Conrad London St. James Now Accepting Reservations

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: April 24, 2020
Published: August 25, 2014

13 comments

As I explained back when it was announced that the Concourse Hotel LAX would be rebranded as the Hyatt Regency LAX, hotel management contracts can be fascinating.

Quite possibly the most interesting hotel management contract change of the year is at the InterContinental Westminster London, which only opened in late 2012. I guess it really wasn’t working out for them, since the InterContinental Westminster is being rebranded as the Conrad St. James in September. Hotel management contracts are usually for at least a decade, so a lot has to go wrong for them to change so quickly. Rebranding a hotel is a big investment, so it’s interesting that they think switching from an InterContinental to a Conrad will radically alter their occupancy and rates.

Westminster Suite Bedromm Lighting

Anyway, the Conrad London St. James, as it will be called, is now accepting reservations through their website, for stays starting September 1, 2014.

Their rates are highly optimistic, starting at well over £250++ per night for prepaid rates, and well over £300++ for flexible rates. That’s quite a bit higher than what the InterContinental was charging.

Conrad-Hotels

This is supposed to be a Hilton Honors Category 9 property, making it 50,000 to 80,000 Honors points per night (in theory the pricing depends on season, though since this is London, my guess is that it will consistently be around 80,000 points).

Hilton-HHonors-Category

As of now it doesn’t seem like they’re actually loading any “standard” award rooms, though. Instead, they just have awards under their dynamic pricing model, whereby the number of points required is based on the room rate.

Conrad-Hotels-1

I suspect this is simply because the hotel hasn’t been rebranded yet and because they just loaded room inventory.

Once it actually is branded as a Hilton, this will definitely be my “go to” Hilton property in London. They seem to have a club lounge, which I’m sure will be nicer than the one at any of the Hilton properties in town. If you’ve stayed at the property while it was an InterContinental, what did you think of it?

Hopefully, the generosity of InterContinental Royal Ambassador benefits carry over to Diamond elite members. Or maybe they just rebranded so they don’t have to give top tier elites complimentary minibar beverages anymore. 😉

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DT Guest

December 17, 2014, 12:54 pm

I will be staying here in March for four nights. I am a diamond member. We booked the basic room. What have diamond members been getting for upgrades since the switch over? Thanks

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Antonio C. Guest

October 21, 2014, 2:00 pm

I've stayed at the IC Park Lane and it is a wonderful property very close to the tube and other nice locations (Bond and Oxford street), so I don't see this as something wrong. Granted, they also have 2 IC in Paris, and I suppose the Westminster hotel is cater more for government and less for leisure.

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Jen Guest

September 18, 2014, 8:15 pm

I actually stayed at the InterContinental the two days before the rebrand happened and was definitely impressed by the hotel. It's interesting that they felt the need to rebrand and it will be interesting to see how the hotel does under Hilton's management. It was definitely nice at the InterContinental rates, but may not be worth it at the Conrad rates. I have a review of the hotel here: http://goo.gl/wwJdDA

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TravelinWilly Diamond

August 25, 2014, 9:20 pm

When I'm staying in St. James's I always stay at The Stafford - formerly independent, now a Kempinski property, best bartender in the UK (His name is Ben btw) and character out the wazoo, not the most modern/updated, though. But miles ahead of The Lanesborough (my former default hotel in London, ruined when Starwood took it over) from a service standpoint.

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Carl Guest

August 25, 2014, 9:05 pm

It's rather sad what has become of the brand positioning of the Intercontinental brand. Back in the 1960's and 1970's when Pan Am owned Intercontinenal, the Intercontinental was often the best Western hotel in many international cities, and the service and furnishings were 5-star. But it seems like since the late 1970's - so for 40 years now - there has been underinvestment in the properties and the service and the brand, and it has move progressively lower to the point where Intercontinental is often at or below the Sheraton and Hilton brand levels - so in the 3.5 to 4 star range. Intercontinental doesn't have a brand any higher rated than that, do they? It would appear that they made the determination to get the rates that they needed, they needed the brand to position them higher. Starwood has Luxury Collection, W and St. Regis. Hyatt has Grand and Park. Marriott has Ritz, JW and Autograph. Hilton has Conrad and W=A. So... if they have high rate ambitions they may have been forced to rebrand. At least it is Conrad and not W=A so Golds and Diamonds will get breakfast and there is a lounge.

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