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Regents Park Marriott, UK [Master Thread]

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Old Feb 20, 2017, 8:17 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: SkiAdcock
Getting to hotel from Swiss Cottage tube stop: When you exit the turnstiles at the Swiss Cottage tube stop, go left to exit 1 (Avenue Road), up the stairs (10 steps) to street level, make a left, walk to the corner/street light, & turn left & you'll see the Marriott in front of you at the next light. It's a 5-minute walk from Swiss Cottage to the entrance of the Marriott.

Property now has M Lounge on ground floor open 24/7. Children under 16 not allowed in lounge per website.

Hors d'oeuvres (1730-1930hrs) and dessert selection (1930-2130hrs) available 7 days a week
Beverages available throughout the day with red & white wine and beer served between 1730-2130hrs
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Regents Park Marriott, UK [Master Thread]

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Old Jun 20, 2008, 1:46 pm
  #1  
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Regents Park Marriott, UK [Master Thread]

Stayed at the Regents Park Marriott (RPM) this week for a quick biz trip. While I prefer to stay at my beloved Grosvenor House, my client's budget didn't even allow for the Kensington Marriott. Arrived early Sunday; departed early Wed. Based on info provided in the older RPM thread, requested a room away from the main road (ie, quiet).

I was originally going to take the Heathrow Connect to Paddington & then the tube to Swiss Cottage tube stop, but I arrived very early on Sunday morning & until 9:30am on Sundays, the HC runs on the hour (then it switches to every 30 minutes). Since I didn't want to wait an hour & I also didn't want to pay Heathrow Express prices I decided to take the tube all the way into the city/hotel. BTW - HC usually runs every 30 minutes, only takes 10 minutes longer to get to Paddington than the HEX, and is 6.90GBP vs the 15.50 of the HEX. I have an Oyster card so I used that when taking the tube everywhere, as it's less expensive than the day travelcards.

Picked up the Picadilly line at LHR & took it to the Green Park tube stop, where I switched to the Jubilee line & took it to the Swiss Cottage stop. FYI - the GP has a lot of stairs/steps when you switch levels to Jubilee, but there is a lift (elevator) which I used. When you exit the turnstiles at the Swiss Cottage tube stop, go left to exit 1 (Avenue Road), up the stairs (10 steps) to street level, make a left, walk to the corner/street light, & turn left & you'll see the Marriott in front of you at the next light. It's a 5-minute walk from Swiss Cottage to the entrance of the Marriott. There's an HSBC ATM at the Swiss Cottage tube stop, along w/ a small newspaper shop. RPM is in a residential neighborhood. I had to be in Soho each day for mtgs, and getting to/from there from Swiss Cottage was pretty easy.

RPM was quite busy when I arrived; they must have had a full house the night before. Check-in only took a few minutes, but my room was not ready since it was just mid-morning & they had been heavily booked. I was asked if I wanted the Plat 500 points or one of the other options. I took the points since I wasn't going to be in the hotel very much. The note in my record about my asking for a quiet room was acknowledged. Because the room wasn't ready yet, I was given a key & directed to the executive lounge. She did put me in the 'housekeeping queue' for a room that a guest had already checked out of so that my wait wouldn't be forever. BTW - the woman's public bathroom next to the pool area is a bit like a 1-person locker room, so if someone needed to take a shower/change for meetings before being able to get into their room that would be an option. No idea if the men's room has the same set-up.

The executive lounge is on the 6th floor (hotel has 7 floors). Entry via room key. It's 2 levels (not stories, but a few steps up). The lower level is where the food/drink is located at one end, along w/ couches & chairs in front of the telly in the center. There's also a free i-net terminal at the other end. The 'upper' level has tables/chairs throughout (L shape to the upper level) & is all windows facing the park. What totally rocks is that in addition to the free i-net terminal, they have a converter box (my term) near one end that has 12 ethernet connections & they also provide 15ft e-net cables so you can access i-net for free! ^^ There were quite a few folk utilizing this w/ their laptops.

