Hyatt Regency London the Churchill REVIEW - MASTER THREAD
Apr 22, 2023, 9:37 am
#1892
Join Date: Apr 2010
Programs: AA PP, UA 1K/MM, WoH Globalist, HH Gold
Posts: 1,203
That would explain how the hotel took the photo that they use on the TV welcome screens. They along with guests have access to the garden.
You definitely need to be inside the garden to get the angle/shot of the tree blossoms against the hotel building.
You definitely need to be inside the garden to get the angle/shot of the tree blossoms against the hotel building.
Apr 22, 2023, 10:06 am
#1893
Join Date: Mar 2015
Programs: Hyatt Lifetime Globalist, Marriott Gold, BA Gold
Posts: 690
Not sure if/how you can book the tennis court though?
May 14, 2023, 1:03 pm
#1895
Ambassador: World of Hyatt
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: San Diego,CA
Posts: 10,093
May 14, 2023, 3:01 pm
#1896
Moderator: Hawaii-based airlines & Hawai'i forums
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Ka ʻĀpala Nui, Nuioka
Programs: NEXUS/Global Entry, Delta, United, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott, and Hertz
Posts: 18,043
Care to post a summary for those of us not interested in sifting through other site's blogs?
May 14, 2023, 5:42 pm
#1897
Ambassador: World of Hyatt
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: San Diego,CA
Posts: 10,093
Care to post a summary for those of us not interested in sifting through other site's blogs?
But ask and you shall receive
In a nutshell its a $1,400.00 no show charge @ The Churchill on an award stay charged to their CC
for one night in a standard room
Apparently the guest claims they were sick and rather than lose the award the hotel is charging the
full daily rate for a standard guest room.
I've never been a no show at a Hyatt ever.I always cancel.I can remember a missed Hilton stay years ago
but I received no pre arrival email and when I went to cancel
I saw it was no longer listed on Hilton.com my reservations so I assumed I had canceled it.It was an
IT error and the stay wasn't showing in the system.
Remember these kind of issues with SPG in the past with others. I believe they had a similar policy.
Because I was aware of others misfortunes I was extremely careful.
Personally I think the hotel could have met the guest halfway at 700.00 dollars and still profited nicely.
If I were the hotel I would be salivating $$$$$$ at the very thought of these no shows!
That's rent for a month for some folks
May 14, 2023, 6:08 pm
#1898
Join Date: Jul 2022
Programs: Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 37
Its really one simple click and article is right there in front of you.I didn't mean to put you to some very hard work
But ask and you shall receive
In a nutshell its a $1,400.00 no show charge @ The Churchill on an award stay charged to their CC
for one night in a standard room
Apparently the guest claims they were sick and rather than lose the award the hotel is charging the
full daily rate for a standard guest room.
I've never been a no show at a Hyatt ever.I always cancel.I can remember a missed Hilton stay years ago
but I received no pre arrival email and when I went to cancel
I saw it was no longer listed on Hilton.com my reservations so I assumed I had canceled it.It was an
IT error and the stay wasn't showing in the system.
Remember these kind of issues with SPG in the past with others. I believe they had a similar policy.
Because I was aware of others misfortunes I was extremely careful.
Personally I think the hotel could have met the guest halfway at 700.00 dollars and still profited nicely.
If I were the hotel I would be salivating $$$$$$ at the very thought of these no shows!
That's rent for a month for some folks
But ask and you shall receive
In a nutshell its a $1,400.00 no show charge @ The Churchill on an award stay charged to their CC
for one night in a standard room
Apparently the guest claims they were sick and rather than lose the award the hotel is charging the
full daily rate for a standard guest room.
I've never been a no show at a Hyatt ever.I always cancel.I can remember a missed Hilton stay years ago
but I received no pre arrival email and when I went to cancel
I saw it was no longer listed on Hilton.com my reservations so I assumed I had canceled it.It was an
IT error and the stay wasn't showing in the system.
Remember these kind of issues with SPG in the past with others. I believe they had a similar policy.
Because I was aware of others misfortunes I was extremely careful.
Personally I think the hotel could have met the guest halfway at 700.00 dollars and still profited nicely.
If I were the hotel I would be salivating $$$$$$ at the very thought of these no shows!
