Club Carlson launched the latest promotion last week. I have previously written about my stays at the Park Inn Heathrow and the Radisson Blu Edwardian Heathrow. The offer last week applied to Park Plaza hotels.

There are about half-a-dozen Park Plaza’s in London and when searching I found that the Riverside property not only had the cheapest rates but to close to where I had to be on Friday. The £89 rate (which is really £106.80 with VAT) was the cheapest I could see for the next few weeks. It was for a basic room, but the standby upgrade options box popped up when I booked. The best room (non-suite) was £40 when confirmed, but only £20 on a standby basis. It was an Executive Riverside Room which offered excellent views.

The property is not wonderfully convenient for transport but is a 10 minute walk from Vauxhall Station which is on the mainline to both Victoria and Waterloo, and the Victoria Line. There are a large number of bus routes which serve the bus station at Vauxhall including several night buses.

Check-in

The check-in desk is to the left of the hotel and is slightly hidden. However, when I arrived there was no queue and a very pleasant woman served me. She confirmed that the standby upgrade had cleared and took a swipe of my card. ‘Enjoy the view’ was her final comment as left after the prompt and courteous service.

The Room

After exiting the lift, I found that the rooms divide down the middle, and I was to the left. The carpets in the corridors have woven quotes about ‘Sleep’ on them. Never seen this before and it was quite interesting.

My room was at the end of the corridor on the 6th floor, which meant it was closest to the road, but had the best views.

There is a short corridor as you enter the room, with the bathroom to the right.

The lighting in the bathroom was good with a very nice marble floor.  There was a bath robe, two large towels, two hand towels and bath mat. Toiletries were the normal, with the welcome addition of a Mouthwash:

The bedroom was large, with plenty of room around the bed, a desk that faced the spectacular view towards the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and the LondonEye. There was a single comfortable chair. WiFi was free and I connected with just two clicks.

The bed itself was a little lower than I like, but was comfortable with a hard and soft pillow provided. Additional pillows were available via Housekeeping.

Service

The TV is connected via a DVD player and offered a large number of UK and overseas channels. To change channels you had to point the remote at the DVD player. I tried this for a few minutes but could not adjust the volume. A call to Guest Services produced an engineer in less than 5 minutes who detected a loose SCART lead. He had to move the unit on which the TV sits to get at it, but I was back and running in no time.

I did order room service, and include a picture of the burger:

It was fresh with excellent chips.

I purchased two cans of coke in the Petrol garage next door on my way, which I stored in the mini-bar until I ate. This was better value than the menu prices.

The room was quiet both from the road and from other guests. I was not woken at all by noise. A good thing in a London hotel.

Lobby and Check-Out

The Reception desk is in the middle of the picture above, under the purple lights. The staff were again lovely, and I was checked out in about two minutes.

Behind Reception is a nice large bar area:

I left early in the morning and so did not see the bar in full swing.

Overall

I have to say I had no idea this property was here and whilst the transport may be a little more tricky it did represent good value in a Central London hotel. The staff were lovely and the view was superb. I would certainly recommend a stay there is you want somewhere more interesting than normal, with larger more modern rooms than many hotels and where service really is delivered by the whole team. Of the views were superb! Oh, and 50,000 Club Carlson points for the stay!

More views: