A great place to stay! (Crowne Plaza London-St James)

Member Name: jennikitten

Product:	Crowne Plaza London-St James
Date:	23/11/08 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great location, friendly staff, great overall

Disadvantages: Dress up, or you'll feel left out! Food/drink very expensive

We stayed here last month as part of an ebay package - 2 tickets to see The Lion King at the West End, and a hotel for the night.

As we walked up to the hotel, we were faced with a beautiful, grand looking hotel on the right and a grotty building on the left - we joked that it was going to be that one, but we were shocked when we found out it actually was the other - after all, we'd paid £189 for the entire package and weren't expecting such a fancy looking hotel!

The main foyer was pretty grand and spectacular - in fact we both felt incredibly out of place, being about 20 years younger than the average guest and we weren't wearing particularly smart clothes either! Still, the receptionist was lovely to us and asked what newspaper we wanted in the morning etc. Much better attitude than most of the snobby cashiers at John Lewis!

Our room looked identical to that in the picture above...except without the tray of breakfast - that was anything up to £45 so we decided to make the most of the (included) breakfast buffet, which had hash browns, scrambled eggs, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, cereals, toast etc. - but no fried/poached eggs unfortunately. Though the dining room was full we were taken through the staff area (the 'quick way') to another dining room were people were eating so that was fine.

Back to our room - the bathroom was nice and clean, nice complimentary shower gel, shampoo etc., and lots of fresh towels. We also had a large flatscreen TV from which we could watch channels, order movies etc., which had a nice welcome screen with our names on.

The view was nothing special; just buildings, but you can get rooms that overlook the beautiful courtyard I think. I was a bit worried about the noise, as I'd read reviews that the street side was very noisy, but this wasn't the case. The bed was of average comfort, nothing amazing, nothing to complain about.

We had to check in after 2 and check out before 12, and breakfast was something like between 6/7 and 9/10 (can't remember exactly as the clocks changed), but it was good.

The decor of the bedrooms is not as impressive as the foyer, and some of it feels very olde-English-let's-please-the-foreign-tourists, but overall we had a fantastic weekend and I'd definitely stay there again, especially as it is right near Buckingham Palace and lots of other main attractions.

Summary: Great to splash out on