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Six Senses announces a five star hotel in Whiteleys

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We very rarely write about new hotels which are just announced, as opposed to just about to open.  Experience shows that a large percentage never happen, or open years late, or open with a different operator to the planned one.

This one is so weird that I couldn’t resist however.

Six Senses, the uber-luxury chain recently acquired by IHG, is to open a hotel in the old Whiteleys department store in Bayswater in 2023.  It will have 110 rooms and there will be an additional 14 Six Senses-managed apartments for sale.

If you don’t know Bayswater then you won’t fully undertand how odd this is.

Whilst, on paper, it looks close to very wealthy parts of London and only seconds from Hyde Park, Queensway – the road where Whiteleys sits – is, to put it mildly, not exactly upmarket.  Six Senses London guests will not be short of places to buy fried chicken, place a bet, visit a £1 emporium or launder their clothes.

That said …. the developer is someone I used to work with, Alex Michelin of Finchatton, who is responsible for the Four Seasons Private Residences currently approaching completion in Grosvenor Square.  His judgement is usually sound, so perhaps we are about to see major change in Bayswater.

The hotel will, when open, be bookable on IHG Rewards Club points and should be the most luxurious IHG property in London.

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IHG One Rewards news

IHG One Rewards update – April 2025:

Get bonus points: IHG is not currently running a global promotion.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

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Comments (186)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • JD says:
    19 Dec19 December 07:59

    OT – skywards miles

    C.60k of these to use. Does anyone have any thoughts re best use / approach? I’m a family of 4 so they don’t stretch far with Emirates.

    Wait for a Heathrow reward sconversion bonus to cash them out?

    • Benilyn says:
      19 Dec19 December 08:16

      convert to easyjet?

    • Nathan says:
      19 Dec19 December 08:19

      HR or easyjet are the only uses I found for them. Or, in possibly the world’s worst value redemption, a cinema voucher in New Zealand! (yes, I really did do that 😂)

    • Simon Blackburn says:
      19 Dec19 December 08:36

      Use them for a sports event. If you follow a premiership team then watching them at Arsenal is great fun. (And going as a neutral can be excellent too – I lucked out and chose Arsenal v Leicester at the start of the season Leicester won, and when it came round it was 1st v 2nd.) They also have tennis in the summer, etc

    • Rob says:
      19 Dec19 December 09:57

      VIP box at Arsenal

  • Paul Hickey says:
    19 Dec19 December 08:10

    LBA would be prime for a Qatar A320. There’s a large Asian community who have to trek to MAN for flights to Pakistan / Bangladesh etc, plus lots of business and leisure travellers from East / North Leeds / York area who would, I’m sure, value the service!

    • The Savage Squirrel says:
      19 Dec19 December 16:27

      Plenty of head offices and multinationals in Leeds, One of the UK’s 5 largest universities, oh, and the residents of the North Leeds/Harrogate/York triangle not short of a bob or two either. Should cover 12 business seats a day easily. Come on Qatar; you know you want to :D.

  • Jason says:
    19 Dec19 December 08:21

    Morrison 10% cash back has reappeared !!

  • Shoestring says:
    19 Dec19 December 08:54

    in case you missed yesterday’s late Bits!

    1. BA have launched their summer sale – prices already posted, especially cheap in Europe all thru summer 2020 (think: £35-40 each way)

    2. relating to (1) – so you wanted to top up your tier points but wanted to pay no more than £1/ TP? – get in quick, Helsinki in Business 160 TPs for £160 does the trick (£30 discount for 3000 Avios =£160 but you earn them all back on the flight = genuine £30 off)

    • Benilyn says:
      19 Dec19 December 10:07

      hey mate – on point 1, is there a good way to find these cheapest tickets?

      • Stu_N says:
        19 Dec19 December 10:18

        Low Fare Finder on ba.com or (better) the iPhone app.

        • meta says:
          19 Dec19 December 11:28

          Minimum 2-night stay though. Not good for quick tier point runs.

        • Lady London says:
          19 Dec19 December 11:54

          You could go back to back and do 1 day trips that way if you needed more than one.

