BostonFlyer1624

I recently just came back from a trip to the UK and had the chance to stay at the new addition to the Marriott family: the St. Ermin's hotel.

While I usually prefer the JW Grosvenor House or the Renaissance St. Pancras, in the interest of trying something new, and giving back to my favorite FT forum, I figured I would spend a little extra out of pocket to give the St. Ermin's a go.

Overall here are my thoughts...

Location:
By far the best location of any Marriott I have stayed at in London. The hotel is a 30 second walk to the St. James tube station, a 5 minute walk to both Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, a 8-10 minute walk to Buckingham Palace, and a 15 minute walk to Trafalgar Square. In addition, there is an excellent Indian restaurant very close to the hotel called Quilon. All things considered, if you are in London for work, and desperately want to avoid the tourists, this may not be the best area for you.

The Hotel:
Overall, taking into consideration the service, room and food quality, and amenities, I would give this hotel an 8/10. The hotel is not in the traditional "Marriott Style", i.e. the reason it is an autograph collection. As a platinum, I was offered breakfast everyday in their restaurant, which had a very nice selection of hot and continental items.

Fun fact: during the 1930s and through the Second World War, the hotel was used as a meeting place of the British intelligence services, and was the birthplace of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) (MI5/MI6, James Bond stuff) and where the notorious Cambridge Five double agents Philby and MacLean met their Russian handlers.

The Room:
Upon arrival, I was upgraded to a Scotland Yard view, King bed room. The view wasn't anything special - just another building across the street. The room size was average, similar to those at Grosvenor Square if you are familiar with that hotel. The bathroom however was quite small. All in all, it was comfortable and enjoyable.

...and finally, here are some pictures. Please let me know if I left anything out.


That's it!

I'm always happy to answer any questions if there is something I left out.

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the trip report & pictures! Much appreciated by your fellow FTers.

Cheers.

sammyindc

Thanks for the report.
The location sounds ideal.
Might stay there in addition to the St Pancras during my next London trip in October.

BostonFlyer1624

For exploring the city on foot, the location really can't be beat. There is also one of those rentable city bike racks near the hotel if you prefer that.

frontrangeFF

Thanks for the review and all the pics. Makes me want to go to London.

BostonFlyer1624

As a side note: this hotel gave me double nights, i.e. two rooms for three nights equals six nights.

Stripy

Just had a single night stay at this hotel and can echo other comments on this thread. Very impressed with the location and the service we received. More surpisingly (to me) was that they seem to have recognized my MR Gold status despite the fact that the booking was done via Orbitz and with the use of an Orbitz discount code. We got upgraded to a Junior Suite, were given complimentary full breakfast for 2 and, because they don't have a club floor/room, we were given 3 vouchers for comlimentary drinks at their bar. I'd definitely return for another stay.

phlwookie

Just to put in another thumbs up for this property - I stayed there for four nights about three weeks ago along with five nights at the JW Grosvenor House. Stunning architecture and decoration. Nice, modern rooms. Marvelous afternoon tea - definitely try it. Excellent continental breakfast, free to at least platinums. Pleasant modern bar. Air conditioning. Stunning lobby and nice balcony restaurant - the property is in great shape. Continental European and North American plugs at the desk in addition to British. Interesting bee hives on property managed by beekeepers. My room was identical to the pics posted by BostonFlyer1624 except that I had a courtyard view.

Rooms are a bit smaller on average versus what Grosvenor House, my London default, has, and I doubt the suites they can give you are anywhere near the size of some of the high end ones GH has. I am a bit biased towards GH admittedly - I've spent many months of time there over the past decade and the staff know me by name and take care of me with upgrades, and it's one of my top three favorite Marriotts in the world.

St Ermin's clientele is also quite different - it was nearly all North American, British with a smattering of continental Europeans, while GH has many Middle Eastern and Africans, reflecting differences in marketing. I don't mind either way and enjoy the various mixes of cultures and the associated conversations in the executive lounge at GH, but the difference in the guest mix were unusually stark between these two stays.

Cell phone coverage at St Ermin's was weak indoors, likely due to the thickness of the walls (it was an old monastery IIRC before its intelligence role in WWII and is across the street from New Scotland Yard, though I had no trouble with signals outdoors; they could use some signal repeaters), and the Internet setup is a bit odd - elite members get vouchers for Swisscom internet, which was fast and worked on both laptop, iPhone, and iPad simultaneously, but you had to reauthenticate a lot, and it had a 250 MB upload limit, which could be defeated by disconnecting and reconnecting (with weak cell coverage, I wound up doing long conference calls on my company's VOIP software, which is not light on bandwidth use). The stay oddly has not posted yet though they recognized status at check in as it was already on my record - I submitted it as a missing stay request last week. Same thing happened to a colleague, also a Plat, but with a different check out date. For now I'll treat it as a one-off and it won't deter me from returning.

This hotel is now on my go-to list behind Grosvenor House, tied with St Pancras, and ahead of Grosvenor Square, County Hall, Maida Vale and Marble Arch. If doing business in Whitehall or Westminster though, the St Ermin's location is hard to beat, much like County Hall's proximity to Parliament, Whitehall, Waterloo and Embankment/Charing Cross. The two properties are about equidistant to Parliament, St Ermin's is much closer to Buckingham Palace and Victoria Station.

On the Indian restaurant topic - I'll also vouch for Quilon, and Cinnamon Club is another good one on Great Smith Street just past Westminter Abbey. My current favorite in London is the expensive but amazing Rasoi in Chelsea though, and Dishoom in Covent Garden is also a great option.

Finally, the courtyard at dusk:

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the updated trip report!

Cheers.

Stumblefoot

Indeed, thank you for sharing your trip report.

As someone who hasn't stayed at the JW yet, I think I'll keep my reservation there for next summer's family vacation, but sure appreciate the first hand perspective of St. Ermin's from you and BostonFlyer1624.

aaupgrade

Since I will be staying at St. Ermin's this summer, I was surprised by your post on free continental breakfast as I thought they provided full breakfast, so I did a search.

According to two of the three reports in the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...london-uk.html thread, it appears that Gold and Plat elites are provided full breakfast for two at St' Ermin's. While continental breakfast would be sufficient, it is always nice to have a choice.

phlwookie

It was a full breakfast, not sure why I wrote continental in my post up thread.

trekker954

In addition you can ask them to specifically cook breakfast items not out on their buffet (i.e. french toast/pancakes). We absolutely loved, loved, loved this Marriott.

aaupgrade

Nice, thanks for the update.

boss315

very anxious to try this property Jan 25-27!....especially after the disappointment of the London Edition Hotel!

PS. Got it for 158GBP, 100 GBP less or more than other properties!