FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Renaissance St. Pancras, London, UK [Master Thread]
Old Feb 3, 2014, 1:22 pm
  #220  
BrightlyBob
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: MAN
Programs: Marriott Lifetime Titanium, IHG Spire, UA Silver, Dennis The Menace Fan Club
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Just returned from a 3 night stay here. Booked the cheapest (£208/night) room and was upgraded on arrival to Barlow prestige. However for £100 night extra was offered an upgrade to a Chambers suite overlooking the station which I opted for and didn't regret for a moment. An absolutely beautiful suite with the unique view was outstanding.

The answer to the Gold lack of exec lounge access is easy to see, provided you understand the historical background here.

After closure as a hotel in the 1930's, the building was used as offices and called "St Pancras chambers". In the 1960's it received the dubious honour of a grade 1 listing status which saved it from demolition but meant regenerating such a building would be murderously expensive and guaranteed it'd fall into disuse.

And so it proved, for decades.

In order to make the horrifying economics renovating a grade 1 listed building work, it was necessary to convert a part of the building to that most precious of London Real Estate... luxury apartments! Originally the figures indicated 20 such apartments were needed to make the economics stack up, but it quickly became apparent that the renovation costs were going to be far higher than originally budgeted and as the bills expanded so did the numbers of apartments needed to keep the project solvent. Eventually the development turned into 68 luxury apartments, called "St Pancras Chambers". And purchasers of true luxury apartments expect "owners facilities". St Pancras leases offered access to an internal gym, parking and a members club, the "chambers club", managed and run by the hotel. Chambers owners pay a subscription for access to the club so overcrowding and feeding scrums mustn't occur. It also had to be something more than an ordinary exec lounge, hence the Chambers Club

And the Chambers Club is certainly no ordinary exec lounge! Though beer and wine choices are restricted they're good quality and served all afternoon and evening till 11:30pm. The breakfast is wider than any exec lounge I've been in, as is the afternoon tea selection and evening canapés. This is a truly exceptional lounge and although it gets busy there's always a table available, even at its busiest.

In order to maintain this accessibility there has to be a restriction on numbers. There's 68 Chambers apartments eligible to join, and of course the occupants of all 38 of the Chambers hotel rooms eligible to use it, and they almost certainly will! Adding plats to the mix helps support the numbers making sure it's seldom deserted but never overcrowded, which leaves gold members out in the cold.

To Plats I'd say this place has a simple free upgrade policy to the best available Barlow room. The inclusion of club access makes this a really good option, but for Golds, well I'd say you'd be missing a key part of the St Pancras experience without access to the club and there are many options in London that include exec lounge access to Golds.

But to anyone thinking of upgrading, the Chambers Suite I stayed in was keenly priced, the same suite I paid £308 night for was £560 night at its cheapest at Marriott.com. The suite itself was wonderful and very comparable to my favourite splurge destination, Claridges. So for those wanting a chambers room (which includes club access) I'd say go for it, for I can make no greater compliment than to add that next time I'm splurging in London the Ren is going to make that choice really tough...

Last edited by BrightlyBob; Feb 4, 2014 at 1:32 am Reason: Clarity
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