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Hi all
What are the best hotels to make use of the voucher in the UK? Obvious options are Intercontinental O2 (used one there) and Park Lane. I believe Kimptons might be good too in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester (any recommendations?)…
Any other top notch place to consider to make the most of the voucher? What about Mr and Mrs Smith if vouchers work there?
And anything NOT in a city?
My main goal is to make the most of the voucher in the nicest hotel possible, adding a second night with points. But, given the preference, I’d go nature over city every time.
All advice gratefully received!
Depends what kind of hotel you like. On the more “boutique” end, I really enjoyed my three recent stays at the Edinburgh Kimpton. The hotel is friendly and the hard product is decent. They have nice touches like a themed tuckbox and very good quality filter coffee in the rooms. I’ve eaten at Baba a few times and it’s very enjoyable. The staff are great, especially Rosie from the front desk. Plus, you get to stay in Edinburgh instead of somewhere like London 😉
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There are probably some Mr and Mrs Smiths in the countryside that would work well.
But to echo Harry’s point, Edinburgh has two good IHGs, maybe three if you include the Indigo, and if you want a country walk press on up to Arthur’s Seat. It’s a unique experience in a British city. I did it this morning, it feels so un-city. You’ve also got the coast, and Crammond Island, in fact it’s such a small city with no urban sprawl there’s a ton of countryside on your doorstep in all directions. I’m home now and despite several visits I can’t wait to go back.
I would third the Kimpton Charlotte in Edinburgh, on the finest Square of Georgian architecture in the city. Spa, restaurant, bistro and bar are all great.
I also enjoyed my stay at the Kimpton Blythswood Glasgow, in my opinion the best hotel in the city. Again in a Georgian Sq the spa and restaurant are very good and the staff in both hotels are very friendly.Well depend Well the Kimpton in Edinburgh is very good and a worthy points redemption usually reasonably priced points wise outside of the peak periods.
For the free night voucher use I would aim for a saving of at least 80k points which has become easier with the ability to redeem on Smith hotels
I also enjoyed my stay at the Kimpton Blythswood Glasgow, in my opinion the best hotel in the city. Again in a Georgian Sq the spa and restaurant are very good and the staff in both hotels are very friendly.
Actually, it is a Victorian square!
The Georgians demolished medieval Glasgow with the exception of the cathedral and the university. The Victorians demolished the medieval university to build a railways goods yard and knocked down almost all of Georgian Glasgow.
Then in the second half of the 20th century, modern Glaswegians decided to demolish the medieval cathedral to build a motorway ring road! Fortunately they only built one half of the circle, so the cathedral was spared! But they did manage to demolish (or let be destroyed by mysterious fires) a fair bit of Victorian Glasgow!
Now they are demolishing all the 1960s tower blocks to build 21st century Glasgow.
Just had a wonderful stay at the Grove Narbeth booked via IHG as a Mr & Mrs Smith hotel. Good food, great customer service. Lovely sized rooms and the ones we were recently refurbished.
I also enjoyed my stay at the Kimpton Blythswood Glasgow, in my opinion the best hotel in the city. Again in a Georgian Sq the spa and restaurant are very good and the staff in both hotels are very friendly.
Actually, it is a Victorian square!
The Georgians demolished medieval Glasgow with the exception of the cathedral and the university. The Victorians demolished the medieval university to build a railways goods yard and knocked down almost all of Georgian Glasgow.
Then in the second half of the 20th century, modern Glaswegians decided to demolish the medieval cathedral to build a motorway ring road! Fortunately they only built one half of the circle, so the cathedral was spared! But they did manage to demolish (or let be destroyed by mysterious fires) a fair bit of Victorian Glasgow!
Now they are demolishing all the 1960s tower blocks to build 21st century Glasgow.
Colin, I defer to your knowledge, although I believed that the A listed buildings on the square were completed in 1820, therefore making them Georgian. Were they all demolished or flattened by the Luftwaffe?
I am also aware that the Blythswood Square was notorious up until the 1990’s or so as Glasgow’s red light district.
The Hotel is still great though.We’re using ours at Heckfield place, where the rooms sell for £800 pn cash. Cliveden is similar
Didn’t realise it works on M&MS hotels. Back to review strategy! Thanks.
I’m sure it didn’t when Mr & Mrs first joined the IHG portfolio – has that changed?
I’m sure it didn’t when Mr & Mrs first joined the IHG portfolio – has that changed?
Remember that IHG had to resissue a lot of vouchers because they cocked up the stay by / book by dates? I think it is those vouchers where IHG forgot to block Smith. In fact they forgot to block anything – readers have been booking multi-thousand pound Smith suites.
Now why does that not surprise me … ?!
Remember that IHG had to resissue a lot of vouchers because they cocked up the stay by / book by dates?
So is it book by or stay by?
– I had one voucher which expired on 11 April that I’ve used (successfully, I hope) towards a booking in January 2023.
– I have a second voucher which is “book by” 31 December 2022, but I’ve done a dummy search after reading these comments and it won’t let me select a night beyond 31 December 2022…I thought I’d read in a previous thread that it definitely is “book by”, not “stay by”, but it looks not to be the case.
I think it was always book by, until extensions started being added due to Covid, but if you then cancel the stay after the expiry date on the certificate, you don’t get it back.
Any way to see availability for use of a free night voucher, without having a currently active voucher in your account?
I don’t want to unbook what I currently have, for fear of losing it; but am intrigued by what’s suggested above…
The only way to re-use the certificate, as it were, is to cancel the booking so it reappears in your account. You can get sort of get an idea about free night availability by looking if there are points nights available, though this is somewhat hit and miss. Could you change your current free night to a points one if it didn’t reappear after you cancelled (unless it’s expired, in which case definitely don’t!) Alternatively, someone on here might be able to check for you.
Thanks, I don’t think I’ll ask someone to do that as it’s speculative and not a fair use of their time.
I’ll happily check things for people if I have time but sadly we have no unused certificates just now 😔
Having spent a fruitless few hours cycling through finding a M&MS hotel that stated the voucher could be used, trying to book, falling down at various stages, and repeating; we gave up and booked IC Park Lane.
I also had similar experience with the free night voucher. Online would allow me to select M&MS hotel and room, but I could not confirm the booking online and the error message instructed me to call reservations to complete the booking. I lost the will after that. Very frustrating. I decided on the Fitzroy in the end as I find the IC Park Lane a bit uninspiring.
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