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The Churchill is one of two Hyatt Regency Properties in London and for some considerable time it stood out as the best Hyatt option in the city.
The addition of the Great Scotland Yard hotel to Hyatt’s portfolio in 2019 made the title of ‘best Hyatt in London’ a lot harder to decide, but with the Churchill still highly regarded and with my last visit to the property a distant memory, I decided to burn a free night certificate to see what the hotel is like right now.
The admin
- Length of stay: 1 night
- Actual cost of stay: 1 x Category 1-7 Free Night Award*
- Points cost of the booking (had I paid with points): 25,000 points (Category 6)
- Cash cost of the booking (had I booked with cash): $669 (inc. taxes)
- Elite status at time of stay: Hyatt Globalist
- Points earned from the booking: 0 (zero)
- Upgrade instruments used: None
- Room booked: 1 King Bed room
- Room received: Regency Suite King room
- Upgraded: Yes
*This is the free night award you earn through Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards when you credit 60 qualifying nights to your World of Hyatt account or when you earn 100,000 base points.
Getting there/location
The Churchill takes up the whole of west side of Portman Square in London’s Marylebone district and sits within a 2-minute walk of London’s main shopping thoroughfare (Oxford Street) and all the bus routes which that street offers (too many to list).
The property is also just a 5-minute walk from Marble Arch Underground station (the subway) and a 10-minute walk from Bond Street Underground station.
Marble Arch station is a stop on the Central Line which offers a non-stop service to St Paul’s Cathedral and London’s financial centre (the City of London), while Bond Street station is served by the Central Line, the Elizabeth Line and the Jubilee line and gives visitors easy access to most of the major sights that London has to offer.
If you’re arriving from Heathrow and using public transport, the one of the cheapest ways to get to the hotel would be to take the Underground (subway) Piccadilly Line to Green Park, change there to the Jubilee Line, go one stop to Bond Street, and to then walk to the property (-10 minutes).
The quickest way to the property from Heathrow (using public transport) is to take the Elizabeth Line to Bond Street (no changes required) and to then walk to the property (~10 minutes).
If you’re arriving from Gatwick and using public transport, one of the easier ways to get to the hotel would be to take the Thameslink service to London’s Farringdon station, change there to the Elizabeth Line and travel to Bond Street Station from where you’ll have a ~10-minute walk to the hotel.
TFM Tip: If staying at this property, you should consider buying London’s Hidden Walks: Volume 2 (you can buy it from Amazon in the UK and have it delivered to the hotel which much cheaper than buying it in the US) and follow the Marylebone Walk (walk #2 in the book). The self-guided walk starts at Marble Arch and is a great way to see and learn about a part of London that’s well worth a visit and that most tourists never see.
An introduction to the property
The building that the Churchill sits within isn’t exactly one of the nicer buildings in central London …
… but it has a nice-looking entrance and it offers guests a nice bonus that a lot of central London hotels can’t match – access to a beautiful garden (complete with tennis courts) that sits directly opposite the hotel.
Once inside the hotel, the harshness of the building’s exterior architecture is swapped for a considerably more luxurious feel and nods to the man whose name the hotel has borrowed can be found all around.
Check-in & the upgrade
The check-in desks are found to the right of the hotel’s main doors and as I’ve found on just about all of my visits to the Churchill, there was no line of people waiting to be served so I was attended to immediately.
One of the benefits of the World of Hyatt Globalist status that I hold is that I’m eligible for a complimentary upgrade at check-in, and the rooms that I am eligible to be upgraded into include a property’s entry-level suites.
On this occasion, I had booked a 1 King Bed room (the entry-level room that the Churchill sells) with my Free Night Award, and within a few minutes of handing over my ID to the front desk agent, I was told that I had been upgraded to a ‘Regency Suite King’ room (a room that was selling for $1,100/night on the day of check-in).
At this point, the duty manager appeared at my side to welcome me back to the property (that’s twice that this has happened to me at Hyatt’s London properties this year), to confirm that my 4pm late checkout request had already been noted, and to apologize for my room not yet being ready.
The official check-in time at the Churchill is 3pm, so as I was checking in a little after 12:15pm this really wasn’t an issue. Which check-in formalities swiftly completed, I handed my bag over to the bell desk and made my way to the Regency Lounge to get some work done while housekeeping finished up in my room (more on the lounge a little later).
TFM Tip: If you’re eligible for a late checkout make sure you confirm it when you’re checking in to avoid having to have your room keys re-coded at some later point in your stay (the keys are automatically programed to deactivate at approximately 12pm on the day of checkout).
