will be visiting London first time this April

You have a great budget and should be able to find a nice selection of hotels. My question would be what are the amenities that are most important to you in your hotel selection? I usually stay at 3 star type hotels so I may not have much direct experience with high end London properties that you are hoping for.

There are a huge number of hotels in central London in the Marriott group these days - a quick search brought up 62, although some of those will not be convenient.

There is no hotel that can be convenient for all the main attractions as the centre of London is very large - you will have to travel to some of them wherever you stay.

The best location for me would be the Marriott County Hall - on the river next to the London Eye and immediately opposite Westminster. For a beautiful building you can't beat the St Pancras Renaissance, a refurbished Victorian hotel literally above St Pancras station. If you want a well located more modern styled hotel I have enjoyed a stay at the Autograph on Bankside. Finally another well located option is the St Ermins by St James Park tube station. I'm sure the JW Marriott on Grosvenor Square will be very comfortable and the location is fine but I find Mayfair a bit sterile.

All of the above should be within your budget.

I would stay in the Covent Garden area.

Don’t forget to go for drinks and a bite inside at Gordon’s Wine Bar! So cool….you’ll have to google it. The oldest wine bar in London.

We had a great stay at St. Ermin’s usine Marriott points several years ago. The rooms were smallish (but decent for Europe), but clean, comfortable and lovely. The building itself was beautiful and convenient for walking to Westminster, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, parks and restaurants. I recall the service being excellent.

Enjoy your trip!

I've stayed at Grosvenor Square, it is a very plush hotel and we were upgraded to an executive suite which was very nice however Mayfair is a bit boring. I preferred the London Edition, part of the Marriott chain. It's a five star hotel located between Fitzrovia and Soho so the area is more lively than Mayfair. Great rooms, fantastic lobby bar and the best stocked minibar I've encountered.

I hope I don't get flagged for this comment not being "unfailingly polite," BUT ... I will probably never have (or being willing to spend, more like) $500-$600/night on a hotel, so I can't relate to this post on a lot of levels. What I'm wondering is why, when you have that kind of money to spend, you would specifically choose to stay at a hotel operated by a huge American corporation.

G3rryCee……simple answer…

Their money, their choice.

I agree with Claudia that it’s their money and their choice, but I do think that there is a valid point here.

CHSK, have you considered that there are some absolutely incredible London hotels in your price point that really might make your vacation that much nicer? Many of them have that old world charm with luxury, which really can’t be beat. Obviously, if you really want to stay at a Marriott, that’s your choice, but if you haven’t made up your mind, you might want to look at some of the other options. :)

Thanks, Mardee, for appreciating that I am not trying to dictate how other people spend their money.
Also, just because a hotel is owned by Marriott doesn't mean it's not nice or charming or even old. Such is the way of the world that independent hotels are purchased by corporations.

My understanding is that many hotels under the various Marriott brands (and there are a lot of them these days) are franchises operated by separate companies. Obviously though they still deliver to certain standards (which vary from brand to brand).
Despite being British we often use Marriott brand hotels. We have 4 weeks with their vacation club, which we mainly use for holidays in Mallorca but also we convert to points for stays elsewhere.
It’s not a lot different to people who fly with certain airlines because of their loyalty schemes.

Many of them have that old world charm with luxury, which really can’t be beat.

Which is precisely what the JW Marriott Grosvenor Square has. Not all Marriott hotels are sterile, corporate behemoths. The Renaissance St Pancras, another Marriott brand, is a spectacularly grand hotel and then there's County Hall, plenty of history there.

Maybe they simply like accruing Marriott points...

Or spending them?

Like JC, I've stayed at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House and enjoyed my room very much. However, I didn't enjoy staying on Park Lane in Mayfair. I completely understand if you want to maximize the Bonvoy program, but I wouldn't recommend staying there unless the bulk of your activities will be nearby. I think you've received some good advice around other Marriott properties and staying nearer to Covent Garden. In that price range, if interested in going outside Bonvoy, I'd be inclined to recommend a deluxe king room at The Bloomsbury.