        • Shoestring says:
          19 Dec19 December 12:16

          @Meta – yep I was worried about 2 night thing but was able to book my son & myself out 1-way outward at the same cost – I wanted to come back/ return on perfect Oct Sunday peak half term hols end but that would have been a lot more (something like £150 Economy each)

          so I mixed 2x £40 HBO (out) with 2x RFS award ticket (return) 🙂

          cheaper than Wizz Air

        • Neil Donoghue says:
          19 Dec19 December 12:56

          Great find! Just booked a cheeky weekend away for £163.00

        • meta says:
          19 Dec19 December 14:23

          @ Lady London thanks. That’s a great advice.

      • Secret Squirrel says:
        19 Dec19 December 17:15

        Google flights is where I found the HEL @ £166 IN CE minus the £30 for 3k avios.

    • Cat says:
      19 Dec19 December 10:21

      Harry, I can’t find the article on the T3-5 BA shuffle – do you remember if HEL is still going to be T3?

    • Sal says:
      19 Dec19 December 12:14

      Just looking, however its always a struggle on the ba website. Does anyone else have issues when searching flights, I find myself on a continuous loop back to the original search where do you want to go section, attempt to search and it will take me back to the same page. Booking holidays is ok.

    • Harry T says:
      19 Dec19 December 13:07

      @shoestring
      Fares look good out of Heathrow and Gatwick but the price of connecting there from Newcastle via air (or the lost time and money driving and parking there) means it doesn’t end up being a great deal, unfortunately.

      • Shoestring says:
        19 Dec19 December 13:30

        keeping Silver status might be worth the trundle to LHR for some people

      • Lady London says:
        19 Dec19 December 18:20

        Try Sleazy or FR or even a deal on Virgin/Avanti? depending on how much time you have.

  • NigelthePensioner says:
    19 Dec19 December 09:11

    The money changing booths in the “souvenir” shops on Queensway often give spot rate for buying US$ too! Not all of them, granted, but ive been using a couple if them regularly for years. Other than that, not a lot else to take you there! Strange site for a Six Senses indeed…… We shall see in the fullness of time.

  • Peter K says:
    19 Dec19 December 09:56

    Taking about high end hotels:
    Currently 3 nights into a 5 night stay on points at The Langley and I’m finding it’s a mixed bag, similar to Rob’s review.

    The Spa is amazing, the Churchill Lounge is very grand but cosy, the room lovely, the staff are friendly and there are nice touches like a complementary bottle of water each day and free shoe shine but the service can be be hot and miss.

    For example: when we arrived there was a dirty spoon and saucer in the room. The toiletries were not replaced the second day. I left my shoes outside the room to be polished but they forgot to make a note of the room number so could not return them until I rang reception to find out where they were! The used coffee pods in the machine were not emptied. Although more teabags/coffee pods were given each day, they forgot to replace the sugar.

    Not individually big things, but added together it just detracts from the whole experience. It gives an expectation of “what’s the next thing that won’t be right”.

    Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely place and I’m enjoying my stay, and at 35k points a night a bargain (28k with 5 for 4), but if I was paying £400+ a night I would be less happy.

    • Benilyn says:
      19 Dec19 December 10:09

      That doesn’t sound good…. I have a 1 nighter in Jun-20. In all the hotels I have ever stayed in (mostly 3*s), they’ve always changed the coffee / tea / threw the old ones out.

      • Peter K says:
        19 Dec19 December 10:14

        That was my thought. They don’t seem rushed off their feet either.
        Having said that, you’ll love it for one night. Definitely give yourself time to use the spa. It’s open until 9pm.

      • Rob says:
        19 Dec19 December 13:48

        Overall, it is fantastic – we are booked in again for 2 weekends next year and I think we had it worse than anyone who goes now.

    • Ian M says:
      19 Dec19 December 10:35

      I’ve stayed at The Langley 4 times this year. I love the place but there’s always a few things that go wrong. It’s a little frustrating, because it’s such a great hotel.

      How have the breakfasts been?

      • Peter K says:
        19 Dec19 December 10:47

        I’m only Marriott gold so no fee breakfast. All things considered I decided not to eat in the restaurant.

