Sol Meliá is a leading hotel company in Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean. The company provides more than 350 hotels in 30 countries under its Meliá Hotels, TRYP Hotels, Sol Hotels and Paradisus Resorts brands.
Meliá White House Hotel in London's Regents Park area has completed a major £30 Million refurbishment programme and was re-launched in Spring 2002 as one of London's leading 4 star deluxe hotels.
**CHANGING ROOMS**
The hotel has 582 rooms distributed on 8 floors, including 285 double rooms, 66 superior deluxe rooms, 69 Junior Suites, 3 Master Suites and 159 rooms are reserved for the "Servicio Real" (Royal Service for Executives). There are 9 conference, meeting & banqueting rooms (with secretarial services are available on request).
All rooms have a private bath & shower with hair-dryer and magnifying mirror, air-conditioning, direct dial telephone and modem connection, radio, satellite TV with remote control, complimentary tea/coffee, in-room safe and trousers press. 24-hours Room Service is also available.
The Royal Service programme is ideal for business travellers and includes: Deluxe accommodation with privileged check-in and check out facilities, exclusive access to The Royal Service Lounge where you can enjoy a complimentary full English breakfast, all day tea, coffee and beverages, afternoon tea and an open bar and canapés (6 p.m. - 11 p.m.). You can also book a private meeting room (max 6 persons) complimentary for an hour. A full selection of newspapers is also available on request.
**FOOD & DRINK**
There is a Breakfast buffet available at "La Albufera Restaurant" which specialises in Mediterranean cuisine.
The dining restaurant "Oberture" serves a selection of international dishes.
"Longford´s Bar" situated just off the main lobby, is open daily from 8 a.m. until late offering a selection of wines, spirits, cocktails and snacks.
**LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION**
The hotel is located next to Regent's Park and close to Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus. The hotel is well served by three underground stations: Warren Street, Great Portland Street and Regents Park - all of which are within easy walking distance.
Paddington, Marylebone and Kings Cross mainline train stations are all within a 5-10 minutes taxi ride away. Heathrow Airport is about 45 minutes away by car.
Local attractions include: Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, The Planetarium, Regents Park (London) Zoo, Piccadilly Circus (Shops!), Oxford Street (more shops!), and Buckingham Palace (if you want to travel a bit more)…
**THE MONEY PROGRAMME**
A standard double en-suite room for two adults costs £89.00
A superior double en-suite room for two adults costs £93.00
Both prices quoted do not include breakfast.
Christos and I paid £49.00 each for a standard double en-suite room (which included breakfast) - I found this special offer available from: www.superbreak.com
- it's always well worth shopping around!
Hotel's Contact details:
Meliá White House Hotel Albany Street, Regents Park London NW1 3UP Tel: (+44) 207 3913000 Fax: 44/207/3876788 Email: melia.white.house@solmelia.com
@@@@@@@@@@@ My personal thoughts: @@@@@@@@@@@
The main reason I selected this hotel was for its central location. It also looked nice and the special offer of staying at a 4 star hotel for practically half the usual price had to be investigated.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ Was it worth it? ~~~~~~~~~~~~
On arrival, the lobby was an impressive show of marble floors and walls: all the décor was very continental. [One point worth mentioning: if you suffer from asthma or have an allergy to cigarette/cigar smoke, then this definitely is NOT the place for you - the lobby was thick with smoke].
It then transpired that most, if not all, of the staff either were Spanish or spoke Spanish as their second language. Not a problem, but it wasn't something I was expecting in Central London.
Checking in was similar to waiting in line at the Post Office for the next available clerk - but without the organisation that goes with it. The whole process took about 15-20 minutes. The receptionist seemed more concerned with chatting to colleagues than getting our room key. Hm…
The room was very drab. All tones of dark brown and beige - hardly letting in any natural light at all.
Whoever designed the room had a thing for mirrors: I've never seen so many reflective surfaces and mirrors in one room before! There were mirrors behind the bed's headboard as well as floor-to-ceiling mirrors on the cabinet doors beside the bed… Christos and I even joked the mirrors could be two-way spying devices!
The bed was HUGE (as in it could easily sleep three people)… but it wasn't a comfortable mattress… (probably because of excessive use… *ahem*)
The bathroom was a disappointment - all black marble (nice and jolly, eh?!), no toiletry storage space and only complimentary shower gel was provided: and this is meant to be four star quality?
For one night's stay the room served its purpose. I'm very glad we only paid £49.00 for it (but I felt that £49 should have been the grand total, rather than per person).
Breakfast served at "La Albufera Restaurant" was an experience.
We arrived around 8am and were spoken to in Spanish (!) automatically - luckily I figured out what the waitress said and replied in English, which is when it dawned on her that not all guests were Spanish speaking!
Anyway, she escorted us to a table and left us there.
Another waitress asked (in Spanish) if we'd like tea or coffee. We gave our requests (in English) and she left us to our own devices.
The room seated about 60 people and the layout was very odd: the buffet was at the far end of the room rather than being situated centrally within easy reach of all tables - so you had to traipse past several diners to get what you wanted.
Off we went to check out what was on offer:
There was a limited selection of fruit juice (the carrot juice and apple juice was fresh, but the orange juice was concentrated).
A choice of bread rolls, croissants, Danish pastries and pain au chocolat was displayed (but looked hard and unappetising).
There was a cold meat and cheese board, a salad bar (the lettuce had seen better days!) and a hot buffet of: runny scrambled eggs, over cooked fried eggs, bacon, par-boiled mushrooms, individual Spanish omelettes, sausages and hash browns.
As you can imagine, with such choices we didn't bother with much of it.
When booking through superbreak.com your reservation is paid for in full - which means that check-out is speedy (I've used this service before, so I know it's true). However, at this hotel we spent a further 20 minutes waiting to hand back our room key to the receptionist who eventually told us we were "free to go" - music to our ears!
It's safe to say, £30 Million refurbishment programme or not, there is no way I would book a room here again.
The city, London's financial district is only a short taxi ride away. Melia White House is located in a privileged area next to the famous Regent's Park home to t...
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