London Luxury Hotel
Apr 26, 2017, 10:16 am
#661
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: England
Posts: 1,361
After lots of confusion with the booking process and being told Oetker's Pearl Partner meant you received a £170 credit if you were staying more than 2 nights, even though the wording said 2 nights or more 2 nights or more, I contacted their head of sales (thanks jonjparr) and was told it is indeed 2 or more nights. She also gave me a guaranteed, in writing, upgrade.
Guess what I didn't get? Correct. No upgrade.
After telling the hotel this, they decided that blaming everyone was the perfect solution to this problem, rather than just dealing with it. They were running at full occupancy so couldn't move us, but said they would do what they could the next day to move us to a bigger suite. We looked on the website and saw that every room category was available, yet they would not guarantee it and said they could not do so until the next morning. The next morning came, and it was us who contacted them after our breakfast to see where things were. We must have spoke to them 4 times on the phone trying to sort it out, as we said if they wouldn't do it, we'd just walk as they had not offered us what was clearly stipulated. It's their own loyalty programme, so if they choose to guarantee an upgrade as part of it, then I expect to receive it. Simple solution would have been apologising profusely then guaranteeing us the best suite available for the next day, rather than trying to lie about it when we could see the availability online and then drag it out for 24 hours.
After leaving, 3 days later the MD emailed to apologise about the problems, whereby he mentioned they also gave us a F&B credit, but no one ever mentioned it and due to not adding a line on the bill for the £170 credit, it was impossible to work it out. It feels strange to complain about receiving compensation, but I will anyway, as it's no good doing something if the recipient isn't aware of it.
As for some other points:
- Getting to the spa is one helluva walk. You may well end up in The Berkeley by mistake.
- I have on my stay list a request to make sure the room has proper blackout blinds, but for some reason they decided to use bin bags and cover all the windows, even during the day. Bin bags in a hotel that ranks amongst the most expensive in London. Probably not the classiest thing I've ever seen.
- The spa has a members only lounge, so you could be spending north of £2k/n in your suite and not have access to it. It also only has separate chairs, so no area for couples to sit next to each other. Or read anything, as weirdly there's no magazines either. Excluding that, I do love the place.
- There are treatments specifically designed just for The Lanesborough
- My girlfriend had a manicure and pedicure and didn't feel it was of a high standard. The product was wearing away just two days later.
- Our first night room, an Executive Room, had a combined bath and shower. There was no underfloor heating, but that's because the square footage was so small you couldn't fit both a human being and the floor there at the same time.
- They use Roja toiletries, which smell better than sizzling bacon in a brand new car. They are my new favourite toiletries.
- We ordered breakfast to our room and had to get them to correct the order three times, even though we read the order back to them at the end of the first phone call. Somehow we said "crepes" and they heard "salmon".
- The tablets by the side of the bed suffered all the same problems that The Penisula Paris does - i.e. they frequently don't work at all.
- Before checkout we ordered some food in their bar and were told we could not order from the spa menu, even though all I wanted a cold dessert. I could have gone and got it myself. They took over an hour to get some small snacks, then delivered the bill wrong twice. Their service charge is 15%, which I've never seen so high in London.
- During turndown they just left a tray on our sofa. In our first room they just left a load of sheets "hidden" behind the curtains.
- I've always loved the breakfast here and will continue to occasionally drop by. The other food was also enjoyable, although Celeste was not in its finest form during this meal.
- The room styles are not to my taste, but I knew that due to having previously stayed pre-refurb, having had a recent tour and having at least 1 working eye.
Last edited by MacMyDay; Apr 26, 2017 at 10:26 am
Apr 26, 2017, 10:22 am
#662
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 4,217
Thanks for the write-up MacMyDay. I may have to reconsider for my summer trip.
Apr 26, 2017, 10:25 am
#663
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Here there and everywhere
Posts: 6,303
Sounds as though service standards have really dropped since The Lanesborough opened, MacMyDay - pity.
Apr 26, 2017, 10:59 pm
#664
formerly declinespecificinformatiom
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 1,140
Well we had a nice time there last time overall, and I think the doormen and the concierge are really the strong points of the hotel. The breakfast, meh.... and maybe it's just not my style. Unless it's something savory like a crab hash, I prefer a fresh, well-made bagel, and superb coffee every day. 7 days a week for years on end.
Like every other hotel on the planet the in house stuff is bad. Perhaps some small hostels in Panama serve good coffee, but hotels, no. I just prefer to have something like a Black Seed Bagel and one of the coffees at the many premier coffee houses in New York, or even better, Portland. Or I just recreate the same thing at my house, roast my beans and try to get fresh bagels from different bagel shops.
