LTN Phobia

At least nowhere near as bad as the bad rooms at Sheraton Park Lane or Le Meridien at Piccadilly though.

terminalfive

Yes you do get PLAT amenity on award stay - or in your case you should have had the PLAT amenity

SPT confirms itself as a "hit or miss" property- agree that it is not a 5 star hotel standard though

vindesante

Had a perfectly acceptable stay here for three nights. The hotel in very central to lots of great shopping. The tube station is a one minute walk! We were upgraded to a room on the 8th floor. The elevators are "smart" and we never waited more than 10-15 seconds when calling one. I opted for the one week internet plan @ 38 sterling. It was wireless, wired would have been more expensive, since they only charge for it by the day. We found the room a little crowded with our adult daughter staying with us, so had housekeeping remove the extra bed in the morning and return it again in the late evening. Rollaway was 50 sterling per night, so I had no qualms about having housekeeping setting it up and taking it down each day. Food in the restaurant was 'expense account' expensive, so we took the concierge's recommendations, and always ate well, outside of the hotel. Eating out in London, is not for the faint of wallet though
We would be happy to return to this hotel again.

boston aa flyer

Just stayed... overall, the place is fine... renovated "panorama rooms" are nice... the lobby is old.. staff is semi friendly...

two annoying nits... they upgraded me to panorama... which the site says includes WiFi... when i checked out they tried to tell me that i don't get the free WiFi b/c i was upgraded... which is CRAP -- refused to pay...

secondly... this hotel does not deserve the "luxury collection" tag... to me LC means something... this hotel is your standard sheraton.

Mr. Boston AA FLyer tried to convince me that since the hotel's neighbors are Harvey Nichols and the French/Kuwati Embassies, that i should give the hotel props for location... but it didn't work.

Land-of-Miles

We just completed a 2 night stay at this property using the free night awards and I have to say this is an absolutely terrible property. I have stayed at all the other London Starwoods apart from the Belgravia and would happily stay in any of them (and take my chances at the Belgravia) rather than stay at the Park Tower again. The only thing this property has going for it is the location. The room was in serious need of refurbishment and I appeared not to receive an upgrade as a Plat. I was told I had been allocated an Executive room but I am not sure how this was distinguishable from an ordinary room (even the toiletries were the bog standard rather cheap variety).

The rooms are small but the the bed was very comfortable the service was almost entirely absent though we waited almost 25 minutes in a vain attempt to order afternoon tea on our day of arrival only to give up and go elsewhere. The check in desk seemed to take forever to complete a simple check in/out resulting in large queues, even the doorman seemed too busy to effectively call a taxi which I eventually resorted to doing myself.

Possibly the most offensive issue was choosing a bottle of wine as my Plat amenity. I often do this in London since I have more Starpoints than I know what to do with at the moment and Room Service prices for Wine in London can be outrageous. Anyway I digress, my bottle of wine was in fact half a bottle of the most revolting Chilean Sauvignon Blanc a marked contrast from the rather decent (full) bottle of White Burgundy at the Meridien.

Since I often stay in London hotels for pragmatic reasons even though I live in London this was a real opportunity for the SPT to win new business and it failed miserably. I would happily stay at the Hilton Park Lane (a property I loathe) any time in preference to the SPT.

To me the property had the feel of a rather upmarket Holiday Inn (would that be a Crowne Plaza?). I have had far more misses than hits with Luxury Collection worldwide thus far (all paid FWIW) and location aside there was nothing terribly luxurious about the SPT. The lack of quality and consistency of the Luxury Collection as a whole to me significantly devalues the brand.

To summarise poor room, poor staff, poor service, poor value, minimal Plat recognition, avoid!

LTN Phobia

I agree fully about the poor platinum recognition - I have never had any sizeable upgrade as platinum (e.g. suite) despite staying there many times - except for the supposed 'executive room' which seems to be just one of the rooms 'with a view' but I can't tell any difference from any other room, if I stayed in one.

Staff does seem to leave a bit to be desired, although I found the doormen to be nice and helpful to me, unlike your experience.

What I do find quite curious is your experience with the room.
Are there non-renovated rooms (as in looking really, really old and tired) at SPT? I haven't come across any - all the rooms I have stayed at have been a carbon copy of each other and none has been what I call really tired - certainly not in the league of the tiredness you can get at Le Meridien Piccadilly or Park Lane. But if there are indeed non-renovated room at SPT that you find to be worse than a 'bad room' at LM or PL, I'd like to know about it because one of the main reasons why I stay there is because of the consistency of rooms which I cannot get at LM or PL. Maybe my 'upgrade' at SPT has been to better decorated rooms, hence my not coming across any poor ones...

Land-of-Miles

As a non Plat at the PL around 4 years ago I did once have a rather terrible room but in multiple stays as a Plat since I have had significantly better rooms at the PL than I have at the SPT. I have never had a worse room at the LM, perhaps more tired but this was compensated by multiple bathrooms, large rooms etc.

Agreed it isn't in the same league of tiredness of some rooms at the LM but is utterly unexceptional in terms of rooms which are rather small. I think the Crowne Plaza comparison is rather appropriate. Our room definitely wasn't renovated and had a large old Phillips CRT TV which could not be angled either to face the bed, desk or sofa

I actually like the PL and LM because they have a warmth and charm which was utterly absent this weekend at the SPT. The Studio Suites at the PL are not extravagant but have far more personal space than the rooms at the SPT and IMHO significantly nicer bathrooms.

