MacMyDay

I have indeed - if you look at a lot of my North Island photos, that is what I'm doing. With here I stupidly didn't bring the tripod, as it didn't cross my mind to take it to a London hotel. I then grabbed it for our Connaught in The Apartment, but ended up not using it.

MacMyDay

The Goring cannot compete on the hard product, but at least has the dignity to admit it. Its selling point is the location (although that depends what you are looking for, as I would rather avoid Victoria area and be a few minutes away in Knightsbridge), the wonderful gardens, but most importantly the service. It has no spa, potentially the smallest gym in the world, has very limited food options (albeit its dining room does have a Michelin star) and when you do get the food, it is underwhelming. I’m not even sure what their strategy is with the food, as excluding their dining room (that was fully booked), the options are severely limited and they were doing their best to point us to restaurants nearby. As I was here to try the hotel out, that was not something that I wanted to do, so we were limited to having dinner in their bar. I can’t see the logic that on one hand they would try and get a Michelin star, but on the other if you cannot get into the restaurant, you’re left to fend for yourself.

Here’s some notes:

• What a welcome. From the doorman, dressed in their wonderful red and white attire, running to take our luggage, to the handoff to reception, to the head of Guest Relations introducing herself.
• I have a standard stay list that I send onto every resort we stay at, providing it meets a criteria of cost/stay, i.e. I won’t send it to a hotel if it’s Ł500/n and we’re only there 1 night, as I feel it’s unreasonable to ask for some of the things. However here it was passed on as part of the booking and they went ahead and fulfilled almost all of it. I’m writing this on the first of our 3 night stay at Park Hyatt Sydney and they have fulfilled none of it and have even kindly ignored it to such an extent that a bottle of wine is waiting for us when the stay list notes that we don’t drink.
• I do need another bullet point to emphasis the stay list, as they really went for it. We had 2 gifts and so many welcome notes that there’s a good chance that one was from Jesus. I felt like I was at a wedding reception, with all the flowers and notes. They provided welcome drinks, welcome food, chocolate gift, some of their own marmalade (…alrighty then) and flowers.
• We didn’t want to take all the gifts with us on holiday, so asked that they send the marmalade and chocolates to The Connaught, as I have some storage there and we will be there in a few weeks time. They did this for free.
• Room design is not to my liking, but not so much that it bothered me. Once again the service came through, as they had setup the room to perfection based on our stay list. My main criticisms would be that the bathroom is smaller than the non-fictional parts of my CV and they suffer from old-hotel-syndrome, where access to the plug sockets requires you to hire a moving crew to rearrange the furniture.
• The room key is an actual physical key, which therefore makes it a pain to carry around, but you can leave this key with anyone in the hotel who will look after it for you. It’s a nice move and something Whatley Manor should consider, as the key is about half my body weight.
• There was some Asprey packaging in the bathroom, but nothing inside of it.
• I was really taken back by their wonderful garden – a very rare site for central London. We ate outside on the terrace during one of the hottest days of the year, which was only disturbed by the smell of people smoking. The gardens are really quite something, but the stand-out show is the service.
• It was very busy that evening, with what looked like a wedding reception, and it made getting served rather slow. We ordered 2 glasses of their “freshly squeezed orange juice” and when it came it was clearly out of the carton. Upon complaining of this, the waitress did not understand what we were saying, so we had to speak to the manager, who apologised for it. They had run out of oranges, which is understandable as these are rare, tropical fruits. Quite what the bill would have said if the manager did not comp them for us, I would have loved to have known. I think we caught the manager at the wrong moment, as he seemed very much under pressure and wasn’t clear on whether we were getting a new drink or not. He came back later to apologise for this and gave us the meal for free, excluding dessert. Definitely cannot complain about service recovery there.
• As a non-drinker and wanting to avoid a frequent stream of acidic drinks – and being a big kid – I will tend to order a strawberry milkshake. They could not make me one and the request seemed to startle the waiter. I cannot think of any London hotel I’ve ever stayed that could not fashion up some milk + strawberries, but I suppose if oranges are difficult to come by….
• I thought it was strange that they did not ask us if we wanted a wake-up call when during check-in we mentioned we would be leaving before 8am. Neither did they ask when we wanted turndown, but turndown was done to perfection when we were out of the room having dinner.
• Everything smells wonderful - it reminds me of being at my nans, but in a good way.
• The average age of people staying here is 140, which goes up to 145 if you remove ourselves from the equation.
• Just like The Beaumont, there is not even the option to add a tip onto any bill. They also offered me the opportunity to avoid having to sign for breakfast, as it is included in the room rate. Too many hotels are obsessed with making you sign for something that doesn't cost anything, which is just a waste of time.
• When we checked out, they asked for the Uber registration number so they could come and grab us when the car was ready, rather than us waiting outside. It was small touches like this that showed a nice level of thoughtfulness in almost everything they did.
• We managed to create an encore to managing to lose things anywhere we go, this time by leaving her iPhone behind. The Goring emailed me to notify me that housekeeping had found it and wondered if they wanted them to try and bring it to us at the airport. Lose property seems an enigma to me, as even at our most regular hotels we are never told if we have left something behind, but have to call to find out. The fact that they sent in housekeeping so soon after we left makes me feel that they do this deliberately in order to help avoid this situation.


