London’s luxury hotels: Claridge’s, The Connaught, The Ritz and The Savoy

Sources: the four hotels, the MICHELIN Guide and Forbes Travel Guide. St James’s and Strand are the areas given in the MICHELIN Guide’s restaurant list; its hotel page puts The Ritz in Mayfair. Prices checked on 11 November 2026.

Room sizes are the hotels’ own figures, and suites differ in bedrooms and guests: compare within a hotel, not across the four. The room counts are the MICHELIN Guide’s, which does not say whether they include suites; of the hotels’ own pages we read, only The Savoy’s gives a count: 263 rooms and suites.

Dress codes apply to the venue or the guests named in each cell.

The Ritz, by the MICHELIN Guide’s account: its page says the hotel remains open during an extensive renovation, expected to be complete by 2028. The Ritz’s own pages do not mention it. Trade press gives the scope: the scheme approved in 2021 adds a basement spa with a 20-metre pool and a gym, plus new rooms (Building, 30 September 2021); the first phase, reported for 2026, lists a new building with a second entrance, a winter-garden restaurant, a second bar, the spa, the pool and the gym (Journal des Palaces, 30 January 2026).

The same report says The Savoy began the second phase of a renovation of its rooms and suites in January 2026, and that Claridge’s is expanding through 2028 with a Brook Street wing that adds a bakery, a hair salon, a health club and shops; the pages of both hotels that we read do not mention works. None of these sources says which existing rooms or public areas are affected on a given day: before you book a room or a tea at any of the three, ask what is closed, moved or noisy on your dates. None of our sources, including The Connaught’s own page, mentions works at The Connaught; that is not a promise that there are none.

Three, by their own account; hours and access are in the table. Claridge’s adds family swimming from 8am to 10am and lets visitors who are not staying use the facilities when they book a treatment; The Savoy’s children’s hours are 9am to 5pm. Neither Maybourne page gives the pool terms for staying guests, so ask when you book.

The Ritz names only a Fitness Centre (guest information, May 2025), and no pool appears on its pages or in the MICHELIN and Forbes amenity lists. The 20-metre pool belongs to the first phase of its works (see above); the Ritz gives no opening date.

A glass of Champagne moves the tea price: £110 at Claridge’s, £75 to £145 at The Connaught, depending on the day and the wine. Neither festive tea is served on 25 December, and The Connaught adds a discretionary 15% service charge.

For rooms, only The Ritz publishes a starting price: its FAQs give “from £1,100” for a Deluxe Room and from £9,600 for the Prince of Wales Suite. The other three show rates only once you enter dates.

Not by Forbes, which gives The Ritz four stars; The Ritz calls itself five-star on its own website, as The Savoy does, and Maybourne gives no star rating for Claridge’s or The Connaught. Michelin’s 2026 Keys selection for Great Britain and Ireland counts 11 Three-Key hotels and 47 Two-Key hotels; three of the 11 are on this page. At the table, the order changes: on the Guide’s 2026 London star list, Hélène Darroze at The Connaught holds three stars, The Ritz Restaurant two and 1890 by Gordon Ramsay at The Savoy one.

• The Connaught: besides Hélène Darroze, Jean-Georges at The Connaught serves lunch from noon to 2.30pm and dinner from 6pm, last orders 10pm. A guest travelling alone can take the Superior Single Room, an average of 21 sq m.
• The Ritz London: opened on Piccadilly in 1906. Each of the five tea sittings lasts about an hour and a half to an hour and three quarters, with a choice of 20 loose-leaf teas. The Royal Suite, 204 sq m over two floors, also has one bedroom.
• The Savoy: managed by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, by its own account, while the Gordon Ramsay Restaurant Group oversees the Savoy Grill, The River Restaurant and 1890 by Gordon Ramsay, all three recommended by the MICHELIN Guide. Check-in is guaranteed from 3pm; check-out is at noon.
• Claridge’s: shares the Maybourne website with The Connaught; Maybourne says none of its hotels has a strict dress code.

Bond Street is on the Central and Jubilee lines, Charing Cross on the Bakerloo and Northern. Green Park, on the Piccadilly, Victoria and Jubilee lines, is also a ten-minute walk from The Connaught.

From St Pancras International, The Ritz’s directions are the Piccadilly line westbound from King’s Cross St Pancras to Green Park; Claridge’s puts the Eurostar terminal 20 minutes away by car or Underground, The Connaught about 25. From Heathrow, Claridge’s gives 50 minutes by car and The Connaught 45, or 15 minutes on the Heathrow Express to Paddington and a further 15 by car; The Savoy gives under 50 minutes by car.