Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane

100   Recommended
December 2, 2014 by EXPERT

 Map | 6 Reviews | 50% Recommended
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Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane
 Map | 6 Reviews | 50% Recommended

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We recently spent a few days in London at the Four Seasons at Park Lane, and had a great experience.

Arrival
We arrived at the property around 2:30pm and during check-in we asked them to check that they would be able to give us the upgrade that DavidO had confirmed in advance (thanks DavidO!). The said that yes, they would have an upgraded room available but that it was not yet ready, and if we wouldnt mind, the hotel car, a Rolls Royce Ghost, would drop us to a nearby restaurant for lunch while we waited. We went to Bar Boulud in the Mandarin Oriental (where the concierge had made us reservations) for lunch before popping to the Natural History Museum to see a Photography exhibition we had wanted to catch. While there, the hotel called to say our room was ready.

Room

We made our way back to the hotel and were shown to our room, which, as it turned out, was a Junior Conservatory, a triple upgrade (we had just booked a superior with confirmed upgrade to a deluxe).
The room was spacious, with a large outdoor terrace with garden furniture. The bathroom ran alongside the entrance corridor in a long, skinny layout, if you will, in a series of 4 rooms containing the WC, table & mirror area, bathtub area, and vanities & shower. There was also a spacious walk-in closet. The facilities and technology in the room were of good quality, as were all the fittings etc. Dcor is pleasantly modern (but not modernist, if you know what I mean). It was very much to our taste, but if you are looking for more old english style with chintz & four posters, this is not the place.

Service

I had been in touch with the concierge prior to arrival for some dinner and theatre reservations. I ended up making the theatre reservations myself online as, for the show we were going to see (Book of Mormon in the Price of Wales theatre), I could access the best seats that way, and the hotel theatre desk were unable to offer these particular seats to me.

For the dining reservations I had asked for recommendations for our particular requirements on each night of our stay, but they tended to just book any restaurants I had given them as examples rather than suggesting places to me as I requested. However after a bit of a push from me they did come through with good recommendations and handled the reservations flawlessly.

Service within the hotel was excellent. Anything requested was brought to our room within a few minutes. Housekeeping, including turndown, was good with no irritating issues or omissions.

The hotel car is available on a first come, first served basis for guests to use within a 2km radius of the property. We found this to be a very convenient service as it was almost always available, and pretty much everything we wanted (shopping, restaurants, theatre, were within the specified radius. And while I am partial to London taxis (and their relative capaciousness compared to those in Hong Kong), naturally the Rolls is a more pleasant way to travel!

Dining

We only took breakfast in the hotel. It was fine; a la carte only (no buffet, which we were fine with), decent selection, good quality. They made a couple of small errors in order accuracy (e.g. giving us an omelette with regular tomatoes as opposed to sun-dried tomatoes which had been ordered) but nothing more serious than that and anything we mentioned was quickly remedied. On one day we took room service breakfast; the guy (I believe Sam) taking the order was exceptionally efficient and accurate and the food was delivered perfectly; the only slip-ups were that we then had to call twice as we realized they had forgotten first knives, and then a tea strainer. These were promptly delivered when requested.

Spa

On one afternoon we rented out the SkySuite in the spa, which is basically a large spa suite with large steam shower, treatment area, comfortable seating area, fruit, magazines etc, and beautiful views over Hyde Park. We had time to relax in there (and in the spa wet areas) before lunch in a separate dining room at the far side of the spa (this one with great views across the London skyline). Then we had our treatments together in the Sky Suite, before more relaxation time in the SkySuite with some prosecco. One of us had a signature massage and the other a Vaishaly facial. Both treatments were good but not exceptional. The massage was fine but had nothing really distinctive about it and wasnt particularly memorable. The facial, while not bad, was noticeably less good than the same facial taken at the Vaishaly Clinic itself a few months ago.

The afternoon in the spa was very pleasant and relaxing; however there were a couple of somewhat surprising organizational glitches. E.g. we had been told that someone would come to fetch us in the SkySuite at a specified time to be brought over to the dining room for lunch. No-one appeared, so after waiting 20 minutes after the agreed time we finally went out to reception ourselves, where the attendants seemed to have no recollection of the plan we had agreed with them an hour before. No-matter, we were brought into the dining room by the delightful spa manager. She asked if we had ordered lunch, to which we replied no (the SkySuite experience we booked includes lunch, but at no point in the booking procedure (by email) or thus far in the actual experience, had we been offered a menu or solicited for our selection). She seemed slightly alarmed by this and menus were quickly produced. However recovery was good large glasses of prosecco plus the papers were brought out to make up for the extra wait, which in the end only amounted to about 10-15 minutes anyway. And when lunch did arrive it was very good. So we were fine with it. However I have to admit we were somewhat surprised that the whole SkySuite experience did not run completely smoothly, given that it seems to be a standard package offered there.

Departure

The front desk had called the day prior to our departure to check if we needed late check-out (we requested an extra 2 hours which was instantly granted) or any other assistance. The check was accurate with the exception of the spa items, where the amount posted had somehow increased over that which we had signed the check for upon leaving the spa. The lady checking us out promptly checked our spa paperwork and confirmed the correct amount, making the appropriate adjustment.

Overall

Overall we had a lovely stay and I would not hesitate to recommend this property for a trip to London.

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