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Egerton House Hotel named London's Most Excellent Hotel 2009

2008-11-18 11:15:35

Every year, The Condé Nast Johansens Awards for Excellence recognise those properties worldwide that represent the finest standards and best value for money in luxury and independent accommodation. At this year's ceremony, held at The Jumeirah Carlton Tower in Knightsbridge on Tuesday 11th November, The Egerton House Hotel - handily located in a leafy side street just a short distance from the awards venue - was acclaimed as the Most Excellent London Hotel.

In making the award the adjudicators remarked that , "you would be hard-pressed to better a stay at the Egerton House - the location is simply stunning and nothing is too much trouble for the friendly and welcoming staff!" Without abandoning its Victorian roots, the Egerton's owners Red Carnation have completely restyled this quiet townhouse to suit the 21st century. Rooms and suites, which all offer 24-hour service, are individually designed with an eclectic mix of Italian Rococo and contemporary furnishings. Original artworks and antiques complete the look, while sleek accessories include flat-screen TVs, WiFi and specially programmed Video iPods. Breakfast is served in the lower ground floor dining room, a stunning space full of glass and light with ivory leather banquette, and in the cosy, muted drawing room and bar you might feel like you've joined a discreet private club. For martini lovers, Head Barman Antonio Pizzuto is renowned for serving the best in London. Set on a residential Knightsbridge street, Harrods is a pleasant three minute walk away.

Jonathan Raggett, Red Carnation's Managing Director, was naturally delighted to receive this award, the latest in a series of prestigious accolades for the international collection of ultra-luxurious five- and four-star properties. "With the emphasis all of us at RCH place on providing the utmost in personal service, it's especially pleasing that this aspect of the Egerton was especially commended by the judges. A big well done to Sandra and her very fine team for this outstanding achievement: keep being brilliant."

The hotel is a member of Preferred Boutique. For information call +44 (0)20 7589 2412, or email bookeg@rchmail.com or visit www.egertonhousehotel.com.

To find out more about Red Carnation's hotels in the UK, US, Switzerland and South Africa, please visit www.redcarnation.com.

2008: The Hotel received the Condé Nast Johansens Award for Excellence:
London's Most Excellent Hotel 2009
2007: AA Hospitality named Red Carnation Hotels 'Small Hotel Group of the Year'
2007: The Egerton was included in the website GAYOT.com
Top 10 Value Hotels in London
2006: The Hotel received the Silver Award, Small Hotel of the Year category, by VisitLondon. The hotel also has been awarded the Greater London Training Award for our outstanding achievements in workplace training and the "Best Commercial Initiative Under 1000 Employees" by The National Training Journal
The Egerton House Hotel is proud to be a Corporate Member of the V&A

Home from Home in heart of capital

2008-11-11 11:24:51

Becky Moran visits London to catch a show and desides to upgrade herself to a luxury break at the Egerton House Hotel

Town and Country

2008-09-24 13:34:34

Enjoy the best of the best. A five-day break for two. Begin with three nights in cosmopolitan London at the luxurious five star Egerton House Hotel. Then off to Dorset for two nights in the enchanting English countryside at beautifully restored Summer Lodge Country House Hotel, Restaurant & Spa. Travellers can have it all with the Town and Country package!

Begin your fabulous getaway at The Egerton House Hotel where you will spend three nights. Enjoy a full English breakfast each morning, an Egerton afternoon tea for two and a famous Antonio Martin on arrival. The Egerton House Hotel is a charming 30 bedroom property in the heart of fashionable Knightsbridge.

While in London, there is so much to do: visit the British Museum; ride on the London Eye; shop at Harrods or Savile Row; enjoy a show in the West End theatre district. Had enough of the fast pace? Ready for relaxation? Guests enjoy a car transfer to London's Waterloo train station for first-class rail travel to Dorset.

The contrast from city life is immediately apparent. A member of Relais & Châteaux, Summer Lodge is surrounded by a village of thatched cottages in the heart of Thomas Hardy country. Built in 1789, this Georgian Manor is distinguished by its elegant white facade and grey slate. Many of the 24 rooms and suites boast their own fireplace and conservatories overlooking the beautiful gardens and nearby village.

