Plat Premier Diary
 

I have made Plat Premier for the first time this year and am recording what that means above and beyond the treatment I had as a "mere" Plat.

January

Marriott Marble Arch – 1 night
A fairly uneventful stay, up on 12th floor (where the lounge is) which was unusual but not unknown last year.

Renaissance Chancery Court – 1 night
A suite upgrade which was most welcome and unusual. Done at the last minute as the printed room number on the card had been overwritten in pen.

February

Marriott Worsley Park – 1 night (Award stay)
2 nice adjacent rooms, small gift of fruit and the like in both the rooms I’d booked on points.

Marriott Marble Arch – 2 nights
Another 12th floor room, this time with a welcome gift of cheese and a half bottle wine waiting for me when I got up there. (I often had a fruit plate when a mere Plat, but this was significantly better).

Renaissance Chancery Court – 4 nights
Decent room on 3rd floor (lounge level), but otherwise nothing special

Edinburgh Marriott – 1 night
It’s grim up North. Did get a possibly larger room with sofa, but this is a tired hotel with little to recommend it.

Renaissance Chancery Court – 4 nights
Decent room on 3rd floor (lounge level), but otherwise nothing special

J.W. Marriott Cairo – 2 nights reward stay
Superb. Junior suite with a huge welcome plate of fruit and 2 plates each with a dozen or so sweetmeats and nibbles

Renaissance Chancery Court – 2 nights
Disappointingly small room on 3rd floor, (lounge level), but one of the smaller rooms I’ve had in this hotel

March

Grosvenor House – 3 nights
Best treatment of the year so far. Suite upgrade, personal greeting at reception from the guest relations manager and an offer to show me to my suite, fruit plate and handwritten welcome card.

Renaissance Chancery Court – 2 nights
Decent room on 3rd floor (lounge level), but otherwise nothing special

Manchester Victoria & Albert – 1 night
The hotel was full due to a football match, but the smallest and plainest room I’ve ever had in the hotel.

Renaissance Chancery Court – 1 night
Decent room on 3rd floor (lounge level, but otherwise nothing special

Grosvenor House – 4 nights
The hotel was having a busy week with a major national TV awards one evening, so good standard room, but on 7th (lounge) floor, with welcome fruit plate.

Renaissance Manchester – 1 night
A check in farce. My reservation showed up on marriott.com, but wasn’t on the hotel system. The agent had to recreate the reservation from scratch and part way through that he offered me free breakfast as compensation. It was at this point I told him I was Plat Premier and he nearly wet himself. In the end got upgraded to a large, two-roomed suite in what is another fairly tired hotel.

Glasgow Marriott – 1 night
They always looked after me well as a Plat and went above and beyond this time with a junior suite on the 10th floor. Usual welcoming gift of water, fruit, Tunnock’s caramel wafer and Irn Bru (this is Glasgow, remember).

Renaissance Chancery Court – 2 nights
This time an upgrade to an “executive room” which seemed a bit larger than some, but the only special feature was a walk-in shower.

Thanks for the diary! Interestesting reading.

Cheers.

Fun to read what happens for a plat prem in the UK, coming from a plat who is also based in the UK.

Interestingly I had the same issue with my reservation on my last stay to the Ren Manchester - they managed to find mine with a call to Marriott central... must be something wrong with their systems!

I'd be very curious: how different is this treatment from your time as a plat?

I look above and nothing seems that unusual except the personal welcome? As a caveat for all the hotels above that I've stayed in (all those outside London) for the most part I've probably managed 20 or so nights at each over the last 4 years so I'm at least down as a semi-regular guest.

Great idea and interesting reading, especially as I know and have stayed in all the hotels you're talking about.

It does seem to me there is a difference, at least between your current experience as PP and mine as plat, namely the quite high incidence of suite upgrades, I seldom score on these, you managed 1/3.

I noted the plainest room in Manchester where they have to bung someone, obviously this is what we all normally pay for, but usually are "upgraded" away from as elites. With a fully sold-out hotel you suddenly see what you actually pay for, and it can be shocking.

Please do keep this up, its an interesting read ^

Quarter 2 Update

April

Glasgow Marriott – 1 night

“Just” an upgrade to an exec room, with the usual welcome gift, so essentially the same treatment I got as a Plat. I was welcomed as a PP by the front desk though.

