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Bits: DoubleTree Docklands becoming a hostel!, double Bonvoy points with Homes & Villas

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News in brief:

A Hilton property in London is becoming a hostel

DoubleTree by Hilton London Docklands Riverside is an odd hotel.

It is in Rotherhithe, on the south side of the Thames, in a residential area. What is novel about it is the shuttle boat which runs from the hotel to Canary Wharf, directly opposite.

The building was originally meant to be apartments, but construction coincided with the collapse of the 1980s property market and it became a hotel instead. Originally a Hilton, it was downgraded to a DoubleTree some years ago.

A notice on the Hilton website says that it is leaving the chain on 20th November. It won’t be swapping to another hotel brand though – it will become a hostel!

It is already bookable on the a&o Hostels website here, as a&o London Docklands Riverside.

You can’t argue with the pricing, with a twin room for Friday 28th November bookable for €83 (yes, Euro pricing).

a&o London Docklands Riverside hostel

Get double points with a Marrott ‘Homes & Villas’ booking

Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy has launched a new double points promotion.

The standard Bonvoy earning rate with Homes & Villas is 5 points per $1. This is doubled to 10 points per $1 for all stays booked by 25th September.

Your stay can be for any date in 2025.

A three night minimum stay is required. Existing bookings do not count and registration is required via the site here.

As a reminder, when you make a Homes & Villas rental, you earn points based on your total spend less booking fees, taxes, cleaning fees and extra add-ons.

Elite members of Marriott Bonvoy will earn a status bonus:

  • Silver Elite: 5 base points per eligible dollar plus 10% bonus
  • Gold Elite: 5 base points per eligible dollar plus 25% bonus
  • Platinum Elite: 5 base points per eligible dollar plus 50% bonus
  • Titanium Elite: 5 base points per eligible dollar plus 75% bonus
  • Ambassador: 5 base points per eligible dollar plus 75% bonus

The status bonus is based on the standard ‘5 points per $1’ and not the promotional rate of 10 points.

Gold and above receive additional points as a welcome gift:

  • Ambassador Elite, Titanium Elite, Platinum Elite: 1,000 points
  • Gold Elite: 500 points

Each night you book counts towards elite status with Marriott Bonvoy but, oddly, does not count towards lifetime status (although some readers have found that it seems as if it does ….)

You can find full details of the double points offer on the Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy website here.

If you want to learn more about the programme, our full review of Marriott Bonvoy is here.

Category

Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy

Comments (56)

  • Lumma says:
    14 Aug14 August 04:25

    As someone who walks that section of the Thames path regularly, there’s always a feeling of abandonment when walking through the Double Tree section.

    Seems a huge hotel for a “hostel” though

    Reply
    • The Original David says:
      14 Aug14 August 07:04

      The Rotherhithe section is much better than the backstreets of Deptford to get through to Greenwich! Especially at low tide when you can walk along the beach – the bit by the Doubletree is crying out for some deckchairs…

      Reply
  • Charlie says:
    14 Aug14 August 05:39

    Hacker: ‘..we’re getting an awful lot of stick from constituents about re-purposing all these hotels… four stars here and five stars there…’. Sir Humphrey: ‘…well minister, one idea we have is to get some of the hotels to re-brand as hostels…’

    Reply
  • TimM says:
    14 Aug14 August 06:27

    Back in 1990, only 35 years ago, I lived in the ‘youth hostel’ in Marmaris, Turkey when I worked for the season in the marina. Apart from the management, it was better than any ‘hotel’ in Marmaris at the time.

    Don’t mis-judge a hotel property by its label!

    Reply
  • Erico1875 says:
    14 Aug14 August 06:37

    London is becoming affordable again.
    That date 28 Nov, a Saturday, there are travelodges within a couple of miles of O2 for £50 +
    Compared to Edinburgh £110 +

    Reply
    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      14 Aug14 August 08:46

      Well this year the 28th is a Friday not a Saturday.

      And in Edinburgh it’s the start of St Andrew’s day weekend so hotels likely to be busy.

      Details like that matter. We can all take random dates and make something skewed out of hotel pricing

      Reply
  • JohnTh says:
    14 Aug14 August 06:39

    Have a stay in September- just in time.

    Reply
  • John says:
    14 Aug14 August 07:12

    What will happen to the ferry

    Reply
    • Rob says:
      14 Aug14 August 07:15

      Remains, looking at the hostel website. I assume locals use it too.

      Reply
      • memesweeper says:
        14 Aug14 August 08:06

        It was almost all locals on the ferry when I lived down the road. Criminal that more Canary Wharf visitors don’t use the hotel, guess the south-of-the-river things is perceived as an issue. Public transport to central London from there is poor, unless you fancy the walk to Canada Water station.

        Reply
      • HampshireHog says:
        14 Aug14 August 09:10

        Depends on who if anyone is subsidising the ferry I imagine

        Reply
    • Panda Mick says:
      14 Aug14 August 09:51

      The Ferry is actually run by TFL, and, as others have said, is more for the locals. Getting people to tap their Oyster / C&P has been enforced some of the times I’ve used it. Can’t see it going away, although stranger things have happened

      Reply
    • SBIre says:
      14 Aug14 August 11:36

      It’s a standard Thames Clipper ferry, not owned by the hotel. It’s mostly used by locals and about to be upgraded to an new sleek electric version

      Reply
      • executiveclubber says:
        14 Aug14 August 14:10

        it says “Doubletree by Hilton” on it though, and is smaller than a standard Thames Clipper, and only goes point to point. I know as I used to watch it from my window!

        Reply
        • Dubious says:
          15 Aug15 August 00:56

          Which makes it sound more affordable than a regular Clipper. I wonder if the price will jump when it changes?

          Reply
  • IslandDweller says:
    14 Aug14 August 08:00

    It’s a poor location for transport connections. By the standards that you’d normally expect for inner London, it’s a public transport desert.
    The ferry (which runs about every 20 minutes) drops you at Canary Wharf pier, which is then about ten minutes walk to any of the stations. Or there is a circuitous bus route running by the hotel which gets you to Canada Water station. Don’t expect any black cab to be nearby….

    Reply
    • Lady London says:
      15 Aug15 August 01:57

      It’s only about 5mins (I think 2 or 3 stops) on the bus to Canada Water. A brisk walk wouldn’t take much longer. Beware though many of the buses stop running properly from Canada Water after 9.30pm or so – they then can be timetabled with long gaps till next one that get even lomger when the next 2 timetabled ones don’t turn up, etc.

      I think this hotel/hostel will rapidly fill up with Canary Wharf workers as regulars returning most weeks for a few nights for large parts of the year – there is a demand for this and much other accommodation that’s close enough is priced well oit of reach for workers or professionals that can’t bill their accommodation costs to where they’re working, who have some days in the office they travel to and WFH.

      Reply
  • Barrel for Scraping says:
    14 Aug14 August 08:20

    It wasn’t originally a Hilton, before Hilton it was Holiday Inn and before that it was something else.

    When it became a Doubletree it wasn’t a downgrade, it was a nicer hotel once it had been refurbished.

    Reply
    • Rob says:
      14 Aug14 August 08:51

      Must have been short-lived. It was a Hilton when I lived down that neck of the woods in the mid 1990s, and it can’t have been opened much later than 1988/9 because it was the late 80s property crash that caused it to become a hotel.

      Reply

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