hhoope01

I'd say closer to 1/2 of a block. In fact, I would guess that the side of the hotel is actually right next to the tube station. The only issue is that I don't see a way to exit that side of the building. You still have to exit out the front and go around the corner.

star_world

The Marriott West India Quay is about 10 seconds walk from the DLR, and about 5 minutes walk from the Jubilee Line tube. I've stayed there about 5 times in the last few months and it's excellent - it's almost brand new. The staff were excellent also.

Any time I've stayed there I've been able to get a rate of GBP99 which is a fantastic deal for this hotel.

holocker

Plannning a stay in London next Novmeber and found the floowing category 5 and 6 hotels avaiable. Which would you reccomend if I odn't want to use all the points needed for a category 7.

Category 6:
Marble Arch
Regents Park
Hotel Kensingotn
Grosvenor House- under sonstruction?

Category5:
Maida Vale
West India Quay

Thanks

dayone

You might use Search. There is a mother lode of information already posted, much more experience than you'll ever get from any single reply.

hhoope01

dayone's suggestion is definitely a good one. So do some searching. ^

But if you know your dates now and they are available, I would suggest grabbing Grosvenor House (in fact, if the hotel is available go ahead and grab it, you can always cancel later if you change your mind.) While it is a Cat. 6 right now, I suspect that before the end of the year, it will be moved up to a Cat. 7. In fact, in may move up to a Cat. 7 fairly soon. So if you lock in your reservation now, your reservation will still work with a Cat. 6 certificate (again do a search and you should find references to people doing this.) The benefit is you get a Cat. 7 property, that by the end of the year, may be the "best" Marriott in all of London, but for only a Cat. 6 award certificate.

SkiAdcock has a very nice stay report found here that you definitely will want to check out.

Good luck and enjoy. BTW, I'm typing this from the Ren. Chancery Court in London right now and I'm definitely enjoying my stay.

voiletdog

The West India Quay Marriott offers a non-traditional option & the service has consistently exceeeded any other London Marriott location on each of my visits. Of my 355 Marriott nights last year, the ones spent at this hotel in the Docklands were the most exceptional in everyway and far put the hospitality, views, concierge, conc lounge, front desk of Chancery Court to shame! My next visit is in 2 weeks & i have been excited for months :-) A category 5 that deserves to be a 10!
If you want tradition County Hall is a good choice :-)
I hope you have fun!

cyberdad

The answer to your question somewhat depends on what you're looking to do in London and whether its your first time visit. Off the top of my head, I'd say if GH is still at cat 6....or if you can reserve it now as a cat 6... go for it. Even during rennovations, its a superb facility in an upscale area and probabably as centrally located as any of the hotels you're considering (in a lovely setting opposite Hyde Park). Marble Arch is also nearby....just as central...but some have complained that the ethnic neighborhood results in less than the "classic British experience". (I personally wouldn't let this stop me).

I've not stayed at West India Quay, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. I've been outside the facility, and it looks impressive enough, and is certainly in a bustling (mainly commercial) area. The only drawbacks...at least for some...would be that its quite a hike from Heathrow and not exactly in the center of attractions of most interest to first time visitors.

Kensington is a pretty good choice. Nice neighborhood, lots nearby, handy enough to the attractions, but not as central as Marble Arch and Grosvenor House. Hotel itself is standard-issue Marriott....very nice, but nothing special. My son and his wife stayed here during our trip this summer (we met them at the hotel a couple of times). He's also a plat. He liked it well enough, but his observation was that being a few blocks from the tube created a situation where it was less than ideal for those who might have limited time to take in all the sights.

Maida Vale and Regents Park are a bit farther from Central London, but should still represent a good compromise between "economy" and convenience. In each case, there have been a few negative comments about the hotels' respective surroundings.

Sluggy58

GBP 99? Is there some special trick here? It should be at least twice that....

slowly

That's their weekend rate as far as I can recall.

Anybody been there recently? I heard the service at the lounge has gone downhill, now they charge for beer and wine (were free last summer during evening happy hours).

ackpfft

For 1 Pound you should be able to buy an hour or so of Internet access at a local cafe. Some cafe's look a little sketchy from the outside but I never had a problem. I didn't find the Concierge service very helpful either.

I've mentioned this in another post, but regarding breakfast, when I stayed here during a 6 day Reward Stay in Oct (as a Plat) they gave me a certificate good for the whole stay that allowed my GF and I to get any breakfast we wanted at the Lounge or at Pearl.

They gave it to us at check-in as if it was a standard thing to do for a Reward Stay. We didn't ask for it - but we certainly appreciated it! I have no idea if we were the lucky exception or the rule.

ExecPlatinum_Lord

Glad to see you were finally able to make it over to the "motherland"!

Don't forget (if you haven't already done so) - pop over to the Marriott County Hall and have a look around. During our visit in November I discovered that additional sections of County Hall - to include the debating rooms - are now open for touring. Ask one of the doormen; we had a nice private 30 minute walk around the halls, a few photo op's, and then took the short cut to the London Eye via the back hallway!