Renaissance Chancery Court – 2 nights

Upgraded to a fantastic room on 6th floor that is probably better than some of the suites. Spacious and airy with windows on both sides, and walk in shower in the bathroom. I also asked the front desk if they’d open up some reward inventory for one night on May when I’ll be in the hotel again on business and my mother’s coming to town, and they were able to do that in 2 minutes flat.

Marble Arch – 2 nights

One of their better (best?) rooms with a sofa in it and the welcome plate of cheese and a half bottle of wine. This hotel could have an impact on my waistline and liver!

Marble Arch – 1 night

Again one of the better rooms on the 10th floor, but this time no cheese plate or other welcome amenity. One of the problems with getting these things is that you get used to them!

Marble Arch – 1 night

Again, nice room on 10th floor, and instead of the cheese (or nothing!), a tray of fruit waitning in the room.

May

Grosvenor House – 3 nights

I arrived quite late on the Sunday evening, looking less smart than usual (no suit and tie, hadn’t shaved that day) and more or less had to provide DNA to prove it was my reservation. The agent asked if I had a reservation, in a tone that expected me to say no, then made me confirm postcode and address before she checked me in. I ended up in an OK room on the 7th (exec lounge floor), not feeling particularly well inclined to the hotel.

Chancery Court – 1 night

A decent room on 3rd (club) floor. No other amenity or special welcome.

Chancery Court – 2 nights

All London seemed full this week and I had to pay above our normal rate to get in, but this was the week when I had my mother down on a points booking so needed to stay there. Possibly because the hotel was full, I had one of the smaller rooms on the 3rd floor. Probably one of the smallest / worst rooms I’d had in the hotel.
However, when I asked for a room with a walk in shower for my mother, she got upgraded to an executive room on 2nd floor, which was very nice indeed.

Grosvenor House – 3 nights

Nice upgrade to a junior suite on 5th floor.

Farmingdale, NY Towneplace suites – 2 nights

A genuinely warm sounding welcome, possibly because they don’t see too many Plats there and a free drink coupon for the bar in the Courtyard opposite. I suspect all the rooms are the same, so no real upgrade.

J.W. Marriott Kuwait City – 4 nights

The only thing special about the welcome was the statement that “As you are a Gold member, we are upgrading you”, but it was one heck of an upgrade to a huge two room suite with a nice fruit plate laid out.

June

Renaissance Chancery Court – 1 night

A decent room on 3rd floor and a personal welcome when I was greeted by name before I got to the desk which is always nice.

Grosvenor House – 1 night

Really hit the jackpot this time with a Park View suite on the 8th floor. It was huge with a separate living area as well as a nice bedroom and decent bathroom. Very pleasant indeed.

Renaissance Chancery Court – 2 nights

Again, a personal welcome and one of the larger rooms on the 3rd floor with a plate of delicious chocolate dipped strawberries awaiting me when I got there.

Renaissance Chancery Court – 2 nights

Another decent 3rd Floor room, this time very close to the exec lounge.

Marriott Twickenham – 1 night

This has suddenly become my Heathrow airport hotel of choice. Lovely place, looking brand new, and an upgrade to a “studio” which is Marriott speak for one of the largest suites I’ve ever stayed in. Fantastic!

Marriott Twickenham – 1 night

Not a suite this time, but a very nice executive room, the only downside being the lack of a full sized bathtub.

The JW greeted you as a Gold member when you are a PP?

And if they treat Golds like that, just imagine what how they might treat a Plat or a PP. ;)

How far is Twickenham from LHR? I normally stay at the LHR Ren if I'm doing a LHR airport stay.

Cheers.

According to Marriott's website it is 5.4 miles East of LHR. So it is a bit farther out than the LHR Ren or Marriott.

London Marriott Hotel Twickenham in Richmond is conveniently located just 6 miles from Heathrow Airport. Hotel does not provide shuttle service, Twickenham Rugby Stadium Bus Station is nearby.

Once again, an informative read, does show some variation and not sure its enough of a climb from PLT to be worth giving Marriott your life for PP.

I am curious about your choice of Twickers for LHR. I always stay at Ren LHR for airport, Twickers seems too far out, though I'd not disagree with anyone who remarked that Ren LHR is way too large and impersonal, not to mention the smaller rooms there...