The Goring seems to follow the motto: it's the service, stupid. That is why you would consider staying here. Would I stay again? Possibly, but not in any rush, as I feel there are better places I’ve been or better places to go. Yet the service did impress me and I’ve finally found out where every single Englishman in hospitality works.

Cheetah_SA

Stupendous review, MacMyDay - full of detail and immensely entertaining! ^ :-:

uggboy

Thanks MacMyDay, superb review, interesting experiences and insights, well received and highly appreciated.

Cheers & Safe Travels. ^

On another note, we understand that The Goring doesn't provide a Minibar [at least from what we've read online] in their rooms, also we read on their website Junior Suite [or higher up suites] description the following amenity included: In-suite complimentary cocktail hour.

Has anyone here on FT enjoyed such a cocktail hour at The Goring?

Would be indeed interesting to know.

Pausanias

Thanks for that MacMyDay. Highly entertaining account of the Goring, one of the last places left on Earth and while it doesn't have a view of the Sydney Opera House from its rooms, I prefer it to your rather bland, chain hotel garret, the Park Hyatt, which I have just viewed on Flickr. Call me old-fashioned if you like - but I'm aged 140 years.

MacMyDay

Pleasure, sir. Coincidentally I can kinda answer your question. First of all, I cannot recall seeing a minibar in the room, just as you say. Secondly, on my way down to London I met one of my neighbours at the train station, whom works for LVMH in their champagne division which is based right near The Goring. As you might imagine, he has been there one too many times. Upon saying where I was going, he immediately commented that their bar and cocktails in particular are rubbish compared to The Connaught.

:-) The beauty of such wonderful diversity in the market place.

Epicura

@MacMyDay Thanks for all those specifics on London (heading to Rosewood in a couple of weeks) but I was wondering: aren't you writing your replies from Laucala ?

MacMyDay

I was actually writing the responses from Park Hyatt Sydney, but I wrote up most of the feedback whilst flying to Sydney (SQ charge $7 for 10Mb of data, even when you're in F! Suffice to say, there was not much to do after watching the first few good movies.). However, as of today I'm in Laucala, so you got me. In my defence it is raining and has been for the last 4 hours non-stop, so as per any tropical island it makes it a little light on things to do.

Anywho, enjoy Rosewood. That is one of the 5 London hotels left on my list to visit. If anyone wanted any other feedback on any of the London luxury hotels, I'm happy (providing it's good) to go try it out and post about it here in a few weeks time. I need a room 3-4 times a month, so always have an opportunity to try somewhere else.

Epicura

So sorry to hear about the rain! Why don't you take a bike and try to break the owner's record - Tour de Laucala ?

I was kindly invited for a weekend at Rosewood for a friend's milestone birthday. But I will make sure to update the thread accordingly after my stay.

Anyway, enjoy Laucala! We absolutely loved it. I (and I think many other FT's) am particularly interested in your comparison versus North Island and Fregate.

QPRfan

I stayed at the Milestone just under two weeks ago, and thought that I would give my impressions. Firstly I was a little concerned with how small the room was going to be. Having looked at the room sizes online I was a trifle concerned that it might appear cramped. The room was meant to be 18 sq/m. However it was actually ok! We were on the 5th floor and our room contained a little alcove section that looked out onto Kensington Gardens, and this section had a chair and desk, and could be curtained off from the rest of the bedroom.
We ordered room service upon arrival and when it came there didn't seem anywhere obvious for the tray to go. In the end we left the tray on the bed and took plates from it to eat. The food presentation wasn't particularly great, however it tasted good, and was filling.
Breakfast the following morning was in a lovely room. The buffet selection didn't have a huge variety, however as the hotel is not the largest this shouldn't be surprising. They did have fruit, yoghurt, cereal, juices and we ordered eggs and toast, so it had all we wanted.
For lunch we visited their bar and sat in their orangery. It was a little chilly and we were the only guests. There were magazine to read. Again the food presentation wasn't brilliant, but it tasted ok.

Overall the hotel was good. I would happily stay there again. I put it in the second tier of London hotels (Ritz, Browns) as it didn't do anything wrong, but didn't amaze me either. The only hotel in London I have been to that I would rank higher is the Hotel Cafe Royal.

SocialAdept

Out of curiosity, what does this list look like?

MacMyDay

Things like how I want a Tempur pillow; my hatred of sparkling water so they don't include it in the room; that I don't drink alcohol so they don't give us a free bottle of champagne that will just go to waste; how I want blackout blinds (not such an issue for city hotels, but frequently comes in very useful at resorts - both North Island and Lauacla do not include any blinds at all unless you ask); to provide toothpaste; that I want the room heated as every hotel seems intent on making it subzero temperatures on arrival etc etc. It saves myself and the hotel the bother of having to phone them and request multiple things on arrival, as they already have taken care of it.

JohnRain

I recently had a brilliant stay at the Dorchester in the 124 sqm Dorchester Suite.
Here are a few impressions:









For a full review with many more pictures click here.

KateHarrison

I am wondering if Four Seasons at Ten Trinity is accepting bookings?
Because it looks like its running http://www.fourseasons.com/tentrinity/

MacMyDay

Looks like it:

Seems 13th February is the first date that can be booked. Might be possible with the right contacts to get pre-opening availability. Base price room at Ł400/n, which I can't decide if reasonable or not, as it's anywhere near the, let's say, established parts of London.