My wife’s parents came to the UK to spend Christmas and New Year with us. A few weeks before they arrived we decided to look into spending New Year’s Eve in London, but as you might expect many of the hotels bookable with points either had no availability or were very expensive due to dynamic pricing.
Thankfully we had four Hilton free night certificates on my wife’s account and there were a few Hilton properties in central London that still had standard award nights bookable. Based on the fact that it had an executive lounge and was pet-friendly (we’d be bringing our dog with us), we booked the London Hilton on Park Lane.
London Hilton on Park Lane Bottom Line Review
Staying at the London Hilton on Park Lane ended up being a superb choice. We were upgraded to an amazing Deluxe Park Lane Suite for one of our rooms, we got lounge access (via my wife’s Diamond status) for both rooms despite both rooms being booked on my wife’s account, and it was a good location for exploring the city.
The executive lounge had a better-than-expected spread for both breakfast and evening drinks/canapes. On our first evening there, the canapes included lamb kofta, chicken skewers, chicken salad, cold cuts, fruit, and lots of other snacks, so it was plenty to fill us up. The evening reception usually runs from 5pm-7pm, but that night they continued to offer free-flowing sparkling wine through 10pm because it was New Year’s Eve. They didn’t skimp on this either; there were a dozen bottles kept on ice through 10pm, plus they didn’t seem to bat an eyelid when another family took a bottle with them back to their room so that they could presumably have it at midnight.
Even though it’s not highest Hilton points redemption in London, if we want a fancy stay there in the future and have Hilton free night certificates to burn, I certainly wouldn’t object to booking this property again. Thumbs up.
- Points Price: Hilton uses dynamic pricing, so in theory they could charge anything up to 250,000 points (the current max) for this property. That said, our first night would’ve cost 90,000 points, while the second night would’ve been 85,000 points. Other Hilton properties in London go up to 150,000 points (or possibly more) per night for standard awards, so 85,000-90,000 points doesn’t feel like a bad redemption depending on the cash price for your dates.
- Cash Price: With this being London, prices can vary widely. For our two nights over New Year’s Eve, the cash price was $976.41 per night including tax. It therefore felt like a great use of our free night certificates, even though the points pricing was lower than you might expect.
- Points Value: For our nights at least, it was excellent value as you could get more than 1 cent per point of value which is more than double what you can normally expect to get from Hilton Honors points. At other times of year though, the value isn’t that good.
- Resort or Destination Fee: None.
- Parking: Yes, which costs £50 per day (~$69). Unfortunately it can’t be charged to the room, so you can’t use things like Hilton credits on eligible American Express credit cards to help offset the cost.
It’s an underground parking lot that’s extremely tight to maneuver around. I’m used to driving on the right hand side of the car and we only have a Toyota Prius, so it’s not enormous. I imagine someone new to driving on the other side of the car – particularly in a potentially larger rental vehicle – might be even more nervous about hitting other cars. As it was, I had to do a 537 point turn to reverse in without dinging other cars due to the unfortunately-placed columns around (picture the Austin Powers scene where he tries to turn around the cart). - Deluxe Park Lane Suite: We’d booked two king rooms, but one of them was proactively upgraded to a Deluxe Park Lane Suite. This was a very pleasant surprise as I’d assumed there wouldn’t be any upgrades available even if we asked due to New Year’s Eve presumably being busy. As it turns out, the hotel wasn’t as busy that night as we’d expected.
The suite had an entranceway that led through to the large living room. This had a sofa, armchair, and coffee table, as well as a dining table with seating for four. At the opposite end of the room was a wall-mounted TV and cabinet that contained tea and coffee-making facilities, various types of drinking glasses, and an empty mini-bar.
The living room had a door that led out to a long balcony with extensive views. We could see a Ferris wheel in the distance; if you see that, it’s not the London Eye – it’s just a regular Ferris wheel at a nearby fairground.
The bedroom with a king bed was a pretty good size for London standards, plus there was a long walk-in closet with a safe, bathrobes, etc.
The bathroom had a walk-in shower with both a rainfall and handheld shower head, along with a separate bathtub and two sinks.
My only complaint about the suite is that there was an opaque window between the bedroom and bathroom. This was completely unnecessary seeing as you couldn’t see through; all it served to do was light up the bedroom at night time if you want the light on in the bathroom. - Housekeeping: I think we declined housekeeping, so nothing to report there.
- Turndown service: Not that I’m aware of.
- Internet: This seemed decent. I didn’t have to do a ton of work during our stay, but any time I needed to get online the connection was fast enough.