But these hotels, what is with the bad coffee that's "a special roast" when it's really just garbage or the old bagels.
Am I alone in thinking that breakfast is just bad, bad, bad, at all these hotels or am I just a horrible snob. Probably both are correct.... Coffee loses flavor after it's been roasted, and I still can't believe that serving bread (i.e. coffee) that months old is acceptable. Old bread, come now...
sorry for the rant
Like every other hotel on the planet the in house stuff is bad. Perhaps some small hostels in Panama serve good coffee, but hotels, no. I just prefer to have something like a Black Seed Bagel and one of the coffees at the many premier coffee houses in New York, or even better, Portland. Or I just recreate the same thing at my house, roast my beans and try to get fresh bagels from different bagel shops.
But these hotels, what is with the bad coffee that's "a special roast" when it's really just garbage or the old bagels.
Am I alone in thinking that breakfast is just bad, bad, bad, at all these hotels or am I just a horrible snob. Probably both are correct.... Coffee loses flavor after it's been roasted, and I still can't believe that serving bread (i.e. coffee) that months old is acceptable. Old bread, come now...
sorry for the rant
Apr 26, 2017, 11:04 pm
#665
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 4,217
Well we had a nice time there last time overall, and I think the doormen and the concierge are really the strong points of the hotel. The breakfast, meh.... and maybe it's just not my style. Unless it's something savory like a crab hash, I prefer a fresh, well-made bagel, and superb coffee every day. 7 days a week for years on end.
Like every other hotel on the planet the in house stuff is bad. Perhaps some small hostels in Panama serve good coffee, but hotels, no. I just prefer to have something like a Black Seed Bagel and one of the coffees at the many premier coffee houses in New York, or even better, Portland. Or I just recreate the same thing at my house, roast my beans and try to get fresh bagels from different bagel shops.
But these hotels, what is with the bad coffee that's "a special roast" when it's really just garbage or the old bagels.
Am I alone in thinking that breakfast is just bad, bad, bad, at all these hotels or am I just a horrible snob. Probably both are correct.... Coffee loses flavor after it's been roasted, and I still can't believe that serving bread (i.e. coffee) that months old is acceptable. Old bread, come now...
sorry for the rant
Like every other hotel on the planet the in house stuff is bad. Perhaps some small hostels in Panama serve good coffee, but hotels, no. I just prefer to have something like a Black Seed Bagel and one of the coffees at the many premier coffee houses in New York, or even better, Portland. Or I just recreate the same thing at my house, roast my beans and try to get fresh bagels from different bagel shops.
But these hotels, what is with the bad coffee that's "a special roast" when it's really just garbage or the old bagels.
Am I alone in thinking that breakfast is just bad, bad, bad, at all these hotels or am I just a horrible snob. Probably both are correct.... Coffee loses flavor after it's been roasted, and I still can't believe that serving bread (i.e. coffee) that months old is acceptable. Old bread, come now...
sorry for the rant
Apr 27, 2017, 12:14 am
#666
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Jakarta
Programs: Krisflyer PPS, SPG, Hyatt GoldPassport, Shangri-la Golden Circle, British Airways ExecClub
Posts: 1,245
Thought I'd follow up on this, as things are now resolved and it may well help some people in future.
After lots of confusion with the booking process and being told Oetker's Pearl Partner meant you received a £170 credit if you were staying more than 2 nights, even though the wording said 2 nights or more 2 nights or more, I contacted their head of sales (thanks jonjparr) and was told it is indeed 2 or more nights. She also gave me a guaranteed, in writing, upgrade.
Guess what I didn't get? Correct. No upgrade.
After telling the hotel this, they decided that blaming everyone was the perfect solution to this problem, rather than just dealing with it. They were running at full occupancy so couldn't move us, but said they would do what they could the next day to move us to a bigger suite. We looked on the website and saw that every room category was available, yet they would not guarantee it and said they could not do so until the next morning. The next morning came, and it was us who contacted them after our breakfast to see where things were. We must have spoke to them 4 times on the phone trying to sort it out, as we said if they wouldn't do it, we'd just walk as they had not offered us what was clearly stipulated. It's their own loyalty programme, so if they choose to guarantee an upgrade as part of it, then I expect to receive it. Simple solution would have been apologising profusely then guaranteeing us the best suite available for the next day, rather than trying to lie about it when we could see the availability online and then drag it out for 24 hours.
After leaving, 3 days later the MD emailed to apologise about the problems, whereby he mentioned they also gave us a F&B credit, but no one ever mentioned it and due to not adding a line on the bill for the £170 credit, it was impossible to work it out. It feels strange to complain about receiving compensation, but I will anyway, as it's no good doing something if the recipient isn't aware of it.
