Swiss Tony

Yes, I checked the Travel Inn, but they didn't have a family room available. It's just a quick overnight, so access to dining options isn't a problem - the wife & kids will meet me after work, we'll get some food then a cab over to the hotel. Baths, bed and if I'm lucky Daddy might get to slip out for a beer

Next morning it's going to be a smart-ish start to get us down to the Eurostar check-in on time.

pronan - very interested in your precis of the place and can quite see how you came up with that!

Thanks all for your observations...

cyberdad

Tony,

As I've posted previously, my daughter lives in London. Her boyfriend (from Essex) lived in Southwark for about 3-4 years and very much liked it. (And, essentially so did my daughter...a teacher). Where he lived was away from the tourist venues and basically a middle class area. Lots of neighborhood shops, pubs, and restaurants. I spent some time there with him and came away feeling better for having gotten the impression that this was where "typical, ordinary Londoners" live and work.

ohmark

Used the address to message Mr. Bowery as to a specific room request. He, within hours, responded and told me that he had asked Michael Hewson, front office manager, to respond. Within minutes later, Mr. Hewson responded, granting the request. Very generous, very impressive.

State fan

Marriott.com is not allowing me to reserve a room for 4 people (in our case, 2 adults and 2 small children) using points, but will allow 3. I notice the room choices include 2 doubles which would obviously accomodate us. What gives?

alfahund

Why not book a room for three and then call the hotel and tell them that you are 2 + 2?

cyberdad

Agree with afahund.

Usually, these restrictions (ostensibly) have to do with fire codes...basically as a function of the number of square feet in a room.

I've booked rooms in London that I know will accomodate 4 people (i.e. king and sleeper sofa), but for 2-3 people or whatever. Then I just showed up with the kids in tow. Its been a few years, but I've never had a problem. (Although County Hall is not one of the hotels where I've done this).

acnev

In the past (even till last year), I have had no problem with 4 people in a room in County Hall, RCC, Marble Arch etc. However, it is my belief (my opinion - not necessarily fact) that Marriott has been changing the max # of people in a room over a number of properties.

The main attraction of Marriott for me was that I could make do with only one room for 4 people in a large number of international locations. This wasn't the case generally with SPG or Hyatt. However, this has definitely been changing and I am noticing less properties where the entire family can stay in one room. Thus, this becomes quite expensive if one has to use points for multiple rooms. This is the primary reason I have moved away from MR - at least in quite a bit of Asia, SPG has cheaper level properties where it isn't so bad when having to redeem for 2 rooms. Most of Marriotts intl properties are either Cat 4 or higher.

pronan

My wife and I stayed at County Hall with our 2 kids last January on rewards points and ran into the same problem. However, when I called Marriott and had them make the reservation, there were no problems. Apparently, computers occasionally make mistakes, or so the reservations people claimed.

Copilot23

Most hotels rooms in Europe tend to be smaller than American's are accustomed to seeing. When I was booking rooms in France and Germany for our family vacation I ran into the same thing trying to use points online. Ultimately I just settled on getting adjoining rooms rather than pay the daily upgrade fee of 70 Euros per day for an entire week, for a suite. Even though I'm Platinum, they would not guarantee an upgrade in advance, which I realize and understand is standard practice. The Ren we stayed at did give us rooms on the CL which was nice.

hhoope01

Most of the time, even given a smaller room, if there are 2 double beds, 4 people are allowed in the room. But as pronan mentions, mistakes happen. I've seen sometimes where the online system "lumps" rooms with king beds and 2 doubles together, then the king bed limit of 3 persons seems to apply to both rooms. As mentioned, just give reservations (or the hotel) a call and usually they will let you make the reservation with 4 persons.

cyberdad

This is a great point. North Americans are either largely unaware of this, or we tend to forget. I once booked wife and two sons in a room at the HI Kensington Forum in London....and had about enough space left over for a sheet of toilet paper!

Marriott FS properties tend to have larger rooms than most European properties, but they can still be smallish for those of used to rooms on this side of the pond. Ren La Defense in Paris is one that comes to mind. A nice enough hotel, but rooms smaller than most U.S. Fairfield Inns.

thegoderic

County Hall used to be the London County Council offices and all the rooms I've stayed in range from roomy to huge by UK or US standards.

There are other Marriotts in London (e.g. Kensington) where there is barely room for 1, never mind 2 people, but County hall is at the other end of the spectrum.

yul lite

We stayed at the County Hall for 7 nights on points in June 2006 with two adults a 7 and a 9 year old. We booked two double beds for three people, and had no problems at all, including the executive lounge. We told them when we arrived that we had two kids and they didn't mind. I guess it might depend how old the kids were......

It was a wonderful hotel to stay at in London with the kids. The first room they gave us actually had pods from the London Eye going by our window!

serenaviolet

I've got a Thurs-Sunday booked at County Hall in London under HPR. Not only do I get the 3rd night free, but the daily rate is nearly half-price! Should I be concerned about saving so much?! I also have a £100 Premium Pound certificate. Not wanting to call London, I called 800 res and they said I couldn't use the PP cert with the HPR code.

Term 9 on the back of the PP cert says:
This Coupon is not valid toward any rate that requires ID or membership. This Coupon is valid only toward publicly listed rates through the 800 numbers listed. Excludes advance purchase, catering, group, associate rate and other contract rates...

HOWEVER, under the HPR rate rules for County Hall:
Stays booked under this promotion are not combinable with any other discounts or promotional offers.

As far as I know HPR is public and avail through the 800 number, but I don't know if it's a "contract" rate. Any idea how I can pursue using both HPR and the PP cert?

-Thanks!

hhoope01

Based on this statement, I would assume you're not supposed to use a PP along with this rate. In reality though, it depends on the hotel and more specifically the person at the front desk who checks you out/in as they will be the ones who would have to take your PP cert.

I have seen hotels allow the use of BB/PP certs when they really didn't have to. So its possible you can use them, just don't get upset if the hotel won't take it.