Best Luxury Hotels in London (2026)
If you want the classic option, Claridge’s with it’s Mayfair location, genuine Art Deco character, and service makes it a top coption. If you want the newest and most architecturally ambitious thing in the city, book The Chancery Rosewood. If you want wellness, book Six Senses London. If you're travelling with kids, book Ham Yard or Rosewood London. Entry-level rooms at the grandes dames run roughly £700 to £1,200 a night depending on season, the all-suite newcomers start closer to £1,400, and the excellent design-led tier sits at £350 to £450. Almost half of London's current top tier opened in the last three years, which means the old rankings are out of date.
What's changed in London
London has more than seventy-five five-star hotels and it keeps adding them. Six Senses London opened at The Whiteley in Bayswater in March 2026, the brand's UK debut. The Chancery Rosewood opened inside the old US Embassy on Grosvenor Square in September 2025. Before those came Mandarin Oriental Mayfair and 1 Hotel Mayfair in 2024, The Emory in 2024, and both The Peninsula London and Raffles London at The OWO in 2023. Waldorf Astoria at Admiralty Arch is taking reservations for an autumn 2026 debut, with a St Regis and Auberge's Cambridge House behind it.
Claridge's
The Mayfair benchmark, and the one we'd book for a first luxury stay in London. The Art Deco version of the building dates to 1929 and the hotel leans into it without turning into a museum. Rooms are properly quiet, the lobby is the best people-watching in London during afternoon tea, and the service is the kind that remembers your coffee order on day two.
Expect entry-level rooms from around £800 in shoulder season and well past £1,200 during peak weeks. The honest caveat: the gym and pool are modest for the money, and the smallest rooms are small. If wellness facilities are the point of your stay, look elsewhere on this list.
Book it for: first-timers who want the full London experience, milestone trips, anyone who values service over square footage.
The Connaught
Three streets from Claridge's and a different personality entirely. Quieter, more clubby, more of a regular's hotel. The Connaught Bar is consistently ranked among the best in the world and the martini trolley deserves the reputation. The Aman Spa is the real differentiator against Claridge's, with a proper pool and treatment rooms that justify the space. Rates track Claridge's closely, so this is a taste decision rather than a budget one.
Book it for: return visitors, couples, anyone who'd rather not stay somewhere with a queue for afternoon tea.
The Chancery Rosewood
The most architecturally significant opening London has seen in years. Eero Saarinen designed the building as the US Embassy in 1960, and David Chipperfield's restoration kept its civic weight while opening it to Grosvenor Square for the first time. Interiors are by Joseph Dirand. All 144 rooms are suites, entry level at 570 square feet, which is an enormous amount of space by London standards. There are eight restaurants and bars, including Carbone's first European outpost, plus a 25-metre pool and the Asaya spa.
Rates start around £1,400 and go up steeply.
Book it for: design travellers, anyone who wants space in Mayfair, and Carbone reservations.
The Peninsula London
Hyde Park Corner, with a position most hotels in this city would trade almost anything for. Brooklands on the roof has the Wellington Arch and the park laid out in front of it. The spa and pool are among the best in London, the fleet of house cars is absurd in the best way, and the rooms have the tech-forward polish Peninsula does better than anyone. It reads as new money next to Claridge's, which is either the appeal or the problem depending on you.
Book it for: travelers who want facilities and views over heritage, and families who want a real pool.
Raffles London at The OWO
The Old War Office on Whitehall, converted with a level of ambition that still surprises people who walk in. Churchill worked in this building. There are nine restaurants and bars, three of them from Mauro Colagreco, and a Guerlain spa across four floors. Only 120 rooms in a building this size, so the corridors feel like a film set. The location is the real question. Whitehall is spectacular for sightseeing and slightly dead at night compared to Mayfair or Soho.
Book it for: history-minded travellers, first-time visitors doing the landmarks, anyone who wants the building to be part of the story.
The Emory
London's first all-suite hotel, 61 suites in Belgravia, with private lift access to each floor and a level of discretion that borders on invisible. Surrenne, the members' wellness club downstairs, is the most serious thing of its kind in the city. The rooftop bar has a retractable roof and a view over Hyde Park. This is not a family hotel and doesn't pretend to be.
