Intercontinental Hotel London

Introduction: The InterContinental Hotel Park Lane stands in an enviable location, on the edge of Mayfair, opposite Hyde Park and right next to Hyde Park Corner. On the opposite side of Hyde Park Corner is Green Park and the grounds of Buckingham Palace (London residence for the reining British Monarch). Mayfair itself is one of the most exclusive areas not just in London but the UK, with companies from all over the world occupying offices here as a Mayfair address is very prestigious. Just to the South of the Hotel is Piccadilly, which has a range of upmarket shopping include the internationally known Fortnum and Mason. Bond Street is known across the world for its quality designer fashion and jewellery boutiques and shops and is just 0.5 miles to the East (also in Mayfair). Just beyond Bond Street is Regent Street with is huge range and mix of shops, boutiques, cafes and Bars. Regent Street is also the start of London's Theatre Land and nightlife. Oxford Street, perhaps the best known of all the major shopping areas in London is 0.7 miles to the North. Less than 0.5 miles to the South West is Knightsbridge which runs along the South side of Hyde Park and is home to the famous department store of Harrods. All of the most popular London attractions and places of interest are accessible from here, some of which include: Apsley House (with the unique address of 1 London) (0.1 miles), The Queens Gallery (0.4 miles), St James's Palace (0.5 miles), Westminster Cathedral (0.7 miles), Speakers Corner (0.7 miles) and Marble Arch (0.8 miles).

Hotel:
The hotel re-opened in November 2006 after being closed to allow for a £63 million pound refurbishment program. The refit was extensive, was carried out by ReardonSmith architects, and resulted in all new dining and bar facilities and bedrooms that are now state-of-the-art.
Along with the new opening comes a new policy that every guest entering the hotel should be greeted immediately by a member of the staff.  Whatever your needs, be it help with shopping bags or guidance to a part of the hotel it should be there as soon as you need it.

Bedrooms have been furbished to bring a modern slant on the traditional British stately home in both furniture and fabrics. Cots and rollaway beds can be hired for a fee. The hotel provides a valet and turndown service. All rooms are of course en-suite with a bath, robe, phone, toiletries and hairdryer. Standard room amenities include cable television (with pay movies, games and internet browser), CD and DVD player, video check-out, music system, tea/coffee facilities, fridge, minibar, modem connection, high speed internet access, desk, direct dial phone with voicemail, safe, individually controlled air-conditioning, iron and ironing board. Video films can be rented.
The Executive club rooms are on a dedicated floor along with the Club InterContinental lounge. The lounge is contemporary in style with great views over central London. The lounge is also free to guests in suites while other guests can pay a surcharge for access.

Suites again are designed to bring a modern slant to a neo-classical theme. Suites have the latest in technology with the likes of Bose Sound Systems, ipod docking stations, and B&O plasma TV's. As well as standard amenities the rooms come with a Butler Service, dedicated check-in area and the very latest in video equipment. They also have a kitchen area with a dishwasher, microwave, toaster, utensils and oven.
The Intercontinental now boasts four very special signature suites, opened in June 2007, designed by Khuan Chew of KCA International. These suites come with specially commissioned artwork from Uschi Schmitt-Ladanyi. They are the height in luxury and innovative design with a range of high tech facilities. They are the Royal suite, the London suite, the Wellington suite and the Cinema suite. The Royal and London suites can be connected to create one of Europe's largest hotel suites. The cinema suite has a real cinema, £70,000 pounds worth of equipment with 5 foot screen and 250 films.

Eight rooms have been adapted for accessibility. Room configurations include sixty suites, two hundred singles, one hundred and eighty seven doubles and two hundred and ten rooms that are non-smoking. 
Room service is 24 hours and there is a daily maid service.

Dining:
The hotel has its own restaurant, cafe and lobby bar.
Theo Randall at The InterContinental: The restaurant takes it name from its head chef who was formerly head chef at the River Café (once named best Italian restaurant in Europe).  A large 120 seat restaurant in a stylishly modern and chic setting focussing on the best of regional Italian cuisine that has enjoyed many great reviews. The decor features the use of brown leather and mirrors. The menu is varied and changes most days. In fact the Chef only decides the menu each morning after taking note of the quality of the ingredients available to him that day. Open for lunch and dinner.
Theo Randall at The InterContinental Bar: part of the restaurant with a 20 seat capacity.
Lobby Bar: Vibrant setting serving classic cocktails as well as locally brewed beers.
Cookbook Cafe: Serves breakfast, lunch and dinner along aside its range of drinks that include fine wines.
Lobby Lounge: Sited in the hotels lobby and open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A restful environment in which to enjoy fine tea's and wonderful chocolates from some local suppliers.

The hotel has a dedicated floor for its 13 meeting rooms. All rooms make use of natural daylight with full length windows. The largest room can accommodate up to 750 delegates theatre style. Some rooms are far more intimate with the smallest having a capacity of 4.
The hotels business centre is manned from 9.00 till 17.00 daily. Here you can obtain services such as photocopy, fax, internet access via computer, mobile phone rental, pc hire, modem connection, WiFi broadband internet access and secretarial services.
WiFi can be picked up throughout all the public areas.
Hotel services include an onsite laundry (self service), dry cleaning and laundry pickup, full concierge services, safety deposit box (front reception), currency exchange and shoe shine. The hotel has shops located onsite which include a florist, grocery store, beauty salon and gift shop. Baby sitting can be arranged for your children and the hotel runs what it calls a Kids VIP Program.
All the public areas benefit from air-conditioning.
A gymnasium is to be found on the first floor which is equipped with free eights and cardio workout machines.