Twickers too far out for me for airport stay. Easier to tube to LHR & then catch the free bus to Ren or Marriott. But good to know re: Twickers.

BTW - reading the diary, it seems that Ren CC is all over the place in terms of rooms & bennies provided.

Cheers.

When doing a one night stay the chanses of getting a great and cool upgrade is always much higher than for any longer stays, regardless of PP, Platinum or Gold.

It's about 10 minutes in a taxi.

I'm coming to the conclusion that all the hotels vary wildly in what they offer.

My feeling is I do get some better rooms and amenities as a PP, but nothing is guaranteed.

I had my most convenient upgrade on my only ever 1 night stay at Ren Chancery Court recently, on the concierge floor literally less than 30 secs walk from the exec lounge. Food was great and plentiful. Lounge was pleasantly busy and well staffed.

I think its one of my only concierge floor upgrades, mind you I did pay full rate of £330 for the night :eek:

Strangely it was a last minute booking done over the phone about 5 mins before arrival at 7pm which meant that everyone else who'd booked and arrived earlier had a (marginally) less convenient room than me as a last minute guest.

The room was good, but not a patch on the JW. And well over double the price of my previous night stay at the JW which remains my hotel of choice in London...

Quarter 3 Update

July

Renaissance Chancery Court – 1 night

Again greeted by name before I’d got to the reception desk and a nice 3rd floor room.

Marriott Gosforth Park – 1 night

A big disappointment. I’d checked the reservation earlier in the day and had been allocated a suite, but when I arrived, around 1030p.m. I was told I had a standard room as the hotel was completely full. Not sure who ended up with “my” suite.

Renaissance Chancery Court – 1 night

Ok room on 3rd Floor again.

Marriott Gosforth Park – 1 night

That’s more like it with a huge suite for the night. They do persist in charging for newspapers though, which is a bit cheap IMHO

Renaissance Chancery Court – 1 night

Another 3rd floor room, but very good service. This was originally a 2 night visit, but I had a call late afternoon about a family emergency which meant I had to check out that day. When I went to the desk at 1800 to tell them I was leaving immediately, they didn’t try to charge for the second night, which I thought was above and beyond what they could have done.

Renaissance Chancery Court – 4 nights

I thought the onset of summer holidays would have made availability easier, but the hotel was full and I didn’t even get a 3rd floor room. Decent room on 4th floor with a nice fruit plate to compensate.

August

Marriott Gosforth Park – 3 nights

No suite this time, but a corner room with windows on two sides and a flat screen TV, which is probably the best room they have excluding suites.

Marriott Grosvenor Square – 1 night

This was my first visit to one of the two London Marriotts I’ve never visited (the other is Park Lane), and they did me proud. A very friendly and engaging welcome, upgrade to a huge suite and a personal tour of the suite by a guest relations person. I didn’t get a chance to visit Maze, but this ids suddenly one of my favourite London Marriotts.

Marriott Marble Arch – 3 nights

A very ho-hum experience with a standard room on the 8th floor and some fruit waiting when I got there. The best upgrade you can get there is to one of the larger rooms with a sofa, but that wasn’t forthcoming, despite them being available for sale. There were some other changes to the service and bar that has put this on my avoid list for the time being.

J.W. Marriott Kuwait City – 2 nights

Another fantastic suite upgrade with a welcoming plate of fruit here. At check in, when I said thank you for the suite upgrade, the lady was one of the very few to refer to my status as a Plat Premier, which is better than last time when I was told I was being upgraded for being a Gold MR member!

Grosvenor House – 3 nights

Another suite upgrade, (well actually the same room as last time, just along from the Exec Lounge), together with water and a fruit plate

September

Renaissance Chancery Court – 3 nights

Again, an upgrade to a Club level room on the 3rd floor. This is one of the better hotels for recognising you as an individual. It’s nice to be greeted by name even before you’ve checked in.

Renaissance Chancery Court – 4 nights

I checked the reservation early in the day and it was showing a standard room. I arrived late (23:30) and was checked in by the trainee night porter, which limited my opportunity to try to blag a better room at check-in, so went upstairs in a state of grumpiness. O.K., I was getting what I’d paid for, but that isn’t the point.

However, when I reached the room, not only was there a fruit plate, but a nice bottle of wine in an ice bucket to go with it, which improved my humour significantly.