June 1st our big London RUN!

Check updates on this link!

On June 1st 2010; Martin Kleinman & Daniel Evans, the two lastminute.com hotel London Destination Managers will run 40 miles passing all of their central London hotels on the way! James Murrin (Biz Analyst) is joining us for the whole stretch, & many more staff from the hotels team joining us for various parts of the run.

Hoteliers are getting in on the act too! So far we’ve got two hoteliers joining us (one is the GM from Threadneedles, Mr Athletic – Julian Payne) for the whole 40 mile trek!

We will be passing more than 300 central London hotels, we’ve mapped out a route and so if you’re a hotel en-route, obviously….. give us a wave!!!!! Already we’ve had hotels very kindly offer us all kinds of support on the day – join them & join us by having one great great day where we can say hi to all our central london hotel partners.

40 miles is a long long way, we’ve never run this before, and even the long distances we have run are literally too much to do, so please please give us allllll the motivation possible by sponsoring us!

As part of our colossal trek we will be collecting & raising money for NSPCC, please please please give generously by sponsoring us here! Not only will you be motivating us to run this ridiculous amount, but of course you are helping children who urgently need your help.

So get in touch and let us know how you’ll join us!!

a true london icon

no not me! although I am pretty famous round these parts it must be said!

As you know team london are constantly milling around town seeing our all lovely London hotel partners, and we’ve come to notice there’s always one hotel that particular stands out (visually speaking of course).

Literally you can see this hotel from so many vantage points in London, this pic on the left is a taken just below Oxford Street, and on the right in Green Park….

This is of course the Hilton on Park Lane (for that is its correct title!) it’s almost like the hotel follows you around London (or is that just me?!).

The irony is that once inside the Hilton on Park Lane, if you whizz on up to floor 27 you of course arrive at Galvin at Windows, not only a phenomenally amazing fine dining restaurant but it has the most amazing panoramic views of the wholllle of London, it’s truly breathtaking and literally when eating you can’t help but let your eyes wander over the amazing views.

One of the views is directly over Buckingham Palace’s back garden, the Queen was reportedly so not amused of the hotel being constructed (back in 1963) that she has pointedly refused to ever attend any function there! The Queen clearly has not met my sales/revenue contacts at the hotel, they’re the greatest most fabbest of ladies (can I come for lunch again hint hint!!).

to frieze or not to frieze

When William Shakespeare came to London he would always stay at the Crowne Plaza London St James, it is often thought that it was there in the courtyard that gave inspiration for the Elephant Inn as featured in Twelfth Night. Ok so that is not strictttly true, but the Crowne Plaza London St James (or CPSJ to its friends) does have many friezes in its beautiful courtyard, all depicting scenes from famous Shakey plays.

The hotel often have great functions in their courtyard – ‘Carols in the Courtyard’ over Crimbo is always a favourite of ours, and upcoming this summer will be ‘Opera in the courtyard’ where a full-on operatic show will take place, we’ve put in a request already to get our tickets!

The courtyard is also a well known celeb spotting haven, Christian Slater, Pam Anderson, Alan Sugar (shurralan), we’ve bumped into them all there, they also do incredible bbq food out there in the summer – you know what, it’s just like another of Shakespeare’s famous quotes said – “if thy courtyard was a person I would marry thee” – and you can quote me on that!

Literary Legends of Beautiful Bloomsbury

If you’re like me then just strolling down Bloomsbury makes you feel clever. The streets are literally immersed in literary gold, and as for the hotels, well they’re all claiming to have been the home of Charles Dickens’s dog for a day or two.

Howwwwwever, those clever bods at the Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury Street are the real deal, not only was this hotel the former home to literary legends Virginia Woolf and E.M Forster, but each month they focus on a particular book, and faster than you can say e=mc2, they give the guests the book complimentary!

In April – The Knife of never letting go, written by Patrick Ness and published by Walkers Books, is their titan tome.

In May - The Surprising Life of Constance Spry, written by Sue Shepherd and published by Pan Macmillan, another riveting read.

In June – The Life & times of Martin Kleinman, an insight into Destination Management by M. Onkey