Crowne Plaza London - Battersea

“Great location some bits needing a tweak”

we stayed for a night on a trip round the South East. We informed reception that we were parking at the hotel but we still spent 10 minutes trying to get through the barrier and then the door to the lifts. We were given an upgrade to river view and better room (not sure what the original rom looke… more

we stayed for a night on a trip round the South East. We informed reception that we were parking at the hotel but we still spent 10 minutes trying to get through the barrier and then the door to the lifts. We were given an upgrade to river view and better room (not sure what the original rom looked like). Room 403 over looked the river and helipad. Contrary to what has been said the room is not noisy. It has 2 sets of double glazing and sometime you never even noticed helicopters landing. The room is a bit showy all black on black with orange trim. It had all you needed like robes slippers and an ironing board. It even had a TV in the bath. We never ate at the hotel so cannot comment on the food. We had a drink at the bar and it overlooks the river so a great place for a drink.

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“Spa and Gin Afternoon Tea with additional expenses”

It's always hard to know what you are buying into when booking a treat with a voucher and especially if you go by the lovely pictures that always show a venue to the best advantage. Just to say before I review fully that my daughter and myself did have a lovely time overall but there were things t… more

It's always hard to know what you are buying into when booking a treat with a voucher and especially if you go by the lovely pictures that always show a venue to the best advantage. Just to say before I review fully that my daughter and myself did have a lovely time overall but there were things that I wasn't so happy with but perhaps my expectations are too high. First of all the parking, when I popped in to reception to ask about this I was handed a leaflet but not actually told what to do so even when I got to the parking entrance I still had to call reception to ask how to get in... I feel we should have had it explained when I was at the desk so was not sitting in car waiting for the gate to open, but a minor thing to point out. I was told before arriving that I would be charged a surcharge for it 'being a busy time' (?) of £10 but wasn't told clearly that this was 'per person' - so having already spent £49 on the treat this then bumped this up to almost £70 with another £10 on the car parking. The spa had a limit of 3 hours of use and was nice but it was tiny with the changing area absolutely minute with no facilities to get changed in private if you needed to (eg. someone may have medical reasons why they may feel uncomfortable changing in a public space ) but what spoiled our time was people talking so loudly to each other in the hydrotherapy pool that it totally ruined having any chance at relaxation... this was practically the whole time we used this so there wasn't any time when chattering really loudly wasn't going on - bearing in mind the pool was only about 12 foot long so you couldn't avoid people shouting at each other the whole time. Oh well, I'm not very tolerant of loud noises so maybe other people might find people shouting at the tops of their voices not as upsetting as i do but this ruined the whole time of my visit to the spa. The tea though did make up for some of this as it was really lovely and my daughter and I really liked the restaurant space next to the helipad and the river. The staff in there were just lovely and we enjoyed ourselves and although we could have eaten twice as many sandwiches overall the tea was very nice indeed. However, having paid £69 for this treat including the £20 extra for attending when the spa was busy (why? it's much less enjoyable when crowded with folk due to the noise issues) plus the £10 parking (it's not easy to get to if not driving) it ended up being in my opinion (I paid!) an unacceptably expensive deal in the end (£79) which is a shame as for the good bits I would be prepared to return - the tea element and the spa but only when not busy. As it is I wouldn't recommend to anyone to do this unless during the week when presumably quiet and so you get more value for money - I'm still smarting at paying that extra £20 for the spa.

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