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One thing London does well is luxury. From Knightsbridge to Kensington and beyond, this city is frequented by a lot of people with a lot of money, many of which don’t actually have a base here. So where do the Royals, business owners, and socialites of the world stay when they visit? Well, according to Luxury Travel Intelligence (LTI), whose name is pretty self explanatory, they’ve got options.
LTI has curated a list of the 15 best new luxury hotels in the world, and two of them are in London. In fact, two of the top five are, if you want to be specific. Only two other places – the Côte d'Azur and Saudi Arabia – had more than one spot on the list, so we’re doing pretty well in terms of our offerings to the lucky few.
In fourth place overall was the Emory in Belgravia. It is ‘London's first all-suite ultra-luxury hotel’ and so exclusive that they don’t even have prices on their website, just a phone number to call. The Emory currently has a ‘special offer’ available, which includes money off a balcony room and a one-way helicopter transfer from the airport. Bargain.
All of the Emory’s suites have been designed by ‘world’s leading interior and architectural designers’ and it shows; they’d all fit perfectly in an Architectural Digest celebrity home tour. It is also attached to an in-house spa, which costs an eye-watering £10,000 a year to become a member of, not including the £5,000 sign-up fee. Here's a peak into the hotel bar.
What could be more exclusive than that? Apparently the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, which placed second in the entire world. A night here goes for as little as £800, but goes up to £12,000 for the really swish suites, but you don’t need to phone up or answer a series of increasingly complex riddles to book. However, LTI describes it as ‘very discreet,’ and cites the fact that it ‘offers guests a spectacular spa, an excellent destination restaurant… and two A bar options (one on the rooftop with views over Mayfair),’ as reasons for its success in the list. Here’s one of the more casual rooms in the hotel.
So there you have it, a real insight into how the other half lives. And by the looks of it, they are really living. If only Travelodge offered helicopter transfers from coach terminals. We can only dream.
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