As for some other points:
After lots of confusion with the booking process and being told Oetker's Pearl Partner meant you received a £170 credit if you were staying more than 2 nights, even though the wording said 2 nights or more 2 nights or more, I contacted their head of sales (thanks jonjparr) and was told it is indeed 2 or more nights. She also gave me a guaranteed, in writing, upgrade.
Guess what I didn't get? Correct. No upgrade.
After telling the hotel this, they decided that blaming everyone was the perfect solution to this problem, rather than just dealing with it. They were running at full occupancy so couldn't move us, but said they would do what they could the next day to move us to a bigger suite. We looked on the website and saw that every room category was available, yet they would not guarantee it and said they could not do so until the next morning. The next morning came, and it was us who contacted them after our breakfast to see where things were. We must have spoke to them 4 times on the phone trying to sort it out, as we said if they wouldn't do it, we'd just walk as they had not offered us what was clearly stipulated. It's their own loyalty programme, so if they choose to guarantee an upgrade as part of it, then I expect to receive it. Simple solution would have been apologising profusely then guaranteeing us the best suite available for the next day, rather than trying to lie about it when we could see the availability online and then drag it out for 24 hours.
After leaving, 3 days later the MD emailed to apologise about the problems, whereby he mentioned they also gave us a F&B credit, but no one ever mentioned it and due to not adding a line on the bill for the £170 credit, it was impossible to work it out. It feels strange to complain about receiving compensation, but I will anyway, as it's no good doing something if the recipient isn't aware of it.
As for some other points:
- Getting to the spa is one helluva walk. You may well end up in The Berkeley by mistake.
- I have on my stay list a request to make sure the room has proper blackout blinds, but for some reason they decided to use bin bags and cover all the windows, even during the day. Bin bags in a hotel that ranks amongst the most expensive in London. Probably not the classiest thing I've ever seen.
- The spa has a members only lounge, so you could be spending north of £2k/n in your suite and not have access to it. It also only has separate chairs, so no area for couples to sit next to each other. Or read anything, as weirdly there's no magazines either. Excluding that, I do love the place.
- There are treatments specifically designed just for The Lanesborough
- My girlfriend had a manicure and pedicure and didn't feel it was of a high standard. The product was wearing away just two days later.
- Our first night room, an Executive Room, had a combined bath and shower. There was no underfloor heating, but that's because the square footage was so small you couldn't fit both a human being and the floor there at the same time.
- They use Roja toiletries, which smell better than sizzling bacon in a brand new car. They are my new favourite toiletries.
- We ordered breakfast to our room and had to get them to correct the order three times, even though we read the order back to them at the end of the first phone call. Somehow we said "crepes" and they heard "salmon".
- The tablets by the side of the bed suffered all the same problems that The Penisula Paris does - i.e. they frequently don't work at all.
- Before checkout we ordered some food in their bar and were told we could not order from the spa menu, even though all I wanted a cold dessert. I could have gone and got it myself. They took over an hour to get some small snacks, then delivered the bill wrong twice. Their service charge is 15%, which I've never seen so high in London.
- During turndown they just left a tray on our sofa. In our first room they just left a load of sheets "hidden" behind the curtains.
- I've always loved the breakfast here and will continue to occasionally drop by. The other food was also enjoyable, although Celeste was not in its finest form during this meal.
- The room styles are not to my taste, but I knew that due to having previously stayed pre-refurb, having had a recent tour and having at least 1 working eye.
Bin Bags ??? No kidding!
Apr 27, 2017, 7:44 am
#667
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: England
Posts: 1,361
Indeed. Even though I've not changed my stay list, for some reason in April everyone went a bit nuts and decided to start putting blackout blinds up during the day. Browns, Park Hyatt Vienna, The Lanesborough and Balmoral each had their own ways of implementing it and none of them decided to take them down during the day. They must have mistook me for a vampire. I have since edited my stay list to make it clear that I only want it at night. The Balmoral used the innovative approach of tape + curtains and sealed me into darkness; Browns used some blackout sheets which stuck to the window and could easily be taken down - they did an amazing job; Park Hyatt Vienna assumed I was allergic to light at all and covered every millimetre of window with blackout sheets and The Lanesborough used some bin bags.
Apr 27, 2017, 8:35 am
#668
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 1,225
After lots of confusion with the booking process and being told Oetker's Pearl Partner meant you received a £170 credit if you were staying more than 2 nights, even though the wording said 2 nights or more 2 nights or more, I contacted their head of sales (thanks jonjparr) and was told it is indeed 2 or more nights.
Just out of interest did they put the bin bags up in the second room too?
Oh yeah... and we couldn't work out why they hid the sheets behind the curtains! I thought someone was hiding behind the curtains at first when we came back to our suite after dinner at Celeste.
