Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park

We spent 3 days in this hotel during road show. Great breakfasts, location.

Due to an unfortunate oversight on my part, we were unable to stay at our favorite hotel in this area and ended up at the Mandarin Oriental instead. Oh, the room was large and well furnished (although extremely dark), and the premises clean and tidy. The service was generally good, too. Unfortunately we did not have a room with a view of Hyde Park, which might have made a difference about how we felt about this hotel, but the age of the building, despite the extensive remodeling, bothered us. Every walk down the hallways over the very creaky floorboards made us feel as if we were in a haunted house. And the lovely and modern bathroom looked great--it just didn't work well and the courteous staff were unable to make it work well. The stall shower did not drain fast enough (despite 6 maintenance calls and literally hours of time spent by the staff to repair the problem) so we were constantly forced to take "military-style" showers so as not to flood the hotel. Shame, shame Mandarin Oriental. This is unacceptable.

There is an up side however. Both the cocktail lounge and restaurant(s) were excellent every time and even provided us with some lively entertainment and conversation, since various celebrities seem to habitue these venues on a regular basis. Among others, we saw an inebriated pop star stumble from the cocktail lounge and fall flat on his face in the lobby (he wasn't seriously hurt), and another night, while we were eathing, a former British Prime Minister and party sat nearby having dinner and quite a lively, yet lovely, conversation.

We have been a fan of Mandarin Oriental Hotels for a few years now and are happy to pay a premium to stay in a fab room and receive their legendary service, as it's totally worth the extra cash. Unfortunately this hotel wasn't up to the same standards as the others we have stayed in.

The room itself was tired - both in terms of the furniture and the decor. The curtains were pretty dirty, and the blinds didn't fit to the window, so as soon as the sun came up we had light streaming in, so we were awake at 5am and couldn't get the blinds or curtains to close over it!

In the bathroom, the bath surface was peeling away leaving a grubby brown colour all over the bath. I called Reception to let them know and see if we could move to a room with a cleaner bath. The guy on Reception responded that lots of the baths are like this because they are so old and that we wouldn't be able to move room. A supervisor was apparently sent to the room after a relatively abrupt phone call with the guy on the desk, but he/she never showed up! That's pretty poor for a Mandarin! We complained again on check out and did get the service charge refunded, which was ok. Just definitely something to look out for before you unpack, as it's not nice at all!

The rest of the hotel is also looking tired and in need of a refurb. We noticed the walls in the Park restuarant had stains all up them and it felt pretty grubby and dated. The service in the restaurant in the evening and at breakfast was excellent though and we had some fab, delicious meals together.

Considering the standard of the room and the patchy servivce we received, it wasn't good value for money. The hotel was expensive and I don't feel we had the same fab experience that we have consistently seen in other Mandarin hotels. This is my first review on a Mandarin that hasn't been perfect! Very very disappointing.

Next time we stay in London, we'll stay elsewhere, probably for a cheaper price, and perhaps just eat in the restaurant here instead!