Lucie Loves... Travel // My London staycation at Amba Hotel, Marble Arch

I love staying in hotels – it doesn’t even really matter where they are. I think it’s the fact that they’re a little bit of an escape from everyday life. 

However, it does also help when the place you’re checking into feels far more luxurious than your own home. And also if you have room service, a huge bed with really good sheets, and someone to come in and make the bed up for you, when you get up for an extravagant cooked breakfast in the morning. 

Yes. It’s nice to feel pampered.

I was invited to stay at Amba Hotel Marble Arch, and asked to select from a few dates that their PR team were offering. I decided to choose a busy Friday night to test out their facilities. The idea being that the hotel would be my central London crash pad. Perfect. Especially after attending The House of Peroni blog event, that I was reviewing in east London that very same evening. I couldn’t be bothered trekking all the way back to Richmond afterwards…

The Amba Hotel Marble Arch  is a four star hotel, and is ideally located for anyone wishing to stay in London for the weekend – particularly those wishing to spend time shopping on Oxford Street. It also has a few other Monopoly board favourites on its doorstep, like Park Lane and Hyde Park, which are within strolling distance.

I got off the tube at Bond Street and made the short walk up towards where the hotel is located. It’s sort of tucked around a corner, but I found it eventually… On arrival I was greeted by a cheery doorman and got the rather space-age looking escalator to the reception area.

Being a Friday night, and out of office hours, I had some difficulty checking in. 

The team reception couldn’t find my reservation, which was slightly embarrassing and made me an hour late for The House of Peroni blog event that I’d arranged to meet someone at. In the end, I put the reservation on my credit card, in the hope that they would be able to contact the PR agency over the next couple of days. So that they could be reassured that I was actually invited there to do a review.

This experience left me a little frustrated. Especially after rushing from one place to another. The problem with the check-in – and the delay this caused in getting into my room – meant that I wasn’t in the best of moods by the time I eventually got to Shoreditch. Sorry about that.

However, I must say that this wasn’t the hotel’s problem. The reception staff did what they could – given the circumstances – while trying to decipher the lengthy email trail between myself and the PR, and lack of reservation confirmation… 

And to be fair… I could’ve been anyone trying to swindle a free night’s stay at a central London hotel. 

But… let this be a lesson to PR agencies everywhere, especially those who work with bloggers on a regular basis, and wish to form good, solid, long-lasting relationships. Please ensure that you have liaised directly with the hotel team, and that they are aware of any press or bloggers coming to review the hotel, well in advance of the date of the stay. 

So, how was my stay at Hotel Amba Marble Arch? 

Well, despite the initial teething problems… it was actually rather nice. The Executive King Room was very spacious. The bed was huge and extremely comfortable, and the bathroom was very modern. Unfortunately, the view from the window was of the back of another central London building, but I guess that’s to be expected, and it definitely didn’t impact too much on my experience.

“Working with our guests to create the ideal hotel experience, we’ve quite simply thought of everything. From blackout curtains for a perfect night’s sleep to the clever USB ports by every bed. With free, fast and unlimited wi-fi, Smart TV and your very own in-room tablet, you’ll be in the loop throughout your stay. In the bathroom you’ll find fluffy towels, full sized toiletries, a rainfall shower and a de-misting mirror. As for the beds, serious comfort comes as standard with top quality Hypnos mattresses in every room. And for the peckish, there’s a minibar filled with free snacks and drinks, plus a fully stocked Nespresso® machine with fresh milk.” ~ Amba Hotels

Breakfast…

The breakfast was very good. A huge selection of fresh fruit, pastries, yoghurts, teas, coffees and juices – as well as a few heartier cooked options. We went for a combination of all of the above. Obviously.

I’m not sure whether it was because we were the last ones to come down for breakfast – or because we spent so long chatting over our food – but the staff had already started to clear away the remaining breakfast items, and were vacuuming around our feet before we’d even left our table. Oh dear.

We found this slightly weird. My guest pointed out that he wasn’t really a fan of the interruption to our leisurely breakfast, and actually found it to be a quite rude of them to be doing so… But I guess that’s a nice bit of constructive feedback for the hotel cleaning team to work on.

Would I stay at the Amba Hotel Marble Arch again?

Yes. I would. I’d just make damn sure that I had my reservation confirmation email to hand first when checking in… Oh! And maybe I’d get up a bit earlier for breakfast too… :-)

Photography © Lucie Kerley