Another Pop Up Hotel Just Hit London. Kind Of.

Where: 46 Eastcastle St, London, United Kingdom

January 17, 2012 at 3:19 PM | by juliab | Comments (0)

The best bit about these people is they're not Lastminute types, or models - they were drop ins from a nearby office, who proceeded to get sozzled on free champagne and pose.

Of course, the pop-up hotel in London we all want to get into right now is the Room For London, but if you don�t have the �300 � yes, �300 � spare to hit that up, there�s another pop-up that you might want to try out.

From now until 22 January, at the Getty Images Gallery tucked just off Oxford Street, Lastminute.com is running its own �pop-up hotel�. It launched on Friday, and we popped along last night to check it out.

First things first � big disappointment - it�s not an actual hotel, in that you can�t stay the night. Having said that, it�s not as fake and PR-ey as you�d expect. Most importantly, there�s lots you can get out of it.

The �hotel� consists of the main room � split into the bar, the lobby and, if you use your imagination, the spa (more on that later). Behind that is the bedroom and, beyond that, the bathroom.

The lobby is where most of the action takes place � there�s a full schedule of events taking place, from afternoon tea and free pink fizz to spa treatments, a �bag boy� to carry your shopping bags and even, wait for it, a personal training session (tomorrow, 11am-4pm). The spa is basically part of this space. Yesterday, we got an awesome 15 minute massage (clothed, in one of those massage chairs) from a brilliant guy called Jan, and even nabbed a slice of carrot cake and a cup of tea left over from afternoon tea, three hours earlier. The only downside? The massage left us so energized, we didn�t want to sleep till 1am on a school night.

The bedroom is less interesting, seeing as you can�t sleep there, but it�s worth a look because it�s furnished with a bed and soft furnishings from 51 Buckingham Gate. Which, turns out, is way more modern in its d�cor than we imagined � interesting. The bathroom is just a bath in the open at the end of the bedroom, though we like to think it�s an amusing pastiche of the whole peekaboo bathroom trend.

The reason for all this happening? The launch of Lastminute�s Top Secret Collection. Which is basically an extension of their Top Secret Hotels, but ramped up to include restaurants, car hire and theater shows. As fans of blind booking sites, we like this news.

Yesterday it was nicely full of drop ins and people from the surrounding area, so the word is clearly spreading. And if the free manicures and massages don�t tempt you, this might � they�re giving away three hotel stays every day � just drop your biz card in the hat and they�ll draw it tomorrow. Free food, booze massages and a fake hotel bed to enjoy it in? You may not be able to stay there, but as fake hotels go, this is worth a peek.

The pop-up hotel is at the Getty Images Gallery, 46 Eastcastle Street, behind Oxford Street. Open 11am-7pm weekdays, 12-5pm weekends, till 22 January. See the bottom here for a map

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