Marriott London Hotel Regents Park

Clean hotel, located in St John's Wood/Regency Park areas of London (nice neighborhoods) and convieniently located near Swiss Cottage Tube Station making it fairly easy to get anywhere in London. Great free breakfast.

Room was clean, minibar well stocked and the bed was SO AWESOMEly comfortable. But don't plan on sleeping late. My room was 5 floors up and a corner room on the "quiet" side of the hotel (opposite side of hotel from busy street). Yet, I was woke up every morning either by traffic noise (garbage trucks, emergency vehicles) or the sliding closet door of my next door neighbor. The walls must be paper thin in the place.

Concierge(s) were real hit andmiss; some very friendly and helpful and some nearly clueless about what you were wanting to know about and with huge accents making comprehention all but impossile.The TV selection was BORING! Just a few channels for free and nonsense stuff on each one..

I recently stayed 9 nights at the Marriott Regents Park. I have mixed feelings about the place. It is not exactly at Regents Park. The park is a 15-20 minutes walk which is rather pleasant if you go through the neighborhood and Primrose Hill park.

The reviews here that mention the glacially slow elevators are dead on. This is especially a problem during breakfast time in the morning. It turns out there are some back stairways that are not well-marked if you don't mind climbing. Just ask the staff. Ask for a room on a lower floor.

Our room was quite pleasant. They have clearly recently renovated the rooms. The bedding is very comfortable. The a/c is powerful. The tv is small with not the greatest picture quality, but I think that is par for the course in London. The room was a decent size. The bathroom was fine but it is odd that there is no exhaust fan. There was also an odd odor at times, but opening the window helped get some fresh air in.

There is a busy road behind the hotel. If you are a very light sleeper that might be an issue. You may want to ask for a room on the front of the building which faces a quiet street.

The Swiss Cottage tube stop on the Jubilee line is a short walk away. You can reach it by walking through the pleasant grounds of the community center/school across the street. Getting around by tube is quite easy.

There are several good restaurants on the main street by the tube. Several Thai restaurants that were very good. There are a number of Indian places as well that looked good but we didn't get around to visiting them. There is a Marks & Spencer food market and a little independent market nearby as well. There is a small internet shop that charges GBP 1 per hour on the strip near the Odeon movie theater.

The hotel staff are generally quite nice, especially in the restaurant and the concierge desk.

There was a bit of a mix up with our reservation but things were resolved quickly by the front desk staff.

My biggest issue was the ridiculous fees. I suppose it is Marriott corporate policy. But $30 a day for internet access is beyond outrageous. And also do not use the phone in your room. Unless you have money to burn that is. We misread the chart in the info book. Rather than costing 99 pence per call for a local call it is 99 pence per minute! Our little 9 minute call to a friend cost US$23!!! That is highway robbery. And there can be no reason for it other than simple greed. Calls to mobile phones cost an unbelievable GBP 2.99 PER MINUTE! That is US$6. Marriott really should be ashamed of itself for stealing from its guests this way.

We also knew some folks staying in the hotel at the same time who had their wallets stolen from their room while they were at breakfast. The computer records showed that three entries were made by housekeeping to their room during that time, but their room was not cleaned...just cleaned out apparently. There is a safe in the room. Use it.

My roommate used the gym and found it to be good quality. People seemed to like the pool.

Overall, we liked the location and the room was relatively comfortable. Breakfast was good enough, but for 9 days there wasn't much variety. London is a crazily expensive place. There is no way I would have paid $270 per night (taxes included) for a room of this caliber anywhere else in the world.