My review of Hyatt Place London East
Hyatt just opened this new hotel in London very recently, and has been offering the 500 points per night new hotel bonus. Bored enough, and as I have registered to their Globalist fast track, I decided to give the hotel a try.
The hotel is located at Whitechapel, and I don’t think it’s a secret why they don’t want “Whitechapel” in the hotel’s name. I mean, the area is definitely not as dangerous as its old reputation goes, however it still feels rough and not many would choose to live or stay here. If you need easy access to the City, London Bridge and Canary Wharf are much better and not necessarily more expensive.
Lobby and reception are at the -1 floor. It’s definitely got the correct business look for “London East”. There’s a small business centre for hotel guests to print.
As an Explorist I’m upgraded one-level to a King Bed High Floor room, although I personally wouldn’t classify it as an upgrade.
Weirdly the room reminds me of Accor’s Ibis brand probably due to its colours, but admittedly it’s more complete. The room is actually surprisingly homey which some of my friends really like, and it’s not what I would expect from a business hotel.
One of the room’s selling points is “Stunning Views” as described on their website. But seriously who are we kidding here…
As an Explorist I’m not entitled to free breakfast, and I didn’t eat anything at the hotel so cannot comment. To be honest I’m a bit confused what Hyatt is trying to do here – I’m not a Hyatt fan but as far as I understand they are much more upmarket than the other hotel groups, and although Hyatt Place is understandably more mid-range, I don’t think this hotel adds any value to their portfolio!
Free Deliveroo Plus for Amazon Prime customers
Interesting new development from Amazon Prime – you can now enjoy free Deliveroo Plus membership.
For details and activation please visit this page. To be clear, the complimentary subscription offered is Deliveroo Plus Silver (previously called Family), which means you have to spend £25 on an order for free delivery. It’s usually charged at £3.49 per month.
Moreover, the subscription is valid for up to 12 months, subject to you continuously being an Amazon Prime member. So if you are only an occasional Deliveroo user don’t rush to activate, do it right before you want to place an order instead.
If you are not yet an Amazon Prime member, you can start you 30-day free trial here which should give you the Deliveroo benefit too. Remember to cancel the renewal though if you don’t want to pay, however your Deliveroo benefit will terminate if you opt to do so. Meanwhile, new Deliveroo customers can enjoy four £2.5 off discounts if signing up using my referral link here (thanks!).
InterContinental London O2 bookable again!
InterContinental O2 was temporarily shut at the beginning of the pandemic, and then used as a quarantine hotel so the reopening date has kept being postponed. Finally, It is now bookable again!
The first bookable date is September 18th, which is less than two weeks away:
As you can see, reward night for that Saturday costs 38,000 points which I think is quite reasonable. Even more importantly, if you have acquired an Ambassador Reward Night certificate which is capped at 40,000 points, this is probably your best shot to use it for a domestic staycation.
I have already tried InterContinental Park Lane and all three Kimptons in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow so O2 is the only one missing from the UK’s IHG luxury collection. I have redeemed my certificate for the 19th, and hopefully the reopening doesn’t get delayed again this time!
Morrisons deal is back – heavy discount on Amazon / Uber / Waitrose gift cards!
Earlier this year Morrisons launched a massive campaign which offered cashback incentives across many platforms. The deal appears to be back now which can be very ludicrous!
I have the following offers on my cards / accounts:
- Airtime: 7% cashback on £30+, or 1% otherwise (end date unclear)
- Virgin Shops Aways Instore: 6 points / £1 (ends 15/09)
- MBNA: 15% cashback, max £10 (ends 21/09)
- Virgin Atlantic Credit Card: 10% cashback on £30+, or 1% otherwise (ends 25/08)
The best part is you can double dip or even triple dip on these offers. Last time I took advantage of the VA credit card, Airtime and Shops Aways offers, which given the current conditions equates to 21% cashback if you value Virgin points at 0.7p.
Do I buy any grocery at Morrisons? No, but Morrisons sells gift cards of other merchants too, including:
- Amazon
- Uber / Uber Eats
- John Lewis / Waitrose
- One4all
…and so on. And purchases of such gift cards trigger all the aforementioned offers too, so enjoy!
IHG Europe offer: 10% off, £80 credit and room upgrade with Mastercard
IHG has historically teamed up with Mastercard to offer rate discounts in the EMEA region. A new offer has just turned up, in a new form though which may interest a different audience group.
You can access the offer page here. It’s basically Mastercard’s version of FHR for high-end IHG hotels – you need to be a Mastercard World / World Elite / Platinum / Black Edition cardholder, although I doubt IHG has a way to verify that. That said, in theory you do need to pay with a Mastercard.
The following benefits apply when you book a two-night minimum stay at participating hotel in UK and Europe:
- 10% off best flexible rate
- Room upgrade, subject to availability
- 10am check-in and 4pm checkout, subject to availability
- $100 credit per stay at Regent, InterContinental and Kimpton hotels
- $50 credit per stay at Hotel Indigo
One-night deposit is required however you can cancel free of charge up to 7 days in advance. Book and stay by June 30, 2022.
Here are some participating hotels with nightly rate examples:
- InterContinental London Park Lane £332
- Kimpton Fitzroy £219
- Hotel Indigo Kensington £126
- Hotel Indigo Birmingham £156
- Kimpton Manchester Clocktower £175
- InterContinental Edinburgh the George £235
- Hotel Indigo Berlin Centre Alexanderplatz €99
- Hotel Indigo Paris Opera €250
- Kimpton De Witt Amsterdam €189
- Hotel Indigo Madrid Princesa €103
- InterContinental Lisbon €211
The benefits look quite similar to IHG’s Luxury and Lifestyle program, with some pros and cons:
+ 10% discount
+ Greater range of hotels included, especially mid-level Hotel Indigos
– Minimum 2-night stay requirement
– No breakfast included
– Less generous cancellation policy
With room upgrade and early check-in / late check-out thrown in, I think it can be good value if you have no IHG status. In terms of the $100 / $50 credit, make sure you compare the Advance Saver or other promo rates to understand what value they really have.