Sounds like you're winding down your holiday in a day or so -- another option, if you have the time - book a day tour to see Windsor, Stonehenge and Bathe -- we used http://www.goldentours.co.uk/tour.php?135 to book it (and saved something like 15% online). Don't forget to bring your divining rod's to Stonehenge (if you go) -- they move about wildly when you cross the laylines... (we did it again this year and caught it on Video this time! -- amazing...)

Anways -- enjoy yourselfs!

Lord Z

rahmanbar

hhoppe01's comments regarding the concierge appear consistent with many about the RCC that appear on tripadvisor.com.

The hotel remains very highly rated there (and was ranked 1-2 in London for a long time) before it slipped (Now #4 in London, which still is very good considering of the hundreds of hotels discussed and rated on that site.)

Most posters there seem to rate it $ or 5* overall so it's composite rateing is 4*+/5*-.

Among the most recent quantitive ratings (and comments) two areas stand out - they're lower (4 instead of 5*) than others.

While there seems to be across the board raves about rooms and cleanliness, room attendants and CL personnel, that enthusiasm is tempered (comparatively) when it's about the quality of service, attitude and friendliness of the concierges, doormen and front desk.

To be fair, it just may be a matter of cultural reserve. After all RCC is a business hotel while County Hall is more attuned to tourists and families.

We've got an eight-night rewards stay there scheduled for next July -- I'm wondering if it would make sense to switch it to Grosvenor House if it was certain that the renovation would be completed.

star_world

Yes, although recently I've seen it appear quite a few times mid-week also.

choptliva

We just finished a five-night stay on NYE. This is our second Christmas/NY stay at the CC in two years, and our third in five years. Guess we must like the place . Yes, our first experience, a few years ago now, was superb. The CC deserved all the praise it ever got. People were warm and friendly, and we felt very welcomed at the hotel. Then last year we decided to visit London again over the holidays. Stayed at the CC again, on account of our previous great experience. Not that we were unhappy, but certainly even in 05 the CC had seemed a bit less warm, and many of the service personnel -- doormen, front desk, housekeeping, etc -- seemed less friendly than before. But overall it was a good experience (except for the fact that they credited me with way too few points, and took me a while to sort things out).
So this past Christmas we went back, again for a five-nighter. My earlier feeling that people were less friendly was confirmed. And housekeeping was erratic. Previously we received some goodies when we checked in. Chocolates. Bottles of water. Nothing this time. Turndown the first night, we received two pieces of chocolates. For four people. The second night, we got just one. Then we got two little tubes of mint spray. The fourth night we got one. The fifith (and last) night we got four pieces of chocolate. Strange.
The housekeepers, we met them in the hallway quite a bit, never even smiled back. Not even when we held the doors (and there are so many doors in the hallways on each floor) for them. Not even thank you. How rude.
The security guy who stands at the archway leading into the hotel behaves as though he was guarding the Kremlin or something.
At breakfast, a couple of the servers were friendly, but overall, I found the servers very aloof. Won't hurt them to smile a bit, that's my point, I guess.

Prior to arrival I emailed the hotel several times (to the gm, to guest relations, to the concierge) about early check-in due to the transatlantic flight schedule. Took me four emails before I got a response. But in the end they did accommodate our 11 am arrival.

We always book the "executive" rooms, because they are big enough for our family of four. Got what we booked. No problem. But of the three stays we had at CC, this is by far the worst (as in location -- on the first floor; decor -- almost barren; furnishing -- "sitting area" this time is just one armchair; windows -- one little window). You'd think that room assignments would get better the more we go back... but then they didn't seem to notice that I've given them a fair bit of business.

And again, this time they also screwed up the points. Phone call to MR. On hold for 10 minutes. Asked to fax in folio. We'll see, so far no change (I was given about 11000 base points for spending over 2000 GBP). Faxed letter to GM a couple of days ago, but no response to date.

Was it a good stay still? Not bad. But certainly not the kind of unequivocal rave I used to give CC. Given my previous experiences, and hence the inflated expectations, I guess I was actually very disappointed. Will I stay there again? Likely I'll look at other properties in future.

I can certainly relate rahmanbar's notice that CC has slipped in tripadvisor, as well as other posters' experience.

ntamayo

Stayed at Chancery Court this past Christmas week as well on a cheap Entertainment rate, and we enjoyed our visit as usual. Aside from the ubiquitous red flyers mentioning reduced services in the area during the holidays, the hotel services themselves did feel a little lacking as well. I'd probably chalk it up to the hotel having a minimum staff for Christmas.

Club lounge was open till late for appetizers/dessert and drinks. We needed to catch an early Eurostar train our morning of checkout, so they were accommodating in delivering early healthy-start breakfast to our room (5:45am), since there were no cooked foods.

My wife noticed the change to White Company toiletries. When did they make the switch from Penhaligon? Is White Co. considered a more or less premium brand over Penhaligon?