Park Tower Knightsbridge, London, United Kingdom [Master Thread]
Apr 22, 2017, 12:14 am
The room walls are pretty thick, and I've never heard anything from neighboring rooms.
Just to be on the safe side, I'd request a garden view.
Apr 22, 2017, 11:37 am
Past posts in this thread suggest that 6th floor facing Knightsbridge is definitely noisy (97), even 15th floor on Knightsbridge is noisy (7), but also one with the general impression that higher floors seem to be fine (69). Thanks in advance for any additional comments.
On a side note I have seen people mention that SNA clear easily for this property. Ive stayed at the park tower maybe 20 times over the last 10 years or so - I have never had a SNA clear when trying to get one. Can anyone share any info as to when is the best time of year to try and get one? I just had 2 clear at the le meridien picadilly this month and last month. I normally travel to London any time but summer.
Apr 23, 2017, 6:25 pm
Was not particularly impressed by the service. No upgrades and didn't feel any platinum recognition whatsoever. Everyone was perfectly polite, but it felt that they had too many guests to pay individual attention to each and every guest. Didn't take advantage of the breakfast -- my husband had been staying there when I joined him, and he said that breakfast was not excellent, so we just had it elsewhere.
Had an issue with the bathroom; they fixed it and brought a basket of full-size Molton Brown products to compensate. The products were above the 3oz carry-on limit and I had zero desire to lug them back home (we try to never check bags).
Right next to Harvey Nichols and close to many other shopping destinations -- great for those interested in shopping.
Apr 24, 2017, 7:21 am
May 16, 2017, 1:05 am
The Park Tower Knightsbridge, A Luxury Collection Hotel
101 Knightsbridge London, GB SW1X 7RN
A nice London hotel masquerading as luxury--and with service issues (13 Photos)
The Park Tower Knightsbridge, A Luxury Collection Hotel
My husband and I stayed at the Park Tower Knighsbridge in October 2016 for 2 nights. (Sorry for the delay in posting!)
We stayed here over the final weekend of a European trip --after stays at the Gritti Palace (4 nights) in Venice and the Excelsior Gallia (3 nights) in Milan. The Park Tower Knightsbridge suffered horribly by comparison. The PTK simply isn't nearly as luxurious as its counterparts as those or others in the Luxury Collection--at least, not to my mind. To me, the PTK is one of thel least impressive hotels in the Luxury Collection portfolio.
The lobby and bar are up to luxury standard, but the room decor is not.
We liked the location...but likely would not stay here again. It is a good value...but we can do better.
Check In
Check in was less than seamless. We had been confirmed for an Executive Suite upgrade in advance, but asked for an upgraded Panoramic Suite (better view). After checking, the agent indicated we could get one but that it would take about an hour. We indicated we'd be having lunch in the restaurant. After an hour, we returned to the front desk...only to have the same agent indicate that the Panoramic Suite was assigned to someone else. I was PISSED.
We then got the keys to the Executive Suite that we originally had been assigned, having waited an hour for no reason. A bad start, indeed.
Room
The Executive Suite (and Panoramic Suite) is basically two adjoining rooms, with the connecting door "somewhat" open between them. One room is the living room, and the other is the bedroom. Each room has its own largely identical bathroom.
The bedroom:
The bathroom off the entry hallways to the bedroom:
The bath products left little to be desired. Though they were Moulton branded products, the packaging was so small as to feel very cheap. They were the same size as you'd see in any regular Sheraton hotel. They were far less impressive than anything we'd had at other Luxury Collection hotels.
The connecting doors between the rooms were absolute hazards that would not open entirely on EITHER side:
I was stunned by how badly those doors were arranged/allowed to continue being so hazardous. There was NOTHING luxurious about almost walking into the doors when using EITHER door to the suite, or when returning to bed in the middle of the night. We both hit the darn doors many times. The doors absolutely should have been removed entirely...or at least ONE of them!
i complained to the maintenance engineer and manager who helped resolve the air con issue in the room. Nothing could be done, and both seems resigned to the doors and were surprised I complained. Really?
The living room:
The view wasn't too exciting. But the Panoramic Suites are on the other side of the hotel and offer much nicer views onto Hyde Park.
The air con stopped working twice during our first evening, but the engineer and manager finally had it resolved by the time we returned from dinner our first evening.
The hotel suite was spacious, but the decor was quite traditional and felt dated.
