Park Plaza County Hall - London, United Kingdom     

I have mixed feelings about this hotel. We were there from June 24 until July 3rd. The hotel was busy. I think they must cater to big tour groups b/c I saw many tour buses dropping/picking up people from there. To me, that's a negative. Unlike the tour groups who are there for a day or two, we were there for 10 days so we wanted a nice quiet room with a good view to call it a home while visiting London. It was a struggle getting that. We did finally manage to get a room with a view but had to listen to the elevator's ding dong, doorbell sound every time someone got on/off the elevator. The beds are HARD! I like firm beds, but the bed was so hard my body parts got numb. The biggest concern with this hotel and I know it's relatively new, but they need to work on customer service issues. When we changed rooms, I accidentally left a couple of things in the original room and when I called to retrieve it, the person on the other side of the phone told me they were too busy to do anything about it. So I never got my things back. Over it, things are replaceable. Another issue, while most rooms have a wine opener in the rooms, ours didn't. I called room service which they said they'd be right up. I patiently waited for over 30 minutes before calling back. They told me someone was on the way. I said, great, thanks. Waited another 15 minutes, not so patiently anymore. Asked to speak to a room service manager and the person on the phone told me he is the manager. The same man I had been speaking to the whole time! He gave me some story about the hotel running out of wine openers. Please, run out of wine openers?! When someone finally came with an opener, she offered to open the wine for me b/c she had to take the opener back. What??? Needless to say, she left w/o the opener. And for some odd reason, they don't put wash cloths in the rooms. So I called and had some delivered. Thanked and tipped them. The very next day, wash cloths are gone and not replaced, even the one that was never used. Have no idea what that's about. There are some redeeming qualities. The location is terrific, easy to get around. The rooms are clean and roomy. The set-up is a little strange but roomy. The bar lounge is nice with good drinks and friendly staff. Never ate there so I have no opinion regarding their restaurant. Looks nice though. I suppose for a short stay and never needing anything from the hotel or need to speak to anyone, the hotel would be fine. So I guess if you're with a tour group, I'd recommend it. Other wise, look elsewhere. Particularly since the rooms were almost $400 a night on an average. Our first nights rate was over $500 and never got below $300 during our 10 days.

The Park Plaza was an excellent choice for our group of 8. Each of us had an terrific and modern room with great amenities (microwave, minibar fridge, safe, ironing board, hair dryer). The location was just superb!!! We were just across Westminster Bridge from the Abbey, Parliament, etc. and just down the street from the Eye. Two tube stops (Waterloo and Westminster) were within easy walking distance, though I thought it was easier access to Westminster. There were all kinds of restaurants around the hotel and some very hot-looking night spots, though we didn't venture into any. The hotel restaurant had good food and we were able to get a wide selection of alcohals from the bar. Overall, the the hotel was above average with the only problem being a lot of the staff were from foreign countries and did not have complete control of the English language. This led to some minor communication problems.