That's rent for a month for some folks
May 14, 2023, 6:38 pm
#1899
Ambassador: World of Hyatt
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: San Diego,CA
Posts: 10,093
It sounds like the reason for the super high no-show cost was because that was coronation weekend, where every hotel in London would have been charging a ton. The no show resulted in lost potential revenue because they couldn't fill the room, thus they probably charged whatever the nightly rate was for that particular weekend.
That would be amazing that they got to use an award at all if so.
If that be the case that would be extraordinary demand like never before and the client unless
dying in a hospital should have been on their game.
Also the hotel should have very well worded communication especially during a once in a lifetime event.
It takes two reasonable parties in my eyes should that be the circumstances both hotel and guest.
May 14, 2023, 6:49 pm
#1900
Moderator: Luxury Hotels and FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Palo Alto, California,USA
Posts: 17,857
I don't think the poster mentioned that.Interesting thought.
That would be amazing that they got to use an award at all if so.
If that be the case that would be extraordinary demand like never before and the client unless
dying in a hospital should have been on their game.
Also the hotel should have very well worded communication especially during a once in a lifetime event.
It takes two reasonable parties in my eyes should that be the circumstances both hotel and guest.
That would be amazing that they got to use an award at all if so.
If that be the case that would be extraordinary demand like never before and the client unless
dying in a hospital should have been on their game.
Also the hotel should have very well worded communication especially during a once in a lifetime event.
It takes two reasonable parties in my eyes should that be the circumstances both hotel and guest.
May 15, 2023, 1:43 am
#1901
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: In the air
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Bonvoy LT Plat, Hilton Gold, GHA Tit, BA Gold, Turkish Elite
Posts: 8,720
The HR Churchill seems to have a lot of its rooms available on Awards - I’ve almost never seen basic nights unavailable, including when room rates were close to the $1,400 mentioned here (except when the hotel was fully sold out).
May 15, 2023, 8:46 am
#1902
Join Date: Apr 2010
Programs: AA PP, UA 1K/MM, WoH Globalist, HH Gold
Posts: 1,203
I have observed the same. They have the best award inventory for the better Hyatts in London, Andaz a distant second and Great Scotland Yard an even more distant third.
May 31, 2023, 8:48 pm
#1903
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: East Coast
Programs: Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 111
My review for a stay this month (May 2023).
Booking & Check In
Standard king booked for 4-nights at 25k/night. I also booked the Andaz but ended up canceling that because I couldn’t ensure we’d get anything beyond a basic queen room.
Check in was OK, we arrived around 1pm and were told our room wasn’t available (and they wouldn’t provide much of an estimate) – in the meantime we spent a little time snacking in the lounge before heading out to explore Hyde park a while. We still hadn’t received a call/text, but returned at 3:30pm and the front-desk confirmed our room was ready. We were upgraded to a club floor king (no suites, it was a holiday weekend in the UK, I think nearly sold out).
Hotel & location
I’m a big fan of the location, it’s across the street from a small park and a bit quieter than major streets a block or two away. It’s still walkable (a little under half a mile to the Elizabeth line, which connects directly to Heathrow). You’re in the center of London, so there’s plenty to see in every direction. Two nearby places for cliche (but good!) British food is the Grazing Goat for meat pie and Mayfair Chippy (get a reservation on opentable) for fish & chips.
We thought the interior of the hotel was lovely, it feels classy for a regency and is easily one of the nicer I’ve seen (Tokyo HR comes to mind as the other). Overall the hotel is spacious and never felt too crowded. We never had to wait long for an elevator or to speak with the front desk.
Room
I am always a little nervous staying in a hotel that’s a remodeled older building, but I was pleasantly surprised. The HVAC was solid (though it did take a service call because it wasn’t working when we arrived), and it didn’t seem limited in annoying ways. One of my pet peeves is noise, and this room was delightfully quiet. We didn’t hear any noise from adjacent rooms, the hallway, or even outside (there were two windows, one fairly standard double-paned exterior casement-style, but also a few inches of air gap and then another interior slider window). The blockout curtains mostly work. There was a nice deep soaking tub (not what you’d find in a PH hotel, but nicer than any other HR I’ve been in). The only bummer for me in the room was the mattress – which I’d describe as passable.
Service
We had the in-restaurant breakfast a couple times, which was a solid buffet. There were a decent number of options and they mostly kept food well stocked. Plenty of staff to fill drinks, take away plates, etc.
