First night in London

Staircase of our first hotel

So arriving at the UK went well; extremely efficient entry process and called an Uber (for which they had a specific and clearly signed location).   Arrive at hotel and go to sign in, only to be told that they can see the room has been paid for but they haven’t received the money so they need to put a hold on my card, and I should call the travel agent.  🤔 

In Kensington Gardens

So we do that and then learn we can’t check in yet anyways, so we leave our bags w them (along w many other people) and go exploring.  We found Kensington Gardens v near by and had a gorgeous walk exploring that and found some food.  Messaged travel agent, who’s also a friend of Chris’, and she told us to leave it w her.  Awesome.  We get back and check out our room - it is *hot*.  The main reason we chose this hotel was the AC, so that was a bit of a surprise, but maybe just wasn’t turned on.  So Chris pushed some buttons, and we got organized.  The room was clean and okay but tiny - like so tiny it was not actually possible to open both suitcases fully without moving furniture and / or blocking either the mini fridge or the safe.  Double bed lol so would be cozy, but overall - as long as the AC brought the temp down, would be all good.

More Travels

Go out for more exploring and travel agent calls us back - the $ should’ve been sent directly months ago when we actually paid so this is very odd, but they were going to try and fix.  Apparently there’s been lots of back and forth and idea is we’ll just pay for the room and Expedia would pay us back.  Then we don’t have to move and all is good.   So she tries to talk to the reception lady and that…. Did not go well.   Definitely a high level of frustration there and a lack or understanding or a disinterest in understanding- not sure which.  Either way, left unresolved, agent says leave it w her, so we go exploring again.   Calls back in a little while and says Expedia will arrange for an equivalent hotel on the other side of the park and cover the price differential.   Since by this point the room still hadn’t cooled off either (which we hadn’t mentioned to anybody yet), we were okay w this.   So packed up, got the hold for the room cancelled, checked out, and ordered an uber.   Chris mentioned about the AC as a courtesy so they'd at least be aware and was told “oh, the whole second floor is out” ummmm and you didn’t think to mention that when we checked in?  Ah well.  Decided to count ourselves lucky and relocated.

We even walked by the Natural History Museum 

The next hotel we went to check in, they had our reservation, asked for our payment….  Definitely had a "not again" moment.  But when I mentioned it should already be paid they double checked and “oh yes, no problem - it just came through.  Looks like the booking was today?”  😂 fair - it’s been less than an hour ;).  

We went back and forth through this park a few times in our travels tonight

We were directed to floor "minus 1" which made me laugh, but was a stunning room.  Easily 4x the size of the first.  And w a nice cool AC temp.   Win!   Over the stay we were increasingly happy with this one.  There was a garden out back where we spent most evenings after finishing our travels.  One area even had a little fountain.   Just all round lovely.  Potentially the nicest place we’ve stayed.  Definitely in the top 2.   So yeah - minor hassle, dealt w by travel agent, resulting in excellent upgrade.  Worth the minor hassle of a reshuffle for sure.

Where we ended up :)
5/5 stars.  100% recommend.