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I published a review of the Park Hyatt London River Thames earlier in the year following a 2-night stay, so I don’t propose to go over everything the hotel offers all over again (that wouldn’t add any value).
What I shall do here, however, is review the Park Hyatt’s “Park Suite River View Deluxe room” (I reviewed a standard room last time) and update my thoughts on the property following this second stay.
The admin
- Length of stay: 2 nights
- Room booked: 1 King Bed
- Upgrade instruments used: Suite Upgrade Award
- Room I upgraded to: Park Suite River View
- Room received: Park Suite River View Deluxe
- Actual cost of stay: 50,000 World of Hyatt points (Category 7 off-peak booking)
- Cheapest nightly room rate for the same dates*: $629 (inc. taxes)
- Nightly rate for Park Suite River View*: $1,649 (inc. taxes)
- Nightly rate for Park Suite River View Deluxe*: $2,896 (inc. taxes)
- Elite status at time of stay: Hyatt Globalist
- Points earned from the booking: 0 (zero)
*At the time of booking
The booking and the upgrades
As I had a few World of Hyatt Suite Upgrade Awards sitting in my account courtesy of Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards, I decided to use one to allow Joanna and I to see what a standard suite was like at the Park Hyatt London.
I booked a standard room (for 2 nights) for 50,000 points (in total) and then promptly emailed my Hyatt Concierge to ask her to apply my upgrade award to the room and to reserve a Park Suite River View room.
I was careful to make sure that I got the name of the suite correct as the Park Hyatt London has two types of standard suite (a Park Suite and a Park Suite River View) and as the second sounded like an upgrade on the first, that’s the suite I wanted.
Thanks to my concierge being her usual efficient self, the upgrade appeared in my account within 24 hours.
On the day we were due to check-in (about an hour before we arrived at the hotel), I opened up the Hyatt app to check on the reservation and to confirm that we hadn’t mysteriously been downgraded to a standard Park Suite.
We hadn’t. In fact, the opposite had happened.
The property had upgraded us to a Park Suite River View Deluxe room.
At this point I felt a little guilty for suspecting that we may get downgraded, but I was delighted.
The way this Park Hyatt’s suite rankings go …
- Park Suite
- Park Suite River View
- Park Suite Deluxe
- Park Suite Deluxe River View
- Ambassador Suite
- Presidential Suite
…this was a 2-level upgrade on top of the upgrade my Suite Night Award has got us.
Going from a standard King Room to a suite which is only bettered by two other (very special) suites is quite a nice way to roll.
Park Suite Deluxe River View
The door to the suite opens inwards to reveal a beautiful wooden floor, a closet on the left, a door to a small bathroom on the right, and a sitting/lounging area directly ahead.
As you walk into the suite, the feeling of space and the views are the two things that you first notice (the suite covers 796sqft/76sqm).
The floor to ceiling windows looking out towards the river Thames probably have a lot to do with this …
… but the designers probably deserve some credit for not overcrowding the area with too many pieces of furniture or too many unnecessary trinkets.
The first of the suite’s two flat screen TVs sits on the wall facing the large sofa/lounger, and if you look back from here towards the main door to the suite, you’ll see that a room divider has been used to separate the entrance way from a dining table and two chairs.
I’m not entirely sold on the idea that this divider is really necessary, but it fits in with the rest of the room’s decor so it doesn’t look too out of place.
Next to the dining table (which has access to a couple of UK-style AC power outlets and so could be used as a work area) is the suite’s drinks’ cabinet/mini fridge.
And this is where you’ll find everything from the glasses and cups through to the coffee maker, the kettle and the vastly overpriced drinks and snacks.
The entrance to the bedroom is next to the drinks’ cabinet.
And this is another room that benefits from floor-to-ceiling windows looking out towards the Thames (and a nearby apartment block).
The US-King bed takes center stage here with a chaise longue at the foot of the bed and a large flat screen TV in one corner.
Both sides of the bed have small tables with reading lights as well as access to the room’s controls, to AC power outlets, and to USB-A and USB-C ports.
With the exception of the unnecessarily large flat screen TV, the room is elegantly decorated and, again, there’s a feeling of space thanks to the abundance of natural light coming through the windows.
The one oddity, however comes in the form of the drawers in the bedside tables which, when pulled out, reveal a shelf rather than a traditional drawer.
I have no idea what purpose this is meant to serve as a standard drawer would have been more useful.
Once again, the views from this area of the suite are pretty good …
… but you can’t escape the view of the large apartment block that sits between the hotel and the Thames, and given that this building is as tall as the building the Park Hyatt occupies, this will be the view just about all the rooms with northeasterly aspects will see.
Still, anyone concerned about their privacy can always deploy the translucent net blinds that sit above the bedroom windows …
… and guests wishing to ensure that any outside light doesn’t disturb them can deploy the blackout blinds that also sit above the windows.
These work incredibly well as they cut out every little bit of light, and the room can be plunged into near total darkness when they’re deployed.
Adjacent to the bedroom is the suite’s bathroom and walk-in closet.
As you enter the bathroom, there’s a double vanity unit on the left and, on the right, is the walk-in closet.
The closet houses the in-room safe as well as a cordless hair dryer and a list of other amenities available upon request.
Past the vanity unit and the closet are a good-size Victorian-style soaking tub and a short hallway leading to the shower and the Japanese-style toilet.
The ensuite bathroom looks and feels modern, there’s ample space in the closet, the tub looks like a nice place to relax (I didn’t try it out) and the shower was excellent.
