CPKensington - I have to say I was impressed with the renovation. I knew the rooms were getting a total renovation but I thought the HI bar and restaurant area would have just got some new furniture and a paint job so I was really happy to see what you did. I'd recommend it to anyone visiting the area.

The room I was given had a huge bed (looked big enough for 3!) and it certainly very comfy. The lift said this was the executive floor and was certainly more impressive than I remember it from the Holiday Inn times. No lounge access though, it looks an impressive lounge but my key would not grant me access. Still, the impressive room was good enough for me.

Restaurant: the early bird £15 for 3 course dinner special was too much of a bargain to turn down, so I never did see the regular menu. I was more than happy with the food and the service although there weren't very many choices on the early bird menu which would make it rather boring if staying more than a few nights.

The bar area is nice, particularly that bit next to the gardens that feels like a living room. The plan had been to go out on the Friday but we decided to ask some friends to meet us in the hotel bar with the intention of moving on. However, we had the living room area to ourselves, it was a nice relaxing place to drink and talk so we ended up spending the night there and running up a big bar bill The staff were excellent always offering to bring drinks to the table when it looked like we wanted more. It felt like our own private lounge.

On Saturday we did manage to leave the hotel and have a night out, what was nice though was the barman served us when we arrived back at the hotel even though he had closed and was almost finished. Most places would have probably told us to go away but not here. It has to be another plus point for this place.

During the day on Saturday I thought I'd better work off the buffet breakfast with a trip downstairs to the gym. I like it, personal TV's on the equipment and even iPod docks (although they didn't seem to work with the iPhone), I watched the FA Cup final while running along on the treadmill. I sure think I did enough to work off that breakfast If only I had the space at home to have a gym like that! The sauna was nice too: clean, well maintained and heated up fairly quickly. The gym was empty when I visited (just how I like it) but there were adverts displayed for a company that provides personal trainers so they have that covered too.

Give it a try, if you have points to spare it's a bargain at the CP standard rate of 25k (considering most London HIX charge the same amount of points). Mine was an impulse stay, I booked on points the same day as I intended to stay. The reason was because the visiting friends were staying in west London (in a nowhere near as nice hotel, but their company was paying) and it gave me an excuse to check out the hotel, and I'm glad I did. The total cost of everything (bar bills, restaurant, other extras) cost more than the stay would have done had I been paying but that's nothing unusual for me

Sunday, after a late night I didn't have the energy for breakfast (should have done room service), phoned down for a late check out - no problem. Ventured down to the lobby at 2pm and decided to have lunch to make up for the missed breakfast. I was happy that I was still able to charge the drinks and food onto my room after I vacated it (I've had mixed experiences with this, most are OK with it but some aren't).

Some very small negative points. The lift is evil (although it's getting replaced soon) the sensor that detects whether someone is walking in the lift is broken so I've seen the door close on people entering the lift.

I noticed some reports about the TVs acting weird. I had my own experience of that. When watching TV (regular channels) one of the menus would pop up on the screen sometimes for the regular movies and sometime for the porn! I found it quite amusing at first and fortunately a restart of the TV fixed the problem.

I didn't realise the wifi was supposed to be free until I read the tripadvisor reports yesterday and like many others I had problems connecting to it so had to pay for the wired access. Why not make the wired access free too? I have an Apple Airport Express which is a very small wifi router and I can plug the network cable into it and create my very own wifi network.

Of course the major one: you're not an IC so no free mini bar for me On the other hand I'd have got 0 points in an IC for a points stay despite my high spend, so it all evens out in the end.

I think everyone who made these changes happen can be justifiably proud, certainly a nicer alternative to the HI Kensington Council Flats or whatever it's called across the road. You can't please everyone and different people will have different expectation but if you keep most of the feedback positive then you have to be on to a winner.