wjm457

My wife loves art deco, so last year I chose the Beaumont for a 3 night stay. Couldn't have been a better choice. Service and amenities are very good. We're going back this June and really looking forward to it. There are so many nice places to stay in London it can get quite confusing.

jp-mco

As promised here are my thoughts on The Lanesborough which we spent last weekend at. We booked through our Oetker Pearl Partner TA who secured a guaranteed upgrade from a Junior Suite to Executive Junior Suite for us.

Arrival
We had booked the hotel's RR Phantom transfer from London Euston. Rather indulgent for a 15 minute transfer but it was my birthday weekend. The hotel laid on a bottle of Taittinger (with their compliments) for the journey!









When we were nearing the hotel they phoned ahead to give staff the heads up. Consequently when we arrived a large number of staff were waiting and all greeted us by name. Check-in took less than 60 seconds and we were on our way to the suite. Upon arriving at our suite our luggage was already there as was the butler who offered us tea / coffee and brought in the remainder of the champagne with two glasses. As it was Valentines Day weekend I had arranged a dozen red roses with the florist in residence and they were ready and waiting.



The Suite
The hotel is decorated in Regency Style. I was a bit hesitant about this as we normally stay at modern decor hotels but the craftsmanship was incredible. All the marble in the bathroom is booked matched by hand, lots of handstitched fabrics and a lot of stencilling. Although the hotel is palatial it felt very cosy. The bed was extremely comfortable. No issues whatsoever with housekeeping - it was meticulous. Only one slight problem with one of the 3 electronically closed curtains but as soon as it was reported it was instantly fixed.

The bathroom amenities are full sized Roja Parfum ones created exclusively for The Lanesborough. They were a very nice scent. Excellent water pressure in the shower.

The Butler service was genuinely helpful. They offered to unpack (we declined), changed the water in the flowers, brought tea and coffee, chilled bottles of champagne and brought ice buckets whenever required. We told the Butler we were having a special weekend away just the two of us (our 1 year old left with grandparents) and she brought a bag of presents to take back for our daughter which was extremely kind.













Celeste
We ate dinner the first evening at Celeste which was superb. All 3 courses were perfectly presented and tasted very good. I can completely understand why they have recently gained a Michelin star. The bar only has a small menu of cocktails but I always order an Old Fashioned anyway.

Breakfast was definitely the highlight. I would stay at The Lanesborough just to eat their French Brioche toast! No gold leaf on the fruit salad anymore - times must be a bit hard(!) We received breakfast for free as a result of our TA and ordered a large collection of a la carte dishes. None of it appeared on our final bill. If you stay two or more nights and your stay is booked through an Oetker Pearl Partner you get £170 F&B / Spa credit which is very generous and pretty much paid for our food in Celeste. But not all the fine wine!













Departure
All too soon our short break came to an end. We had a confirmed 1pm departure and all our luggage was loaded into the back of an Uber Lux which I had ordered. The door team at The Lanesborough really are excellent. I'll admit - it was a big deal for me to try another London hotel other than 45PL. However, my experience at The Lanesborough met and exceeded my expectations. In addition, the hotel had a nicer overall feel to it. More homely. I may just have found a new London home.

United747

Thanks for the update! My father stayed here back around 2000 and still raves about it. Looks like I'll have to give it a try!

KatW

Jonjparr, I am so sold! Doesn't hurt that we adore Le Bristol. We have 275,000 thousand miles to use on Virgin Atlantic so I'm thinking a September sojourn to London for music and theatre with five nights outside town at Gravetye and another country stay (not Cotswolds).

Thank you for detailed, informative review.

offerendum

Seems they did a good job. Thanks for sharing

BENLEE

Good to hear that the Celeste restaurant has improved. Wasn't that great when I tried it last time when the hotel just opened.

jp-mco

For those with access to British television, there looks to be an interesting documentary about the Mandarin Oriental London at Hyde Park on Channel 4 this evening at 9pm.

DSI

Thank you so much for the superb review and I totally understand your points, esp. regarding the old world style vs. something more modern. But it's fun to try something different than your own house. We're going back this August and I should add a few points.

1. They are superb with children. For some odd reason I figured this place would be stuffy, and maybe it's a little formal, but it's a great place for kids.

2. The fabrics feel really rich and expensive. Not the cheap stuff like at Aman.

3. The concierge service is awesome. We were heading out to the Ledbury for dinner and I asked them to book something crazy, awesome and to surprise us for our ride and they got us the rolls royce from Downton Abbey (I've never seen the show), but it was great fun and as we were driving by everyone was pulling out their phones to take pictures. They helped with Wimbledon tickets for my friends and got us a seat at the Chef's Table at Dinner on a Sat night towards the finals of Wimbledon. That's got to be a tough seat to get. They organized a scavenger hunt through the city in mini-coopers and then did a champagne picnic for us in Hyde Park.

4. The doormen are just really great. It's obvious they love their jobs and have worked there forever.

The Lanesborough (as well as Le Bristol) have these classic spirits and a great staff--that aren't totally underpaid like Aman!--that make them great, homely, places.

KatW: We're just staying at Lanesborough and Le Bristol this summer. It's a nice combo...

FWIW: You can get even better benefits if you book direct as a returning guest than through a travel agent...

offerendum

Do you refer to all Aman and FS-hotels regarding cheap fabrics?

When I drove in a RR I had fortunately never problems with people who pulled out their smartphones.

DSI

well you may not have liked it, but it was fun for us. No need to rain on our parade. That's pretty neat though that you had the nearly hundred year old one too!

Perhaps I should have just mentioned Amans having cheap fabric. On further thought, FS seems to have higher quality stuff. We've only been to Amankora, Bagh, Taka and Sara. Perhaps my memory is fuzzy, though, and I scanned through my pictures and hardly took any pictures of the rooms whereas I seem to remember liking the FS GT.

I mean, is there anyone who would say that the fabrics are of high quality in Amankora? If so, I'm happy to be wrong.

There's nothing really wrong with cheap fabric, really, it's just that I remember thinking "wow, these are nice curtains and fabrics of an exceptional quality." It's not like I have expensive window treatments and expensive bedding at my house anyways.

United747

Just watched the first episode, quite interesting.

Kettering Northants QC

A very British hotel - I think they were being ironic with title

I think what surprised me most was how "VIPs" walk out of the hotel owing 100s of 1000s of £'s and the hotel spends months begging them to pay. Pretty sure if I did the same I wouldn't get as far as Harvey Nichols before Plod was called.

jp-mco

I couldn't get over how these customers apparently said when chased for payment, "We don't want to pay". It does make you wonder whether they're really as wealthy as they make out...

Kettering Northants QC

Not paying what you owe is a good way to stay wealthy. There's a US property developer who does it all the time and that apparently makes him a smart business man.

jp-mco

I think I might know who you mean

"All fur coat and no knickers" as my grandmother would say.