RyeGuy

Hi,

I'm heading to London for business, and need a month-long stay in a Marriott while I'm searching for a corporate apartment.

The one I like (County Hall) and the nicer, convenient ones are all too pricey, but the less expensive Marriotts may work: Marriott Maida Vale, and Marriott Regents Park (more likely).

Does anyone know what the neighborhoods are like (good to hang around on the weekends?), and any comments on how bad the commute would be from these hotels to my office near Bank or Monument Tube stops in the City of London?

GregWTravels

I think the area is fine. You could walk over to Camden on the weekends, which has a lively market area (about 30 minutes walk). Tube connections towards the west end with Jubliee line are decent. Quick hop down to Bond Street for shopping.

Depending on when you are coming, you might encounter Jubliee line closures on the weekends, but bus service up that way is decent as well.

The commute in the morning would be fine, you might get a bit squished, though. TFL says Jubliee line to Central line from either Finchley Road or Swiss Cottage. Central line in the mornings can be jammed packed, though. Part of the London experience, really - getting jammed into a tube car.

Greg

DillMan

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.1; U; en-us) AppleWebKit/413 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/413 es61i)

I really like Madia Vale. It is a nice, clean hotel but by no means 5 star. The tube connections are reasonable and you'll generally save 50% as compared to other properties.

SkiAdcock

I did a really detailed report on the Regents Park property. Let me see if I can find a link.

Here it is:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...18-2008-a.html

Cheers.

law53

I've stayed at Maida Vale several times over the past 9 years and I think it's a great location. It's a 5-minute walk to the Kilburn Park tube stop for the BakerLoo line that takes you right down to Charing Cross and beyond.

It's changed immensely over the past few years with a Starbucks next door, a late-night Tesco next door, local pubs, charity shops, and regular shops - even a Mickey D's further down the street. There are also some other good restaurants near by and it's walking distance to Regent's Park.

The Marriott is on the north end of Maida Vale which is a very nice area with lots of trees.

The hotel is not 5-star, but the neighborhood feel, the ability to walk to shops, and its access to the tube stop makes it a great choice for some of us!

BrightlyBob

I have stayed in both and they are OK, nothing special but clean, well looked after and convenient for the tube means both are good value choices when clients money doesn't run to County Hall or Grosvenor House.
I personally give Maida Vale the edge in the value-for-money stakes, but both are solid choices as long as you dont mind the crammed rush-hour journeys on the tube...

GeoGirl

Just returned from a visit to Spain and the UK and wanted to share my experiences with the London Maida Vale. This was my first time staying at this property, and probably will be my last.

The property looked okay, though modest in comparison to the other Marriott properties in London (makes sense, given its category level). This trip was a full-on miles/reward points trip and we chose Maida Vale to save on reward points while staying in London. We stayed there for three nights.

The first night we were exhausted and my husband fell asleep right away. I was awake a bit longer, which meant I was the one who discovered a bug crawling in the bed. I woke my hubby, he killed the bug, and blood oozed out of the dead bug. Having never seen a bedbug before (I've now researched online and yep, that's what it was -- a full-sized, adult bedbug, ew ew ew), I didn't know enough to be seriously alarmed, and since my hubby went right back to sleep, I thought, "Okay, we'll deal with this tomorrow morning." It's amazing what you can put up with when you're tired, because I actually also discovered something crusty on the underside of my pillowcase and though it strengthened my resolve to talk to the hotel manager the next day, I just switched pillows.

Next day, we called the front desk and I was told the manager wasn't in, but would contact us right away, and they moved us to the "presidential suite" immediately. It was a very nice room, incidentally, with a full kitchen, dining room, and living room, but late in the day, my husband started itching and over the course of the next day or two, we discovered that he had over 34 bites covering his body. My husband was miserable for the rest of our stay in London and on the flights home. And now that I've just read a bit more, I'm freaking out a bit that we may have brought these disgusting creatures home in our suitcases.

So...consider this a warning: Approach Maida Vale with caution!

And, a question: Obviously we should've called right away and changed rooms, but would you have changed hotels?

Thanks,
GG

BrightlyBob

Yuk, still at least reassuring to know the blood that spurted out the creature was your husbands... Eeeewwww!!!!

That is pretty gross, I've stayed in some real dives as a student and even though I felt sure I was sharing my room with bedbugs, found neither hide, nor hair (nor wounds) from any. Cockroaches, on the other hand, well in the words of Ol' Blue Eyes "I've had a few"... Though never at a Marriott.