Summer Lodge has a long tradition of gracious hospitality. Here you will enjoy two restful nights of luxury accommodation and a traditional English pub lunch in the historic Acorn Inn in Evershot.

This quiet countryside has its own attractions: antique shops, museums, gardens, breweries, and a deer park. If the pulse of the city is innate, there is an indoor pool, hard tennis courts, a croquet lawn, and nearby golf, fishing, hiking, and horseback riding.

The Town and Country package includes:

London - The Egerton House Hotel

3 nights accommodation at The Egerton House Hotel, Friday to Sunday inclusive *
Full English breakfast each morning
Antonio's famous Martini's on arrival
Egerton Afternoon tea for two on one day
Bentley transfer to Waterloo station
First Class train tickets return to Dorset Presidential Suite

Dorset - Summer Lodge

2 nights accommodation at Summer Lodge, available Monday - Thursday
Traditional Dorset breakfast each day
Transfer to and from the station in Dorset
Traditional Pub lunch at the Acorn Inn
Sumptuous 'picnic to go' for your return journey home

The Town & Country package costs from £1560.00 for two people, including first-class rail transfer to/from London and Dorset as well as all taxes. Valid for stays until the 30th September 2008.

For further information please vist www.redcarnation.com or call Summer Lodge on - +44 (0)1935 482000 or The Egerton House Hotel on +44 (0)20 7589 2412 and quote "Town & Country".

The Egerton House Hotel Presents China Design Now

2008-11-14 13:45:34

The Egerton House Hotel is proud to be a Corporate Member of the V&A.

The Egerton House Hotel offers a stunning new package in conjunction with the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A's spring exhibition, China Design Now, will explore the recent explosion of new design in China, from the 2008 Olympic stadium to the most interesting fashion and graphic designs.

The displays examine China's hopes and dreams and are structured around the idea of a journey from South to North along China's East Coast. It will exhibit the work of Chinese and international designers, focusing on architecture, fashion, youth culture and graphics, as well as film, photography, product and furniture design and digital media. The exhibition is sponsored by HSBC.

The Egerton House Hotel China Design Now package includes:

A pair of tickets to see China Design Now at the V&A
Access to the exclusive V&A Members' Lounge
Private tour of the exhibition by a professional guide (when booking a suite)*
Complimentary welcome basket with elderflower water, fresh oriental fruits, fortune cookies and a Welcome Gift
Choice of freshly brewed Chinese teas served in a traditional manner with a selection of oriental sweets and moon cake
Harmony turndown service each evening of your stay

The China Design Now package is from £310.00 per night exclusive of VAT and gratuities, based on a two-night stay. The package is offered between 15 March and 13 July, 2008, and is subject to availability.

*To enjoy the private tour, which is subject to availability, this package must be booked four weeks in advance.

The hotel is a member of Preferred Boutique. For information call +44 (0)20 7589 2412, or email bookeg@rchmail.com, or visit www.egertonhousehotel.com

Red Carnation Hotels is a collection of luxury family run properties.   The Five-Star luxurious London jewels are The Milestone Hotel, overlooking Kensington Palace, and member of The Leading Small Hotels of the World; "41", overlooking Buckingham Palace's Royal Mews; and The Egerton House Hotel, in Knightsbridge. Outside of London is Summer Lodge Country House Hotel, Restaurant, and Spa, Evershot, Dorset, a member of Relais & Châteaux. Other RCH properties and members of The Leading Small Hotels of the World, are The Five-Star Hotel d'Angleterre on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, and The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa in Cape Town, South Africa.   Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve and Retreat, a member of Relais & Châteaux, is in the heart of the Cederberg Mountains in South Africa's Western Cape.

2007:   AA Hospitality named Red Carnation Hotels 'Small Hotel Group of the Year'
2007: The Egerton was included in the website GAYOT.com Top 10 Value Hotels in London
2006: The Hotel received the Silver Award, Small Hotel of the Year category, by VisitLondon. The hotel also has been awarded the Greater London Training Award for our outstanding achievements in workplace training and the "Best Commercial Initiative Under 1000 Employees" by The National Training Journal

Easter at The Egerton

2008-09-24 15:39:32

~ ELEGANCE AND FUN – THE PERFECT COMBINATION ~

Luxury added to luxury added to luxury added to luxury - a simplification of a stay at The Egerton House Hotel. Truly the best of everything: service, amenities, and guest quarters so beautiful you are tempted to linger in them longer than your plans allow.

