What the Experts Say
The Which? Hotel Guide 2005
"Appealing South Ken den with a wholesome breakfast"
Considering the location – South Kensington, next to Christies’ auction rooms, and
on a totally unspoilt street of gleaming white period houses – this wonderful
B&B remains totally unaffected, and managers Simon and Leonie Tan are
infectiously enthusiastic. It’s one of the only houses in the street still have
the original black-and-white tiled entrance, and surely the only one to have
ducks, from Mandarins to Aylesbury, residing in its small back garden. In
spring, two giant chestnut trees coated in pink blossoms create quite a backdrop
for breakfast in the bamboo-covered conservatory breakfast room. Inside, more
ducks (this time ornamental) adorn the high ledges, pot plants catch the light
and newspapers on the table encourage guests to linger over coffee. The waft of
freshly cooked pastries is enough to rouse most guests. Home-made yoghurt and
fresh and dried fruits are also on offer, as well as cooked eggs and beans.
Bedrooms are decorated in an unfussy, straightforward style.
The Which? Hotel Guide 2004
"Des res for ducks and other
migrant visitors in South Kensington"
Word has spread about this
excellent B&B just a couple of minutes from South Ken tube, and guests
arrive from far and wide. Passing trade is minimal - so smart is this street
that no vulgar sign sullies its gracious townhouse terraces. Much of Aster
House's success is down to its cheerful, enthusiastic resident managers, Simon
and Leonie Tan, who learned their hotel-keeping skills in the Far
East and clearly understand what makes
their visitors return. Bedrooms are conventionally finished, but equipped with
decent mattresses, air-conditioning and power shower. The only public room is
an airy, first-floor conservatory festooned with plants, which functions as
breakfast room and lounge. Breakfast is mostly vegetarian affair to avoid
lingering cooking smells, but generously packed with home-made croissants,
yogurt, ham, cheese and eggs. The charming rear garden is a haven for various
ornamental and wild ducks, which arrive for springtime nesting.
The Which? Hotel Guide 2003
"Attractive B&B with the attitude of a small hotel"
Aster House is one of those places which has the facilities of a B&B but the mindset of a small
hotel. Although it is in private hands, the owners have handed the day-to-day
responsibility for the smooth running of the business over to the manager Simon
Tan, who's doing an admirable job. The front of the white-painted, period
townhouse is a riot of greenery involving lots of plants and tubs, while at the
rear a pond dominates the small garden. Home to several resident ducks (plus a
couple of wild mallard hangers-on who frequently visit),
it is an irresistible attraction to children staying here. A very light and
airy breakfast room in an upstairs conservatory directly faces two magnificent
chestnut trees which produce a mass of blossom each year. Plenty of newspapers
and a small sitting area at one end of the room complete the picture. The only
meal served is breakfast, but this isn't a problem as there are so many
restaurants within walking distance. Bedrooms are well maintained, comfortable
and decorated in a straightforward, unfussy style with dark-wood reproduction
furniture. The Garden Room alone has direct access to a small patio area.
The Which? Hotel Guide 2002
"Modern bedrooms and a wholesome breakfast in
a smart period settings"
Simon and Leonie Tan took over
this successful B&B business about four years ago and have since upgraded
and thoroughly refurbished all the bedrooms to high standards, with
good-quality furnishings and sparkling bathrooms. A cheerful, welcoming couple,
they manage their award-winning London
guesthouse very much as a "hands on" operation. There is no formal
reception desk; guests may come and go as they wish. Standards of housekeeping,
however, are impeccable and they are always somewhere in the building if one
needs help or advice. The striking first-floor conservatory breakfast room,
decked with plants, adds an outdoor dimension to the healthy buffet breakfasts
served here (continental only - no beacon and sausage fry-ups to leave
lingering smells on the landings). There's a delightful little garden to the
rear of the building, too, where the tiny pond is the domain of several
ornamental mandarin ducks and a migrant mallard which regularly spends the
spring here with her broods of ducklings. Ducks know a thing or two about
decent lodgings. You could do a lot worse than follow their example.
