Have anyone stayed there before? Would you recommend this hotel? I have never been to London and might reserve a non-refundable and non-changeable reservation there. Thanks.

Hi Justin:

Try doing a search in the Hilton forum and the Trip Reports forum for "metropole". There should be quite a bit of info.

I stayed there last October. It was going through some upgrade construction at the time. It had just become a Hilton. Was pretty nice. Not real near downtown. 5 minute walk from Paddington station in one direction and 2 minutes to a tube station in the other direction. Very convenient. About a 10 minute walk to the Marble Arch and Hyde Park where you can catch the double decker tour buses. Lots of shops nearby and little restaurants. Even McDonalds and Starbucks are a 5 minute walk if that is what you want for quick. I did not mind not being in the middle of downtown as it was very easy to get to.

I stayed in the London Metropole quite a bit last year because their location was very convenient to my client and to Paddington Station. Hilton had just acquired the Stakis chain but they were not yet integrated within Hilton Honors at the time. I don't know about the status of renovation right now, but at the time I felt the rooms were a bit on the small side; however this is fairly common for many hotels within London. Be sure to ask for a room in the newer section of the hotel; some of those in the older section were quite shabby and decrepit.

I also found the rooms to be on the stuffy side with windows that were hard to open and air conditioning that may have conditioned the air in some manner but it it did not include cooling it. This was a general attribute of the hotel; I must have stayed in about eight rooms over a few month period and it was all pretty much the same. This may be not a problem for you but it was somewhat unpleasant in the summer. After my first visit, I always made it a point to request a fan at the time of reservation and at check in.

I stayed there when it was still the Stakis Metropole in 1997 and I liked it. The neighborhood is convenient.

And oddly enough, I will be there again this Sunday. So I'll see if I still like it.


Mac

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Via con Dios!