  • Roberto says:
    19 Dec19 December 10:03

    O/T help required.

    I want to send US dollars by paypal but dont want to get stiffed on the rate. I have a curve and transferwise card but cant work out the best route.

    Can someone enlighten me to thier recommendations please.

    Thanks in advance..

    • Benilyn says:
      19 Dec19 December 10:11

      You can add your curve card to PayPal. Then somewhere along the process, under where you select what card you want, choose Curve, and before you pay, you can select pay in USD or something (vs PayPal doing the exchange for you).

      • MinR says:
        19 Dec19 December 11:02

        Is that better than TransferWise? Does the underlying card on Curve get charged a cash advance fee?

        • Benilyn says:
          19 Dec19 December 12:51

          No, underlying card won’t get charged a cash advance fee (unless its Tesco, who sometimes do?)

  • Dawn says:
    19 Dec19 December 10:21

    OT – Has anyone flown the DOH – AKL leg with Qatar? I’m researching flights and it seems the plane is the old seats on a 777. As it’s 16 hours on the plane I’d rather take an Airbus 380 into Sydney first as I also have to visit Australia on this trip. Any advice?

    • Lady London says:
      19 Dec19 December 11:26

      I did that route 777 3 years ago. It was fine but lacks thé privacy of 380/350. You are just alongside your neighbour.

      The seat when sleeping definitely felt longer than the A350 bed does. 777 also felt freer on the feet as 350 has cubby there. IFE seemed to work better on 350/380 (used 380 from SYD on the way back). But both IFE’s a level better than lots of other airlines.

      If you go via SYD leave time for the QF First lounge (the Business one is very ordinary). It was closed when I was Gold and there. Grrr I had been looking forward to that including the salt and pepper squid.

      • Dawn says:
        19 Dec19 December 12:54

        Thank you Lady London 🙂
        I flew from Doha to Johannesburg on the 777 and there was no storage space around the seat at all. I also didn’t like having a stranger so close to me with no real screen to separate us. My husband will be with me on the Auckland leg. Perhaps you can help me with another question. Our trip is likely to last for about 5 months, visiting both NZ and Australia. Is there a way I can book and pay for the first leg into SYD or AKL and sort the return leg later as I”m worried I’ll miss out on the cheaper flights if I book when all the dates become available.

        • Dawn says:
          19 Dec19 December 13:00

          Oh Lady London I meant to also say I’m not travelling First class!! I’m going Business. Sorry if my message looked like travelling First. LOL

          • Lady London says:
            19 Dec19 December 13:11

            I assumed you meant J which is what I flew. As Polly said QR J is pretty equivalent to BA First.

        • Lady London says:
          19 Dec19 December 13:08

          QR one way pricing generally not worth it for cash. You will need some sort of return ticket for immi in Oz or NZ. I am not sure how long a stamp they give Brits.

          QR change fees on deals range £200-£300. I suppose you could get out in the class you want then Y (for now) on the return. Then upgrade the return later – some airlines waive change fees if you are upgrading. Its all in the fare conditions if they do But I would bet you couldnt count on fare classes mixing across 2 promotions.

          If you are paying cash this is a time when I would be happy to pay a travel agent a fee and ask them to sort out what’s possible. Trailfinders good but not sure how strong they are on QR.

          • Dawn says:
            19 Dec19 December 13:14

            Excellent, thank you!

          • Lady London says:
            19 Dec19 December 18:29

            PS if seeking to change dates later for a return half you might be better off making the change on the return after you’ve flown the outbound. Counterintuitive but jus sayin. Read the fare conditions. In that particular case I would defo book both ways in J on the original ticket and not look at putting a Y return in with a plan to upgrade.

          • Dawn says:
            19 Dec19 December 19:22

            That’s a really good idea about booking both and changing the return later 🙂
            Often I use Flight Centre who get me very good multi city 3 month trips too. They even book it before the flights are available whereas Trailfinders won’t.
            We will probably be going out in November and not back until end of March/early April

    • Lenin says:
      19 Dec19 December 16:58

      Hi. I flew DOH to AKL in Nov return in Dec and both legs had the Q suite. As did DOH to CPH

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