Help with London hotel selection
 

My wife and I will be in London for a week in mid-October and would appreciate your thoughts on which of these hotels you would recommend; St. Ermins, Kimpton Fitzroy, Rubens at the Palace, or the Chesterfield Mayfair. Looking for a hotel in a good location. Thank you!

All of those are in wonderful locations. All are very near tube stations. All are very central/convenient for transport. I'd pick based on which ever one matches your style preferences, or points redemption cost (assuming you are using points) - or whatever.

We stayed at the Chesterfield Mayfair in August, 2019. The hotel was fine. We really liked the neighbourhood, the fact that we could walk to St James's Park and the Wolseley. Green Park tube station next to the Ritz on Piccadilly.

I was born in London.

Thin,aristocrat 🦌

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...541fad1b21.jpg
Our room at the Chesterfield Mayfair. Thin,aristocrat 🦌

St Ermin's is about a 15 min walk from the Wolseley. The Rubens at the Palace is about a 15 min walk from the Wolseley. The Chesterfield is about a 10 min walk from the Wolseley. (The Wolseley is the centre of the universe :) )

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...939bd0ab51.jpg
Eggs Benedict at the Wolseley. Thin,aristocrat 🦌

Thank you so much! Is there one of those hotels that standout in your mind of having the most 'wow' factor from the moment you walk in the lobby. Looking for a traditional beautiful Victorian or Edwardian) style. All your help is greatly appreciated.

Keith

For pubic rooms/grand decor I'd probably choose St Ermin's or the Kimpton. For bedrooms (though everything pretty much depends on the class of room/suite you're booking) I'd lean towards the Chesterfield followed by the Kimpton / St Ermins. Not to dis the Rubens at the Palace but IMO the other 3 are just that little bit better. All of their websites have have a lot of photos of room types.

All 4 have some terrific rooms and some broom closets masquerading as rooms ;)

I stayed at the Chesterfield and liked it very much. Probably not as fancy as a Kimpton, but to me it was lovely and "English"

Great customer service, great food (enjoyed tea in their lounge area) and a lovely room

The online photos at each hotel's website are pretty helpful if decor is important.

The Kimpton has the OMG wow factor when you walk into lobby, but the rooms are fairly contemporary. Actually, I prefer that because I don't like overly ornate or eye-popping decor in the bedroom. Give me a monochromatic "calm" space to come back to.

Of the hotels you listed, I preferred the Kimpton for decor and the Chesterfield for location (but I admit I've stayed Mayfair more times than other parts of London).

Not Rubens. Location is OK —close to the back of Buckingham Palace, if that’s where you want to be.but
hotel itself IME 3 yrs ago was overrated and overpriced. We had so looked forward to this, for us, relatively big splurge and were extremely disappointed. We should’ve believed numerous” meh” TripAdvisor reviews and manager’s insipid responses.

That would appeal to me.
I love Kimptons.

Thank you so much. Your comments were very helpful.

Though St Ermins is a great hotel, it is a little less convenient for getting around town. I like the St James area and worked there for a few years but the immediate vicinity can a little dead at nights so if you do want to go out at night it would mean a tube ride or taxi. That said, St James and Green Parks are two of my favourite London Parks!

If it is a Victorian / Edwardian property you seek then I would take a look at the Rosewood. A wonderful hotel in a great location on Holborn. Walking distance to Covent Garden , Soho , Seven Dials, Theatreland etc. On the central line so very convenient for the underground. I haven’t stayed there as we now live in London, but in the past have taken clients for dinner there as it was just a cross road from my then office .

A recent opening I read of only the other day is Nobu in Portman Square, Marylebone. The complete opposite in ambience - modern Asian , but very different.

We stayed at St Ermin a few years ago, when my husband was attending a medical conference there. It does have an impressive lobby, if you like gold & white.

We did have a mix-up at check-in, though. I'd booked a double room, which ended up being the smallest room we'd ever seen. It had one bed, with literally no floor space around it. You could barely walk through the room. There was no closet, and no place to put luggage. No way could two adults stay in that room for five nights. The floor lamp in the corner was obviously broken, as well. We looked at the room, and reluctantly returned to the front desk. After traveling from the States, the last thing we wanted to do was hassle over our room.

The lady at the desk was less than helpful, informing us that these historic buildings have differently shaped rooms (as though we Americans only ever stayed at big box motels or something!). Well, yes, lady, but that room is certainly not large enough for two guests.

I had looked specifically at their site online when I made the reservation, and I noted the square footage listed for the room we reserved. No way was that room as large as they advertised it to be. I pointed that out to the lady, and showed her their own webpage, with the posted size information. She pretended to know nothing about the website and acted like my point was not important. (Turns out, having that info was our saving grace, in getting the situation fixed.)

The lady was irritated with us, and she made it clear that we were being a pain. It was busy at the desk, with lots of people checking in, but we were holding our ground on not accepting that 'room'. We knew the hotel would be booked solid by that evening, and we needed to change rooms then, or never. We persisted and she finally found an upgrade for us, because we said we'd pay the difference. So, we ended up with a glamorous and wonderfully large, one-bedroom suite with a huge living room.

The next day, I spoke with the hotel manager who was apologetic and understanding. I think we ended up paying a discounted price for the larger suite, which was certainly worth it. (However, had we been traveling on 'our own dime' and not a business expense account, we may have been less pleased with the extra payment!)

After all that, we did enjoy our stay. Our reservation included a hot breakfast, which was very good. And the location was good, with a very nice restaurant just around the corner: Quilon http://www.quilon.co.uk

We've stayed at St. Ermin's several times and truly every room is different. We book a king-sized bed so perhaps that's why we've never been assigned to the broom closet described above. If you have status at Marriott, it might help with an upgrade. It's probably one of our favorite places to stay in London... about a 30 second walk to St. James' Park tube station, otherwise, cut through the park to get to The Wolseley!

P.S. For clarification, I had booked a double room, not a double bed. Good point to specify a king bed, though.

Look closely at the rooms on their website, and note how small many of them are. They may look charming in photos, but probably awfully cramped to stay in. None are as small as the broom closet they showed to us, though!
https://www.marriott.com/hotels/hote...ph-collection/

Keith,

Not sure if you are using points but I highly recommend the Dorset Square Hotel which is a Firmdale property. (I am a huge fan of Firmdale as their hotels are uniformly exquisite.) This hotel is part of their Townhouse Collection. www.firmdalehotels.com

Taking notes for next May.