Regency Suite King room
I have a permanent request for a quiet room on a high floor set up on all my hotel loyalty accounts so I was pleased to see that I had been assigned a room on the 8th floor (the hotel has 9 floors) and a good distance from the elevators.
This is the view that greets you as you enter a Regency Suite at the Churchill.
To the left is a walk-in closet featuring hanging space, a set of drawers, a few typical in-room amenities, the room’s safe, a mirror, and a space to store some luggage.
To the right is where you’ll find a second mirror, and the room’s tea/coffee making facilities.
As you move further into the room you come to the suite’s sitting area which is separated from the main sleeping area by a partial wall and which looks out over the Nobu Hotel.
The two areas aren’t really separate rooms so there’s an argument to say that this is as close to being a Junior Suite as it is to being a full suite.
In the sitting area you’ll find a sofa which can be converted into a second bed, a large flatscreen TV, the room’s mini bar (in a cabinet under the TV), and a desk and chair.
The sofa is surprisingly comfortable (considering it’s a sofa bed), the desk is a very good size and there are a suitable number of power outlets in this area.
The desk offers access to power outlets suitable for UK, US and European style plugs …
…and you’ll find more UK-style outlets as well as USB-A ports and a HDMI input under the TV.
The suite’s king size bed dominates the sleeping area and you’ll find the entrance to the ensuite bathroom on the left side of the room.
On this side of the wall that divides the sleeping area from the sitting area is a second TV …
… but only one side of the bed offers easy access to power outlets.
I always find the lack of power on one or both sides of the bed a little irritating in hotels as there’s no real reason for a modern property not to be able to offer guests the option of charging their devices on a bedside table.
The Churchill has managed to provide power for both the bedside lights, so why not offer power outlets on both sides of the bed?
A major issue? No. Obviously not. But it’s still a little annoying.
The suite’s bathroom looks elegant in its black and white finish and offers a bath and separate shower.
The shower cubicle offers a handheld shower as well as a rain shower (of sorts) and the water pressure is very good.
The toiletries on offer are all from Molton Brown (a high-end British brand) and while the toiletries in the shower come in refillable bottles that are attached to the walls …
… the toiletries on offer by the bath are still of the miniature variety.
That’s pretty much all I think that you need to know about the Regency Suite and, overall, it’s hard to know how to sum this room up.
On the positive side of things, the list looks strong.
The furniture and bed are all comfortable, there’s plenty of space, the walk-in closet is great, the bathroom is nice, the desk is a good size, there’s easy access to a variety of power outlets at the desk, and the air conditioning controls seem to work well.
On the negative side of things, the list is very short.
Some of the wooden furniture is looking a little tired and not particularly high-end, and I really wish that both sides of the bed offered easy access to power outlets. That’s it.
So, if I look at those two lists it should be easy for me to conclude that, on the whole, a Regency Suite at the Churchill is a very good room … and for someone like me (someone who was fortunate enough to be upgraded into it) it really is. It’s a great room.
For an upgrader to complain about anything in this suite would be mean-spirited and more than a little ungrateful.
I, however, need to look at this from more than just one point of view, and I think that there may be some people who will be disappointed to find that the Regency Suite doesn’t separate the sleeping area from the sitting area with a full wall + door.
This could be especially true of anyone who books the suite with the view of using the sofa bed for a child and who doesn’t want to have to worry about any noise or light from the sleeping area disturbing that child.
Essentially, how good or bad a room you think this is will, to a large degree, depend on what you’re expecting and how much you have paid.
If you’re expecting a full suite and have paid a sum of money that would usually cover a full suite elsewhere, you may be disappointed.
If you have no need for the sleeping area and sitting area to be fully separated and you’re not expecting them to be, there shouldn’t be much for you to dislike here and you should have a great stay.
Always remember, a well-informed guest is always likely to have a better stay than a guest who makes a lot of assumptions so always do your research before you book.
Here’s a video (approx. 2 mins 40 secs) showing a walkthrough the Churchill’s Regency Suite.
The Regency Club lounge
The Regency Club lounge is on the 8th floor of the hotel (the same floor as the suite I stayed in) and is open between 08:00 and 22:00 daily.
During the day you’ll find a member of the concierge team manning a desk that sits between the two sides of the lounge.
Opposite the concierge desk is the main lounge area which looks like this:
Behind the concierge desk is a smaller, similar looking lounge area which is often a lot less busy than the main area because quite a few guests don’t seem to realize that it exists.
This is what that area looks like:
Both sides of the lounge have areas that offer snacks, non-alcoholic drinks, and tea/coffee making facilities during the day (the coffee is excellent) …
… and between 17:30 and 19:30 every evening there’s a small cold buffet on offer and canapés can be ordered from the lounge staff.
