More about Crowne Plaza Hotel London-The City
excellent
by TripAdvisor Member kakowNy
Just got back from London-Paris last weekend. Excellent hotel. Great location. Right next to the Blackfriar tube station so it was very convinient to go to all the sights. Since it is located in the financial district, the area is very quite at night and on the weekend, which my wife and I prefer since London is such as busy and crowded city like Tokyo.
We got a superior room upgrade even though we book the hotel free using our priority club points. The room was large, very clean, nice modern decor, and a very nice bathroom. In room safe was also present, which is always a plus. They also give us free bottles of water everyday we stayed which is a very nice touch.
The hotel staff, including the bell boy, was all very helpful and friendly. We will definitely stay here again next time we are in town:)
Great Service...OK location
by TripAdvisor Member blu_lingen
My husband and I stayed here from Friday to Sunday in May 2006. We had one of the club rooms.
The sevice was great and the staff were so friendly and helpful. Especially Philippe and Claire. We didn't eat in the hotel restaurants or had drinks in the bar so I can't say anything about those.
The rooms were very clean and charming as is the bath room. However, it was smaller than I had expected, especially our bath room. As I said, we were on the club floor and had access to the club lounge. By the way, breakfast is not served in the club lounge on the weekends as it is on the weekdays. You can still use the lounge on the weekends but if you need anything, you will need to call down to reception and someone will come up to the lounge to help you. You can borrow DVDs and CDs from the lounge and you have a DVD player and CD player in your room. The loung also has free drinks (alchoholic beverages and snacks start around 18:00).
The hotel is very close to a tube station (Blackfrairs) but otherwise is in a more business area. This means that on the weekend and evenings, it's dead. There is a Starbucks across the street so if you do miss the breakfast in the hotel, you can still get a quick fix at the Starbucks.
Overall, a great hotel and wonderful, friendly, helpful staff. The Location could be better but we enjoyed our stay.
Godd Value but quiet area
by TripAdvisor Member Robinderby
We stayed at this hotel in May 2006 for 4 nights. We booked a Standard room and as we were Priority Club Platinum members received a free upgrade to the Club Floor. We paid an extra £25 per night to upgrade one further to a Junior Suite at check in (rooms also known as Club King Studio Room).
The main lobby of the hotel is very modern and bright and check-in was efficient with 6 members of staff on duty.
The room was a good size with a super king size bed, a sitting area with sofa and arm chair, a working area with desk, double wardrobe and tea coffee making area.
The bathroom was rather small and had no windows but was done in a modern style with marble and dark woods. The bathroom products are Molton Brown (personally don't like them but they are better than Crowne Plaza own brand!).
There are two dressing gowns provided and a decent amount of towels.
There is a large TV (not LCD or plasma) and also a DVD player and separate hi-fi unit.
There are tea/coffee making facilities including a separate coffee percolator, extra filter coffee is available from housekeeping.
The room supposedly has free internet available in the room using the Ethernet connection supplied or by using the keyboard connected to the TV, unfortunately neither worked in our room and after spending two hours with staff trying to fix it we gave up!
All club rooms, junior suites/studio rooms and full suites entitle the occupants to use the club lounge which is located on the 6th floor.
The lounge is a fair size with two sofas and a number of tables and chairs. There is a bar area with soft drinks available all the time free of charge and alcohol, spirits, wine and beer available after 1800hrs - 2100hrs when they also bring out some nibbles such as cheese and biscuits and a few canapés.
Most days there are slices of cake available in the lounge in the afternoon although be sure to check them before you eat as two of the pieces I picked up had mould on them!
There is a reception desk in this lounge and a member of staff is there in a morning from about 0700-1200hrs to assist with any problems you have.
A continental breakfast is served in the lounge in a morning however at weekends this is served in the main restaurant instead.
A selection of books, DVD's and CD's can be hired free of charge from the lounge and there is a PC with free internet connection (that works) however you will need to ask a member of staff for the password.
Service in the hotel was fairly good; room service was prompt and fairly decent sized portions although the menu is typical hotel stuff, burgers, pizza etc.
Try the home made fish cakes off the kids menu, perfect portion size for most adults and half the price.
The hotel has a modern gym area with a small selection of new cardio equipment but no free weights. There is also a sauna and changing area. There was no one using the gym when I went down and you just swipe your room card to get in.
The main problem we had with this hotel is that the area it is located in (directly opposite Blackfriars train station) is very quiet at night and at weekends because this is the financial district.
You will struggle to find any shops or restaurants that area open in the area on a Saturday or Sunday (yes even Pret and Starbucks are closed on a Saturday!!!). However you are a very quick tube ride away from the west end or Victoria Station which has a large selection of shops and places to eat.
The good thing with the hotel is that it is only a 5 min walk to St Paul’s Cathedral, the Bank of England, Mansion House and the Financial District, 10 min to the London Museum. Or just walk across the road, jump on a tube (District and Circle Line) and you can be at the Tower of London in about 6 minutes or Westminster in about 4 minutes.
The hotel is very close to Blackfriars Bridge and of course the river Thames but no views of the river from the hotel itself i'm afraid.
Overall a good value (especially at weekends) hotel in a safe, quiet area but still well connected to all the areas you normally need.