I had just missed the breakfast service when I arrived, but had it the next couple of mornings. There are 6 types of cereal, scrambled eggs, 2 types of toast, small bagels, croissants, muffins, 2-3 types of cheese, 2-3 types of cold meat, lox, 2 types of yogurt, 2 types of fresh cut fruit, 4 types of juices, plus the coffee, tea, soft drinks, bottled & still water. You could really make a meal out of the breakfast that would tide you for a quite a long time during the day if you so choose.

Alas, the evening offerings are somewhat mediocre. One hot dish (veggie rolls, battered covered shrimp, that type of thing), some chips & salsa, a couple of desserts, cheese & crackers. There is a charge for alcohol (honor system; form next to the wine & booze). There are coolers for the soft drinks, water, etc, that are self-serve. The red wine was drinkable & matched what they had in the bar downstairs.

The exec lounge hours are 6am-11pm, although someone noted in a dif thread that the room key will give you 24hour access. There are 3 types of newspapers available in the lounge. London Times, USA Today & can't remember the other.

After 90 minutes I called down to the front desk & was told my room was ready, so I went down & got the key. I was not on the exec level - ie, no upgrade. I don't know if that was because they forgot or if it was because I had requested the quiet room & one that I could get into as quickly as possible, and that was the first available. Since I don't really care if I'm on the exec level or not as long as I have access to the lounge, I didn't say anything. I just wanted a quick nap at that point before meeting a friend for lunch who had recently relocated to London.

As noted in a dif thread, the hotel was renovated in 2007 & the rooms had the new bedding, decor. Room size wasn't huge but ok. Reminded me of room size at Ren LHR. There is a safe in the closet that's large enough to put a laptop in. Also lots of hangers as well as iron/ironing board. The closet has a light that goes on when you open the closet door. There is a tea/coffee maker in the room, and some cookies in that area (to dip in the tea perhaps?). There is wired ethernet in the room (fee). I was able to access wifi from the room using my Boingo account (roaming charges apply for Boingo if you don't have a worldwide account). There is a/c but it's not that efficient. I had to turn the temp down to lower than I would normally to really get it to work, and even then it was 'eh'. The tv offerings aren't that great. BBC 1, 4, 5, ITV1, a few sports channels, Al-Jezeera (sp?), CNN, BBC, Skynews. When I came back to the hotel around 10:30pm each on Sun/Mon I wanted to watch a movie or tv series before going to sleep, but no such luck on the offerings.

I asked at the front desk about restaurants & pubs in the area & they gave me a concierge area map they had created to provide to guests. It showed the hotel, the roads around it, and literally had the restaurants, shops, listed by name, as well as the roads, the tube lines, taxi ranks, busses (by #s & routes), coaches, sights in the area. Quite helpful ^ We were also directed to David, the concierge, for recommendations re: lunch, and he was equally knowledgable/helpful.

He showed us on the map a # of places (restaurants in the area include Benihana, Bradleys, China Garden, Thai Pepper, New Delhi, Erikki, Swiss Cottage Pub, as well as fast food places), as well as recommended some in the Primrose Hill area. We decided to go to Primrose Hill. When you exit the main entrance of the RPM you're facing King Henry's Road. Turn left & walk about 5 blocks to Primrose Hill Road (think that's it - there's a Cafe de Maya facing you & a church on the corner on your right side). Turn right at the church & continue along that road for another 3-5 blocks. The road will rise a bit & at the top you'll see Regents Park to your right. Follow the road downhill, and when you get to the bottom turn left & you're in the Primrose Hill area. Cute, quaint neighborhood. Lots of shops, restaurants, cafes, pubs. Primrose Hill is about a 15minute stroll from the hotel.

We decided to wander down the street on one side & back the other to choose where we wanted to eat. We had decided on Lemonia which is Greek; looked like a nice restaurant & the menu looked good/reasonable. Alas, it had an hour wait. Not sure if that's typical or if it was due to Father's Day. So we went back to the corner to The Queen pub. Upstairs is the restaurant, and they were serving the typical English Sunday lunch/dinner. We were inside but they had an outdoor balcony where people were eating. The food was good & they had a good wine list. So we spent a couple hours there catching up.

