Hotels we recommend
Where to stay in the United Kingdom
Seven hotels in the United Kingdom we would book for a client, in London, Buckinghamshire, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxfordshire and beyond. Two hold MICHELIN Keys. Five of them book through a partner programme, which adds an upgrade where one is free, daily breakfast for two, a hotel credit and late checkout, at the hotel's own rate.
- Hotels
- 7
- Cities
- 6
- With MICHELIN Keys
- 2
- With partner perks
- 5
- Newest
- 2023
By city
The hotels
London · Mayfair
JW Marriott Grosvenor House London
1929 · 496 rooms
A 1929 hotel on Park Lane in Mayfair, built on the site of the former home of the Dukes of Westminster and Gloucester and facing Hyde Park across the road. Its Great Room, a former ice rink, is one of Europe's largest hotel ballrooms and still seats dinners for up to 2,000.
Marriott Luminous
London · Chelsea
Beaverbrook Town House
2021 · 14 rooms
The London house of Beaverbrook, the Surrey country hotel, opened in September 2021 in two restored Georgian townhouses at 115 Sloane Street, Chelsea, opposite Cadogan Place Gardens. Its 14 rooms and suites are each named after a London theatre, above a Japanese restaurant and an Art Deco bar.
1 MICHELIN Key
Buckinghamshire · Iver
The Langley, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Buckinghamshire
2019 · 41 rooms
The Langley is a 41-room hotel in the former manor home of the third Duke of Marlborough at Iver, Buckinghamshire, on 150 acres of formal gardens and parkland laid out by Capability Brown. Rooms are split between the Palladian-style mansion and the adjoining Grade II-listed Brew House, and the spa has heated indoor and outdoor pools.
Marriott STARS
Cambridge · Parker’s Piece
University Arms Hotel, Autograph Collection
1834 · 192 rooms · Renovated 2018
Cambridge's oldest hotel, opened in 1834 as a 15-room coaching inn on Regent Street facing Parker's Piece, and rebuilt in an £80m project behind its sandstone facade, reopening in August 2018 with 189 rooms and suites over four floors. Classical architecture by John Simpson replaced the 1960s extension, and Martin Brudnizki's interiors draw on college libraries, with Heywood Hill bookshelves and Cambridge portraits.
Marriott Luminous
Edinburgh · St James Quarter
W Edinburgh
2023 · 244 rooms
W Edinburgh has 199 rooms and 45 suites across three buildings around St James Square: the 12-storey Ribbon, the newly built stone-faced Quarter House, and James Craig Walk, a heritage-listed Georgian terrace of 1775. SUSHISAMBA and the W Lounge occupy the top floors, whose terraces look out from Arthur's Seat to the sea.
Marriott Luminous
Oxfordshire · Great Milton
Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, A Belmond Hotel, Oxfordshire
Closed for a redevelopment of its gardens, rooms and culinary spaces
1984 · 32 rooms · Renovated 2026
Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons is Raymond Blanc's manor house hotel and restaurant on Church Road in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, with 32 rooms and suites and organic kitchen gardens on an estate traced to 1225. It is closed for a redevelopment of its gardens, rooms and culinary spaces and reopens in 2027, with Arnaud Donckele as culinary director.
Belmond Bellini Club
Perthshire · Auchterarder
The Gleneagles Hotel
1924 · 233 rooms · Renovated 2019
Gleneagles is a country house hotel and golf resort in Strathearn, Perthshire, conceived by the Caledonian Railway's general manager Donald Matheson and opened on 7 June 1924. James Braid's King's and Queen's courses opened in the grounds in 1919 and Jack Nicklaus's PGA Centenary Course came later, alongside a shooting school, an equestrian school and a spa.
3 MICHELIN Keys
On our list
Hotels in the United Kingdom we rate but have not yet stayed in, drawn hollow on the map. The hotels above are first-hand; these are where we are going next. We book them as we book the rest.
Mayfair
Three MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for the quieter Maybourne house and its bar.
Quieter than its Maybourne sister, with the best hotel bar in London attached.
Knightsbridge
Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London
Three MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, between Knightsbridge and Hyde Park.
Fronts Knightsbridge on one side and Hyde Park on the other, and holds Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, with two Michelin stars.
Strand
Three MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for César Ritz's hotel on the Strand.
On the Strand, where César Ritz, its first general manager, counted electric light and en-suite bathrooms among his innovations.
Whitehall
Three MICHELIN Keys and No. 28 on the World's 50 Best; on our list for Churchill's Old War Office on Whitehall.
The Old War Office on Whitehall, once home to Churchill, where SOE spy candidates were interviewed in the basement during the Second World War.
Belgravia
Three MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Four-Star; on our list for the Peninsula group's London house at Hyde Park Corner.
Hyde Park Corner, opened 2023 — the Peninsula group's long-promised London house.
Mayfair
Three MICHELIN Keys; on our list for the Art Deco standard of London hotels.
The Art Deco standard against which every other London hotel argues.
Hadspen
Three MICHELIN Keys; on our list for a Georgian estate turned garden and cyder farm.
A Georgian estate turned garden, cyder farm and hotel. One of only two English country Three Keys.
Princes Street
Two MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for doormen in full Highland dress at 1 Princes Street.
Opened in 1902 as the North British Hotel at 1 Princes Street, where the doormen still wear full Highland dress.
Albemarle Street, Mayfair
Brown's Hotel, a Rocco Forte Hotel
Two MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for Olga Polizzi's rework of an 1837 Mayfair fixture.
A Mayfair fixture on Albemarle Street since 1837, reworked top to bottom by Olga Polizzi.
Knightsbridge
Two MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for Antonio Citterio's minimalist Bvlgari in Knightsbridge.
Antonio Citterio's minimalist Bvlgari in Knightsbridge: the brand's Milan gloss, moved to Victorian London.
Mayfair
Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane
Two MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for a tenth-floor spa and Yannick Alléno's Pavyllon.
The first Four Seasons in Europe, open more than fifty years, with its spa on the tenth floor and Yannick Alléno's Pavyllon.
Holborn
Two MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for an Edwardian monument on High Holborn.
An Edwardian monument on High Holborn, once an insurance company's headquarters, between the City and the West End.
And 29 more in the United Kingdom on our list, on the guide’s map.
What to know
JW Marriott Grosvenor House London; Beaverbrook Town House; The Langley, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Buckinghamshire; University Arms Hotel, Autograph Collection; W Edinburgh; Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, A Belmond Hotel, Oxfordshire and The Gleneagles Hotel. Each has its own page with the rooms, the restaurants and what booking through us adds.
The Gleneagles Hotel (three MICHELIN Keys) and Beaverbrook Town House (one MICHELIN Key).
Of the hotels we recommend, W Edinburgh, which opened in 2023. Beaverbrook Town House followed in 2021.
The Gleneagles Hotel: its rooms start at 30 square metres. Beaverbrook Town House from 26; W Edinburgh from 23 and The Langley, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Buckinghamshire from 21.
JW Marriott Grosvenor House London (Marriott Luminous); The Langley, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Buckinghamshire (Marriott STARS); University Arms Hotel, Autograph Collection (Marriott Luminous); W Edinburgh (Marriott Luminous) and Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, A Belmond Hotel, Oxfordshire (Belmond Bellini Club). Booked through us, each adds a room upgrade where one is free, breakfast for two each day, a hotel credit and early check-in or late checkout when the hotel can give it, at no extra cost to you.
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