After an eventful trip to the Geneva airport where our cab was almost driven off the road by someone merging without looking and an EasyJet flight where no one on the plane abided by the seat belt sign, electronics off during take-off or seat backs and tray tables up we finally landed at London Gatwick.
After clearing immigration and customs we followed the signs for the Gatwick Express we boarded the train for the 45 minute trip into London. The trip ended up being around an hour because of track work that was being conducted near London Victoria where the train terminates. We then hopped on the Victoria Line of the London Underground and got off at Pimlico and walked to our hotel for the night,
The DoubleTree Westminster.
The hotel is just a short 10 minute walk to Parliament and about a 20 minute walk to the West End of London so it is a great location if you want to be close to the action but not pay the ridiculously expensive prices of a West End hotel. We were able to get the £40 a night because of a half off promotion that Hilton was running at the time.
When you arrive you can tell that the hotel is relatively new, it had a very modern feel to it and modern furniture to match. We went to check-in but as it was around 9:00 AM we fully planned on dropping our bags and heading out to explore till a room was available. The woman checking us in was wonderful and so kind. She indicated that we had been upgraded because of our Hilton Gold status to one of her favorite rooms in the hotel on the executive floor, but it was not ready yet. We asked about possibly having a room with a view of the Thames as the hotel was only a half block or so away. The woman said she would put a room on hold for us, but she didn't know if we would actually want to switch since the room we had was a very nice room. So we told her not to bother and we would take the original room...more on that later.
So we dropped our bags and headed out for a nice walk until our room was ready. We headed down Milbank Street until we reached the Houses of Parliament and then walked down Whitehall to St. James' Park up to Buckingham Palace and then to Green Park to hop on a number nine bus to Hyde Park to visit my absolute favorite pub, The Queens Arms
(Which I've Written About Previously).
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| Elizabeth Tower and The London Eye |
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| Sir Winston keeping watch |
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| Aspall Cider...The Best |
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| Beef Burger and Chips |
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| Classic Fish and Chips with Mushy Peas |
After taking the tube back to the hotel we were checked in by another person, who was not nearly as nice as the woman before and didn't seem to have time for us. But she indicated that we were going to be on the "Executive Floor" in a Executive Queen room which is what we had originally booked. We heded up to the 10th floor and all the way to the end of the hall and into our room. The room its self was very nice. The bathroom was a bit small and to the right when you entered. It only had a small shower and no tub, but no big deal for us. The bedroom its self had a built in closet and mini bar area against the far wall and a desk with a brand new Mac that is present in ever room in the place of an actual television. I actually liked this because it made for a big computer to surf the internet on. The one thing that I quickly noticed that the bed was not a queen bed, but instead a full bed or a double bed as it is often called. I was sure I booked a queen and looked again on my reservation to confirm. So I went down to the desk to confirm that we had not been put in the wrong room.
This is where the fun started....the man who I enquired to at the Hilton HHonors desk could not have been more rude. He didn't even look up to say hello or ask what I needed when I approached the desk. When I told him the problem he typed into his computer and said, "Nope it's a queen bed" to which I responded "I understand the computer says that, but we have a double at home and it is clearly the same size" and he responded with, "Well the computer says its a queen." and left it at that. I figured it wasn't worth my time so I headed off and tweeted at DoubleTree and Hilton's twitter accounts and got very quick responses from both of them that they could look into the problem. About 10 minutes later I had an email from someone at DoubleTree in Dallas offering to help out. We went back and forth a couple of times and he indicated that the hotel markets doubles as queens and that it was just a difference in size between the US and the UK. I can totally understand this, but when I booked online I was offered a double or a queen and I booked the queen to get a larger bed. The DoubleTree rep said the only thing they could do was put us in a king room for the night, but it would be the same sized room so it would mean less room to move around. By this point it was dinner time and I didn't feel like sitting around in the hotel and wasting the night so I thanked him and said we would just stay. Before signing off I had one final email where he indicated he would follow up with the hotel and me after our stay to figure out what went wrong with the man at the front desk.....from there I never heard from him again even after emailing him two weeks and four weeks after our stay. I didn't actually get a resolution to the situation till I mailed in the survey that Hilton sent me after the fact and they were very apologetic and offered up 30,000 Hilton HHonors points to apologize. This was WAYYYYY beyond anything I expected, but that's just another reason why I love Hilton, they always want to make it right.
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| "Queen" double bed |
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| Sitting Area and Closet |
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| Mac Computer/TV |
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| Bathroom |
Overall the hotel was a very nice hotel and I would stay there again, but this time I would know to expect a double bed. The only downside was their staff which, besides the one woman who first checked us in, were not very nice. But the location of the hotel and its proximity to some of the best attractions make it a good place to consider if you only have one or two nights.
I am a big fan of European hospitality and you can guess easily after his post why I am saying this!!
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