For what it is worth we were on the 6th floor facing Knightsbridge with all the attendant noise that came with it. If I wanted consistency so badly that I would be looking at the SPT I really think I would be looking beyond Starwood for my choice of property.

LTN Phobia

I wonder if the floor makes quite a bit of difference? I've never stayed on 6th - always 7th or 8th if I remember correctly, and I haven't had an awful room yet. I can't remember the television because I don't take any notice of it, but I don't think the room I've been in had a CRT one (or at least I did not notice it).

I got put off by PL because of a number of awful rooms (and awful bathroom to them) that I got allocated. LM seems to have a mixture of 'awful old', 'mixture of old and not so bad but still semi-awful' and 'very modern', which I tend to feel put off by due to 'awful old' risk (and I was put in a semi-awful room with sticky pieces of furniture as a plat, so I wasn't exactly impressed).

I guess it's rather pot luck with SPG hotels in London. I hope I don't end up on 6th floor on my next stay at SPT.

Can't wait till W opens... at least it will all be modern and fresh!

dabbagmm

This was my personal impression since my last stay over three years ago. I thought that this hotel will never see the light unless serious attention is given by management. It appears that I was right!!!

Globehopper

Reading some of the more recent posts, I had to remind myself that they were talking about the same hotel I just stayed at a couple of weekends ago!


Rate: free weekend promo stay. Prior to arrival, email sent asking if I'd like to pay GBP 60 for Executive Room upgrade.

Repeat customer, Platinum SPG each time I've stayed at this hotel.

Upgrade: email sent to me a couple of days in advance of my arrival stating that I had been upgraded to an Executive Room. ^

Check in: 09:45. Request for early check in honored. I spent the prior night at the Sheraton Skyline, and came in via the Picadilly Line from LHR.

Check in was quick; friendly and efficient. I just had to wait about 10-15 minutes for my room to finish with the cleaning process, and they made an effort to expedite that for me.

Plat Amenity choice noted.

Asked about my newpaper preference at check in. One year the SPT Butler asked same question upon my arrival, and I replied "Daily Sport" (for those who don't know that paper, it makes the Sun look like a high brow read). Female butler thought that was a hoot.

Room: 11 floor, faced London Eye, my favorite direction.

Everything clean and in order. While the rooms are not large, I think they are well appointed and make efficient use of space and nicely decorated.

On a prior stay, I've been upgraded to a 2 room suite, and while the extra space is nice, I find the single room at this hotel suitable for my needs.

Unlike some five star hotels that I've stayed at, no coffee/tea making facilities in room; available upon request.

Minibar: This is the annoying auto bar that charges immediately upon lifting an item. Inside was an unmarked container, akin to a leftover takeaway container. No markings. Upon inquiry, was informed this was a "survival kit" of some sort. I didn't want to lift it to be charged to satisfy my curiosity. One free bottle water in minibar, though.

Bar: Live piano music Saturday night and likely other nights.

Noise from other rooms/hall: none.

Morning paper: None delivered to my door, but next door and other doors had the same paper requested. Called front desk; they stated paper would be sent up. Never arrived. Picked one up at check out. This was the only failing during this stay.

Check out: Efficient and friendly. No bill!

Plat Amenity points: posted automatically despite no charges. Amazing.

Overall, another pleasant stay! I was very pleased with the service and upgrades despite my staying on a free night promo rate. And this was with the hotel (according to the front desk clerk at check in, and later again during the evening) running near 100% full.

The Toe

That is possible but the real reason is the Kuwait embassy is across the street.

dabbagmm

Another reason is that the hotel is owned by a Shiekh of Abu Dhabi!

vandalby

Yup, those sound like good reasons!

NDDomer86

Genuinely curious what a seven figure automobile would be considered. Even Rolls Royce, Bentley, Ferrari, Maserati, SLR McLaren, etc. are under $500k USD unless you're getting into custom trim work. Though I suppose with the markup and the currency differences, they could near the 1mil mark in some currency.

Edit: To answer my own question and oust my own stupidity, I can think of two, Bugatti Veyron and Lamborghini Reventon.

ihdihd

This is one of the worst platinum recognition properties I've ever stayed in. Even starwood affiliated hotels that don't participate in SPG have offered better ameneties as a courtesy. Here's my biggest problem with how my most recent stay went down at this property:

Using a Z4R rate to stay here with wife and baby. Booked classic room. Within a couple of days I received an email about the GBP 60 upgrade. While a hotel certainly has a right to try to upsell to customers, the idea of holding a room that would be freely available hostage to a fee violates the spirit of how most people understand the upgrade privs of SPG Plat.

I declined the offer, and got the upgrade anyway (my reservation showed executive non-smoking).

In my reservation I informed the hotel of my noon arrival and requested a crib. Upon arrival at 1pm at the hotel 3 things went wrong:

1. My room was downgraded back to a classic
2. No upgrades were available, though the spg site shows a panoramic room for sale
3. No crib in the room

I ended up in a low x04 room. I'm overlooking the 5th floor restaurant at harvey nichols. Because of the proximity I have to keep the shades drawn. The room at 33 sqm is small enough where we had to arrange furniture to get the crib to fit.

Sadly for one of the highest rates I pay at starwood at $350 a night (before switching to the Four Seasons or boutique), this is the worst experience I've had in a starwood hotel. I agree with others that the hotel doesn't seem to need our lowly $350 rates when oil money is paying higher rates. The hotel is full of Saudis and other oil babies.

This experience reflects poorly on the hotel, but more importantly the entire starwood brand and the preffered member recognition program. While this hotel may not care, the good folks at starwood certainly will when it affects their business across the system.