Happy

Thanks for posting the link. I read the thread when it was active, and made our reward booking based on that. I just wish there are some updated info, as those on Tripadvisor are depressing.

tfmpa

Hubby and I stayed at the Ren last November. It was fantastic! I highly recommend it.

JTG

I've stayed at the Marriott Grosvernor Square several times and have enjoyed it each time. Last time was in one of their mini-suites, but that was a grunch of points and about $300USD. Worth it tho, with 2 kids in tow.

AA53

I second this opinion. I especially like the Grosvenor Square for proximity to shopping, theater, and the lounge. It felt very European and not so much like a typical Marriott. Staff is very friendly.

cyberdad

My 2 cents....as posted previously (I've stayed at both). Ren is hands-down physically the more impressive facility. Very centrally located, but in something of a commercial area. That said, its still very convenient to just about everything most visitors want to see and do. Tube is less than a five minute walk away.

Our favorite, however, is Grosvenor Square. Fabulous neighborhood with the embassies and an upscale residential neighborhood. Oxford street shopping and Bond Street tube are five minutes away. Several good restaurants and pubs also within a very short walk. All of this is topped off with a helpful friendly staff.

You won't go wrong with either! Feel free to pm me with specific questions.

diazhill

Stayed here for 6 nights last October - LOVED IT!!

Would stay again in heart beat - however I suspect that once their extensive renos are complete and rebranded as a JW - The Grosvenor House will be out of my price range.

During our stay it was apparent that renovations were underway but we never heard any noise or were inconvenienced in anyway.

We were upgraded to an executive room w/king bed (inner courtyard view). Room was huge! Bathroom was beautiful black & white marble - deep soaker tub.

Two minor complaints:

1. English language TV choices were limited

2. The king bed was obviously two smaller beds pushed together - but I think this is common in europe.

Not sure when renos will be complete or if any of the newly redone rooms are ready.

SkiAdcock

When I stayed there in Feb of this year (I wrote the thread linked above, which is a very extensive report) it was great even w/ renovation. The majority of FTers have had positive things to say about it.

And having stayed at the Marble Arch, I'd take Grosvenor House ANY DAY - even under renovation - over MA. MA is just a basic no big deal biz hotel; no diss against it, but it ain't no way, no how in the same category as GH - and quite frankly has an inflated opinion of itself - ie, it's NOT a Cat 6 hotel.

Cheers.

acnev

A word of caution about this hotel. A lot depends on how full the hotel is and what room you get. I stayed at this hotel a little over a month ago and consider it an absolute dump based on the room I was given. No doubt the hotel was fairly full as was all of London. Despite being plt I got a small room that smelled awful (lots of mildew), bath curtain that couldn't encircle the tub, very small desk. The hallways were worse than a Motel 6.

The only nice thing about this hotel is potentially the free alcohol in the lounge. Another negative is that the lounge only opens for breakfast at 7 am - rather late if one needs to grab an early bite before heading to the office.

Overall, if I was spending my points in London, I would choose either the RCC or the Park lane, CH or even the Grov Sq hotel before I chose this one.

Edited to add - after 2 days I checked out early and moved over to the CH

flyzabit

I'm Platinum and stayed there in mid-June on a reward. The hotel is undergoing major renovations. The entrance facing Hyde Park is closed, and the bellman outside the art exhibit door couldn't have cared less. It was extremely hot, and we had taken the Tube to the Hyde Park station. That is a hike. The Marble Arch tube stop (which is a change of lines from the Piccadilly from LHR) is closer. (Both are mostly stairs, and not escalators to street-level). I'd opt for a taxi from Victoria Station or the Heathrow train.

The rear (from the Park, but main) entrance had attentive staff, as did the registration desk, housekeeping, and concierge. As Platinum, we did have excellent meal service and amenities such as the Executive Lounge. The construction did a number on the elevators, however. Very slow, and they were packed, as one of two was "out" then. Trying to walk down was a mistake, as the "first" floor (the next one up from the ground floor) had NO staircase down, and no wasy to exit except via the elevator (still full).

It is still a grand hotel, and the service good. Note there are "deals" out there in package form, such a free London bus tour (still valid), extra miles, and a summer special which may be over now. We were 10 minutes' walk to Buckingham Palace, and got to see the Queen's Birthday with only a casual walk...the Queen, too. I'd stay there again, but just heed my advice above. It will be fine when done. Nearby (and closer to the Hyde Park tube) is a Hilton, and a Four Seasons, as well as some Green Park-area hotels. Also you mention a Marble Arch Marriott.

cyberdad

Not sure if I'm too late coming across this to help.

I was there for a night in mid-July. I thought they did a good job of inuslating guests from the construction going on. None of the new rooms were on line yet. Our room was an upgrade with a park view and quite nice. The furnishings were showing their age just a bit, but still very well maintained and very clean. Very friendly, competent staff and an excellent CL. This place should really be something special when they're done with it.

DTNF130L

Stayed at the Grosvenor back in January, and cannot recommend it at all. I'm sure it will be wonderful when it reopens as a JW but until the stay away. The rooms are definitely showing their age, beds were uniformly uncomfortable, and the noise levels are awful---not from construction but from other rooms. On a two night stay we ended up chaning rooms three times. The walls are paper thin and you can hear everything, and I mean everything, in the room next door. I heard my neigbhor's snoring, his stereo, commode flushing, even his blackberry going off. Needless to say we were not happy hence the room change-twice. Breakfast in the lounge was fine but nothing special. The free drinks in the evening are nice, but don't beat getting a full nights sleep.