Wandered back to the hotel to meet up w/ tom911, who by coincidence was in London at the same time. He & I went up to the exec lounge to check out the evening offerings, which are as I described further up. We stayed there for a while & then decided to head out for dinner. I had told Tom about the Primrose Hill area & he wanted to go there to check it out as it was a new area for him. As we walked towards it, we noticed a helicopter hovering above & the park this time had police at the entrances. President Bush was in town & around the time we were going to Primrose Hill again he was heading over to 10 Downing Street for dinner w/ Gordon Brown from the US ambassador's home near Regents Park on the other side. A number of the cafes/restaurants had closed at 6pm, so we just missed those. As we returned the police were closing up shop, as Bush was out of the area then.

I didn't feel like eating at The Queen again, so we headed back towards the hotel & then past the Swiss Cottage tube stop down Finchley Road to check out the restaurants there. We ended up at the China Garden. Food was good & reasonable. It's about 5 minutes past the Swiss Cottage stop, so a 10 minute stroll from the hotel max. When I returned to my room, turn-down service was already done. Plus there was a liter of still & a liter of sparkling water in the room. No note re: charges, so I assumed it was due to my Plat status.

Back to the hotel & some other details. There is a main restaurant, but I didn't eat at it. Room service is 24/7, but I didn't use it. I did have drinks in the bar the last night w/ a couple of the folk I was chatting w/ in the exec lounge. The bar menu actually looked like it had more offerings on it than the room service menu. Since I had noshed in the exec lounge on cheese/crackers I didn't bother. Bar stays open until 1am. There is a pool & exercise room; both looked pretty good, although I didn't use them. I thought of going to the exercise room to use the treadmill, but figured with Regents Park nearby why stay inside. I also think there are some shops, etc, in the hotel. Because I had mtgs from morning-night I pretty much did room, exec lounge, enter & exit the hotel rather than exploring the hotel.

Check-out was quick & efficient. They put a 1GBP charge/day on the bill for charitable donation to cancer society, but have no problem w/ taking it off upon request. I've heard from others that RPM isn't good about posting points, so expect to have to fax in the receipt to Marriott Rewards.

While not the fanciest of Marriotts (it's basically a bizness hotel; perhaps a Radisson in a former life?), I would recommend it to others if the rate matched your budget & I would stay here again. I forgot to bring my digital camera on this trip, so unfortunately I can't post pictures of the rooms, lounge & public areas.

Hope this info helps. Cheers.
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Last edited by SkiAdcock; Jun 20, 2008 at 2:39 pm
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Old Jun 21, 2008, 8:31 am
  #2  
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Nice report.

Unfortunately for me, I was supposed to have a couple of trips this summer to London and all of them have now been cancelled or pushed to this fall.
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Old Jun 21, 2008, 11:25 am
  #3  
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Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
They put a 1GBP charge/day on the bill for charitable donation to cancer society, but have no problem w/ taking it off upon request.
I was in Rome at an SPG property and they did this very same thing except it was to Unicef and in Euro's but it did Pi$$ me off enough to tell them to take it off and I told them why which was I don't like the idea of them just putting it on the bill and leaving it up to me to remove it. Had they asked at check in if they could put it on or just 1 euro or something, fine, but to do it this way, no way.. I will not do it and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
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Old Jun 21, 2008, 2:13 pm
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Originally Posted by TrojanHorse
I was in Rome at an SPG property and they did this very same thing except it was to Unicef and in Euro's but it did Pi$$ me off enough to tell them to take it off and I told them why which was I don't like the idea of them just putting it on the bill and leaving it up to me to remove it. Had they asked at check in if they could put it on or just 1 euro or something, fine, but to do it this way, no way.. I will not do it and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Well I didn't get that bent out of shape over it since the sign in the room said they'd be willing to take it off & there were no questions asked or attitude when I did request that it was taken off. If there had been I would have politely explained that I have my own list of charitable organizations I donate to, which is sufficient. Having said that, I agree that an opt-in rather than opt-out would work better for the guest, although the charity probably benefits more from the opt-out (ie, a lot of folk will just leave it on their bill). And of course if you do decide to leave it on your bill you can claim it on your taxes as a charitable deduction, just make sure you know what the exchange rate is so you get full credit.