The Sunday Time – 17th April 2005
“Better and Better, the top 10 B&Bs
in England”
You have to wonder why anyone would bother running a B&B in London. With property
prices so inflated, why not just flog the property and retire on the fortune? Especially when that property is an entire house on one of the most
high-falutin streets in South
Kensington. This is a part of the world where prices start
way above the £1m mark.
All of which makes Aster House nothing short of miraculous. Here
is an establishment within 15 minutes' walk of all the best shops, restaurants
and museums in west London,
offering welcoming and well-kept accommodation for less than £80 per head per
night. So what if the decor will never make it onto the pages of World of
Interiors magazine? You're hardly going to spend your waking hours hanging
about in the bedroom.
Does it deserve its nomination? Yes. Seen from the front steps on a sunny
spring morning, London
has never looked more mouth-watering.
Time Out - London Guide 2004
Sumner
Place is one
of London’s
most elegant addresses, and Aster House bravely attempts to live up to its
upscale location. In reality, the lobby - with its pink faux marble and gold
chandeliers - is more kitsch than glam, but the effect is still charming. So is
the lush garden, with its pond and wandering ducks. Even lovelier is the
palm-filled conservatory, where guests eat breakfast and read the papers. The
bedrooms are comfortable, with traditional floral upholstery, and swish marble
bathrooms - ask for one with a power shower. The hotel, two-time winner of
London Tourism’s Best B&B award, now lends its guests mobile phones during
their stay, and the rooms all have modem points. If all that isn’t enough, it’s
just a damn good location: the museums and big-name shops are all close at
hand.
Rick
Steves' London 2004
"South Kensington," She Said,
Loosening His Cummerbund
To live on a quiet street so classy
it doesn't allow hotel signs, surrounded by trendy shops and colourful
restaurants, call "South Ken" your London home. Shoppers like being a
short walk from Harrods and the designer shops of King's Road and Chelsea. When
I splurge, I splurge here. Sumner
Place is just off Old Brompton Road, 200 yards from the
handy South Kensington tube station (on Circle
Line, two stops from Victoria Station, direct Heathrow connection). There's a
taxi rank ..................
Aster House - run by friendly and accommodating Simon and Leona
Tan, has won the “Best B&B in London”
awards for the last two years. It has a sumptuous lobby, lounge, and breakfast
room. Its newly renovated rooms are comfy and quiet, with TV, phone and
air-conditioning. Enjoy breakfast or just lounging in the whisper-elegant L'Orangerie, a Victorian green-house. Entirely
No-Smoking. Offer free loaner mobile phones to their guests.
Frommer's London 2004
Aster House 
This is the winner of the 2002 London
Tourism Award for best B&B in London.
It's just as good now as it was then. Within an easy walk of Kensington Palace,
the late Princess Diana's home, and the museums of South
Kensington, it is a friendly, inviting, and well-decorated lodging
on a tree-lined street. The area surrounding the hotel, Sumner Place, looks like a Hollywood set depicting
Victorian London. Aster House guests eat breakfast in a sunlit conservatory and
can feed the ducks in the pond outside. Since the B&B is a Victorian
building spread across five floors, each unit is unique in size and shape.
Rooms range from spacious, with a four-poster bed, to a Lilliputian special
with a single bed. Some beds are draped with fabric tents for extra drama, and
each room is individually decorated in the style of an English manor-house
bedroom. The small bathrooms are beautifully kept with showers ("the best
in Europe," wrote one guest) or tubs and
showers.
Frommer's London 2003
Aster House
This is the winner of the London
Tourism Award for best B&B in London
for 2001. It's just as good now as it was then. Within an easy walk of Kensington Palace,
the late Princess Diana's home, and the museums of South
Kensington, it is a friendly, inviting, and well decorated lodging
on a tree-lined street. The area surrounding the hotel, Sumner Place, looks like a Hollywood set depicting
Victorian London. Aster House guests eat breakfast in a sunlit conservatory and
can feed ducks in the pond outside. Since the B&B is a Victorian building
spread across five floors, no unit is similar in size or shape to the other.
