St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London, Hansom Hall

The architecture is grand and the front desk staff were very friendly. We booked a premium room in the Barlow Wing and got exactly what we booked. As a platinum member, we were given access to the chambers club, where breakfast, afternoon snack and drinks were offered until 10pm. Now, the million dollar question, was it worth the money? Maybe not. :)

The hotel is gorgeous. This is an amazing building. Our room was nicely appointed. I had a couple of issues. The breakfast service was g-l-a-c-i-a-l. When I am on vacation, I don't want to sit around waiting for my food. The point of having breakfast in the hotel is to eat and then get out to see London. We had to wait and wait. It made no sense as the restaurant was not crowded. They just seemed to take their sweet time. I also had an issue with the doorman. I was carrying a DSLR camera - not taking pictures. The guy approached me and says that I can't take pictures inside with a "professional" camera. First of all, I was not taking pictures. Furthermore, really? I cannot take pictures of the lobby of a hotel where I am spending hundreds of dollars to stay? Quite ridiculous. Other than these issues, the hotel was okay. The location is so-so. Long train ride to where the action is. Update: My spouse complained about the service. They took two beers and a bottle of water off our bill. Interesting choice since we complained about the breakfast and not the drinks. It makes it seem like they are not taking our complaint seriously, as if the only reason we are complaining is to get a discount.

Apart from the entry level, everything about our one-night stay in this magnificent building was atrocious. When our male receptionist advised that our requested quiet room was in front of the lifts but that we would "hear nothing" we immediately asked for another room. We were treated with a mocking attitude and were told to see how we felt about that room first. Following this advice, we found immediately that we could her every noise from the lift area as people gathered and waited for the lift. We duly requested another room and were kept waiting in the foyer for two hours during which time we were offered one glass of water each. We also had to remind staff of the time we had been waiting before finally a female receptionist organised a room. After the "glitz" of the ground floor lounge/dining area, the room itself was comfortable but there was only minimal provision for any hot drink preparation - we even had to make a special request to room service for milk. We'd had a long day of travel and were due to leave the next day. We feel we were treated exceedingly badly. After eight weeks staying in self-catering accommodations which were all beautifully hosted, each week costing roughly the same as one night at the Renaissance, this was supposed to be our celebration at the end of a long tour. We were and still are appalled at what is essentially a facade.