With The Egerton Easter Weekend package, you will:

Indulge your senses with a selection of the Prestige ‘Macarons de Ladurée’ in your room on arrival
Spend the afternoon in an ultimate Easter shopping experience with your Private Driver and a Personal Butler to take you door-to-door of London’s most exclusive boutiques of Knightsbridge, Sloane Street and Brompton Cross.
Receive Harrods voucher worth fifty pounds for your favourite Harrods Easter Egg memento.… your visit to Harrods will be enhanced by The Senses which is a special unique Harrods event: a sensory exploration with a range of inspiring, unexpected, soothing and energising experiences that delight your five senses.

The Egerton Easter Weekend package is available from £375.00 per night, exclusive of VAT and gratuities, based on a two-night stay in deluxe accommodation for two people, valid from March 1st through April 31st, 2008, subject to availability.

The hotel is a member of Preferred Boutique. For information or to book this package call +44 (0)20 7589 2412, or email bookeg@rchmail.com, or visit www.egertonhousehotel.com

Red Carnation Hotels is a collection of luxury family-run properties.   The Five-Star luxurious London jewels are The Milestone Hotel, overlooking Kensington Palace, and member of The Leading Small Hotels of the World; “41”, overlooking Buckingham Palace’s Royal Mews; and The Egerton House Hotel, in Knightsbridge. Outside of London is Summer Lodge Country House Hotel, Restaurant, and Spa, Evershot, Dorset, a member of Relais & Châteaux. Other RCH properties and members of The Leading Small Hotels of the World, are The Five-Star Hotel d'Angleterre on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, and The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa in Cape Town, South Africa.   Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve and Retreat, a member of Relais & Châteaux, is in the heart of the Cederberg Mountains in South Africa’s Western Cape.

2007:   AA Hospitality named Red Carnation Hotels ‘Small Hotel Group of the Year’
2007: The Egerton was included in the website GAYOT.com Top 10 Value Hotels in London
2006: The Hotel received the Silver Award, Small Hotel of the Year category, by VisitLondon. The hotel also has been awarded the Greater London Training Award for our outstanding achievements in workplace training and the “Best Commercial Initiative Under 1000 Employees” by The National Training Journal

Girlfriends Rock!

2008-09-24 13:13:47

You deserve an escape from the hubbub of everyday living. But choose your destination carefully. Your outdoorloving friend who’s more comfortable in Birkenstocks may not appreciate spending her days indoors hunting for that perfect Betsy Johnson dress. From shopping to flyfishing, here are the top choices for some quality girl time. A shopaholic’s mecca LONDON, ENGLAND Where better to max out your credit cards than London, the fashion capital of the world? The Egerton House Hotel (egertonhousehotel.co.uk) in upscale Knightsbridge is offering a “Shop ’til You Drop” package. Located next door to the stunning National History Museum, the venue for London Fashion Week exhibitions, this chic hotel is also near legendary department store Harrods, and countless boutiques. Included in the package are accommodation, a porter to carry your purchases, an appointment with a personal shopper and more.

Other unique shopping neighbourhoods include classic Regent Street and quirky Carnaby Street. Don’t miss the eye-catching Selfridges store on Oxford Street and, for budget chic, hit Top Shop. Be sure to explore London’s newest shopping neighbourhood, Connaught Village. Tucked away in a series of Georgian squares and quiet mews north of Hyde Park, it’s home to more than 50 up-market retailers including Jimmy Choo Couture and society florist, Prewitt Miller. A Sunday stroll at eclectic Camden Market is also a must-do.

