Buster

My husband and I were in London last week and split our stay between the London Rosewood & the Ham Yard Hotel. I know Ham Yard isn't technically "luxury" but know that there are a lot of Firmdale fans here, so thought it was worth a quick report. These are sort of summary thoughts - I'm happy to answer any questions about either property.

First...the Rosewood.

I had high expectations for The Rosewood; the location is extremely appealing and one of my new favorite hotels is The Rosewood in Vancouver. The Rosewood has a fantastic central location on High Holborn, just yards away from the Holborn tube stop. One day we managed to walk west to Victoria from the hotel, and then east to Aldgate from the hotel. The hotel makes a very distinct first impression. You turn off of busy High Holborn into a lovely, dramatic courtyard with piped in music (more on that later), and it feels like a sanctuary. The interior design of the hotel is quite beautiful. Muted greys and soft blacks combine with contemporary touches to give a sumptuous feel. It should be noted that my personal preference for hotel style is contemporary, but not modern (I once had a room in a "design" hotel in Italy that had the shower smack in the middle of the room as a design element – definitely not my taste).

We booked an Executive Room through our Virtuoso agent DavidO, and an Executive Room is what we got – no upgrade. Other Virtuoso amenities were free daily breakfast and a $100 food & beverage credit. Our room was lovely in color and interior design save one thing…the room was DARK. There were only 3 lights in the room – 2 bedside reading lights and a light on the desk. As a result, I was constantly fumbling around trying to find things, even in the middle of the day. The room was generously sized by London standards. The bathroom was quite small, with a combined shower/tub (note: I would not recommend this room for someone who is not nimble – the bathtub was extremely tall, and even for me, it felt a bit dicey getting out of the tub after a shower). The other weird thing was that there was almost no art in the room. There was one small painting resting on the headboard, but other than that, there were just big plain white walls. I'm sure it was meant to feel dramatic, but it ended up feeling a bit institutional.

Now, the major drawback of our room – the noise. Our room faced the previously mentioned motorcourt/courtyard and was on the 1st floor. The piped in music began at 6am and ended at 1am. The windows were actually two sets of double paned windows, so we weren't hearing the music through them. Rather, it was a constant vibration in the room, and when you put your head on the pillow, it vibrated through the pillow to our heads. It was truly disconcerting.

Service was generally fine, if slightly awkward, although I will say when checking out we had really great service. There was a fairly sizable convention checking in when we were checking out, and they were crowding the entire check-in area. One of the check-in employees noticed us standing and waiting and immediately pulled us to the concierge desk to facilitate a speedy check-out.

Breakfast was also generally fine – they do a cold breakfast buffet in the Mirror Room, which was what we did for two of the days. One day I ordered muesli and ended up with porridge, but the porridge was actually delicious, so I can’t complain too much. I did notice people with the full English fry-up and it looked very good. We had drinks in the Scarfes Bar one evening and the cocktails were delicious. The bar was absolutely heaving on a Thursday night at 5:30. Finally, there’s a little grab and go area next to the Holborn Restaurant (think upscale Pret) that we got sandwiches and biscuits from the day we checked out. These were all very high quality, and it’s a very convenient option if you need something easy and don’t have time for a sit down meal.

Overall, I'd say the experience at the Rosewood was good, not great. I guess I had very high hopes for the hotel, and it didn't entirely live up to those expectations. I do like the location much more than, say, Knightsbridge, and the contemporary design is more appealing to me than a traditional hotel such as Claridge's or Brown's. I think I would probably stay there again, but be much more choosy about room location, and would never again stay in a 1st floor room.

Next up...Ham Yard.

Buster

We split our London stay between the Rosewood and the Ham Yard Hotel. Ham Yard also has an interesting central location right behind Piccadilly Circus. I'm generally suspicious of hotels and restaurants that have the PR machine cranking like Firmdale does, but my husband wanted to give it a go, so we spent two nights here. Our Ham Yard stay began rather inauspiciously a few days before we arrived when we received a confirmation noting a rate somewhat higher than what we had originally booked. DavidO reached out to them to confirm the original rate, and they did acknowledge that they had "updated" our reservation to include daily breakfast and a glass of champagne (at a cost of close to Ł100/night more), which we intentionally did not book or want, and they reversed the booking back to our original reservation price.

