peachy3

Breakfast in the lounge is okEither sausages/bacon, eggs, either tomatoes/mushroomsSmall selection of pastriesCereals, lots of fruitThat's about it, nothing special
Afternoon tea is sandwiches, scones, small amount of sweet stuff
Evening is cheese and some hams, about 3 types of hot finger food, basic spirits
Didn't spend much time in the lounge as such, except to do some work

wizla

Yep I’m hearing diamond breakfast is no longer available for free in the restaurant too from another forum……not good.

Winniesbestfriend

That’s very disapointing indeed, I have a stay booked for June and one of the main reasons for doing so was the fact that I really enjoyed the breakfast when I stayed in Feb. Lounge was rubbish but breakfast more than made up for it.

pushka

Reading on FB, is there construction happening at the moment? No mention of it during booking for mid May.

travelbugging

here now, construction across the street from the building next to conrad. Can definitely hear (and see) it if you have street facing room.

pushka

Thankyou for the tip 🙂

frugalsc

I have 5 nights coming up this summer at the Conrad St. James. Booked 2 rooms from 2 different diamond hilton member accounts using points.

Trying to get a feel on what my chances are getting upgraded to a suite, if so what type of suite. I know it hard to say because it really depends on availabilities and/or perhaps the mood of the person reviewing our reservations prior to our arrival?

The hotel offered an advance guarantee upgrade fee of 200 gpb for 1 room to the one bedroom deluxe suite, should I bite or take my chances to wait for a free upgrade?

Thanks!

saaveraward

I've been told they don't upgrade diamonds past a junior suite from a base room. Of course YMMV.

worldiswide

We are staying next week. Booked a junior suite ..will report back on any upgrade and breakfast.

saaveraward

Yes, that would get you a suite I think. I was purely referring to booking a base room.

worldiswide

Fingers crossed on the upgrade. I do know there is some big conference at the hotel beginning around the 17th as the website showed no availability and we had to call the hotel to extend our stay a couple of days. Good to see travel picking up but we are out of practice in travel protocols.

setho212

I see a lot of postings here from diamonds, but I am a lowly gold. Correct me if I am wrong, but I won't get lounge access unless I am given a room on an executive floor, right? Also, how does the breakfast for golds compare to the diamond breakfast?

est-gratuite

Had a longish (over 1 week) stay here recently.
I have been here before covid/coronavirus, so I know what is was like before.
Here are the changes I noticed compared to the years before 2020:

-This is hotel has completely stopped doing evening turn down service in the rooms. Was here for over 1 week, in 2 different rooms and it was never done once. I even asked about it to reception but they seemed to not want to admit they stopped doing it. Prior to the year 2020, they used to do it every night.

-They have removed all the notepads and pens from the rooms.

-Shanghai Tang toiletries are only for shampoo and conditioner. Shower gel and body lotion are from another (less fancy) brand.

-There is NO extra charge for diamond members (I'm assuming for gold members too) to have breakfast in the ground floor restaurant, however all the extra items not at the buffet (such as omlettes, poached eggs, pancakes, avocado toast, etc) must be ordered and paid for extra. In the past these items were included in the breakfast rate. Service at breakfast was slow and sloppy. Various people were waiting for ordered items and had to ask for them more than once. My simple cappuccino needed 2 reminders until I got it. This happened on several different days.

On a more general basis I noticed these things

-Views from the rooms. If your room windows face the front of the hotel (meaning the street where the huge 1920s art deco building is, which houses St James Park tube/metro station) then you will probably enjoy your view. However, a lot of the room windows face a small awful inner courtyard, or ugly side alleyways. In this case you may not enjoy your room (or the view) as much. Be aware of this when if you choose this hotel as you may be very disappointed with the view.

-If you have stayed at other Conrad hotels around the world, especially in Asia, or are used to the Hilton bankside, the executive lounge is the biggest disappointment at this hotel. Evening food served from 5pm to 7pm consists of cold cuts, cheese, 2 cold mini canapes (usually a tiny tart or toasted bread with something on it) and only 1 type of warm food on a tiny dish (such as 1 ravioli the first evening, or 1 prawn on the 2nd evening, or 1 tiny piece of meat on the 3rd evening). It is definitely not enough to substitute for a dinner, and you will still feel hungry afterwards. Wines and spirits have more choice, although I only saw 1 brand of beer.

The executive lounge also does an afternoon tea selection from 2pm to 4pm with 2 types of finger sandwiches, scones and cream, and 2 types of dessert. I actually enjoyed this more than the dinner options.

Conclusion

This hotels main selling point is its central london location right next to a tube/metro station in a pretty quiet area, and is only a short walk from the houses of parliament, westminster abbey and Buckingham palace. Somehow though, it really doesn't feel like a true 5 star hotel, especially if you compare it to other Conrad hotels around the world. The Hilton Bankside has a much better food selection both at breakfast and in their executive lounge. The Conrad is reducing costs in various small ways (no evening turn down service, no pens or notepads, lower brand name toiletries, surcharges for some breakfast items, poor selection in the evening at the lounge) and the direction your room windows face can have a huge effect on whether you enjoy your stay. Make sure you shop around before choosing this hotel. I only stayed here so long because I got a really good rate, and I needed to be in this area.


Restaurant nearby

For lunch or dinner I recommend the south indian restaurant called "Quilon" which is a short walk away. They used to have a Michelin star years ago, but not sure if they still have it, but the food is still very good, portions generous, and atmosphere is classy. Weekend brunch deal at 47 GBP for a lot of food if you book through the opentable website.

hugolover

Not sure how you can be a "Conrad" when even poached eggs you'd get in some provincial dump Hilton for free are Ł at a "Conrad".

There are premium "Hiltons" in Europe still offering turndown service.

The brands are meaningless and the brand standard is like a cup of Hilton (H&G) tea... you stir it too much and the teabag falls apart. They need to address these shortcomings ASAP.

worldiswide

I'll write a longer review as we just checked in yesterday for a six night stay but did have turndown service yesterday without adking. She came while we were getting ready for dinner and we asked her to come back an hour later and when her returned from dinner room was nicely turned down.

Also had pen and notepads at the desk.

Will file breakfast impressions later.