Review: Park Hyatt London River Thames – Park Suite River View Deluxe (I was right!)

August 5, 2025

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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

Link to hotel website

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.

a screenshot of a hotel room — There are two types of Standard Suite at the Park Hyatt London

Thanks to my concierge being her usual efficient self, the upgrade appeared in my account within 24 hours.

a close-up of a white background — Upgrade confirmed.

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.

a red arrow pointing to a black text — A second upgrade.

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.

a room with a wood floor and a wood floor and a wood door — Looking into the suite as you open the door.

a room with a view of a city — Walking in.

a bathroom with a toilet and sink — The small bathroom off the sitting area.

a room with a white cabinet and a brown door — A closet in the entrance way.

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 …

a living room with a couch and a table — Floor to ceiling windows looking out towards the Thames

a city next to a river — View from the sitting area.

a city at night with a river and buildings — Night time view from the sitting area.

… 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.

a living room with a large window and a large television — The sitting area.

a room with a couch and a table — A room divider splits off the dining table from the entrance area.

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.

a table and chairs in a room — A drinks’ cabinet sits next to the dining table and chairs.

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.

a bar with wine glasses and bottles — The drinks’ cabinet.

a coffee machine and bottles on a table — Complimentary water.

a shelf with wine glasses and bottles — Coffee maker and glassware.

a shelf with bottles in it — The mini bar, cups and teapot are stored in drawers.

a fridge with bottles of alcohol — The mini bar

The entrance to the bedroom is next to the drinks’ cabinet.

a hallway with a door open — Entering the bedroom.

And this is another room that benefits from floor-to-ceiling windows looking out towards the Thames (and a nearby apartment block).

a bedroom with a large window overlooking a city — The bedroom with floor-to-ceiling windows.

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.

a bedroom with a large window and a large bed — US King bed.

a bedroom with a large window overlooking a river — US King bed.

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.

a bed with a couch and a bed with a headboard — US King bed.

a close up of a wall — AC power, USB ports and light switches on both sides of the bed.

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.

a black nightstand with a remote control and a book on it — I’m not sure what the point of this is. An actual drawer would have been more useful.

Once again, the views from this area of the suite are pretty good …

a river with a city in the background — Looking northeast from the bedroom.

… 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.

a room with a large window overlooking a city — View from the bed.

a tall building next to a river — Looking northwest form the bedroom.

Still, anyone concerned about their privacy can always deploy the translucent net blinds that sit above the bedroom windows …

a window with a view of a city and water — The windows offer privacy blinds.

a room with a window and a tv — The windows offer privacy blinds.

… and guests wishing to ensure that any outside light doesn’t disturb them can deploy the blackout blinds that also sit above the windows.

a bed with a lamp and a side table — Blackout blinds.

a room with a tv and chair — Blackout blinds.

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.

a door to a bathroom — Entrance to the 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.

a bathroom with a tub and sinks — bathroom with double vanity.

a bathroom with a large mirror

a closet with black shelves and white walls — 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.

a box with a hair dryer and accessories — The cordless hair dryer.

a paper with text on it — The amenities list – click or tap to enlarge.

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.

a white bathtub in a bathroom — The soaking tub.

a bathroom with a bathrobe and a tub — The suite has a separate shower cubicle.

a shower head in a bathroom — The shower cubicle offers a rain shower as well as a regular shower head.

a toilet in a bathroom — 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.

a group of bottles on a table — Full-size toiletries.

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.

a construction site with many buildings and a bridge — A lot of construction works are still going on in the Nine Elms 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.

a pool in a room — One of the best hotel indoor pools I’ve visited.

a burger on a plate — Wagyu burger from the bar.

a bowl of soup and a glass of wine — Sea Bass Crudo from the bar.

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.

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