Together witht the ugly exterior concrete shell, it felt more like we were at a very nice Sheraton Grand than a real luxury property. Certainly, there was nothing even remotely reminiscent of the luxury we'd experienced at the two previous Luxury Collection hotels.
Service
Service was an issue in 3 arenas:
(1) Check in was a disaster. Promising us an upgraded Panoramic Suite, making us wait an hour for it, and then giving it to someone else was the height of bad service.
(2) The air con went out a few times in our suite. I made sure to confirm before booking that the bedroom could hold 19 C. It took 2 calls and 2 visits by the engineer, and finally the manager and an engineer, to fix it. But it shouldn't have taken so long in the first place!
(3) On our final morning having breakfast, the restaurant manager could not have been more arrogant and recalcitrant. He refused me the 6 poached egg dish I ordered as part of my Platinum breakfast benefit (I always eat a lot of eggs!)--even though I'd just had the same thing the morning before. I complained...and eventually was brought the dish. But neither he nor anyone else ever came over to apologize, even though he remained working the other tables. It was ridiculous. Horrible service.
Ultimately, those 3 poor service experiences left a horrible taste in my mouth. Sadly, it wiped out the wonderful service we experienced on our first afternoon lunch while waiting for our Suite.
Dining
Dining was actually quite good. The restaurant is quite beautiful:
The first lunch was very tasty:
Breakfast, aside from the service miscue described earlier, was quite good, as well.
Location
We love the location. It's an easy tube ride from Heathrow along the Piccadilly line. It's across the street from the Mandarin Oriental, pretty much. It's a block or two from Harrod's. It doesn't get much better.
Overall
Overall, the Park Tower offers a value expereince for the luxury and location. But it suffers by comparison with any other European Luxury Collection hotel, in my opinion. It just isn't nearly as luxurious as others at which we've stayed. I would not choose to return.
Dec 16, 2017, 5:36 am
Feb 20, 2018, 12:20 am
In a nutshell, From a perspective of only-a-slightly-spoilt-plat (read: based in Asia and frequents the likes of SGS BKK and Westin Chosun)… who was in London mainly for social/sightseeing purposes, I would not recommend this hotel.A few thoughts below in no particular order.
- I didn’t’ like the location. Yes there is a tube station nearby and yes it is in a prime location with other 5 star hotels nearby but as a tourist I found Knightsbridge far from the major hustle&bustle/tourist sites, save for the Buckingham Palace and Harrods… this also means that there are no casual places to grab bite nearby (that or we couldn’t find any). Restaurants nearby are either Middle Eastern or expensive or both… (there’s a Lebanese restaurant and a Iraqi restaurant next to the hotel) I did see a few pubs in the vicinity though (but the kitchen was closed when we went!)
- The hotel’s main clientele are travelers from the middle east, to the point where the room service menu is written in English & Arabic. The lobby is often filled only with Arabic speakers. I have no issues with people from the middle east (actually love my habibis), but if you’re looking for a ‘local vibe’ in & around the hotel (e.g. the St Regis New York where the after-work crowd would often gather at the King Cole Bar or the Alfonso XIII Seville where the ENA restaurant is a popular Tapas spot for locals) then this place is will disappoint.
- Do not expect any kind of special treatment here with your plat/ambassador/lifetime status etc. This is a hotel that have plenty guests that drop five figures at rack rates to book themselves specialty suites. I actually ran into a (young – in 20s?) guy in the lobby who told me that he has booked his room for five weeks even though he probably won’t use it for at least six days cos he’s planning on going to Iceland for the long weekend(???). It seemed these are the type of guys that get special treatment here (e.g. the loud n bright “good afternoon SIR”s from the doormen that never greeted us our four nights/five days there – maybe these guys tip them handsomely? I don’t know).
- Having said that, I was upgraded to a nice panoramic room upon letting them know that I was celebrating my wedding anniversary.
- Very expensive room service (typical for Knightsbridge I guess)…
- No fridge… it’s one of those electronic mini bars that charge immediately when you lift a product from its original spot. Oh and also it is Ł20++ if you want parts of this mini fridge emptied to put your own bottles of water in.
- Good bathroom with plenty towels and good shower pressure.