We booked a Luxury Room, and to be honest, I have no idea what kind of room we ended up with, because I can’t seem to correlate what we got vs. what is described on their website. For example, all of the room descriptions say "two basins" and our room only had one. We also had just a walk-in shower, no tub. I suspect based on the height and shape of the bathroom fixtures that we may have been in some sort of handicapped accessible room, which may explain why the bathroom was giant but relatively empty. The room itself was decorated in various shades of grey, but with lots of interesting textures and patterns. I personally prefer the style of Ham Yard to the Rosewood, but the room was somewhat smaller than at the Rosewood (although still generously proportioned for London). We were on the 2nd floor overlooking the courtyard, and had a small balcony, which, when we settled in realized had a Coke bottle with cigarette butts sitting in it. The balcony door also didn't seem to close properly, which led to us hearing lots of yelling and noise from the Soho streets below. Truly, this was my main complaint about the hotel – it's just too loud. Again, perhaps we had poor luck with the room, and a room without a balcony or on a higher floor would be quieter. In retrospect, I wish I had asked to see other rooms at both hotels to know whether other rooms would be quieter in the future.

Toiletries are a Kit Kemp "own brand" which I found to be much too strongly fragranced and not particularly luxurious. I was glad that I had some unscented lotion with me, because one morning I used the Kit Kemp lotion and I thought the smell that lingered all day was going to give me a headache.

Ham Yard has a very buzzy social scene full of very too cool for you types. When we checked in, we got a little tour of the public areas, and I got some of the dirtiest looks shot at me as I walked around with my apparently not very stylish backpack. Frankly, I'm more comfortable with a business crowd than an arty crowd, but the public rooms are very happening if you're into that kind of thing. The bar and restaurant seemed to be completely packed at all hours of the day. There are two guest-only rooms, the Library and the Drawing Room, where you can get drinks. We had drinks with a friend one evening in the Library and found it to be extremely comfortable, and definitely one of the perks of the hotel. The cocktails were, I'm happy to report, top notch.

Again, I'd say our experience at Ham Yard was good, but not great. I wouldn't class this as a luxury hotel by any means. It's much more on the boutique end of the spectrum than the Rosewood is. There's somewhat less service at the Ham Yard than the Rosewood – no one opens the doors, no one offered to help with our luggage when we were checking out, etc., and overall the feel is much less luxurious. With that having been said, I do like the décor and the location is fabulous. I would consider staying here again, but like the Rosewood, it would depend on the room location and noise.

luxury

A Rosewood Elite agent like myself, or ABG, and others, could likely have confirmed the upgrade at booking at Rosewood London.

Valveking

Thanks for the great reviews. I am with you on the noise. I am a light sleeper and the constant noise just drives me nuts in some hotels.

pricesquire

The three biggest complaints I hear about the Rosewood London: (1) you'd never know you're in London (often a complaint I hear with RCs...); (2) the rooms are too technologically advanced (I know, is that even a complaint?), and (3) the noise.

Get great feedback re: Ham Yard.

RichardInSF

So when you had all these problems, you didn't complain to the hotels? I would have been on the room phone in a second, but then maybe I'm just the obnoxious type.

hannisen

Very interesting reviews for two hotels I didn't know very much about, thanks!

Same here. Or even better, a trip down to the check-in desk.

FlyingDoctorwu

Just curious, is DavidO not a Rosewood Elite? I know he's a member of Brownell which I think is a Rosewood Elite agency...

FDW

stimpy

FYI we have a Rosewood London thread here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...el-london.html

I would highly recommend booking a suite at the Rosewood as I had zero issues with noise, nor with lighting. Or any other problems. I booked with FHR and got great benefits (including a one time free night promo).

offerendum

Recommended for 98 % of all hotels

NYBanker

Thanks for sharing.

This sounds pretty disappointing regarding the Rosewood. I have a trip to London in May and was considering the property. I may direct my plans elsewhere now.

BENLEE

Thanks for the review. One question though... if the noise was so disconcerting, why didn't you request / demand for a room change?

stimpy

What I meant is that the suites at the Rosewood London are better than the suites at any other hotel in London. But I get the impression that the lower level rooms at the Rosewood are on par with the other top hotels in London.

Buster

To answer all of the questions about complaining...my husband and I are just not good at that. And, the last time we complained about a room in a London hotel years ago, we got put in a much worse room. We're conflict avoiders and hate to complain (look, I ate porridge instead of muesli without saying anything, and that's a lot less trouble to deal with than a room). In addition, it was a 3 night stay and I didn't realize what the noise was until the 2nd night, and at that point I didn't feel like it was worth moving.

offerendum

I think I will try on my next trip So far I was very satisfied with FSPL, but Rosewood really sounds interesting. Suite-rates are more or less the same, perhaps with Rosewood even a little bit cheaper.