Side by side Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, London vs The Emory

A one-night stopover here gets you a marble staircase people stop to photograph mid-coffee, suites bigger than almost anything else this central, and a rooftop bar with proper skyline views. The building is new enough that everything still feels considered: heated bathroom floors, windows that block out street noise entirely, a spa with a 25-metre pool that guests swim proper laps in rather than just dip into. For a hotel with only 50 rooms, that scale of finish is rare, and it's the reason so many guests call it their favourite Mandarin Oriental in the group.

Where it costs you is consistency, not quality. The doormen and reception staff get singled out by name for genuine warmth, but breakfast service has been described as guests left ten or fifteen minutes without a drink order taken, and the pool/spa desk has been left unstaffed with no one to direct guests out at closing. The hotel restaurant is also only open for breakfast, so outside the rooftop bar and room service there's nowhere else on property to eat, which matters more here than at a hotel with three restaurants to fall back on. One guest also flagged construction noise from next door, though most stays don't mention it. None of this cancels the staff warmth guests report elsewhere in the building, but at this rate it's fair to expect it at every table, not most of them.

Book it if you want the newest, most residential-feeling luxury address in Mayfair and you're not fussy about breakfast running on time. If you want old-world grandeur and more room categories to choose from, Claridge's is the obvious comparison; if it's your only night in London and you just want a beautiful, quiet room near the Elizabeth line, this is the one worth the money.

The Emory is the Maybourne hotel for people who'd rather have a quiet glass box next to Hyde Park than a grand lobby in Mayfair. It opened in 2024 with only 61 keys, all suites, and it reads nothing like its stablemates: Richard Rogers architecture, Andre Fu's floors at the top, an entrance so tucked away the doorman has to walk you to the lift. Some of the biggest suites in the city come with a free minibar that's actually stocked, a butler reachable on WhatsApp within minutes, and a spa, Surrenne, that multiple guests call the best wellness setup in London, with a 22m pool, a snow shower and Tracy Anderson classes.

The staff who get singled out by name do remarkable things, a doorman who came back with a printed class schedule for a guest's wife, a butler who arranged a birthday cake delivered to the minute. But the hotel is small and still finding its footing, and that shows up as inconsistency rather than a pattern of failure: one guest's check-in dragged over a payment glitch and a missed birthday note, another was told flatly no when they asked to speak to a manager after a dispute over room changes. The cigar lounge has drawn complaints of a cold front-of-house, and the public bathrooms near the rooftop bar are two shared stalls down in the lobby, which is a strange oversight for the money.

Book it if you want quiet, modern rooms with a park view and don't need the history or theater of Claridge's or the Connaught; the Berkeley next door shares the same spa and kitchen if you'd rather have a more traditional lobby attached to it. Families should know the hotel tolerates kids more than it caters to them. For a couple or solo traveller who wants the best gym and spa access in London wrapped in a genuinely private building, this is the one to book.