Nice hotel, shame about the service.
Stayed here for a few days during a conference - I guess, given the location, that the folks who stay here are just for that. It's a great location, next door to Excel, and the rooms are perfectly fine. But boy, oh boy, is the desk service poor. Attentive, but seriously miss-guided.
My assistant had me booked in for a few nights and my schedule was potentially fluid for the last day of my stay - flying out of Heathrow - so I asked if it would be okay to cancel the last night. "no problem, just let us know tomorrow" they said. Next day I juggled my schedule and rearranged to stay out near Heathrow. When I came back to the hotel and let them know, they said "fine, thanks for letting us know - but you still have to pay for the room". After some back and forth with the manager, he accepted that they should have told me that before I rearranged my schedule - now I was commited to things out at Heathrow, along with an alternate hotel room. However, policy was that I still had to pick up the room charge.
That evening I explained I had to meet someone the next morning in London, could they arrange a car? "no problem, it'll take you 45 minutes to get there at that time and the car will be ready for you". Duly next morning, at the time arranged, I took off in the car and told the driver where we were headed. For an 8 am meeting. "you've got no chance, that'll take an hour and a half", he said. "I wish they wouldn't keep doing this, telling customers how long rides will take" he added. "We've had people miss trains and planes because the reception has no idea how long trips take. We keep telling them to stop doing it and they don't listen".
So, I arrived 30 minutes late for an important meeting and it cascaded through my morning.
Everyone was pleasant enough, but their incompetent guidance cost me additional expense and embarrassment.
Great location, but won't be using the hotel again. And if this is how Crowne treat it's guests, then I'll try and avoid them in general. read more