Other IHG offers:
- Save 20% on IHG hotel bookings with Railcard
- IHG Europe offer: 10% off, £80 credit and room upgrade with Mastercard
- IHG Luxury & Lifestyle: 3-for-2, $100 credit, breakfast, room upgrade and more
My review of Kimpton Fitzroy, London
In a bid to use up my IHG offers on Amex, I needed to book another hotel stay by end of August. The only hotel on the list that I hadn’t tried yet was Kimpton Fitzroy, so it became the obviously choice although I didn’t think I would be a fan.
The hotel is located right next to the Russell Square station, within proximity of the British Museum and University College London. I like its location – with a park around the corner, quiet-ish but in the meantime a lot of things to explore nearby.
The hotel opened its door in 1900 and is a Grade-II listed building. It was a Principal Hotel before the group was acquired by IHG in 2018.
I booked a LuxLife 3-for-2 rate, which includes free breakfast, $100 in-hotel credit and room upgrade subject to availability. Even though I booked the cheapest single room under the 3-for-2 promotion, it still set me back £478. Needless to say £160 a night is quite expensive for a 120-sqft room!
Looking at recent reports this hotel has been very stingy when it comes to room upgrade and it’s near impossible to fare one above the standard double room, which is why I didn’t bother to pay more for a better room. Just like how I expected, I received a one-level upgrade from standard single to standard double, which is anything but generous considering my Spire Elite status and the LuxLife rate plan.
Fortunately, some of the standard rooms are much larger than the others, and mine is one of them.
The room’s size is not great, but at least there’s plenty of space to move around, unlike what my friend and some other people have suggested. The bathroom is big enough, nicely furnished with a brand new bathtub.
In general it’s got the Kimpton feel although is slightly lacking in decorations. There’s also a small balcony although you can’t go outside.
The windows don’t appear to be double-glazed though, and being on the first-floor means you can expect some road noises. TV is broken as well, so on the second day they moved me to a different room on the seventh floor.
It’s quite similar so I didn’t take more photos, but has a more conventional rectangular shape. It’s atrium facing so much quieter.
In addition to the LuxLife benefit, IHG members are also entitled to £15 food and beverage credit, so in total I have £90 to spare during my stay. There are a cocktail bar and afternoon tea restaurant on site, however for proper dining you should visit the Burr & Co.
For my first dinner I ordered the Salt & Pepper Squid and King Prawn Curry:
Both taste EXCELLENT and I’m genuinely impressed. My only complaint is the portion – I can easily have three portions of the curry in a meal 🙂
Breakfast is also served here. Again decent quality but the menu doesn’t have a big range.
There’s a social hour daily between 5pm and 6pm, where complimentary wine and beer are served in the restaurant. Service at the Burr & Co is top-notch, hotel-wise just so-so.
At the end of the day, the hotel room’s condition is a lot better than I had imagined, and the restaurant has definitely been the highlight of my stay. However I still cannot justify paying £250+ a night for it considering all the alternatives in London, but if you have a free night voucher or some points to burn it may be worth a try.
£7 credit for using Amazon Photos
Amazon has brought back its offer to promote the Photos app. I wasn’t eligible last time and it seems to have changed now, so you should also have a look.
You can view the offer on this page, and there should be a message if you are ineligible. You must be a paying Amazon Prime member to be eligible.
To participate, you need to download the Amazon Photos app and upload at least one photo via the app by August 31. You will receive your £7 Amazon credit within 7 days, and have until September 15 to redeem it.
There is a minimum purchase value of £25 to use the credit, and like always it only applies to items sold by Amazon.
My review of Conrad London St James
Just a short review of my staycation at Conrad London St James. I got an impressive Impresario deal – £390 for three nights with $100 hotel credit, and the usual breakfast / room upgrade benefits which I would get for being Diamond anyway.
The hotel is located right next to the St James tube station. The location feels a bit like Park Lane, in that they are both quiet areas in central London next to a Park. However to me St James is much more favourable because there are many more shopping and dining options nearby.
The hotel opened around 7 years ago, which is fairly new for a 5-star hotel in London.
I’m upgraded from a Superior Room to an Executive Room. From recent reports online, the hotel is usually more than happy to upgrade Diamond members to Junior Suite or even One-bedroom Suite if there’s availability nowadays.
The room is not luxurious in any way, but quite neat with its modern design.
If I remember correctly all rooms feature separate bathtub and shower room, which is a plus.
The Executive Lounge is located on the first floor. Many hotels in the UK has chosen not to reopen their lounges or even permanently shut them even after the lockdown is over, so I’m glad that the Conrad has done the right thing here.
Evening canapes are served between 5.30pm and 7.30pm. It’s all table service, however there’s unlimited refill for your food and drinks. A few options are provided for beer, wine and even champagne.
At that time the restaurant was still closed, so I could only use the £80 credit at the pub.
Breakfast is also mostly table service, and Diamond members can choose whatever they want from the menu with no surcharge. There are a few cold plates which you can pick up yourself.
The hotel has no swimming pool. Here’s the gym:
After checkout I found out that they forgot about my Impresario credit and overcharged me, and it took quite a few messages for me to sort it out. I did bag quite a lot of points from this stay though, thanks to the Triple Points promotion and double points offer from Impresario.