Side-by-side
The Berkeley vs COMO Metropolitan London
The Berkeley: The Surrenne spa and rooftop pool get singled out as standouts. COMO Metropolitan London: Ali on the door and Maryam and Vasil at the desk get named constantly, often for small things like sorting luggage or a birthday gift.
Can't split them? Tell us the trip and we'll say which one we'd book — then book it at the same rate as direct, our perks attached.
Maybourne
Fat FavoriteThe Berkeley
A 129-room Maybourne hotel in Knightsbridge, London, with a rooftop pool and a Cedric Grolet patisserie on site.
Como
Fat FavoriteCOMO Metropolitan London
A 54-room Como hotel on Park Lane in Mayfair, within walking distance of Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace.
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Strengths & trade-offs
The Berkeley
Strengths
- Doormen and butler team consistently named and praised for personalized care
- Rooftop pool and Surrenne spa rank among London's best wellness offerings
- Cedric Grolet patisserie and ABC Kitchens breakfast are standout dining draws
- Knightsbridge location puts Hyde Park, Harrods, and the King's Road within walking distance
- Thoughtful family touches — baby amenities, crib setups, personalized gestures — repeatedly cited
Trade-offs
- Rooftop pool frequently overcrowded or inaccessible to families despite marketing it as a highlight
- Occasional lapses in room readiness, cleanliness, and maintenance reported
- Some recent reviews note inconsistent service quality compared to the hotel's historic reputation
- High tea and à la carte dining seen by some as overpriced relative to quality
COMO Metropolitan London
Strengths
- Doorman and front desk staff (Ali, Maryam, Vasil, Iolanda) get thanked by name for genuine helpfulness
- Mayfair location puts Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, and the West End within walking distance
- Calm, minimalist rooms with heated bathroom floors and Japanese toilets
- Nobu on site draws praise for breakfast and dinner
- Small thoughtful touches, birthday gifts, halal menu options, kids treated well by staff
Trade-offs
- A guest was charged £350 for alleged carpet stains with little upfront documentation
- Minimalist design reads to some as generic rather than distinctly London
- Wellness and spa offering is thin to nonexistent
- Breakfast service was disrupted during a reported operational change
Scoreboard
| Dimension | The Berkeley/ 20 | COMO Metropolitan London/ 20 |
|---|---|---|
| Tier | Fat Favorite | Fat Favorite |
| Overall Fat Score | 17+0.5 | 16.5 |
| Service | 17.5 Doormen like Danny, Mohamed and David get named constantly for genuine care, but one guest reported a GM-era shift where staff attention noticeably dropped off. | 18+0.5 Ali on the door and Maryam and Vasil at the desk get named constantly, often for small things like sorting luggage or a birthday gift. |
| Rooms & Design | 17+1.5 Rooms lean spacious and bright with well-kept classic interiors, though at least one guest found room 202 smelling strongly of marijuana on arrival. | 15.5 Rooms lean calm and minimalist, with heated floors and Japanese toilets, though one traveller found the look too generic for London. |
| Location | 18.5+0.5 Steps from Harrods, the Kings Road and Piccadilly, and close enough to walk to most of Knightsbridge and Mayfair. | 18 Steps from Hyde Park and a walk across the park to Buckingham Palace, with easy access to Mayfair shopping and theatre country. |
| Dining | 16.5+1 The Cedric Grolet patisserie and ABC Kitchens breakfast win people over, but the champagne tea gets called out as overpriced for what arrives. | 15.5 Nobu on the ground floor gets singled out for breakfast, though the wider food and drink program feels secondary to the rooms upstairs. |
| Wellness | 18+4.5 The Surrenne spa and rooftop pool get singled out as standouts, though the pool gets so busy in summer that families have been turned away. | 13.5 |
The Verdicts
The Berkeley
Doorman after doorman turns up by name across these reviews: Mohamed and Danny at the front door, Waleed finding a junior suite before check-in and sending up coffee while the room was finished, Sofie surprising a couple with an upgrade and amenities, Sergio conjuring the Knightsbridge Pavilion suite on a fully booked heatwave weekend after a family's second room wasn't ready. Crib setups and Kith and Kin baby supplies show up for a one-year-old's birthday without being asked twice. The staff are why people keep coming back, and almost nobody who's stayed disputes it. Cedric Grolet's patisserie and the ABC Kitchens breakfast get treated as near-mandatory, and Knightsbridge puts Harrods, Hyde Park and the King's Road in walking distance in a way few competitors can match.
