Thistle London Park Lane — Hotel in London

My recent stay at Thistle London Park Lane was unfortunately marred by several negative incidents that have left me with a strong recommendation against choosing this hotel. Over the course of five nights, my friend and I encountered numerous issues that significantly impacted our overall experience.

The most egregious and frustrating incident involved an unwarranted fine of £500 for alleged smoking inside our room. I want to emphasize that we did not smoke inside the room at any point during our stay. Upon returning to the hotel one day, we found ourselves unable to open the door to our room. After inquiring at the reception, we were informed that security had double-locked our room due to a supposed smoking smell. To our surprise, we were not given an opportunity to discuss this matter further or provide any evidence to refute the claim. Instead, we were denied access to our room until the fine was paid in full. With no alternative options available, we reluctantly paid the fine to regain access to our room.

The lack of communication and the hotel's refusal to engage in a proper discussion or investigation regarding the alleged smoking incident left us feeling unfairly treated and disrespected. We were denied the chance to present our case or offer any evidence to counter their claim. This unilateral approach to issue resolution was highly disappointing and reflects poorly on the hotel's customer service.

Beyond this incident, we encountered other minor inconveniences during our stay, which further compounded our dissatisfaction. These issues, although relatively minor on their own, contributed to an overall negative impression of the hotel. However, it is important to note that these minor inconveniences pale in comparison to the unjust fine we were forced to pay.

Given the unsatisfactory experiences we endured during our stay, I cannot, under any circumstances, recommend Thistle Park Lane London. The hotel's handling of the alleged smoking incident, lack of communication, and the overall poor customer service left a lasting negative impression. I strongly advise potential guests to consider alternative accommodations in the area to avoid similar disappointments.

I hope this review serves as honest feedback for both the management of Thistle London Park Lane and prospective guests, and that necessary improvements are made to ensure a more positive experience for...

I booked in & paid for two rooms for two nights fully in advance. I even messaged the property to request the two rooms to be close together if possible & they responded that they will try to do so.

We arrive 2 hours before check in to drop off our bags before heading to a lunch reservation we had booked. We were told they were overbooked and didn’t have rooms available for us. They asked us to wait for them to figure something out, to which we waited & tried to find alternatives on our own.

The offer they gave was a sister hotel down the block without an upgraded room or any other benefits after 30 minutes. They were also not agreeable to a reduced price for the stay either. Thus, we decided to find another hotel independently that was across the city.

I will say the reception manager did get us a taxi to our new hotel, which was nice. However, this is after wasting almost 2 hours in both getting there, finding a new hotel, sitting in traffic, missing our lunch reservation & our timed ticket for the British Museum. This was a sour start to our trip to London & this literally could’ve all been avoided had they at least had the human decency to call me ahead of time. I also now have the pleasant experience of waiting for a response from the actual hotel manager to come to work on Monday morning to get my refund.

I’m disappointed and angry with this experience. I’ve never had a hotel cancel last minute due to overbooking, literally as I’m there in person. I would not recommend this hotel or any of their sister properties.

EDIT: To the response of the hotel management—please take note that this exact situation occurred to another guest 2 weeks ago. This other guest’s review said they also were told they were oversold & thus they had to get another hotel for 200 pounds more. The hotel management also said at the end that they will “review and update policies to entire this does not occur again”, & yet, it happens again 2 weeks later. If you’re going to apologize at least be honest and don’t make claims for improvement you have no intentions of following upon....

Our Travel Agent booked this accommodation for us on a 4 star request. Unfortunately we were really disappointed. The room was worn out and in need of updating. We stayed for two nights after a long haul flight . The room was really small so the double bed was pushed up against a wall which meant one of us (being me as I was the younger of the two of us being almost 70) I had to perform gymnastics manoeuvres to get out of the bed from the wall side. The shower floor was really slippery and we had a big step down to exit it while holding on in fear of slipping and ending the holiday in hospital. There was only one chair to sit on for a double room for two people? The air conditioning didn’t seem to work as the room was really hot and the duvet was thick and heavy. We didn’t mind because we were able to turn it off and open the window for fresh air. But there was a local ‘Boy Racer’ who would zoom past at early hours of the morning both nights that we were there with his car stereo blaring and his exhaust firing off. The second night the Police were onto him as there were sirens sounding and blue lights flashing! We could hear the chase through the streets fading into the distance until a while later when he came back and woke us up again with a high speed roar along the street. Needless to say we were shattered when we left and were glad of a quiet nights sleep at our following hotel. The staff were exceptional and very friendly and helpful. They always looked immaculate in their uniforms and were very helpful lifting our bags up and down the steps. We had to walk along the road to the next hotel for breakfast. We were not sure why. But when we arrived we were greeted by friendly ‘security’ guards who were wearing bulletproof vests??? A bit strange we thought? I see that there have been really good reviews previously for this hotel? Perhaps we just got...