Other simple things to mention include having our bags automatically sent up to our room after check-in, extra pillows, and getting the HVAC fixed one late evening. Fairly standard stuff, but every request was handled in a few brief minutes – much snappier than what I have experienced in any other hotel the past couple years.
One super minor thing was upon returning to our room after 5pm one day it was in the middle of being turned over. This was a little surprising since we had been out most of the day and just a little tricky to navigate because the maid didn’t speak English or Spanish (sorry, that’s all I got).
Conclusion
All-in-all, this was a fabulous stay. I’m glad we chose the Churchill after stressing a bit vs the Andaz, and I feel satisfied having spent the points to stay there. I don’t know when I’ll be back to London again for a while, but I would certainly consider returning to this hotel.
One extra tip that was new for us since our last visit, all of the public transit (underground and bus) we used was trivial to use with tap to pay (we used US Amex cards). I’m a little annoyed that getting the train at Heathrow didn’t make this clear. It didn’t have the tap to pay signs that other places had and they let tons of tourists wait in long ticket lines (when many of them probably have a tap to pay card).
Booking & Check In
Standard king booked for 4-nights at 25k/night. I also booked the Andaz but ended up canceling that because I couldn’t ensure we’d get anything beyond a basic queen room.
Check in was OK, we arrived around 1pm and were told our room wasn’t available (and they wouldn’t provide much of an estimate) – in the meantime we spent a little time snacking in the lounge before heading out to explore Hyde park a while. We still hadn’t received a call/text, but returned at 3:30pm and the front-desk confirmed our room was ready. We were upgraded to a club floor king (no suites, it was a holiday weekend in the UK, I think nearly sold out).
Hotel & location
I’m a big fan of the location, it’s across the street from a small park and a bit quieter than major streets a block or two away. It’s still walkable (a little under half a mile to the Elizabeth line, which connects directly to Heathrow). You’re in the center of London, so there’s plenty to see in every direction. Two nearby places for cliche (but good!) British food is the Grazing Goat for meat pie and Mayfair Chippy (get a reservation on opentable) for fish & chips.
We thought the interior of the hotel was lovely, it feels classy for a regency and is easily one of the nicer I’ve seen (Tokyo HR comes to mind as the other). Overall the hotel is spacious and never felt too crowded. We never had to wait long for an elevator or to speak with the front desk.
Room
I am always a little nervous staying in a hotel that’s a remodeled older building, but I was pleasantly surprised. The HVAC was solid (though it did take a service call because it wasn’t working when we arrived), and it didn’t seem limited in annoying ways. One of my pet peeves is noise, and this room was delightfully quiet. We didn’t hear any noise from adjacent rooms, the hallway, or even outside (there were two windows, one fairly standard double-paned exterior casement-style, but also a few inches of air gap and then another interior slider window). The blockout curtains mostly work. There was a nice deep soaking tub (not what you’d find in a PH hotel, but nicer than any other HR I’ve been in). The only bummer for me in the room was the mattress – which I’d describe as passable.
Service
We had the in-restaurant breakfast a couple times, which was a solid buffet. There were a decent number of options and they mostly kept food well stocked. Plenty of staff to fill drinks, take away plates, etc.
Other simple things to mention include having our bags automatically sent up to our room after check-in, extra pillows, and getting the HVAC fixed one late evening. Fairly standard stuff, but every request was handled in a few brief minutes – much snappier than what I have experienced in any other hotel the past couple years.
One super minor thing was upon returning to our room after 5pm one day it was in the middle of being turned over. This was a little surprising since we had been out most of the day and just a little tricky to navigate because the maid didn’t speak English or Spanish (sorry, that’s all I got).
Conclusion
All-in-all, this was a fabulous stay. I’m glad we chose the Churchill after stressing a bit vs the Andaz, and I feel satisfied having spent the points to stay there. I don’t know when I’ll be back to London again for a while, but I would certainly consider returning to this hotel.
One extra tip that was new for us since our last visit, all of the public transit (underground and bus) we used was trivial to use with tap to pay (we used US Amex cards). I’m a little annoyed that getting the train at Heathrow didn’t make this clear. It didn’t have the tap to pay signs that other places had and they let tons of tourists wait in long ticket lines (when many of them probably have a tap to pay card).
Jul 6, 2023, 11:20 am
#1905
Ambassador: World of Hyatt
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: San Diego,CA
Posts: 10,093