Review of Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London 5*

CAREFUL OF THE 5% Discretionary Accommodations Charge (they will neglect to tell you about it on check-in but will remove from your bill if you ask) We checked in with 3 other couples at 1am after traveling all day to find that they had played the old hotel trick on us. They upgraded us to an even better room because they were full. Mind you, we had booked our rooms 3 months ago. They put us in the TOWER which is a beautiful stage set done by someone who never saw the room and who didn't think people had clothing. We are here for a week. Between 1am and 2am I spent my time working with one of the porters removing things from the room so we could get around without tripping over things. There is no place to leave an empty suitcase. They had to bring a hanging rack and put it in the bathroom so we could hang up our clothing. Breakfast in the room was fine but only 1 chair and the 2nd person had to sit on the sofa about a mile below the table. Of course, this will not be a problem tomorrow as they sent up a 2nd chair. Last week we had been at the Royal Gardens and loved the rooms. We will be back there next time. Not here. By the way, part of the upgrade is a "city view" of the rooftops of London as opposed to the view we'd requested of Hyde Park. Spoke with the Manager on Duty (GM was away today as it's Saturday) and he was quite pleasant and fully aware of these problems. So why don't they fix them. So why would they put a couple staying a week in such a room rather someone more appropriate to the facilities. ugh.