Geoggy

What is your IHG Rewards Club status?
Plat ambassador.

Were you happy with the hotel/stay?
Not at all

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked basic room on Visa Free Night and points. Emailed ahead and explained my wife had knee injury and requested a quiet room. Received upgrade to London King Deluxe

How are the rooms?
The room was a joke. It was the smallest room i've ever been in at this property. Smaller than some of the Classic Rooms I was given as a day room when I was an RA. In fact it was just a Classic Room with the small refurb. It was also as far away from the lifts as possible, and we didn't sleep, because our neighbours decided 2.45 am was a good time to get room service, and given our bed was only about 5 feet from the door we were woken up. Also the laundry staff were messing about in the hall in the wee hours.

What was your welcome gift?
Shortbread biscuits and a fruit platter that is now about 20% of the size it used to be.

How is the exec. lounge?
I added the lounge to the booking at the reduced Ambassador rate. Not as impressed this time as previously. Service during "happy hour" was poor. Only one girl trying to do her best and the other chap had been sent on his break. Had to go and help myself several times, which I know is a first world problem, but its way below where they used to be in service terms.

What was good and what was bad?
Poor service, room requests ignored. I complained on the second morning, and was shown a few other rooms, but the damage was done - we decided to check out. Bear in mind i've stayed at this hotel 25-30 times and am on first name terms with most of the lounge staff and some of the front desk, I felt they had really let me down this time. The Guest Relations manager organised a refund of the points for the second night and he didn't charge us for the lounge on the first night.

Value for $? Would you return?
Nope. I'm done with Park Lane for now. Shame as I really like this property, but their service this time was poor and it's evident they are starting to cut corners. I will wait for Greenwich to open for my IC UK fix in future.

EDIT : After filling out the usual post stay questionnaire and stating my unhappiness, the hotel, in fairness to them have made a credit of points to my IHG account. So matter resolved but probably won't go back for quite a while.