vuittonsofstyle

Many London hotels still have in-tub showers and that includes Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, where some of the suite bathrooms are tiny, with one sink, toilet in the room, and in-tub shower. That's history for you.

Shangri-La

What's the rebranding that Rosewood is doing?

Cheetah_SA

Just received a promotional e-mail saying it's opening on 15 October and with an opening offer:

offerendum

Itīs not really a bargain in my eyes. The rate is more expensive than the Best available and much more expensive than Advanced Purchase. When Iīm in town no suites are available with this rate, so itīs not interesting. Otherwise their suites are cheaper than my booked suite at the FS. Iīll stay with the later.

livefromtuscany

So Rosewood London is open now, and I must say it looks quite good. I am looking forward to the initial reports, still considering switching over from the Connaught for our December stay.

A4K

DavidO -

Is the 10% savings still available when booked through Virtuoso? What about 2014 bookings? Was thinking this was probably a special opening promotion.

Thanks.

DavidO

Rosewood is very good about including Virtuoso amenities with their various promotions (such as Rosewood & More), so I'm guessing yes.

ABG

The 10% Virtuoso discount from their public rates is valid in 2014.... until March 31st 2014 they are giving a little extra "love" to the Virtuoso/Rosewood Elite crowd (upgrade, early check-ins etc)

Hotelsforlife

Has anyone tried it yet?

MorganDK

Location is sort of second tier in my opinion. ;(

M

Yahtzee

I stayed here over the weekend.

The common areas are quite nice (particularly the lobby and Scarfe's bar) and really liked the entrance off the street through a tunnel into a nice courtyard. My room, at a pretty basic level, was quite large but the bathroom was not. 45 Park Lane rooms and bathrooms are better. Maybe the best blackout curtains I've encountered in a hotel room (led to me oversleeping -- evidently breakfast is not available at 11:30).

The dining situation is just not ready yet. Until the dining room is properly set up, they are using the mirror room lounge which necessitates sitting on couches or at coffee tables or end tables that are not conducive to eating. The breakfast buffet was pretty lame as well.

Service was a little spotty but nothing that won't be fixed. A small billing issue and some staff could speak English more proficiently. On the other hand, the concierge desk did an excellent job handling a personal issue for me that arose.

I'm a walker when in London so the location was a nice change of pace as far as getting to the Tate Modern, Courtauld and environs (usually stay in Mayfair). That said, it was pretty deserted on Saturday afternoon.

So, I would recommend it but should probably wait a couple of more months or take advantage of some good introductory Virtuoso rates (considerably lower than the 370 one mentioned upthread - at least on a weekend) to do a test drive.

gegarrenton

Any new updates on the Rosewood London? Have a March London stay coming up, and need to pick my abode.

Philatravelgirl

We use it as our corporate hotel in London and have had favorable employee reviews. I toured the property in October (I was staying Firmdale at the time) and it was lovely. I liked live music in bar. did not eat there as biz dinners were elsewhere. The hotel is quick walk to city business district and is quiet on weekends. I liked Bills cafe around the corner for food - cute funky restaurant.

gegarrenton

Thanks for the review!

I already went ahead and booked back into Browns, which is my usual as they had a smoking deal going on, but I am eyeing a Rosewood stay at some point. Probably when I'm solo so I can give it a test run.

peter11

Just back from a 6 night stay here. Booked through DavidO Virtuoso 3 night promotion. We were booked into an executive room and were double upgraded to Grand Premier. That category of room is quite large. At 450 square feet it must be one of the larger rooms in London. At 327 GBP per night including breakfast and $100 credit it seemed pretty reasonable by London standards. As you can read on trip advisor or elsewhere, the hotel is beautiful. Very well done. I really liked the blend of modern and traditional (all traditional sometimes feels too stuffy to me). The room was well furnished and ours (as do all on the first and second floor it appears) had 12 foot ceilings which added to the spacious feeling. The closet is small, the bar area is well equipped including Nespresso. All mini bar snacks and non alcoholic beverages were complimentary. The bathroom is small with a five foot long vanity with a single sink, a nice soaking tub opposite the vanity, the toilet in the corner and the shower cubicle at the end of the vanity. Their website mentions a rainshower head but this did not exist in our room. Awaiting our arrival were two beautiful deserts, one with my daughters name on it.


The breakfast included with the Virtuoso amenities could be taken at the Holborn Dining Room, the Mirror Room or through room service. Room service seemed to be the best choice and had a better menu than the Holborn. We did have a couple of missed items on our order on the second day. And on the last day they forgot to make our breakfast that we had ordered the night before. Since we were leaving at 6am to the airport, it was too late to wait for them to make it by the time we called them to ask where it was.


We booked the hotel car for our arrival. The communication with the hotel was a little clumsy taking two days to receive confirmation of the booking and the confirmation only showing one passenger. I submitted a correction but the driver was only prepared for one but managed to find some more drinks in the trunk for us. A few days before arrival the hotel contacted me asking for my arrival details. It seemed odd that they did not know I had already booked the car. They also sent a fairly extensive survey of preferences which I completed. It asked about favorite music, food, fruit, and beverage. It led one to believe that somehow these preferences would be catered to at some point. But in the end it was just a survey.


The oddest thing about this hotel was that they had virtually no information in the room about the services, dining, and facilities that were available. There was no directory of information. When I asked the concierge about it they were puzzled almost as though they did not understand me. They then referred me to the director of rooms that was standing at the adjacent front desk area. He told me that the management felt that it was best that I simply pick up the phone and ask for anything that I need so that they could deliver personal service. I suppose that sounds good but can I really pick up the phone and say could you tell me everything about this hotel, it dining rooms, the spa, the gym, car hire, laundry service, etc? So, when I needed something I dutifully picked up the phone to ask something I wish I could have just read myself. I asked what time the Holborn Dining room started serving dinner. The operator was stumped and after a moment she said, I'll have to connect you so you can ask them yourself. I just don't think this works. At least they need to write it all down for the operators so they can refer to it, study it, etc.


I did not get a chance to have any of the spa services. But I did manage to find the spa through an unmarked door at the end of the hall on the basement level. I guess they have not yet made a sign for the spa. The locker area has a dry sauna and steam room, a couple of showers and some sort of shower with a bunch of heads and some groovy lights (most of which did not work very well). The water pressure was not sufficient to drive all the heads. The spa is not new but was serviceable. As I was nearly dressed a female attended entered the room and quickly excused herself


We did have one other awkward moment with the concierge when asking about a taxi to the airport. I had asked about the cost and was told that it would be about 80 GBP. I then asked if a fixed fare was available. Another employee who was standing nearby began to offer his opinion. She turned to him and "shushed" him causing an awkward situation. She said she did not know about fixed fares. Perhaps naively so I thought that a concierge a good hotel is to look after your best interest and that the best ones did so as though you were family. Anyway, I googled when I got to the room and booked a Mercedes E class for the next morning for 55 GBP.


Overall I thought this hotel was quite well done. Scarfes bar by the way I thought was exceptional with good drinks a beautiful setting, a lively crowd and a great band on the night we were there. The service at the hotel however I feel is not up to standard. And given managements decision to rely on the operators to dole out information that has not been put in writing in any manual they have at their own desk, ensures that service will be uneven at best. I did really like the hotel though.