Side-by-side
The Peninsula London vs COMO Metropolitan London
The Peninsula London for the spa, COMO Metropolitan London for how you're looked after. If you're only picking one, The Peninsula London is the stronger stay.
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.
The Peninsula
Fat FavoriteThe Peninsula London
A newly built Peninsula hotel in central London near Hyde Park Corner, with rooftop views toward Wellington Arch.
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 Peninsula London
Strengths
- Base rooms sized and finished like junior suites, with standout double-sink bathrooms
- Peninsula Time flexible check-in/out is repeatedly named as the top reason to book here over rivals
- Complimentary house car fleet (Rolls-Royce, Bentley, BMW) within a roughly 2-mile radius
- Named front-of-house staff — drivers, doormen, cigar lounge hosts — praised unprompted across many stays
- Cigar lounge and Canton Blue rank among the strongest versions of those spaces in London hotels
Trade-offs
- Pre-booked airport transfers have failed more than once, including a driver arriving 30+ minutes late with no refund offered
- Breakfast and lobby restaurant service slows badly and can miss basic attentiveness at peak periods
- Housekeeping/turndown consistency varies — at least one guest reported a refusal to clean properly during evening service
- Brooklands rooftop bar has drawn complaints about small, poorly made cocktails for the price
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 Peninsula London/ 20 | COMO Metropolitan London/ 20 |
|---|---|---|
| Tier | Fat Favorite | Fat Favorite |
| Overall Fat Score | 17+0.5 | 16.5 |
| Service | 17 Named staff like David Cerezo and Isaac get remembered fondly, but housekeeping and turndown lapses (one guest's tub left unhoovered) show it isn't uniform. | 18+1 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 | 18+2.5 | 15.5 Rooms lean calm and minimalist, with heated floors and Japanese toilets, though one traveller found the look too generic for London. |
| Location | 18Even Right on Hyde Park Corner with the Peninsula cars on tap, but city-view rooms trade the quiet courtyard for a genuinely busy road. | 18Even Steps from Hyde Park and a walk across the park to Buckingham Palace, with easy access to Mayfair shopping and theatre country. |
| Dining | 15 Breakfast draws real complaints about slow tables and inattentive servers, and the Brooklands martini got called out as tiny and unfinished. | 15.5+0.5 Nobu on the ground floor gets singled out for breakfast, though the wider food and drink program feels secondary to the rooms upstairs. |
| Wellness | 17.5+4 The gym and pool get called elite by more than one guest, with no complaints surfacing anywhere in the reports. | 13.5 |
The Verdicts
The Peninsula London
The Peninsula London cost a billion pounds to build, and it shows the moment you open the door on a base Deluxe or Premier room: walk-in closets, double-sink bathrooms with Toto washlets, and a bathroom that plenty of guests call the best they've had in any London hotel. These are junior-suite dimensions at an entry-level rate. Then there's Peninsula Time, the flexible check-in and check-out window that keeps coming up as the actual reason people book here over the Dorchester or the Lanesborough. Add a house fleet of Rolls-Royces and Bentleys running a free two-mile radius, first-come, no charge: one driver, Gurpreet, gets singled out for turning a short ride to Harrods into the best part of someone's afternoon, and the doorman who waved at a returning guest every time they crossed the lobby gets remembered by name too.
Breakfast in the lobby restaurant slows badly at peak times: guests wait for a table and then struggle to flag a server. Turndown is inconsistent, and one guest described evening housekeeping refusing outright to clean around the bathtub. Pre-booked airport transfers have failed more than once, including a driver arriving well past pickup time with no refund offered, and a separate case where the car sent couldn't fit three suitcases at 4am, forcing a scramble for an Uber to Heathrow. Brooklands, the rooftop bar, draws complaints about small, poorly made cocktails at prices that shouldn't allow for that. And the design, while flawlessly executed, reads as consciously generic to more than one guest, who noted it could be any Peninsula, Hong Kong or Tokyo included.
None of that undoes the room or the car fleet. Book it for the bathroom, the closet, and Peninsula Time; just don't expect the transfer or the rooftop bar to match the rest of the stay.
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 Peninsula London 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 Peninsula London or COMO Metropolitan London?
The Peninsula London for the spa, COMO Metropolitan London for how you're looked after. If you're only picking one, The Peninsula London is the stronger stay.
What's the difference between The Peninsula London and COMO Metropolitan London?
Both are Urban, Design and Culinary. The Peninsula London adds Architecture and Wellness; COMO Metropolitan London adds Romantic. The Peninsula London is ahead on the spa. COMO Metropolitan London is ahead on how you're looked after.
Which is better for service, The Peninsula London or COMO Metropolitan London?
COMO Metropolitan London leads on this. The Peninsula London: Named staff like David Cerezo and Isaac get remembered fondly, but housekeeping and turndown lapses (one guest's tub left unhoovered) show it isn't uniform. 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.
Which is better for dining, The Peninsula London or COMO Metropolitan London?
COMO Metropolitan London leads on this. The Peninsula London: Breakfast draws real complaints about slow tables and inattentive servers, and the Brooklands martini got called out as tiny and unfinished. 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 Peninsula London and COMO Metropolitan London?
Both are in London, about 377 m apart — close enough that the choice is the hotel, not the neighbourhood.
How does Fat Voyage compare The Peninsula London 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.