- Great breakfast with good service
- Front Desk agents are very friendly when you approach them
- The popular French seafood restaurant on site (One o One) has shut down – apparently the profitability was not up to par with Marriott mngnt standards and the word is that it has suggested to replace it with The Nusret, the Turkish steakhouse famous for its shades-wielding Saltbae. I suppose it makes sense given the clientele but I was sad to see One o One gone as I was looking forward to trying their famous red king crab risotto.
- The security guards (3 different ones) kept asking me and my wife… “excuse me, are you staying with us?” not sure what it was about us that prompted them to keep asking us this question. I didn’t see them do the same thing to any others during our stay…
- Some error occurred in their accounts department that led to my credit card being charged for ~650 pounds for no reason which I found out by luck during my stay. Asked them to please remove it and to let me know immediately once it is done. No updates until end of day until I had to reproach the front desk to enquire. Was apologized profoundly but really this should not have happened.
Aug 16, 2019, 2:42 pm
SNAs didnt' clear.
Check-in was horrible. We had requested a rollaway bed, my Ambassador had confirmed it a few times, I had a confirmation from a manager earlier that day that it would all be ready when we arrived late that night so wouldn't have to wait after a long day of travel, and of course, nothing. Front desk said something along the lines of "people change their minds, so we don't do it until you check-in". Fine, but then when you say it will be in the room and it should be there by the time you get upstairs. Repeated calls with the phone just ringing and ringing. Finally someone picks it up, and they see that no one has handled the rollaway. Of course not, I'm calling from the room where it isn't! Two more calls and it finally shows up. I got the distinct impression that the front desk people were too busy talking to each other than dealing with the customers...
While we were waiting for the bed, I noticed ashtrays in the room. On top of the musky smell, I figured that we had been placed in a smoking room. More calls down and "no it's not a smoking room". But then why are there ashtrays? Silence.
Toilets have serious water pressure issues. Rug is old. Walls look dingy. I asked for a manager to call me in the morning, as I was not pleased at all.
To their credit, someone did call me at exactly 9AM. He was apologetic, but he also said that there was no point on his part to defend anything, as he agreed the hotel was old, needed serious renovations, and people often smoked in the rooms. He didn't understand why our room wasn't ready with the rollaway, as it was clearly in the notes and the request had been sent to housekeeping in advance. I asked if there were other rooms to move to (I saw that they were still selling Panoramic rooms), and he indicated that the room I saw available was actually designated smoking, but the web site didnt' reflect that. He did find us another room to move in to later that day. I felt he had done the minimum he could have to recover. We went out for the day and came back at 4PM and the other room was not ready, and wouldn't be ready until about 6PM. A bit of a hassle in moving at that particular time, as we wanted to freshen up and get ready to go out to dinner. In the end it was all sorted out, and no other significant room related issues during the stay.
The property is close to Harrods and the Knightsbridge station, but sometimes it was just more convenient to taxi around. We did eat at a Thai place and an Indian place nearby, both were OK. We ended up at two of the other Marriott properties during our touring around, and in hindsight I should have booked one of them instead of this Luxury Collection property. One of our taxi drivers referred to it as the Sheraton, so obviously it hasn't really transformed enough to be worthy of the LC brand.
There is a TON of construction everywhere in the area.
Breakfast was on the first floor each day. It was the exact same items each day, so got very boring very quickly. You could order omelets and other items off the menu, but you were charged GBP12 for each item, in addition to the buffet credit. I objected one morning as my wife had only toast and tea, and was effectively charged ~GBP45 before credits.
Check-out was another disaster. We got charged for all of the breakfasts, instead of them being credited out -- the front desk person said "oh, did you choose the breakfast as your amenity? It doesnt' say that...". ARGH. Then they charged us twice daily for the rollaway. ARGH. And one set of meals that weren't ours. I made sure to get a printed copy of that bill when it was all corrected...
The attendants at the door/lobby were by far the most friendly of all the staff. One remembered we had asked for a taxi to the Thai place, and he inquired about how the meal was when he saw us the next day.
Given the pricing and expected standards for this LC property, I don't think I would recommend it until they renovate and get their service act together a bit better. There are plenty of other options that make more sense.
Aug 16, 2019, 3:00 pm
Aug 16, 2019, 3:03 pm
I highly recommend sharing your frustrations about the various issues with your Ambassador--who will open a ticket for the complaint. Enough for those complaint tickets will force a review by Marriott Area/Luxury types. That only can help us for the future.
Aug 16, 2019, 3:46 pm