Has the hotel indicated what they're going to do about it? Contrary to popular myth the bugs dont sleep in the quilts or mattresses, so their presence isn't a "basic" hygiene issue, they actually hide in the bedframe, hence making them difficult critters to get rid of without disposing of the bed or using some real heavy poisons.

The "crusty" pillow is indicative of very basic problems though...

I've stayed at Maida Vale on many occasions and have never had any cause to doubt their hygiene so I would have accepted the room change and reamained, albiet seeking some form of compensation for providing lunch to the other "guests"

BrightlyBob

Update on Maida Vale, see Geogirls thread, it seems she may have shared her bed there and provided other "guests" with a midnight feast

GeoGirl

Since we got home, my hubby's been sick with the flu, so I only just filed the complaint today. I did document everything with photos, though, and mentioned that in my complaint.

It's pretty upsetting, in retrospect, that's for sure. And my husband looks like he has some sort of disease, because there are just so many bites and he scratched them so much, the poor guy. The most important thing to me is that Marriott becomes aware of the problem so they can address it and others don't suffer the way my hubby did, but it would be nice if they'd do something to make it up to us. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

Big lessons learned on this trip, that's for sure!

Thanks,
GG

pjoalfa

In a heartbeat, preferably at their expense, but even at my own.

cjw2001

Bed bugs have little to do with the quality of the hotel, they will happilly move in to 5 star accomodations as easily as 1 star. All it takes is one traveler to bring the little pests with them in their luggage for them to move in and set up shop.

I've experienced this myself in a high end Marriott family property in Los Angeles. The true test is how the hotel reacts to the situation. In my case I was compensated with the purchase of new luggage (I discarded my old luggage as soon as I got home to avoid any possibility of bringing the critters into my house) and a substantial number of bonus points for my trouble.

I also spoke with the hotel manager and was fully informed as to their course of action to remedy the situation (Full extermination service on the room in question, adjacent rooms, and rooms on the floor above and below the affected area. The room that I was in was the only one that showed any signs of any problem.)

I would be confortable staying in that property again (and did stay there again after the episode) as they handled the issue correctly and they were not at fault for the infestation. All it takes is one traveler with infected luggage for this to happen to ANY hotel.

The only lasting effect from my experience is I now carefully check every hotel room I enter for the little nasties. I've never found them since but I always check when entering a new room.

GeoGirl

After reading and researching more, I'm concerned. We brought both our suitcases back into the States and into our home after spending a night in that room, plus two more nights in another room (which we THINK was not infested). Only one bag has been in the bedroom so far, because I'm an immediate unpacker when I get home from my travels, but that may have been enough.

Should we discard our luggage, clothes, other stuff? Should we call the exterminators for an emergency service? Any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks,
GG

cjw2001

When I retunred home the suitcase never entered the house (got as far as the garage), was emptied and then double bagged in trash bags and put out for trash collection.

Everything that I brought inside was inspected carefully, and anything that could went through an immediate laundry cycle (the dryer heat will kill anything tagging along). Anything that wasn't able to go through the laundry that could have a possible hiding place I treated with hot air from a hair dryer to raise the temperature to lethal levels for the bed bugs.

I haven't had any trouble at home and that episode was many years ago.

SkiAdcock

No idea on what you should do re: your luggage, but I've stayed at some high-end properties in dif cities & some have had 'bedbug' situations. Luckily I only experienced it once; not a fun experience.

However, I wouldn't condemn a property per se based on a 1x event cuz, as others have mentioned, it can happen at any property & is actually now becoming a bigger issue hotelwide (regardless of chain). I would base my response based on their response. I wasn't that thrilled w/ the hotel I stayed at's response.

FWIW - get your hubbie some calamine lotion; it will go away in a few days. PS - flu not related to bugs.

Actually after rereading the OP's OP, they were moved to Presidential Suite, so short of guaranteeing their original room would be exterminated I think the hotel did the right thing.

I probably would not have switched hotels - and didn't the time it occurred to me (when I got flamed by FTers btw years later for saying don't stay at that property due to bedbugs, so perhaps the FTers will be kinder to the OP ); I took the hotel's word that it wasn't a problem in other rooms. And at that time I was not an FTer & demanded everything. Not saying there shouldn't have been a demand, but I was young & stoo-pid & just settled for the other room; I did balk however when they said they were upgrading me & put me in a similar room; that part stuck in my craw. Nowadays, I'd ask for a bit more.

Cheers.