SkiAdcock

Wow - I didn't hear any of my neighbors at all! Had no problem w/ sleeping (well, other than sleeping in the morning that the Muslim demonstrations against the Danish cartoons were going on, but GH can't be blamed for several thousand folk marching by...).

Cheers.

Happy

2 nights at GH, 2 nights at HI Mayfair for the London portion.

We prefer the HI Mayfair location far far far more - it is on Berkeley st (?), just a few steps back from Piccadilly (and The Ritz), and Green Park. Accross the Park it is the Palace. HI Mayfair no doubt is at least 2 categories down from the GH level, with a tiny reception area and a much smaller room. The washrooms in the reception area are extremely tiny cubics - I seriously think anyone slightly oversize would have difficulty negotiate those double doors. However, the furnishings inside the room are far newer than those at GH, and the shower actually works with great temperature control (like you would find on a cruiseship). HI Mayfair also has Tea/Coffee making facility hidden in the cupboard - all china on a tray, with 2 Walker shortbreads that they replenish every day. GH does not have anything like that.

OK, back to GH. It was fully booked during our 2 days. However, they gave us a very good size twin bed room (we wanted twin beds). Bathroom obviously was updated few years back with vanity, and floor, may be even the commode. However, the shower was HORRIBLE. The control to get the faucet changed to shower head was extremely tight, we could not turn it even with force - we were so afraid to actually break it! Because they were full, we had to stick with it and took bath instead. Having a sampoo became quite a chore as you could imagine. The tub was exceptionally long, well over 5.5 ft I would guess. If you only take soaking bath, that would be good but we would prefer a working shower instead!

According to the staff, NONE of the rooms is renovated. They are still working everywhere - the hallway is a maze - to find the ladies washroom on the ground floor, one would go thru 4 doors and made 3 turns ... On our day of departure I saw they finally put up a big paper showing the way at each turn. They have very nice Molton Brown products in the public washrooms, at least at the ladies. However, what you get in your room are some unknown stuff - despite the various botanical names being labeled, they all smelled the same and none actually is listed in the actual ingredients. I thought this is cheap.

The furnitures in our room were badly worn and unmatched. IMO, those should be thrown out 10 years ago. There was no couch or comfy chair of any kind, except one very very low chair with an ottoman, a very odd combo. One side of the wall was all closets - you could have a full month's supply of clothings and still have lots of room left. It could be good for those who stayed extended period. Room itself was quite large even by American standard, and had 2 big windows thus it was quite bright.

However, despite our room was facing Upper Grosvernor St., we heard traffic noise all night long - versus HI Mayfair we got a room facing inside and was double-glazed, and extremely quiet.

The entrance on Park Lane was completely closed. Everyone uses the entrance on Park Street and the staff was very attentive - especially when we compared that with Intercontinental Le Grand in Paris (next to L'Opera), where we stayed 5 nights before returning home. On the other hand, the TV channels are of extremely poor selection, especially it supposedly is a "great" hotel. Le Grand in Paris even has CNBC and Bloomberg, plus a myriad of Arab and Japanese channels. However, the bath tub of Le Grand is extremely small and narrow - I dont know anyone weighing more than 150lbs can actually sits down in the tub!

It seems the easiest way to get to GH would be taking Piccadilly line, get off at Hyde Park Corner, then get on any bus that goes up Park Lane - they all have 3 stops, either the 2nd or the 3rd stop would be fairly close to GH from accross street. The best looking hotel on Park Lane probably is Dorcester. Hilton also looks fine. IC is still under big renovation but with its non-descript modern building and right at the bottom of Park Lane, it does not have the ingredients to turn into a great hotel.

One more thing, we used Oyster cards and got the 3.00 deposit back in 2 minutes at the window at Kings Cross where we took the train up to Edinburgh. For our 4 days we put 12.00 on each card and had to top up by 0.80 on our ride from Green Park to Kings Cross. The farthest we went was to Greenwich, by a combo of metro and bus. There is a bus from Russel Sq going to Greenwich, stopped right in front of the Queen's House or the Maritime Museum. It was extremely crowded at the Old Royal Observatory though - everyone wanted to take picture of the Meridian line. We took a lot of buses and only used metro 2 or 3 times. I highly recommend to take RV1 (River 1) in the evening or early at night. You can get a Central London bus route map at the tourist office. The map is very easy to follow.

AdamUK

OK, i'm thinking of taking the Mrs. to London for New Year.

I had a look at the M11 offer of the "Stay Friday Saturday and get sunday free" and it is available at a couple of hotels over New Year - the only decent one in Central London is Marble Arch.

I'm not really a Londoner, is this a good location?

The rate I get is £148 per night including B'fast, excl tax. As it is 3 for 2, is the £148 discounted per night (ie. it would have been £444 for 2 nights + tax?)

I see that the Chancery Court is also a favourite on here, and for the 3 nights works out at £480 including b/fast + tax (not under M11 deal.) This works out cheaper than the Marble Arch, so is Marble Arch a much better hotel ?

What is the situation with lounges around Christmas & New Year? Are some closed at all?

choptliva

I'd pick Chancery Court any day over Marble Arch.
CC has got to be one of the best around. I and Mrs Chop and little chops will be there between Christmas and New Year's -- sort of like our annual pilgrimage now.
Take the CC. ^