- Dining: The hotel has quite a few dining options:
- Park Corner Brasserie
- Revery Bar
- Mr Porter
- 99 Sushi
- Shanghai Me
- Bund Lounge (seemingly a speakeasy in Shanghai Me)
- In-room dining
- Club Lounge: Yes. This is on the first floor (in the UK, that’s the floor above the ground floor, i.e. what would be the second floor in the US). It’s open from 7am-10pm, with breakfast being served each day from 7am-11am and canapes and drinks being served daily from 5pm-7pm. If you have Diamond status, complimentary breakfast is served in the lounge rather than the breakfast restaurant.
There was a good selection of food and drink at both breakfast and the evening reception – certainly better than what I’ve experienced at an average lounge in the US.
There are a couple of barista-type machines serving tea and coffee, with these coming in the form of a tablet screen and what looks like a regular faucet.
The lounge was fairly spacious, with 15+ tables seating up to four people, as well as additional seating and a tall island with high seating available in the food area. We didn’t have any problem finding a table during our stay and it never felt too busy or noisy other than when one person decided to kindly play videos loudly on their phone.
We only visited the lounge in the morning and evening, so I’m not sure if limited snacks are provided during the day. - Spa: No
- Fitness Room: This was more spacious than I’d expected, with all kinds of cardio equipment and weights including a couple of Peloton bikes.
There was a mini fridge with bottled water, as well as a fruit bowl in case you want a free snack during your stay.
There’s also a steam room and sauna that guests can take advantage of. - Pool: No.
- Welcome Amenity: There were a few bottles of water, but that’s it. I was more than happy with getting a suite upgrade though – I didn’t miss there not being a few pieces of fruit or a couple of truffles.
- Service: We didn’t have extensive interactions with any staff members, but the front desk and executive lounge staff were all friendly. There’s no ice machine, so when I called down to get an ice bucket brought up that arrived pretty promptly.
- Pet Policy: Yes, dogs are allowed. They have to weigh 24 lbs or less and there’s a limit of one dog. The pet fee is £50 (~$69) which isn’t too bad if you’re staying for two or more nights as the fee is payable per stay rather than per night.
- Location: Park Lane is a fancy part of London (on the UK Monopoly board, Park Lane and Mayfair are the equivalent of Park Place and Broadway on the US Monopoly board). Hyde Park is opposite the hotel, while Buckingham Palace is a half-mile walk in the other direction.
The Hyde Park Corner tube station is only a five minute walk away, but it’s only served by the Piccadilly line. Green Park tube station is a few additional minutes walk in the other direction, but it’s served by the Piccadilly, Jubilee, and Victoria lines, so that could be a better option depending on where you want to get to. - Elite Benefits: My wife has Diamond status with Hilton courtesy of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card. We received:
- Suite upgrade for one room
- Lounge access for both rooms (strictly speaking, the hotel only had to extend access to one room)
- Complimentary breakfast in the lounge
- Would I stay again? Definitely, if we have free night certificates to redeem and want to treat ourselves. You won’t be maximizing the certificates to the greatest extent versus the points cost, but it can still be very good value cash-wise depending on your dates.
That said, this past week we stayed at a completely different London hotel (the Hyatt House London Stratford) that’ll likely be our go-to for most future non-fancy (but still very nice) stays. I’ll be publishing a review of that property in the next few weeks.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Suite upgrade – There’s no guarantee you’ll receive a suite upgrade with Diamond status during your stay, but the fact that they proactively upgraded us bodes well for their treatment of other elite members.
- Club lounge – This was a very good lounge, plus they let both rooms we booked on the same account have access. The additional three hours of sparkling wine being served on New Year’s Eve was also a very nice touch.
- Suite size – Our Deluxe Park Lane Suite was excellent and it was nice having a balcony, even if we did make minimal use of it due to the winter temperatures.
Cons
- Window between the bedroom and bathroom – It’s not a privacy issue; it’s just annoying that there was seemingly no consideration about the light bleeding through to the bedroom at night
Walkthrough Video Of Our Deluxe Park Lane Suite At The London Hilton On Park Lane
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Image Gallery
Hotel
Deluxe Park Lane Suite
Executive Lounge
Executive Lounge Breakfast
Executive Lounge Drinks & Canapes
Amenities
Parking
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Kippers?
Well done. It’s a fantastic location by the park, shopping, great restaurants, and of course many key sights in the city.
Great review Stephen, I always appreciate the attention to detail in your descriptions/posts.
Thanks!
One thing people should be aware of is that the only stairs are behind the fire alarm door. The kiosk you need to use to get an elevator broke during our stay and I had to find a cleaning lady who called down. She found out it was broken on all floors and was instructed to take us through a door to the service elevator. A lot of other guests were being brought down that way.. I won’t be staying there again because I don’t like not having stairs as an option.
Stephen:
Could you please post a video of your “537 point turn” in the parking garage?
Looking forward to it.
I’ll have to ask the hotel if they have CCTV footage of it 😉