Once you’re shopped out—if that’s possible—relax and enjoy some serious girl-talk during afternoon tea at the elegant Dorchester Hotel (dorchesterhotel.com), winner of The Tea Guild’s Top London Afternoon Tea 2007 award. Once you’re rested, get a highfashion culture fix at the Victoria & Albert Museum’s latest exhibit, “The Golden Age of Couture.” Finally, treat your tired tootsies to a “cold feet” mint signature pedicure at BlissLondon (blisslondon.co.uk/spa/location/uk/), a top-notch spa with attitude. Who else offers round-the-clock screenings of Sex in the City? Afterward, with Carrie’s street chic in mind, stop in at Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier and Issey Miyake next door.

The suspicious Package

2008-09-24 13:35:37

The story of the western world, it has been said, is the story of men holed up in hotel rooms straining to draw connections between the more far-flung elements of realityI have in mind Nikola Tesla grappling with electricity and magnetism at the New York Hotel, and Bob Dylan holed up at the Chelsea deciding to rhyme “hollow face” with “deck of cards missing the jack and the ace£ in “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”. And I’m also thinking of me, here at the Egerton House Hotel in London, wondering what a tiny empty ceramic box I found on my pillow has to do with Kylie Minogue.

Minogue, briefly , is a 39-year-old Australian pop star whose intense popularity, a bit like that of soccer, is an accepted fact of daily life in every nation but the United States of America. So much that London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is, until June 10, hosting an exhibition of her clothing and accessories.

The nearby Egerton, a cosy boutique hotel in a pair of conjoined town houses, is duly offering fans a “V&A Kylie Package,” including room and board, gym passes, tickets to the exhibition, and a mysterious “Kylie gift.”

This, I think, means the little box. It can’t be anything else. It was right there on my pillow, exactly where a “gift” would be, and as I study the thing more closely, joining it on the bed and spending a minute or so opening and closing its hinged ceramic lid, I think I begin to understand. The box, like the five-foot-tall Minogue, is very small. Furthermore, it is feminine and at the same time sturdy, like Minogue herself, whose inner fortitude was recently demonstrated in her successful battle with breast cancer.

The walk to the museum takes me a scant 2 ½ minutes, thanks to excellent directions from the Egerton’s concierge – “Oh, it’s very easy-peasy, sir” – and it occurs to me as I walk that perhaps the little ceramic box isn’t empty after all. For by its very randomness, its gossamer-thin, almost nonexistent connections to its supposed referent, it surely contains, in the sense of encapsulating, the hottest- and strangest- trend in all of modern hotel management: the high-concept, mildly deranged-seeming package deal.

Kylie Minogue is, of course, not the world’s only pop star. Nor do the dream-weavers at the Egerton have a monopoly on mild derangement. Surely no serious discussion of either category would be complete without the name of Britney Spears, who startled the world this past February by shaving her head and attacking as SUV with an umbrella. And anyone nostalgic for that wild period in U.S history could recapture the magic by buying the “Britney Breakdown” package at six of San Francisco’s seven Personality Hotels. The deal included a bottle of Voss water (because Spears had just emerged from rehab); a pair of thong underwear (such as what Spear conspicuously wasn’t wearing in a widely circulated paparazzi shot); and a $50 gift certificate to a top San Francisco hair salon.

For more ethereal, less mean-spirited types, there was always the “Orchid Show Package” at the Buckingham Hotel in New York. In return for £369 a night, the Buckingham was rewarding guests with tickets to the New York International Orchid Show, a copy of Susan Orlean’s the Orchid Thief, orchid-themed cocktails like the Violet Orchid Mojito, and, to top it off, a potted Orchid. For $15,000 the package could be upgraded to the “Ultimate Orchid Adventure,” which began in the Buckingham’s Penthouse Suite, with its 2,000-square-foot “rooftop aerie” overlooking Central Park, and ended with guests being flown first-class to Florida, where a guide would take them hunting for rare orchids in the steamy weirdness of the Everglades.

