I am headed to London in August and was wondering if anyone has stayed in a hotel with authentic British ambience? I prefer smaller hotels but am willing to go with a larger chain hotel (Millennium, Westbury-SRS World)in order to save money (around $200/ night). Any suggestions for either? Thank you!<BR>

Hi Lorrie - a couple of hotels which i think have a great, traditional feel to them are The Basil Street Hotel and Hazlitts. Neither are in Mayfair, but are both in areas with a lot of character. The Basil Street Hotel is in on a very picturesque street in Knightsbridge (www.thebasil.com), close to Kensington Gardens. Hazlitts is in the heart of Soho, and is the former home of essayist William Hazlitt (www.hazlittshotel.com). All the rooms have a literary theme, and are all individually designed. Both are hotels that I have stayed in on special ocassions, even though I live less than three miles from both!<BR><BR>Other hotels worth looking at are the hotels in the Firmdale Hotels chain (www.firmdale.com) - all are well designed, luxury boutique hotels in great locations, and are very reasonably priced with good facilities. My favourite is the Covent Garden Hotel, which has some good weekend specials showing on the website at the moment. The bar there is great, especially the scrummy raspberry martinis!<BR><BR>Enjoy your visit, and e-mail if you need more suggestions.

I recently stayed at the Dorset Square Hotel in Marleybone and loved it. Not quite Mayfair though. It was 160 pounds a night. Our room was so magnificantly decorated that I took pictures!

Red - I think the Dorset Square Hotel is one of the Firmdale chain too - I've heard such good things about it, glad you had a good visit. I love it when a hotel is 'worth it' - so many get it so wrong!

I recently enjoyed staying at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel, a very nice, somewhat expensive hotel on Charles Street, just off Berkeley Square. For info:<BR><BR>http://www.redcarnationhotels.com/chest_may/<BR><BR>Dave White

I stayed at the Washington Hotel on Curzon St in Mayfair across from Shepherds Mkt.<BR>Not boutique but very luxurious and very nice.They have a/c also

I would also suggest the Chesterfield. Another nice small hotel is Flemings. Either of these would be a good choice.