The rest is shakier. Several 2026 reviews describe upkeep slipping since a management change: a room smelling of marijuana with a baby in tow, a ceiling and shower door in poor repair, pre-arranged flowers and a welcome card that never made it to an upgraded room. The rooftop pool is what guests warn each other about — shared with The Emory next door and marketed as a signature amenity, it's repeatedly described as too crowded to use, and more than one family with young kids was turned away from it entirely during peak periods. High tea and the à la carte menus draw similar complaints, including a £36 club sandwich that struck more than one guest as out of step with what arrived.
None of that unseats the case for staying. At four figures a night without breakfast, you're paying for the welcome and the postcode more than the pool or the tea trolley, and on those two fronts nothing else in Knightsbridge competes. Book it for the doormen and the walk to Harrods, skip the rooftop, and go to Grolet's for breakfast instead of the tea room.
COMO Metropolitan London
The pitch here is simple: a Mayfair address, a five-minute walk from Hyde Park, and a staff roster that seems to remember your name by the second morning. Ali on the door shows up constantly, greeting kids with presents and handling luggage without being asked twice, and the front desk (Maryam, Vasil, Iolanda) gets thanked for the same thing over and over: fast, warm, no fuss. Rooms run calm rather than showy, caramel tones, velvet, marble, heated bathroom floors, and more than one guest mentioned a Japanese toilet and automatic blinds framing the London Eye.
Where it gets complicated is money. One guest was hit with a £350 charge for alleged carpet stains after checkout, with thin documentation and only a partial refund offered; that's a real risk at these rates, and worth asking about at check-in if you're travelling with kids. The design itself splits opinion too: some find the minimalist look a genuine relief from London's usual chintz, others think it could be a hotel in any city and doesn't feel distinctly London at all. The food and drink program is Nobu-adjacent rather than a destination in its own right, and there's no real spa story to speak of, so this isn't the pick if wellness is the point of the trip.
Book it for the location and the people at the front of house, both of which show up constantly in what guests say. Skip it if you want a hotel with a view (Four Seasons Park Lane is a block away for that) or a serious spa. For a couple or a family wanting Mayfair with genuine warmth at the door, it's a strong, dependable choice.
Still torn between The Berkeley and COMO Metropolitan London?
We're Sofie and Nicolas, the two of us behind Fat Voyage — and we've stayed in hotels like these ourselves. Tell us what the trip is and we'll tell you which one we'd book, and why. We're not a booking service, but a few times a year we plan one properly for someone; if that's what you're after, say so.
You'll be dealing with the two of us the whole way through, which is why we only take on a handful of trips at a time — if we're full, we'll say so. We reply by email, usually within one working day. The hotel pays us, not you: your rate is the same as booking direct, and the perks come on top.
Common questions
Which should I book — The Berkeley or COMO Metropolitan London?
The Berkeley: The Surrenne spa and rooftop pool get singled out as standouts. COMO Metropolitan London: Ali on the door and Maryam and Vasil at the desk get named constantly, often for small things like sorting luggage or a birthday gift.
What's the difference between The Berkeley and COMO Metropolitan London?
Both are Urban, Design, Culinary and Romantic. The Berkeley adds Heritage and Wellness. The Berkeley is ahead on the spa. COMO Metropolitan London is ahead on how you're looked after.
Which is better for rooms & design, The Berkeley or COMO Metropolitan London?
The Berkeley leads on this. The Berkeley: Rooms lean spacious and bright with well-kept classic interiors, though at least one guest found room 202 smelling strongly of marijuana on arrival. COMO Metropolitan London: Rooms lean calm and minimalist, with heated floors and Japanese toilets, though one traveller found the look too generic for London.
Which is better for dining, The Berkeley or COMO Metropolitan London?
The Berkeley leads on this. The Berkeley: The Cedric Grolet patisserie and ABC Kitchens breakfast win people over, but the champagne tea gets called out as overpriced for what arrives. COMO Metropolitan London: Nobu on the ground floor gets singled out for breakfast, though the wider food and drink program feels secondary to the rooms upstairs.
Where are The Berkeley and COMO Metropolitan London?
Both are in London, about 551 m apart — close enough that the choice is the hotel, not the neighbourhood.
How does Fat Voyage compare The Berkeley and COMO Metropolitan London?
Fat Voyage scores every hotel out of 20 across five dimensions — service, rooms & design, location, dining and wellness — from independent signals: the most active luxury travel communities, major editorial publications, and verified guest reviews, weighted by source credibility, depth and recency. Nothing is paid for, and no hotel can buy a place.