FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - IC London Park Lane Master Thread [merged]
Old Jan 31, 2023, 3:29 pm
  #758  
Atacama40
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 1,373
Originally Posted by HadesNL
nicolas75 : did you eventually got your bottle opener ?
congratulations though on your birthday!
all the best from us all
a bit sloppy though of the hotel to forget a RA's birthday but as Atacama40 has said/observed and i have experienced insitu :
RA is the ugly stepchild here as all effort goes out on GCC
IC PLG seems to better balance the devotion to RA and ME guests avoiding disappointment for both parties
* note on staff service, i do get treated here well by all staff in a friendly way : a £1 coin as token is still much appreciated as is a smile with free compliment


Atacama40 : the cook book cafe had a sort of identity crisis,
shame the Mexican place didn't work out but that space could be jinxed....
smart to put Alex Webb there as with frou frou dining one can decorate it in any style from Louis XIV to Phillipe Stark and people are still glued to their plates

Theo's becoming the all day dinner ?
Eek!
i remember from the past it was lunch / dinner only on certain days of the week....
When the lounge was being refurb -Theo's was the temp breakfast place for club / suites- quite lavish with club staff

IC Parklane really needs to wake up as you've said, hotels around it have started to update/modernize and new competition is emerging across Wellington Arch....
The bently with its Qatari license plate *1 Q* that's always parked at the front entrance might go several yards further to the Penn
It is sad that since 2015 we still have the old junk rooms/suites and there is really no idea when the complete refurb is finally done .....
Mayfair rooms/suites rates now seem more like a cash grab to extend on an indefinete cycle....
4 out of 8 floors only done ...

Its been so bad (£ rates Mayfair) that i have diverted all London stays to the Kimpton Fitzroy instead.
Yep, even as an ICPL Lifer I cannot argue with any of that Hades.

But apols my technical description of Theo's is not strictly accurate ... it's not actually an all day diner but has the feel of it now is a better way to express it. Was there a couple of weeks back and chose to have breakfast there instead of lounge and they opened the private dining areas for overflow breakfast. Nothing actually wrong with that but it sort of busted the mystery and special nature of it. Guess we all know that private dining rooms are just a fractionally better same design behind a sliding partition but to flaunt it like that feels a tad cheap. Maybe my problem rather than anything so significant.

I have no problem with the folks getting the top slots there in one sense, It would be like certainly you, and nearly me at the IC Amstel and the former CP Ams City Center But it does create a limited opportunity for the rest of us. And let's be honest, most reading and commenting here are RA's (think I'm right saying that) .... imagine how the others are treated.

Shoven's description of it being a hotel within a hotel is very much on the money. Have to confess I'd not thought of it like that but is correct. It has definitely diluted the overall effect.
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