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We visited London in 2019 and enjoyed our visit so much that we had to come back again and check out the locations that we missed on our previous visit. Our itinerary was filled with many iconic locations including Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace, just to name a few.

We wanted to stay within walking distance to the main attractions and Conrad London St. James was in a superb location. Comparing it to our previous accommodation in London, we have some mixed reviews about this hotel.

LOCATION

The location of this hotel is absolutely fantastic and we were able to walk to all of London’s top attractions. We were also within walking distance to many restaurants, pubs, and convenience stores.

The central location was one of the main reasons we selected this hotel. Westminster Abbey is right around the corner and the St. James’s Park subway station was right across the street.

Crystal also has Diamond status with Hilton, so we were able to book our stay with points, which was the other reason why we chose this particular hotel over others in the area.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

We arrived via Uber and were immediately greeted at the door. The bellman assisted us with our bags and checking in took no more than 15 minutes. They offered to take our luggage to our room, but we wanted to take our own bags with us and thanked them for their offer.

Once we checked in, the receptionist walked us over to the elevator and pointed out some of the hotels amenities such as their beautiful lounge with pink chairs and their on-site restaurants.

The lobby was bright, but once we left the main lobby, the rest of the hotel was dimly lit. Some people prefer the mood of the lights being this way, but we prefer brightly lit hotels, especially natural light.

THE ROOM

We booked the Twin Superior Room for three nights and were not impressed with the layout and style of the room. The space felt cramped and a tad outdated. There was a large closet where we found the iron, ironing board, safe, and blow dryer.

Next to the closet was a Nespresso machine, an electric kettle for tea, and a mini refrigerator. We always appreciate a room with a fridge so that we can chill our water and leftover food. The refrigerator was stocked with some complimentary water.

The beds were on the small side but that was expected; however, Crystal was not a fan of the mattress. It was a bit too firm, which usually isn’t the case since Hilton is known to have the most comfortable beds compared to other hotels. Next to both beds were nightstands with outlets.

In front of the beds was a large 42-inch TV and next to it a little nook where a full-length mirror hung. This full-length mirror was much needed as this was the space we used to blow dry our hair (more on this later).

There was a large desk facing the window and international media hub which was a nice space to connect and charge our devices. If you forgot to bring a converter, you can use the US or European outlet here.

Bathroom

The spacious marble bathroom looked great and there was a separate area for the toilet. The shower was equipped with a rainfall shower head and a handheld shower and we always use the latter. Unfortunately, the design of this shower created a mess every time we used the handheld shower.

Using the handheld shower head flooded the bathroom floor since there was no shower curtain. It was one of those showers with a partial glass wall, but this one barely covered half of the bathtub. It basically only shielded water if you used the rainfall shower head.

Every time we stepped out of the shower, we had to place at least three towels on the floor to soak up the water. To add to the frustration, the shower drainage wasn’t working properly so we had to remove the drainage cover.

The sink area had plenty of space for both of our toiletries and underneath the sink, there was a separate storage unit on wheels that had a pair of slippers, a dental kit, shaving kit, mouthwash, makeup pads and a shower cap. We loved the large mirror with the illuminated lights around it which we needed since the room itself was pretty dark.

Earlier we mentioned having to use the blow dryer where the full-length mirror was located. We wanted to use the blow dryer in the bathroom where it’s most convenient, but surprisingly, there wasn’t an outlet that matched the plug to the blow dryer.

Housekeeping

We were pretty disappointed with the housekeeping. When we returned to our room after a day of activities, housekeeping had come by to tidy up the room; however, they did a pretty poor job of replenishing things they took. Strangely, they took the majority of our towels (even the unused ones) and did not provide new towels.

We thought perhaps housekeeping would eventually return, but they never did so we had to call the front desk to ask for more towels. We didn’t want this to happen again, so we opted not to get housekeeping service for the remainder of our stay.

Having that feeling that things weren’t going to get done properly isn’t something we were expecting from a 5-star luxury hotel.

Air Conditioning

We’ve never had to review air conditioning, but we just happened to get unlucky with the AC unit being out of order for two out of the three days of our stay. Without AC, the room was especially stuffy after our showers and when we were blow-drying our hair.

We addressed the issue to the front desk and thought it would get resolved in a timely matter, but after 24 hours, we were still without AC. We communicated the issue again with the front desk (this time in person) and were advised that the entire floor had an AC outage.

We weren’t offered another room nor were we made aware of the outage. The staff offered to open the window in our room (it’s locked, so they had to unlock it), which helped a little but definitely not equivalent to having AC, especially in the summer.

In the end, the AC never got fixed while we were there. For being a luxury hotel, this was definitely a disappointment. We were never given any updates regarding the AC and at checkout, nothing was said about the inconvenience.

AMENITIES

Pem Restaurant

With Crystal’s Diamond status, our stay came with a complimentary breakfast for two. We had the choice of dining at the Pem Restaurant or at the Executive Lounge. We chose to dine at the restaurant and the service here was top-notch. The atmosphere is art deco-inspired and the dining area was comfortable and spacious.

We had an array of choices from the breakfast buffet. Our favorites were the pastries and fresh Kiwi Veggie Lime juice. We were impressed that by the second day, the attending server had remembered our drinks from the prior day.

On our last day, we decided to check and see if the Executive Lounge had a better breakfast buffet. It was similar but with fewer options, so we decided to head back to the restaurant. Since it was the weekend, they were offering complimentary mimosas.

Executive Lounge Access

The Executive Lounge is a nice perk and we took full advantage of it on this trip. The lounge offers Breakfast, Afternoon Treats, and Evening Canapes & Drinks. The lounge is quite spacious and the food was always presented so beautifully.

On our first night, after we checked in, we were starving and grabbed some light bites and drinks. There were a ton of drink options including beer, wine, liquor, soft drinks, water, coffee, and tea.

The food was fantastic and we wish we would have arrived sooner so that we could have tried the carrot cake. We LOVE carrot cake. The mini potato salad and veggie dumplings were excellent. We loved the veggie dumplings so much that we kept on going back for more servings.

We stopped by for Afternoon Treats on another day and most of the treats on this day were seafood. We weren’t in the mood for smoked salmon or tuna tartare so we decided to just grab some coffee and hot tea to relax and recharge.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We checked out of the hotel with such disappointment. From the broken AC unit, unpleasant shower experience, and poor housekeeping, it felt like we were staying at 3-star hotel.

Luckily, the staff at the restaurant and executive lounge were amazing, so that made us feel a little better about the price we were paying to stay here. And of course, as we mentioned earlier, the location is superb.

With all that being said, there was a concierge checking in on our stay via text message. Crystal’s phone was off for the majority of our stay, so we replied to let them know about our situation regarding the air conditioning. They apologized for the inconvenience and assured her that the guest relations team would be in contact wit her.

Once we returned home, the guest relations manager apologized again for the issues and credited Crystal’s account with Hilton points.

CONRAD LONDON ST. JAMES
22-28 Broadway, London, SW1H 0BH, United Kingdom (MAP)

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