Claridge's is Mayfair's grand hotel, art deco with a spa and pool below the lobby, for special occasions; Hazlitt's, under half the price, is thirty named rooms in a Georgian Soho terrace with breakfast brought to your room, for couples who want Soho outside the door.
The grand oneMayfair's art deco grand hotel, and since 2022 it has a seven-treatment-room spa and pool three floors below the lobby.
££££From about £750 a night
Choose Claridge's if
The catch
No Michelin star in the house in the 2026 guide, and the dining room has changed hands twice since 2021.
The classicA 1718 Soho townhouse hotel that refuses to be updated: four-posters, sloping floors, breakfast at your door and no restaurant.
££From about £332 a night
Choose Hazlitt's if
The catch
Steep stairs and floors that slant, and the hotel publishes nothing about lifts, so plan for stairs.
| Best for | Claridge's | Hazlitt's |
|---|---|---|
| Best design hotels in London | On the list | On the list |
| Best spa hotels in London | On the list | Not on the list |
| Best central hotels in London | On the list | On the list |
| Best quiet hotels in London | On the list | On the list |
Claridge'sHazlitt's
Claridge's
Hazlitt's
The verdict
Claridge's is Mayfair's grand hotel, art deco with a spa and pool below the lobby, for special occasions; Hazlitt's, under half the price, is thirty named rooms in a Georgian Soho terrace with breakfast brought to your room, for couples who want Soho outside the door.
Questions people ask
Claridge's is Mayfair's grand hotel, art deco with a spa and pool below the lobby, for special occasions; Hazlitt's, under half the price, is thirty named rooms in a Georgian Soho terrace with breakfast brought to your room, for couples who want Soho outside the door.
Claridge's is the London grand hotel that fixed its one real gap, and the spa is now as good a reason to book as the Foyer. Go for the building and the service, and plan your dinners elsewhere. A famous classic in the middle of Mayfair, run on service, priced accordingly and photographed constantly. The draw is the original art deco and the spa underneath it, not privacy and not the restaurant.
It has an indoor pool. There is no beach; the nearest is a drive away.
Hazlitt's suits people who want the 18th century left roughly as it was found, stairs and all. Take a Superior Double, plan every dinner outside the front door, and let Soho do the rest. A small, old, deliberately unmodernised house in the middle of Soho, where character is the entire proposition. Everything a modern hotel would add, a restaurant, a spa, lifts in the staircases, has been left out or left unmentioned.
There is no pool. There is no beach; the nearest is a drive away.