bhatnasx

Neither my parents nor I are platinums, but I did contact the hotel in advance. I spoke with Mette Pei - She's the guest relations manager and Peggy Kim is the GM's assistance (GM is Theresa Maw). I'm sure you'll have a great stay at this hotel.

Cholula

An excellent suggestion and one I rarely do....so guess I can't complain when I'm not upgraded. It never hurts to call in advance and to again ask at check-in for upgrades.
I was on an award certificate so didn't feel like pushing the issue.
At any rate, we were very pleased with this Marriott location.

Edited for typo....



[This message has been edited by Cholula (edited 06-16-2003).]

John69

Guys,

Just made it to the Park Lane hotel and I must say that my stay started in a very, very unpleasant way. I insist on sharing the details with you here below. I had a very good impression of this hotel before today, but this is pretty much destroyed by now !

The sequence of events:
1) Confirmation call at 2 pm
I always give the hotel a quick confirmation call in the early afternoon - just to make sure they have my status and room preference. The clearly 'stressed' receptionist told me I had guaranteed king, non-smoking room. She did not promise me a concierge floor room, but promised to do her best.
2) Room not ready at 7 pm
I make it to the check-in desk around 7:15 pm. A receptionist asks me for my name and starts looking into the system. Once again, visibly nervous she picks up the phone and calls someone (I guess housekeeping) to check whether my room is ready. She then bluntly tells me that my room is not ready and it will take another 30 minutes. I looked at her with a completely puzzled face: Am I experiencing this as an elite member (MR Gold) at a 5* London hotel ? I uttered once again: What do you mean, my room is not ready ? Is that because you have a special, concierge level room waiting for me ? She replied: There are only standard rooms available, sir ! Once again. She then asked me to go to the bar and get a drink (on my own expenses of course) to wait for 30 mins. I kept on looking with great disbelief... At that point in time her manager noticed things weren't going as smooth as hoped, so she came over...and made things even worse...

3) No recognition of my status
The CS manager looked at my reservation, called housekeeping again and promised she would get a room ready for me in a short while. She invited me to go to the bar for a drink...I friendly asked her whether I could go to the exec. lounge instead to wait, as I was getting hungry. She repeated (literally): I was thinking more like the bar... I looked once again with great disbelief and remembered her of my status: "I believe I can enter the lounge as MR Gold ?". She uttured back to me: "But sir, you have silver status. Maybe you just lost gold level status because you didn't stay enough last year ?" Me again: I am still thinking more 'like the lounge', since I am still MR Gold and stayed here last week with all privileges offered". Once again she looks at me and says: "Sir, our computer indicates you are 'only' Silver". Me again: "Then please call your central services and ask them to check my account, you'll see it says 'Gold'. Quite unbelievably, she did go to her computer to check my MR number online ! Then she finally came back and said 'Ok then, please follow me to the lounge". Quite bluntly, I felt like I was begging for a favour that cost me +50 hotel nights in central Londen (150-200 GBP/night !) and should have been offered with a smile. Just an awful experiences. I thought of saying: look, just forget about it I'll go over to the Chancery Court and cancel all my reservations at your place...but did not feel like I could get a reasonable rate at this place on such a last-minute basis.

4) Non-smoking - Smoking room (depends on the guest...)
After 20 minutes I finally received my room key. It appeared to be a very standard room, with no frills at all. I immediately noticed the smell of smoke inside the room and looked for ashes: Aha, ashes on the desk. Clearly, someone had been smoking in this room in the late afternoon. This was then promised and given to me as a guaranteed non-smoking room, unbelievable. I actually have stayed at this place multiple times on different floors: 2nd, 3d ,4th and 5th floor all seem to be non-smoking floors, but then again: there are no signs on the door to indicate it: I seriously believe that they 'vary' the kind of rooms on the floors according to the demand. A room becomes non-smoking when the guest wants it to, this surely must make room assignment a lot easier! If this is true, I find it to be a fraudulent practice ! I'd be happy to see if other people have similar experiences with this place.

My question: Is the fact that I had to wait 30 mins for my room at 7:15 pm (with a confirmed 3pm check-in time at this hotel) a 'failure' to meet the guaranteed elite benefits ? I don't think so, but feel it is such a lousy gesture that I think some type of compensation would be reasonable ?

Anyway, I completely lost my confidence in this place and will probably try to book myself into the Renaissance starting next week !