Very nice for business or pleasure
by TripAdvisor Member BuzzyB
Very well looked after - still very fresh and new - nice Molton Brown products and fluffy bathrobes in your room. Stylish bar but can be a bit noisy if you want to have a quiet chat. The Italian restaurant is great - very, very good food but not cheap - but you pay for what you get so....! If you can get a good deal on this hotel it is worth the money. Right next to Blackfriars underground station so you can get to anywhere in London very fast. Locality will be quiet on the weekends but as it is so easy to get around this should not be a problem.
Great value, our family loved it!
by TripAdvisor Member CharmCityDad
Just back from a one week visit to London, 2 adults, 2 children (boys, ages 7 and 11), we booked the Crowne Plaza through the British Airways website, it sounded like a good value (six nights at $214 a night, dollars, not pounds) and it was. We used our 1 week British Rail travel pass (good for all buses and tubes, all zones, best investment we did) to travel from Heathrow on the Piccadilly Line (changing at ActonTown, as a previous TripAdvisor had recommended) to the District Line to the Blackfriars tube stop. A few stairs out with the luggage but then the hotel was right there in front of us. We arrived late Saturday morning but a room was ready for us and we could check in. Very modern, clean, we had an interior courtyard view (no view) which was fine - VERY QUIET, Perfect! In fact, if we had been given a room across the hall we would have been watching (and hearing) a construction site, so request an interior room if you want quiet. One of the best deals was a full English buffet breakfast was included with our room rate, for all four of us. If we had walked off the street the charge would have been 17.5 pounds ($33) per person. Modern bathroom, good shower pressure. Good TV channels for the boys during non-sightseeing "down" time. The location was ideal, and since we had the travel pass, it was easy to take the tube or buses anywhere. We would definitely stay at this hotel again, particularly at such a good rate.
Superb quality
by TripAdvisor Member Josefus
My wife and me have stayed for a week in this hotel in a pleasure trip. It is certainly a very male--designed, bussinessmen-orientated hotel, but for tourists looking for quality acomodation, as we were, it ranks very high.
The situation is excellent, just in front of Blackfriars railroad station. The underground can't be nearer. Its situation in New Bridge Street is very convenient, just 5 minutes by tube to Westminster, and in less than half an hour you can walk through Fleet Street and Strand into Trafalgar Square. It has also very good bus combinations nearby.
The total prize for seven days, including fantastic english breakfast, was 1050€. Rooms are very comfortable, with very good disabled facilites, the fridge is very well furnished, and complimentary mineral water, tea and biscuits are offered every day. Excellent towels and bathrobe.
The people working in the hotel are extremely kind and efficient. The customer service really reads your opinion and even answers. A small incidence with our credit card was fastly solved.
My conclusion is a superb one, perhaps not the most romantic of London hotels, but a really comfortable and well-made one.
Fantastic Value, and the friendliest staff in London
by TripAdvisor Member hrona123
I have just come back from a three night stay at the Crown Plaza (Blackfriars) and have had an absolutely wonderful time. The staff at this hotel have to be amongst the friendliest I have every encountered. They were extremely helpful and the impression given is that nothing is too much trouble. The hotel itself is clean and spacious. It also had the added benefit of being right next to Blackfriars tube station (exit8) on leaving the tube at this exit you are practically in the hotel reception.
We booked this trip through holidayextras I never spoke to one person, yet all my tickets and reservations were amde and I didn't encounter a single problem.The package included 3 nights, theatre tickets and per theatre dinner for £400 which considering it's London I think is excellent value.
Be aware though that a lot of the attractions in London are expensive, so be prepared to pay nothing short of £15 and above pp per attraction. MAKE SURE YOU BOOK THE ATTRACTIONS BEFORE YOU ARRIVE, if you don't you will spend most of your time in a queue. Thankfully we did book all the attraction we wanted on line, and I was so pleased when we seen the length of the queues.Definitely go on the Dinner Cruise, we booked through Bateaux Cruises, but I believe that City Cruises are the same. It cost £65 per person, but for that you get a four course meal, a cabaret show, disco and a welcoming drink; I don't think you'll find better value for money.
The taxis are reasonably cheap so don't be frightened to use them, and you can buy an all day tube ticket for £4.90 which is a great way to get round the city.
The highlight of the stay has to be the Nottinghill Carnival, it was fantastic and I would highly recommend this, the costumes the colours, the atmosphere, the noise, the people. I have travelled quite a bit and I have never come across something as wonderful as this carnival, I am booking up now for next year!
Standard hotel shame about the service
by TripAdvisor Member bootedsw
Stayed on a Sunday night and got a very good rate from the ic hotels website. The girl that checked me in complained that the rate i had was not theri normal types of rates and suggested that I had altered it after i had booked. Showed her my Platinum Priority Club card and she told me they don't upgrade silver members only the gold ones. ( I get this a lot recently new staff not being aware that Platinum is higher than Gold) I was very annoyed so left and went to the room. It was a far size but as it was only on the first floor over a main road there was quite a lot of noise.
The website for thsi hotel says you get molten brown stuff in the bathrooms but the staff told me they had run out and some rooms had the basic shower and bath stuff you find in a basic room in a normal holiday inn. I forgot to order my paper and went back down to reception and asked for a paper. I was made to feel liek a naugthy school boy as they told me they would add it on but it should have been done when I checked in.
The breakfast was okay, at least they were able to cook their bacon and sausages to how i like them crispy. There were no fried eggs on the buffet and no signs to say how to get one.
For my morning it was easy to get to the city from here either walk , bus or train from blackfriars station which is accross the road.