Book it for: couples, privacy, and anyone who finds a busy lobby exhausting.
The Berkeley
Knightsbridge, and the most quietly modern of the Maybourne three. The rooftop pool with its retractable roof is the best in central London, Cédric Grolet's pastries have their own queue, and the Blue Bar still works. Rooms have been refreshed in phases, so ask what you're getting.
Book it for: Harrods proximity, the pool, and shopping trips.
The Savoy
The Thames-side grande dame, and the most theatrical hotel in London. The American Bar, the Art Deco river-facing suites, the entrance where the traffic drives on the right. Covent Garden and the West End are on your doorstep, which makes it the best-located hotel on this list for anyone doing theatre. Rooms without a river view are a meaningful step down for a small discount. If you're booking The Savoy, book the river.
Book it for: theatre trips, riverside romance, and travellers who want a hotel with a sense of occasion.
Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park
Knightsbridge in front and royal parkland behind, which is a rare combination. Park-facing rooms give you the closest thing London offers to waking up in green space. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal is still one of the city's defining restaurants, and the spa's stainless-steel pool is a Knightsbridge institution. We reviewed the group's Madrid property and the service standard travels.
Book it for: park views, Harrods, and anyone who measures a London hotel by its distance to green space.
Six Senses London
The brand's UK debut, inside the restored Whiteley building in Bayswater, open since March 2026. A hundred and nine rooms and suites, plus the first Six Senses Place members' club. The spa is the reason to book: a twenty-metre indoor pool, cryotherapy, flotation, magnesium and cold plunge pools, and a 3,500-square-foot fitness centre.
Rates start around £625, which makes it good value against Mayfair. Bayswater, while transformed and well positioned for Hyde Park and Notting Hill, is not the first neighbourhood we'd put a first-time visitor in.
Book it for: wellness-led trips, longer stays, and travellers who want a city break that doesn't feel like one.
Rosewood London
Holborn, in a Belle Époque building with a carriage courtyard that makes the arrival feel like a different city. It is the most genuinely family-comfortable of London's top-tier hotels, with connecting rooms that are easy to actually get and a staff attitude towards children that isn't merely tolerant. Scarfes Bar is a proper local.
Holborn is a working neighbourhood rather than a glamorous one, which keeps rates a little softer than Mayfair for a comparable product.
Book it for: families at the top end, longer stays, and better value in a five-star London hotel.
Ham Yard Hotel
Firmdale's Soho property, and our pick for families who want charm over grandeur. There's a bowling alley, a roof terrace with a vegetable garden and beehives, a private cinema, and the Kit Kemp maximalism that makes children behave like they're somewhere interesting. Apartments sleep families properly.
Rates in the £350 to £450 range for entry rooms make it the best value on this list by a distance. It is not a grande dame and doesn't want to be.
Book it for: families, theatre trips, and anyone who finds marble lobbies tiring. More of our family thinking lives in the family travel section.
Shangri-La The Shard
Floors 34 to 52, and the only hotel in London where the view is the entire product. The infinity pool on level 52 looking out over the Thames is the photograph everyone books for. Rooms are large by London standards and the bathrooms have windows.
The tradeoff is real. You're in an office tower on the south bank, the lobby experience is a lift, and Borough is fun but not central. Kids love it more than adults do.
Book it for: views, a first trip with older children, and anyone who wants a room they'll remember.
Check rates and availability—>
Opening next
Waldorf Astoria London at Admiralty Arch takes overnight guests for the first time in the building's history this autumn, with 114 keys on The Mall opposite Buckingham Palace and restaurants from Clare Smyth and Daniel Boulud. Reservations are open. A St Regis is coming to Mayfair, and Auberge's Cambridge House at 94 Piccadilly, the old In and Out Club, is due late in the year with a double-level spa and Major's Grill from the Carbone team.
Where to stay in London
Mayfair is the default answer for luxury and the right one for most first trips. Claridge's, The Connaught, The Chancery Rosewood and Mandarin Oriental Mayfair are all within a ten-minute walk of each other, and Hyde Park, Bond Street and the best restaurants in the city are on your doorstep.
