With the Hyatt Regency The Churchill now cutting back the elite breakfast benefit I was looking at some of the other Hyatt properties in London and went down a rabbit hole.
Hyatt Regency London The Churchill
I haven’t ever stayed at the (ex-Crowne Plaza) Hyatt Regency Albert Embankment but the reviews look… interesting.
Reports are that it ‘still feels like a Crowne Plaza’ with very small rooms. There’s no club lounge. Guests report being refused upgrades even when better rooms sit empty. And the owner!
- Instructs restaurant staff not to allow free refills of coffee at breakfast
- Uses the lobby bar as an office for hours at a time
Credit: Hyatt Regency London Albert Embankment
I suspect that this owner is perhaps really a family member rather than the patriarch of the family which owns the hotel. Ownership of the property rests in Cannon Corporate UK Ltd which is in turn apparently controlled by Mudhar Ghassan Shawkat an ex-Iraqi politician shown to have moved money out of Iraq while the U.S. was pouring money in.
The Paradise Papers showed that law firm Appleby wasn’t even willing to escrow $140 million for Shawkat and his son, though they later set up a trust and affiliated companies in the British Virgin Islands for them, while flagging an offshore charitable company they were asked to set up as a receptacle for “funds coming out of Iraq” that had no other benefit “other than lack of accountability.” They continued to provide legal services to Shawkat, however, because they were aware only of “accusations of favoritism in the award of government contracts.”
There are some properties, like the Ritz-Carlton torture hotel, where I wouldn’t be comfortable staying. The cheapness of a Hyatt Regency refusing coffee refills notwithstanding, is it weird that the background of this property owner likely puts the Albert Embankment property into the category of hotels I want to avoid?
I’ve stayed there. It’s very shady. The owner’s business dealings in the middle of his restaurant felt very questionable. They quickly dumped Crowne Plaza after the U.S. moved the embassy to that area of London. When I stayed there the hotel was supposedly full but I never saw more than a dozen guests and the bars/restaurants were closed or operating off limited menus and not what was published. If I was a conspiracy theorist I would say it’s either a listening post to spy on U.S. government travelers who seem to frequent it or a hotel that doesn’t really make money as a hotel and serves as a vehicle for ownership to do something else with their money.
The only Hyatt property in London worth staying at is the Andaz Liverpool Street, though it also has a good number of shortcomings. Hopefully the upcoming Park Hyatt won’t be a disappointment, though I suspect Park Hyatt + London will put it out price range for a good number of people.
The suites are very nice but they only have 3-4 of them. And they said it’s first come first serve for globalists.
I live the lounge breakfast at the Churchill. You can go to the kid-free lounge.
Other than eggs, have they removed other things?
I don’t need hot food of the smoked salmon and fruit are good.
I used to stay at the Churchill in its heyday but moved my allegiance to the Andaz – more convenient and the Churchill seems to have gone downhill. Andaz: Excellent weekend breakfast, very friendly staff (since I stay there often). I wanted to try the Albert Embankment hotel 2 weeks ago as it was new to me. Negative: its really remote, not close to anything. There is a small Tesco nearby but it doesn’t have much. Tube is +/- half a mile (Victoria Line), which is fine. Positive: They gave me a very nice suite (Lifetime Globalist).
I noticed the individual who always seemed to be hanging out in the bar; he didnt bother me. Breakfast was fine. I asked about the bizarre offering of Lentil Soup; the answer was that guests had requested it. No regency club (which are harder and harder to find) but there was a happy hour with drinks and snacks that was fine.
I will stick to the Andaz in the future (though its supposed to close for the re-development of Liverpool St. Station).
@ Gary — Unless Park Hyatt has TSU space + base room on points available, I guess we are back to IC Park Lane. More likely to just avoid London altogether. Much prefer to go to IC Paris LeGrand or IC Amstel Amsterdam, wher we always receive the royal treatment.
The link to the Hyatt Regency Churchill changing their breakfast benefits does not go anywhere. The link is bad. According to Flyer T@lk, the globalist breakfast benefit no longer includes a breakfast in the restaurant downstairs. The lounge no longer has any hot food. Very sad travelers reporting this very recent news on Flyer T@lk.