Apr 28, 2017, 7:34 pm
#669
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: IAD/DCA
Posts: 31,797
DSI, you have never had good crab hash etc at hotel or villa? i had amazing lemon souffle pancakes once. off menu once had french toast using 'fancier' style loaf, and also enjoyed a specially made japanese breakfast after chef offered. had lobster hash at castle hill inn - they do breakfast/tea well, no bills, hotel guests only. although i usually avoid crabcakes benedict as for me almost all crabcakes have too much filler. i dont always need breakfast. when rates are all inclusive i eat a lot more than usual, especially vs regular luxury hotel that doesnt include anything. re coffee >
edit - can always talk to properties about ordering beans, and preparation.
i have paid for things i could have gotten free via agent because i do not see the value especially when there are hassles so often. while benefits are understandable, V/etc really should focus on service, and forget benefits. my time is not valuable, but hassles are hassles.
maybe 2021, now 100% owned (yangon 2021, istanbul 2019)
edit - can always talk to properties about ordering beans, and preparation.
maybe 2021, now 100% owned (yangon 2021, istanbul 2019)
Last edited by Kagehitokiri; Apr 29, 2017 at 4:32 pm
Apr 30, 2017, 5:47 am
#670
formerly declinespecificinformatiom
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 1,140
Well, bear in mind that I live in the crab capital of the world!
What is the consensus on the Rosewood London these days? I'm particularly interested in their children's program and find it interesting that they are explicitly Montessori, and I'm wondering how that actually pans out?
What is the consensus on the Rosewood London these days? I'm particularly interested in their children's program and find it interesting that they are explicitly Montessori, and I'm wondering how that actually pans out?
Apr 30, 2017, 1:23 pm
#671
Join Date: Feb 2005
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 1,068
I live in Central London so don't stay in hotels here but if you have any interest in London nightlife I would urge you to take a look at the Ned which is the newly opened hotel from Soho House.
It's next to Bank tube in the financial district which is probably not ideal for tourists, but it's really only a 10 minute cab ride from anywhere you want to be.
Multiple restaurants and bars a rooftop pool and absolutely the chicest place to be in London right now. I've been three times this week
It's next to Bank tube in the financial district which is probably not ideal for tourists, but it's really only a 10 minute cab ride from anywhere you want to be.
Multiple restaurants and bars a rooftop pool and absolutely the chicest place to be in London right now. I've been three times this week
Apr 30, 2017, 1:26 pm
#672
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: BKK
Posts: 6,741
That's a shame that London and Yangon have been delayed, but that is to be expected with new openings.
I will have to stick with FS Park Lane in the meantime. Will probably choose Strand or Shangri-La for my upcoming trip to Yangon, but am definitely looking forward to that Peninsula opening as well. Both London and Yangon look very nice.
I will have to stick with FS Park Lane in the meantime. Will probably choose Strand or Shangri-La for my upcoming trip to Yangon, but am definitely looking forward to that Peninsula opening as well. Both London and Yangon look very nice.
May 12, 2017, 7:39 am
#673
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: England
Posts: 1,361
On another note, The Connaught has now introduced its own toiletries which are by Cowshed. Unsure whether that's good or bad, so here's the label so you good folk can tell me how many years it will wipe off my life by using them.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...4/F36A1387.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...4/F36A1390.jpg
May 12, 2017, 8:07 am
#674
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 1,225
We're now onto July. Translation: expect it open sometime before Christmas.
On another note, The Connaught has now introduced its own toiletries which are by Cowshed. Unsure whether that's good or bad, so here's the label so you good folk can tell me how many years it will wipe off my life by using them.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...4/F36A1387.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...4/F36A1390.jpg
On another note, The Connaught has now introduced its own toiletries which are by Cowshed. Unsure whether that's good or bad, so here's the label so you good folk can tell me how many years it will wipe off my life by using them.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...4/F36A1387.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...4/F36A1390.jpg
May 12, 2017, 8:09 am
#675
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Gold, A3 Gold
Posts: 173
We're now onto July. Translation: expect it open sometime before Christmas.
On another note, The Connaught has now introduced its own toiletries which are by Cowshed. Unsure whether that's good or bad, so here's the label so you good folk can tell me how many years it will wipe off my life by using them.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...4/F36A1387.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...4/F36A1390.jpg
On another note, The Connaught has now introduced its own toiletries which are by Cowshed. Unsure whether that's good or bad, so here's the label so you good folk can tell me how many years it will wipe off my life by using them.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...4/F36A1387.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...4/F36A1390.jpg
A bit disappointing that they didn't play around it with a bit though..."Posh Cow" could have worked in the circumstances
.