JW Marriott Grosvenor House – a quick review

[FlyingPtarmigan]

I’ve just spent five nights at Grosvenor House on points, hiding from some building work at home.

Some stuff to supplement Sinead’s review from 15 Jan 2023.

The photos on the web site doesn’t do the rooms justice. They are significantly larger than they look on the photos with massive beds.

The hotel executive lounge is excellent. The lounge is what might otherwise be a rather unpromising internal space on the ground floor, just opposite reception and next to the main bank of lifts. It’s had an excellent fit out with a good range of different types of seating; some quiet corners and very well thought out lighting. As a result, it doesn’t feel like it doesn’t have windows.

A good range of food is offered during the day:
– “continental” breakfast, which included very competently cooked scrambled eggs, good quality bacon, sausages and smoked salmon; prepared fresh fruit; a range of smoothies and juices; parties and muffins; cold meats and cheese; and a range of yoghurts

– afternoon tea with scones; cake and biscuits

– free pour drinks from 17:30-21:30 with a range of bottled beers; Prosecco; a choice of three white wines; two red wines; a range of soft drinks and nuts/crips/pretzels. A range of spirits are available on request at no charge.

– hot food served from 18:00-20:00 – typically one veggie, one non-veggie, salad and a hot(ish

There is a Corrigan restaurant in the hotel and I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the ingredients came from that restaurant. The lounge serves Netherend Farm butter, which is used by my local Michelin star restaurant; the breakfast yoghurts would be described as “artisan” in my local deli and have a Great Taste label on them; and the smoked salmon wasn’t the watery, thin rubbish you often get on buffets.

The evening food included a Cornish cod cooked with layered potatoes and olives; chicken curry and poached chicken served with roast potatoes. I’d have honestly been happy with the food if I’d been served it in a restaurant. Pretty it’s not. But it’s tasty and filling.

The evening meal food appears to avoid pork and beef as the hotel has quite a high proportion of Middle Eastern and Indian clients.

The staff in the lounge are excellent. They were very responsive and we saw numerous small acts of thoughtfulness. For example, my wife mentioned that the chicken curry had run out and the member of staff came and found her when they brought out a fresh batch. Once we’d ordered gin, they discretely checked back with us to see if we needed another.

In all, we spent five nights at the hotel and spent zero on food and drink (other than coffees) outside of the hotel, which is a result given how much the builders are costing us.

We did head to the Red Room cocktail bar one evening. Avoid – the cocktails are rubbish and made without any love. My Old Fashioned was made so badly that I refused to either drink or pay for it. The cocktail bar in the steak restaurant turned out to be much better, with staff who know their stuff and care about what they’re pouring.

Gym bunnies will be interested to know that the gym equipment was being completely replaced whilst we were staying with brand new TechoGym stuff.

One of the things the stay rammed home to me was how good a use of points the stay was. Whilst I wouldn’t baulk at paying good money/points to stay abroad, I seldom do it in London. I need to review that thinking.

[TGLoyalty]

Good to hear the lounge is good I didn’t get to try it out on my last 1 night stay

re Red room – really needs to be rethought its the wrong bar concept for this hotel

I will check out the bar in the steakhouse next time 🙂

However, how was the check in and check out experience ? Mine was absolutely terrible

[FlyingPtarmigan]

Check-in was a bit shonky. Not enough people for the number of arrivals.

They insisted on seeing ID I didn’t have and wanted a physical card rather than Apple Pay.

[Rob]

Thanks for this, appreciate the extra details.

[TGLoyalty]

FlyingPtarmigan wrote:

Check-in was a bit shonky. Not enough people for the number of arrivals.

They insisted on seeing ID I didn’t have and wanted a physical card rather than Apple Pay.

Yup started making sure I have my drivers licence and physical card now in the U.K. but clearly they still haven’t sorted the lack of trained check in staff.

They had plenty of staff standing around smiling but not actually checking people in / out while I was there.

[cats_are_best]

I just spent a night there for a friend’s event at the hotel, booked an exec king on points – good value as the cash rates were high, worked out around 1p/point.

It’s been a few years since I was last there and I’d seen a few really bad reviews.

Check-in was fine, only waited a couple of minutes, they accepted Amex for ID, checked my preferences and called housekeeping to change something.

The room was way bigger than the ‘same’ booking last time, though still just a bath/shower combo.

Service was good, housekeeping had made the change before I even reached the room, then came back a few minutes later to see if all was ok.

Lounge afternoon snacks had no savoury choices, the offer was scones or scones, or if you didn’t fancy either of those, you could have a scone.

Around 1830 I nipped in to see the evening food, the lounge was almost full, with a queue at the buffet, couldn’t even see what was on offer. I had a glass of wine and a crusty roll as these didn’t involve queuing, then headed to the party.

Breakfast was ok, decent range of options, though the scrambled eggs were ‘creamy’ style which I dislike.

Staff I encountered were all friendly/helpful, perhaps the training has been successful.