Knightsbridge and Belgravia trade a little energy for more calm. The Berkeley, The Emory, The Peninsula and Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park sit here. It's the best base for park access and shopping, and the quietest at night.
Covent Garden and Soho are where to stay if you're doing theatre or eating your way through the city. The Savoy, Ham Yard and the rest of the Firmdale group are here. Louder, more central, more fun.
Whitehall and St James's are ceremonial London. Raffles at The OWO and the incoming Waldorf Astoria sit among the landmarks. Best for sightseeing, weakest for dinner options within walking distance.
Bayswater and Notting Hill have quietly become a real option, Six Senses being the proof. Excellent for Hyde Park and Portobello, further from everything else.
Kensington and Chelsea remain our pick for families, because the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and Hyde Park are all walkable and the restaurants are genuinely good.
Best time to visit and when to book
Late spring, from April through June, and early autumn, September into October, are the best windows. Mild weather, long days, the city fully operational, and rates below peak. July and August get busy and surprisingly warm for a city with limited air conditioning. December is the most atmospheric time to visit with children, with the lights, the markets and the festive programming, and hotels price accordingly.
January and February are the genuine value months. Entry-level rooms at hotels that ask £1,000 in June can land closer to £700, and the grandes dames are at their cosiest when it's dark at four.
Book three to four months ahead for spring and autumn, and six months or more for December and for anything involving Wimbledon fortnight, Chelsea Flower Show, or a major West End opening. Rates at the top London hotels move with demand rather than with advance purchase, so booking early buys you the room category you want more than it buys you a discount. Always check whether breakfast is included, because at these rates it frequently isn't and it's often £45 a head.
How to choose
Start with what you want the hotel to do. If it's the backdrop to a trip spent out in the city, prioritise location and service and book Claridge's, The Connaught or The Savoy. If the hotel is the destination and you want to spend real time in it, prioritise facilities and book The Peninsula, Six Senses or The Chancery Rosewood.
If budget is the constraint, Ham Yard at £350 to £450 delivers more actual enjoyment per pound than a small room at £900 in Mayfair. A standard room at a grande dame is often the worst value on this list. A great room at the tier below is usually the better trip.
And if you want the shortest possible answer, it's Claridge's for the classic and The Chancery Rosewood for the new one. Properties we've stayed in and would book again sit in The Boujist Collection.
FAQ
What is the best luxury hotel in London? Claridge's, for most travellers. It combines a Mayfair location, real architectural character and consistently excellent service better than anything else in the city. The Chancery Rosewood is the strongest of the new openings and The Connaught is the better choice if you prefer somewhere quieter.
How much do five-star hotels in London cost? Entry-level rooms at the grandes dames run roughly £700 to £1,200 a night depending on season. The all-suite newcomers like The Chancery Rosewood and The Emory start closer to £1,400 by design. Design-led five-star hotels such as Ham Yard sit at £350 to £450. January and February are meaningfully cheaper across the board.
Which London hotels are best for families? Ham Yard, Rosewood London, The Peninsula London and Shangri-La The Shard. All four have connecting rooms or apartments, staff who are comfortable with children, and either a pool or a genuinely entertaining property. Kensington and Chelsea is the most practical neighbourhood for a family base.
What are the newest luxury hotels in London? Six Senses London opened in Bayswater in March 2026 and The Chancery Rosewood opened on Grosvenor Square in September 2025. Waldorf Astoria at Admiralty Arch is due in autumn 2026, with a St Regis and Auberge's Cambridge House following.
Which London hotels have swimming pools? The Berkeley has the best rooftop pool, Shangri-La The Shard has the most dramatic view from a pool in the city, and The Peninsula, The Chancery Rosewood, Six Senses, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park and The Connaught all have serious pools. Many of London's most famous hotels do not, so check before you book if it matters.
Is Mayfair the best area to stay in London? For a first luxury trip, yes. It is central, walkable to Hyde Park and the best shopping and restaurants, and it holds the highest concentration of top-tier hotels in the city. For families, Kensington and Chelsea is more practical. For theatre, Covent Garden wins.
Do London luxury hotels include breakfast? Usually not, and it is commonly £40 to £50 per person. Booking through a preferred-partner rate or a hotel programme often adds breakfast and a credit, which can change the real cost of a stay considerably.