Interestingly, while staying in a standard room (on my last visit) the toiletries on offer were from Molton Brown (a mid- to high-end British brand) and were miniatures.
In this suite, the toiletries are by Blaise Mautin (a French perfumer) and are full-size.
I’m not sure if this means that the whole property now offers the Blaise Mautin toiletries and that the Molton Brown items were just temporary, or if the Park Hyatt London chooses to offer Molton Brown in standard rooms and Blaise Mautin in its suites.
Anyway … how do I sum up this suite? Well, I have to admit that I loved it.
The feeling of space and brightness is fantastic, the bed is comfortable, the views are great, the blackout blinds do a wonderful job of keeping out the light (so much so that I managed to oversleep on the second night), the bathroom is spacious, and the decor of the suite as a whole is elegant and not ostentatious.
I’m on the record as not being a huge fan of the Park Hyatt London (more on that in a moment), but there wasn’t much that I could fault with this suite.
An update on my thoughts on the Park Hyatt London
After my first stay, there were a few things about the Park Hyatt London that I was less than enamoured with.
Specifically, I thought that the property’s communications could have been a lot better, I didn’t like the sheer scale of ongoing construction works around the property, I thought that the hotel’s location was poor, I wished that the breakfast chef would tone things down, and I thought that the breakfast was overpriced.
Well, the communications on this visit were excellent and there was no shouting from the central kitchen during breakfast, and those are two solid positives steps.
The remaining concerns, however, remain, but there’s not much the property can do about two of them – it can’t relocate nor can it can control the construction works in the area.
Having said that, it’s important that I point out something else. Something very positive.
At the end of my last review, I concluded that as a traditional city center hotel, the Park Hyatt London wouldn’t work for me, but as an elegant place to relax, unwind, and not do very much, it would probably work quite well, and it’s this last thought that I decided to put to the test on this trip.
Joanna and I decided to treat the Park Hyatt London as a place to relax rather as a base from which to explore London (or even the local area).
To that end we made sure that we took our time over breakfast, we made full use of the hotel’s amazing indoor swimming pool, we used the suite as a place to relax, to catch up on some reading, and to watch some movies, and we took time to enjoy the hotel bar where we tried out some of the food items on the menu.
We still made sure that we ate out in the evenings (London’s food scene is far too good to ignore), but we spent a lot more time at this property than we would normally spend at a city center hotel, and it worked.
We had a wonderful visit and went home relaxed and thinking that perhaps this is the kind of stay we should be enjoying a little more frequently (we don’t often go on trips where we do very little).
Bottom line
I still think that the location of the Park Hyatt London is far from ideal (unless you’re visiting the US Embassy or specifically wish to stay in the Nine Elms part of London), and I still think there are plenty of better hotels at which to be based if you plan to explore London.
That being said, if you can splash out for a larger room or a suite (or if you can upgrade yourself to a suite with points or with a Suite Upgrade Award) and if you treat the Park Hyatt London more like a place to unwind and less like a typical city center hotel, you’ll probably have a fantastic stay.
It’s all about managing expectations, and once I worked out that I was approaching this property from the wrong angle and once I got my expectations in order, the property’s key weakness (its location) didn’t bother me, and its key strengths (the ambience, the decor and its facilities) came to the fore.
Related (other London reviews):
- Review: Park Hyatt London River Thames (a high-end Hyatt in the wrong location)
- Great Scotland Yard Hotel London review (Hyatt Unbound Collection)
- Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars review
- Hyatt Regency London Albert Embankment review
- Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport review
- London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square review
- Hilton London Canary Wharf review
- Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill (Regency Suite) review – updated for 2025
- Lincoln Plaza London (Hilton Curio Collection) review
- Review: London Marriott Hotel Canary Wharf
We left after one night. You know when they say, its location, location, location. There isn’t a view of London. Looking down river, it is blocked by other tall developments.
If I was to visit the US Embassy, I could be downtown, or down river, take a taxi or bus and be there quite easily. I would not stay in that hotel just to visit the US Embassy.
I believe they made a mistake. Too high class hotel for that neighborhood, too far from central London, prices out of line not only for the area but whats inside the hotel to offer.
I have already heard whispers about rebranding it to a Hyatt Regency. The only good location for Hyatt in London is the Churchill.
Hyatt does not have good presence in London, nothing convenient.
Obviously (as I mentioned it in the article) I agree with your point about the location of the Park Hyatt in London, but I disagree with the notion that the Churchill is the only property that’s well located and I disagree with the notion that Hyatt has no convenient properties in London.
If you want to be in the heart of London and are ready to explore, Great Scotland Yard has many more major sights right on its doorstep than the Churchill (it’s hard to think of a more centrally located miles & points hotel).
If you need to be closer to the City of London than the tourist-y parts of London, the Hyatt Regency Blackfriars is better located than the Churchill.
This is not to say that the Churchill isn’t well located (I love some of the areas around Marylebone, I enjoy the relative peaceful atmosphere of Portman Square, and I enjoy walking up Baker Street to Regent’s Park), but unless you wish to be in that part of central London, I can’t see how you can argue that it’s “the only good location for Hyatt in London”
Major sights like Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, the Palace of Westminster, Big Ben, St James’ Park, Horseguards, the Embankment, the Thames, Westminster Abbey and most of the major West End theatres are all within easy walking distance of Great Scotland Yard. The same cannot be said for the Churchill.
If you pick your Hyatt based on what you’re in London to do, you won’t go far wrong, but there’s no one-size-fits-all answer.