a lot of what traveling is about.)
The breakfast room is downstairs and some of the bedrooms are upstairs, so as there is no elevator (lift) please be clear when making reservations if you need a room on the ground floor.
Mass transit: it’s in a central location, on the Thames, near the bus lines; 3 minutes walk to the cafes, restaurants, and shops of King’s Street; a 10 – 15 minute walk to the Underground (South Kensington station).
At South Ken are FREE museums — the Victoria & Albert, the Science Museum, and the Natural History Museum — and venues — the Royal Albert Hall, and the Royal College of Art — and parks — Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park — and the shopping at the Kensington High Street.
Back to the Oakley Hotel: there’s no coffee/​tea in your room, but it’s available ²⁴⁄₇ in the downstairs shared kitchen & breakfast room (where you may avail yourself of a tasty and satisfying breakfast of both cold items and staff-​prepared English breakfast (check and be respectful of their operating hours, please).
Our four-​poster bed was comfortable, the room was quiet, the view onto the street was interesting. It’s not like any other place we’ve stayed, as the lodgings are a quirky renovation, with tweaks and modifications making things more than unique. Everything worked: the hot water was hot, the lights above the washroom sink were bright, and there were hangers in the closet.
It’s hard to think of visiting London and *not* staying in the Oakley. I’m looking forward to our next visit.

The Oakley Hotel is a charming and well run small hotel in one of the nicest neighborhoods in London. It’s great place to save money without compromising on quality in a very expensive city. The money you will save on accomodation staying here can be used on the amazing eats and fanastic theater choice available.
Its major selling point is its central location, on the Thames, near the bus lines, a 10 – 15 minute walk to the Underground. Traveling adventurers, this place is for you. The area is very quiet and safe. We walked around in the day and also middle of the night with no problems at all.
The staff are eager to help and give great advice on what to do with your time in London. We were recommended some amazing shows that made our trip, as well as some fantastic (hidden gems only locals would know about) restaurants. Let’s just say I didn’t lose any weight in London.
There’s coffee and tea ²⁴⁄₇ in the shared kitchen, our four poster bed was ultra comfy and the street-​facing room was quiet (and I need quiet when I sleep). The lodgings are a quirky renovation, breakfast (full English breakie made with love) in the breakfast room was filling, and the staff are efficient and friendly :-)
Don’t expect a Hilton or 5* hotel: this is budget lodging, uniquely decorated, and made wonderful by the care and love of Jen & Imogen, the wonderful team of house-​managers. They will go out of their way to ensure your stay is as comfortable and delightful as possible. It’s quite a bargain!
I can’t speak to parking a rental car (as we didn’t), but we did walk the three minutes to enjoy the shops, cafes, and restaurants of King’s Street. This is truly a walking city and there really is no reason to hire a car. I remember that we took an Über car which was recommended by Jen who can even give you a discount code, making your ride almost free!
The Oakley is a cute place to lay your head and explore all that London has to offer. We made friends with some of the other guests while drinking wine in the back garden. It seems that the Oakley really attracts kind, down to earth travelers with very interesting stories indeed. I’m looking forward to returning, hopefully sooner than later.

1^st of all, I stand by every word in my review. You can respond any way you feel to gloss over the situation and try to explain yourself with pathetic excuses attacking me in return, trying to invalidate me and my review with mounting an attack on my character. How lame of you. The fact is, Mr. Brian M., even when we were there you have admitted in person to me that your online reservation system is woefully inadequate. I had several confirmation e-​mails coming back to me after I made the «booking request» and nothing in it was clearly spelling out exactly what I needed to do to actually «confirm» the reservation, especially after I did respond to that email to secure the booking! Hence, I assumed the reservation went through especially if I receive 2 e-​mails of the «booking request». What else am I supposed to make of this?
Your excuses are pretty lame and your reservation system needs a great deal of improvement. I have stayed at the Oakley about 4 times prior to this incident and I have been pretty happy. I even referred other people here. However, the quality of the hotel has greatly deteriorated and the food started to seriously suck as well. As far as being unpleasant, what do you expect of a guest who has come from halfway around the world with reservations confirmed, in my mind anyway, only to be told that we can stay one night but the next day we would be thrown out onto the street!!!
Also, in response to the shower incident, is not the job of the guests to check that everything works in a room. I believe it’s the job of the management before you put people into any room. By this time we were so ticked off by the treatment we received from the nasty little manager girl of yours and the general state of affairs that I couldn’t be bothered to point out to yet another problem to the management. We completed our stay and res assured we shall never return to your little dump.
People read my original review below. Also, please note how the owner is NOT taking any responsibility nor does he offer even a whiff of an apology!