Then again, what normal, red-blooded American female could have resisted the “Girls with Guns Getaway” package at the Teton Ridge Ranch in Idaho? Women, either singly or in groups of “high-caliber girlfriends,” were invited to come blow their troubles away on the ranch’s clay-pigeon range (shotgun lessons included if necessary) before repairing each evening to the ranch’s Great Room for a sumptuous three-course meal and, presumably, a long, weepy, mutually supportive conversation about how great men are and how much of a shame it is they couldn’t come. So far, so delightful. But there is more than mere whimsy propelling the rise and rise of there offbeat packages. There is a mounting threat of “commoditization” for one thing. It may not be a vivid or melodious term; Karl Marx himself would probably have to bite back a yawn, but it’s commoditization that’s apparently keeping modern hoteliers up at night when it isn’t haunting their dreams. Thanks to the recent lurch in information technology, consumers have exponentially more hotel choices at their fingertips, and a precise picture of what each and every one of them charges for a room, with the result that its more difficult than ever for a hotel to stand out, except by being a “better deal.” The solution, apparently (according to various grim, jargony industry newsletters this correspondent has dutifully waded through), is the adoption of a “de-commoditization strategy.” In addition to offering extra perks and services, hotels are actively – through subliminally- trying to challenge the idea that what they provide is just another product. Hence all the new playfulness and creativity. The wacky package can be a powerful weapon in the battle for customer. It’s no coincidence that many of the packages mentioned in this article won’t be available by the time you read these words. The more often a package deal quietly expires, the more often a new one can be born to deafening fanfare. In a word, package deals are news: a new package deal costs a hotel essentially nothing – a few dozen copies of The Orchid Thief, say, or a gross of cryptic little boxes from a failing ceramicist – and yet justifies the dissemination of a press release. If the package is quirky enough, the press release punchy enough, this can really pay off. The “Britney Breakdown” package, for instance, became the subject of its very own item in USA Today, which is how I found out about it, and hey now you've found out about it. All for the cost to Personality Hotels of a few lace thongs and some bottles water they probably had laying around anyway.

Which is not to suggest that package deals are scams. Far from it. Nobody signs up for the “Britney Breakdown” package because they’re thirsty and they could use some new underwear. What’s for sale, instead, is an idea. And I, for one, am grateful. I’m not saying “Kylie – The Exhibition” was entirely without merit; nothing’s entirely without merit. However as I stood there at the museum, studying the clothing on a five-foot-tall mannequin, knowing that soon I would shuffle to one side and study the clothing on another mannequin, it was a source of some comfort to know the experience was part of a strength of the memories they leave us with. The Egerton was memorably comfortable; the exhibition of Kylie Minogue’s clothing was memorably dire; but on its own, the vividness and longevity with which I would retain the memory of the package as a whole. How many people can say they spent a Kylie Minogue – themed weekend in London? Very, very few. How many can go further and say that as a result of that weekend, they have a small ceramic box that contains, in a transcendently subtle fashion, the very essence of Minogue?

None, as it turns out.

“little box, sir?” repeated the concierge, when I called up later for some background information. “I’m afraid I’m not aware of any little box being part of the Kylie Package, sir. Allow me to make some inquiries.” The line went dead for exactly a minute, and he returned to tell me that no one knew anything, and that in all likelihood the box had been placed on my pillow as a non-Kylie-themed memento of my stay at the Egerton. My Kylie-Themed gift, he explained, was the glossy, bound guide to “Kylie-the exhibition” that I found on my dressing table.

I was inclined to protest. How could a guide to an exhibition of Minogue’s clothing, however sturdily bound, be considered Kylie-themed? Is the Bible a biblically themed book? Are the Olympics a sport-themed event?

But I held off, being suddenly more conscious than ever of how fragile the bonds are by which the disparate components of an offbeat package deal are held together. For while these strange packages may indeed be artifacts of the eternal price-wrangle between hotels and their temporary residents, they exist to benefit both parties and, like Tinker Bell in Peter Pan, depend for their very existence on a mutual act of faith by all concerned. And having spent an unrecapturable afternoon amid the tulle-wrapped, pixie-like mannequins of “Kylie – the exhibition,” I felt more able than ever before to join Wendy, the Lost Boys, and Peter himself in that life-giving declaration: “I believe in fairies.”

Egerton House Hotel, Egerton Terrace, Kinghtsbridge; +44 –20/75892412; www.egertonhousehotel.co.uk; doubles from $465; V&A Kylie two-night package £1185, double, valid though June 10

Author: Bruno Maddox, Discover Magazine
Hotel: Egerton House Hotel