Cheers.
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Old Jun 22, 2008, 2:10 am
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Out of interest how many of the lifts were working? I've temporarily stopped using this property as 1 of the 3 lifts has been out of action and awaiting maintenance for over a month and it takes a long time getting up and down stairs.
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Old Jun 22, 2008, 4:01 am
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Great report. You should be commended for your time and effort.
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Old Jun 22, 2008, 10:38 am
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Originally Posted by thegoderic
Out of interest how many of the lifts were working? I've temporarily stopped using this property as 1 of the 3 lifts has been out of action and awaiting maintenance for over a month and it takes a long time getting up and down stairs.
All 3 were working.

Originally Posted by DENROC
Great report. You should be commended for your time and effort.
Thanks. It did take a bit longer than I anticipated writing it, but I do try to do complete reports when possible especially on properties that haven't had recent posts on FT.

Cheers.
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Old Jun 23, 2008, 9:14 am
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Great report.

Thanks Sharon, very helpful. I'll add it to my list as an option when squeezed for money in London.
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Old Jun 23, 2008, 8:09 pm
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Great Report and much appreciated. Always the possibility I'll have to make a run to London and not exactly have room for it in the budget, so I may wind up basically in the same boat as you were. Good to know this is a viable option.
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Old Jun 27, 2008, 2:39 pm
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Just checked my account, and points for the stay did post. 500Plat gift points didn't, but I run into that a lot in London. A quick phone call to MR took care of it.

Cheers.
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Old Sep 11, 2012, 12:35 pm
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Any updates to Sharon's very thorough report from 2008?
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Old Sep 11, 2012, 4:40 pm
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Originally Posted by fmkgb
Any updates to Sharon's very thorough report from 2008?
I have been staying here most weeks for 16 years, get well treated as a plat and now plat prem so I am obviously happy with it.

Refurbishments happen every 6 to 7 years, so another one is due in 2013/14.

All rooms have good Marriott beds and 32" flat screen televisions.

If you have more specific queries I will try and answer them

Reading Sharon's report, the changes are as follows :

No shop on the ground floor any more - it is now a pay to use business centre.

Biscuits are no longer provided in the rooms. It used to be two packets, but this got enhanced to one and then further enhanced to none.

Wired and Wireless internet is available in all rooms. (£15 a day if you are not gold/plat)

I am big (18 stone+) and cannot use the bath as it is too small, the shower (in the bath) is efficient.

Executive Lounge

Executive Lounge is open till midnight ( the door key stops working at midnight, but if there are guests in the lounge after midnight they may let you in.)

There is now free wireless internet access in the lounge (golds/plats get it anyway)

There is now a greater choice of hot food at breakfast (sausage / bacon ). Breakfast hours are now till 1030.

The lounge can be very busy because of the number of rooms that get automatic access and the number of golds/plats staying. The kitchen facility is totally inadequate for the lounge staff so when it gets busy it is really difficult for them.

There is now a small selection of cakes at tea time (1600 ish)

Evening food is from around 1800

After about 1945 there will only be cheese and biscuits and a sweet left and these will be cleared away by 2030.

Alcohol is free in the evening (wine and beer) but it gets taken away before 2100.

There are always teas coffee chocolate and a large selection of soft drinks available

Breakfast at weekends is provided in the main restaurant not in the lounge.

Newspapers are Times, Financial Times, USA Today and an Irish daily, but they tend to disappear during the day and there will only be limited choice by late evening.
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Old Sep 13, 2012, 1:00 pm
  #13  
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Thanks for the update!

Cheers.
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Old Sep 14, 2012, 7:38 am
  #14  
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They have an elite night every couple of months. This week it was India themed. Free food and drink from 17:00 until 21:00.
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Old Oct 18, 2012, 5:11 pm
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There was an idiot in the lounge tonight who was playing his voicemails at full blast on his laptop. Worse still, he played the same voice mail 5 times.I was on the verge of losing my temper, which happens very rarely.

He then got chatting with an old couple, and they more or less got his life story.
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