During this visit the snacks on offer during the day included:
- Banana chips
- Walnut halves
- Hazelnuts
- Pecan nuts
- Cheddar bites
- A variety of cookies (biscuits)
- Assorted candy (sweets)
- Fresh fruit (mainly apples and satsumas)
The small cold buffet offered in the evening included:
- A charcuterie selection (ham, turkey ham, salami, Bresaola)
- A cheese selection (Cheddar, Stilton, and Brie)
- A bread selection (Focaccia, Lavroche, baguettes, pretzel bread, and seeded crackers)
- Salad items (with dressings)
- Fried pitta bread
- Plum chutney
- Cappuccino cake
- Baked chocolate tart
Alcoholic drinks are also on offer in the evenings with wines, prosecco, beer, and a few spirits set out on the side for self-service.
None of the alcoholic drinks on offer are high-end (the wines on offer on this visit were poor), but the Prosecco was passable, and it was good to see that Tanqueray Gin is available.
The final three things that I need to mention about the Regency Lounge are …
The view (there really isn’t one):
The fact that both sides of the lounge offer very few power outlets (if you plan to work in the lounge make sure your devices are well charged).
And one nice little extra that you don’t often see in hotel lounges – a shower room.
The shower room can be especially useful if you arrive into London on an early flight and get to the hotel before your room is ready. The bell desk will take care of any luggage you don’t need and you can use the lounge to freshen up for the day ahead (assuming your room or elite status gives you lounge access).
Breakfast
If you have top-tier Globalist status you can choose whether to have breakfast in the lounge (where a small and mainly continental buffet is offered) or in the hotel’s main restaurant – the Montagu Kitchen – where a full buffet and an a la carte menu are on offer.
If you don’t have breakfast included as an elite benefit but have booked a room which includes lounge access, your complimentary breakfast is limited to the lounge offering.
The Montagu Kitchen is located on the 1st floor (if you’re American) or the ground floor (if you’re British) and sits at the opposite end of the building to the check-in desks and the concierge.
This is what it looks like:
The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner but, as is usual for most of my hotel stays, I only had breakfast on site.
Globalists are invited to enjoy the buffet or the a la carte menu that the Montagu offers and as far as I can tell from all my visits here, the hotel doesn’t say that if you order from the menu, you can’t enjoy whatever catches your eye at the buffet as well.
That being said, I might have just been lucky on all my visits to date so it’s worth checking before you gorge on everything in sight!
The buffet is extensive and includes the standard hot options with eggs made to order by the chefs working the kitchen, as well as a variety of cold items including fruit, yoghurts, cold cuts, salads, cereals, breads, pastries and juices.
Below, you should be able to see what the breakfast menu looks like and from it you can see that for anyone who doesn’t have lounge access or breakfast included (in their room rate or as an elite benefit), the full buffet costs £35/~$45, the continental buffet costs £25/~$32, and individual a la carte options start from £9/~$12 (for smashed avocado) and go up to £27/~$35 (a full English breakfast).
The quality of the food on offer at the Montagu breakfast is pretty good (the poached eggs are us excellent), the buffet offers something for just about everyone and the staff are friendly and usually quick to replenish the buffet when they see that things are running low.
As hotel breakfast in London go, this one is as expensive as most seem to be nowadays, but the property doesn’t seem to cut corners when it comes to what’s offered so that’s at least one redeeming feature.
For anyone wondering what the lounge breakfast offering is like, here are a few images:
Note: If you like to have breakfast in whatever hotel you’re staying in, London is one of the increasingly large number of cities in which having breakfast included as an elite benefit can be a good money saver. Prices in London are now as out of control as they are in large parts of the US.
Other dining & bars
Locanda Locatelli
The Montagu Kitchen is the Churchill’s primary restaurant, but there’s also a second restaurant attached to the property – Locanda Locatelli.
This is the Michelin-starred restaurant of Italian chef and restaurateur Giorgio Locatelli and it offers lunch and dinner during the following hours:
- Monday: Closed
- Thursday – Sunday: Lunch 12.00 – 15.00
- Tuesday – Saturday: Dinner 18.00 – 23.00
- Sunday: Dinner 18.00 – 22.30
Note: In true Mediterranean style, Locanda Locatelli closes for a week every August for staff annual leave. In 2024, the restaurant will be closed between Monday 19th August and Monday 26th August.
I didn’t get to enjoy Locanda Locatelli on this visit but given that it still has a Michelin star (it has held a star every year since 2003), I expect the food is still as wonderful and expensive as it was the last few times I dined there.
