The Cadogan, London

1   Not Recommended
September 12, 2014 by EXPERT

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Cadogan Hotel
 Map | 1 Review | 0% Recommended

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Liked:
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Food
Amenities
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I recently noticed on the Leading Hotels page for London Hotels that the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park is no longer a Leading Hotel and in its place is The Cadogan, in Sloane Street. Seeing a guaranteed USD 350 rate including continental breakfast, service and VAT for a superior room, my sister and I decided to give it a try.

Overall impressions are not good. The hotel's renovations look superb and the building has a lot of "charm" -- whether that is a good thing or not is subjective.  Rooms are nice, but they look like a knock-off of One Aldwych, but not as well executed. The service is appalling. The best thing is the location, in Sloane Street, on the corner of Pont Street, convenient to Knightsbridge and Sloane Square tubes and several busses which run along Sloane Street. The details are below:

Check In

Our cab pulled up around noon to the front door of the hotel. Because there was no doorman, we thought we were at the back or side entrance of the hotel. Finally realising that this was the main entrance we struggled with our luggage into the Lobby, with the kind help of a fellow guest who held the door open for us.  Check-in was chaotic and we were just told to have a seat until they got to us.

Once our "turn" -- though many other people were checked-in before us --- I was asked to sign the form for check-in. However, the form had the wrong type of room and rate, showing a standard room for £310 exclusive of VAT..... pointing out the error, finally they found the correct form. Being a Leader's Club member I was assured that our room was upgraded to a deluxe room. However, our room was not ready yet so we walked to Scalini's for lunch. The check-in staff were very superficial in their friendliness while the Concierge was surly and unfriendly.

Room

Upon return our room was ready and we were shown up to our room by a somewhat clueless porter. The hotel has a cage elevator which is a novelty which wears thin quickly, especially since we used the one in the Hotel le Bristol in Paris!! Our room was on the first floor overlooking Pont Street.

The room was of fair size and walking into the room it felt familiar at once. As time wore on, I realised that the room was a knock-off of One Aldwych, with modern art on the walls, dark wooded furniture, artsy lamps, big comfy bed, etc..... The room had a wall mounted a/c unit which really did not work at all -- the room was cooler opening the windows!! 

The entry foyer had ample closet space to put any large suitcases -- the main bedroom was cozy, with a king bed, working desk, an LG flat screen tv, and 2 arm chairs. The quality of the flat screen was poor and though it had a built in DVD player. Of course, the hotel directory claims the hotel has a selection of DVDs and CDs to choose from but when we phoned down to ask for a list we were told the hotel does not have any yet due to ongoing renovations. The hotel did claim to have wireless broadband and ADSL available (£10 for 24 hours) but I did not bother asking if it was available.

The bathroom was a disappointment with a terribly narrow combination bath and shower unit with those glass partitions acting as shower curtain. The bathroom itself was quite cramped, with single vanity, and the bath amenities were a brand I have never heard of and cannot quite recall at this time. However, the bathroom was equipped with a towel warming rack and a scale.  

The bed was comfortable but the room was hot and with the windows open the noise filtering in from Pont and Sloane Streets made sleep elusive. In the morning, wake up calls came late and no newspaper was offered. The hotel had changed our inclusive breakfast from continental to full english and we took it in the hotel restaurant, Mes'Anges, which has a separate entrance on Pont Street. The food was decent and the service slow and aloof. Eggs benedict with soft yolk came virtually hard boiled but due to my hunger and insulin kicking in I did not send it back. Judging by the number of people taking breakfast the hotel did not appear very full, yet, the hotel appears popular with French tourists and businessmen (likely due to French ownership Grace Leo-Andrieu of Montelambert Paris fame).

Service

The service was the biggest letdown. Many times a simple phone call to the Reception or Concierge would be accompanied by the same staff member saying that they were busy and would call us back. Of course, we never received a call-back on anything. Once we trudged downstairs to ask the Concierge to cancel a dinner reservation and he scowled at us, made a production about getting the phone number and informed us that he would take time out of his busy schedule to take care of our "requirement".

We requested for someone to check the a/c unit; no one came. We requested foam pillows (on my preferences through Leader's Club) none arrived. Housekeeping came at 9:30pm to turndown room; and I had to phone the Night Manager to enquire about the Leader's Club Welcome Gift which was promised to us in the morning.

Overall

Perhaps the hotel is still trying to iron out some wrinkles post renovation. The most encouraging aspect of the stay was just after we settled the bill the General Manager came to see us and apologise for the stay. He gave us 2 bathrobes and a promise to personally look into the problems we had and to get into contact with us in due course. At the very least, it appears, that someone does care. Once I hear from the GM I shall post an epilogue to this trip report. I hope this has been of help to others.

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