Rooms range from spacious with a four-poster bed to a Tiny Tim special with a
single bed. Some beds are draped with fabric tents for extra drama, and each
room is individually decorated in the style of an English manor house. The
small bathrooms are beautifully kept with shower ("the best in Europe," wrote one guest) or tub and shower.
Alastair Swaday's Special Places To
Stay - London
The small water garden out back is something
of a duck-magnet: wild ducks come to breed in spring, and a couple have made it
their permanent residence. A very welcoming small hotel in South Kensington with an unexpectedly beautiful,
first-floor conservatory breakfast room that looks out over Sumner Place, giving a bird's eye view of
passing life while you polish off your croissants and scrambled eggs.
The room has a high, vaulted-glass ceiling and is shielded from the sun by
bamboo blinds; ferns tumble from Victorian brass light fittings at the side.
Not a place stuffed with antiques, but a very comfortable base none the less.
Smart red carpets run throughout and bedrooms come with lots of trimmings: air
conditioning, marble bathrooms and orthopaedic mattresses. Also, fresh flowers,
pretty fabrics, plush carpets, halogen lighting - some rooms even have crowns
above the beds. One room at the back has French windows that open onto the
garden. Lots of local restaurants: San Frediano's is
fifty yards away, and the nearby Builder's Arms does
excellent gastro pub food. Come in January when rooms cost £99 for two.
London for DUMMIES 2nd Edition
Aster House, South Kensington
- Found at the end of an early Victorian terrace, this 14-unit no-smoking
charmer was named "Bed and Breakfast of the Year" by the London
Tourism Awards 2001. Aster House reopened in April 2000 after a complete
renovation. Each guest room is individually decorated in English country-house
style, with four-poster, half-canopied beds ...........
The new bathrooms come with power showers. The breakfasts, served in the glassed-in
garden conservatory, are more health-conscious than those served in most
English B&B.
London Evening Standard, Monday, 16th July 2001
IT MAY not appear on the Monopoly Board but a
quiet street in South Kensington is, officially, the most desirable place to
spend the night in London. Tree-lined, stuccco-fronted
Sumner Place
is as close as it gets to urban English perfection for thousands of American
and Japanese tourists. One of the capital's most exclusive areas is the home to
a breed of B&B far removed from the fearsome landladies, inedible food and
inhospitable rooms of legend. ........... With its adjoining mews street,
perfectly restored wrought-iron railings, local church and pub - complete with
a sign advertising "Draught ports, sherries and Navy rums" - Sumner Place is the
Hollywood dream of Victorian London. Harrods
is a short walk away, South Kensington's restaurants are nearby and the
Science, Victoria and Albert, and Natural History Museums
are around the corner. So is the Royal Albert Hall and
the freshly-restored Albert Memorial. It is the kind of street where you can
imagine Hugh Grant would live in a movie - an impression confirmed when the
actor sauntered down the neighbouring Old
Brompton Road as the Evening Standard was
visiting.
Aster House,
has been thriving as a B&B for 15 years. Current managers Simon and Leonie
Tan have used their expertise gained from working in London hotels to offer the best of both
worlds. Guests can eat breakfast in a sunlit conservatory, feed the ducks in
the pond outside and experience marble-floored bathrooms and "the best
shower in Europe" to quote the guest book
Eyewitness Travel Guides - London
Aster House - Several
houses in this elegant South Kensington
terrace are discreet, elegant hotels, but few have such reasonable rates. L'Orangerie, the hotel's stylish conservatory restaurant,
serves health-conscious breakfasts. The bedrooms, all for non-smokers, are
individually decorated in varying degree of sumptuousness.
Up-dated on 20th April 2005