The Churchill Bar
Just like the hotel, the bar at this Hyatt Regency is named after Sir Winston Churchill and it’s one of my favorite hotel bars in London.
The bar opens at 17:00 every day and stays open until 00:00 from Monday to Wednesday and on Sundays, and until 01:00 from Thursday to Saturday.
The bar’s decor takes guests back to the 1920s, the staff here are exceptionally friendly and helpful, and it offers an outdoor covered terrace where you can relax with a cigar in true Churchillian fashion.
The bar serves cocktails, wines, beers, and a variety of non-alcoholic drinks, and a small food menu is also available that varies according to the season (nibbles, small plates, flatbreads, caviar, and few desserts).
Prices in the Churchill Bar are as you’d expect them to be in a central London hotel bar (they’re high), but with a nice Malbec available for £15/175ml glass (~$19), a middle-of-the-road Californian Chardonnay available for £16/175ml glass (~$20), and a good Sancerre available for £19/175ml glass (~$24), it offers better “value” than a number of other hotel bars in the area that claim to share the Churchill’s standing (e.g. the Luggage Room at the Marriott Grosvenor Square)
TFM tip: This is a very popular establishment, so while some tables are held back for hotel guests, the fact that the Churchill Bar takes bookings from outsiders means it a good idea to reserve a table in advance if you want to be sure to avoid disappointment (bookings for the terrace are especially important as are bookings for Friday and Saturday evenings).
Gym/fitness centre
The final part of the hotel that I need to touch upon is the gym/fitness center which is located on ‘level 2’. of the property.
This isn’t a particularly big gym (don’t let the mirrors fool you), but I’ve yet to see more than two or three people in it at any one time and it seems to offer enough equipment to allow for a good all-round workout.
Importantly, this is a gym that has access to natural light (a lot of London’s hotel gyms are located on the lower ground floor and can feel dark and claustrophobic) so when the weather’s not great, this can be a good place for some cardio.
When the weather is nice and you’re not in a hurry, however, I would strongly encourage anyone wanting to go on a run to make the most of London’s biggest park – Hyde Park.
This is just a 10-minute walk away from the Churchill and it’s very ‘runner friendly’.
Pricing
As with most of London’s hotels, the room rates at the Churchill have risen steeply in recent years, so even on the cheapest dates in the calendar you should expect prices to start at over $400/night for a non-refundable booking and over $480/night for a flexible booking.
At busier times, expect prices to start at over $600 for non-refundable bookings and at over $700 for flexible bookings, and this pricing that makes the Churchill a great place to use points and Free Night Awards.
As a Category 6 property in the World of Hyatt, award nights at the Churchill cost 21,000/25,000/29,000 points per night depending on the season (off-peak/standard/peak), but with off-peak dates limited to just a handful per year, expect to pay at least 25,000 points per night.
It’s also worth noting that this is a property where a Hyatt Leverage rate can be very useful. I frequently see these flexible rates coming in at the same price (sometimes lower) than the advance purchase (non-refundable) rates and up to $100/night cheaper than the cheapest standard flexible rate.
In the image above, for example, you can see that the Here, the Traveling For Miles Leverage rate is the cheapest rate available and that it’s $92/night cheaper then the cheapest standard flexible rate.
The savings through the Hyatt Leverage program won’t always be this impressive, but this example shows what’s possible.
Final thoughts
I’ve visited the Churchill quite a few times over the years and I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad experience.
Yes, every now and again I’ve noticed that the property has played games with award availability, but I haven’t noticed this happening in recent months so that may no longer be an issue.
Overall, I’m a big fan of the Churchill, and while some guests may be disappointed to find that a entry-level Regency Suite doesn’t offer complete separation between its sleeping area and its sitting area, I think that’s really the only slightly negative thing that can be taken from this review.
The rooms at the Churchill are all of a reasonable size (even the entry-level rooms), the staff are welcoming and friendly, the elite status recognition is usually very good, the breakfast offered to Globalists is good, the Regency Lounge is a nice place to relax, the location is excellent, the bar is a great place for a pre-dinner drink, and if you’re booking with points or a Free Night Award this is a property at which you’ll often get very good value.
Would I return? Of course I would.
This is still one of the best two Hyatt’s in London and it’s one of the best chain hotels in the city as well so as long as I can lock-in an award booking or a reasonable cash rate, I’ll be back as soon as I need another central London stay.
Related reading:
A review of the Great Scotland Yard Hotel London (Hyatt Unbound Collection)
A review of the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square