John

NJUPINTHEAIR

John69:

Thank you for your post and I am sorry to hear of your troubles. I had a feeling that the Park Lane Marriott might turn out to be the Marriott in London that was most like the Langham Hilton -- where your status is only recognized if you are a Diamond, and even then, it might not be!

I will steer clear of this place, as I was under the impression that they might think that they are much too good for common Gold members, and/or those who would want to stay on points, and not pay their outrageous charges. Just because they have the term Park Lane in their name -- well as you have noted, there are a plethora of Marriott properties in and about London, with more to come, and the Renn is probably the best for honoring both Marriott status, as well as Marriott Rewards.

However, I must say that I really had an exceptional experience at the County Hall as I was upgrade to one of the Balcony Suites overlooking the Thames, and there is nothing like that at any of the other Marriott properties in London.

A friend of mine will be staying at the Kensington Marriott and I hope he posts a review of the property here on FT.

You certainly were within your rights to demand some form of compensation, and although you probably are not due the MR Guarantee, you ceratinly should bring this to the attention of Guest Relations -- call them when you return stateside.

SkiAdcock

This was obviously a bad experience & I can't give you any advice other than to write the GM of the hotel & also Marriott.

But - in fairness - others (sounds like a lot more others) - have had very good experiences as posted on this forum, so I don't think anyone should give up based on one experience.

And unless I'm missing something in your post, haven't you stayed there before & didn't encounter the same difficulties?

I'd have a conniption (not sure what the phrase is in any other language) over your treatment this time, but not sure I'd give up on the place based on 1 bad experience (if they do it again, dif story).

------------------
Sharon

socrates

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[This message has been edited by socrates (edited Mar 23, 2004).]

John69

Socrates:

Thanks for the contact details. What type of compensation can I expect for this type of customer mis-treatment ?

All others:
I stayed here 3 times before and was satisfied. But: 1 encounter like this is sufficient to say 'never again will I stay in this place'. I plan to cancell all remaining reservations at this place and head for the Renaissance Chancery Court instead.

NJUPINTHEAIR:
Good to hear that you got treated well at the County Hall. I stayed there twice as MR Silver and go a standard room without a view; they are still fairly roomy compared with the Park Lane, so as long as the location near Westminser suits you, this is indeed a very nice hotel. Looking forward to your experiences at the new Kensington Marriott.

Cheers,

John69

socrates

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[This message has been edited by socrates (edited Mar 23, 2004).]

John69

I'll send an email and post the reply that I'll get.

BigLar

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing the Marriott website, mostly looking up properties in desirable locations. I was counting my points and drooling, if you know what I mean.

Anyhow, just for grins I checked out availability at 47 Park Lane for a few random dates. As expected, nothing was open.

Last week, I was doing it again, and 47 Park Land did not appear on any of the lists of award destinations. On looking up the location directly, thet gave no indication that it was available (no category listing).

Have they taken it off the list of award destinations? Will I have to redo all my fantasies? Say it ain't so, Joe!

christianj

If you re-do the fantasy, look at the Renaissance Chancery Court! Just got back from a one week award reservation there two weeks ago. GREAT hotel in a good location! One of the nicest Marriotts I have stayed at.

yyzflyer

I've stayed there... great use of points in London. It seems to be showing up now:

Marriott's 47 Park Street
47 Park Street

London, W1K 7EB
United Kingdom
Phone: 44 20-7491 7282
Fax: 44 20-7491 7281

Nights Stay Points Code
3 nights in a 1 bedroom villa 75,000 394
4 nights in a 1 bedroom villa 90,000 1393
5 nights in a 1 bedroom villa 100,000 395
6 nights in a 1 bedroom villa 115,000 1394
7 nights in a 1 bedroom villa 125,000 396
3 nights in a 2 bedroom villa 100,000 391
4 nights in a 2 bedroom villa 115,000 1391
5 nights in a 2 bedroom villa 125,000 392
6 nights in a 2 bedroom villa 140,000 1392
7 nights in a 2 bedroom villa 150,000 393

SkiAdcock

I LOVE 47 Park Street - waiting for the 330 day window so I can book award again!

YYA361

Is this a better choice than the Marriott Park Lane ?

yyzflyer

It depends on what you're looking for. 47 Park Street has large rooms with kitchen facilities - never a bad thing in pricey London. It is also slightly less points if using a Marriott Reward for your stay. We loved the quiet residential location too.