Cadogan Place SW1X 9PY, tel +44 (0)20 7235 1234, jumeirah.com

Sloane Street in Knightsbridge is where you’ll find the two five-star properties of the Jumeirah hotel group. One is the recently opened Jumeirah Lowndes, an 87-room boutique hotel which shares the leisure facilities of its nearby sister hotel, the Jumeirah Carlton Tower. The latter overlooks Cadogan Gardens and, like the Hilton Park Lane, it’s a concrete tower block that is definitely better to be inside, looking out, than out looking in.

The 220 rooms and suites have a range of views from the park (Cadogan Square) to the city, and from the higher floors you can see all the way to Canary Wharf. The property has recently undergone renovation, and now has a new champagne bar, called Gilt, in the lobby (open 4pm-1am daily, and until 11pm on Sunday). Along with the attractive display of orchids, the new bar is undoubtedly an attempt to soften the masculine feel of the public areas. The same is probably true for the lobby area tearoom, The Chinoiserie, which is open for light meals and drinks all day.

This is a hotel primarily for business travellers, so there’s a good-sized business centre, but there are some interesting twists. The club lounge, instead of being a soulless place of free drinks and a single internet station, is on the ninth floor with the spa and gym area, called The Peak. The Club Room (open 10am to 8pm) is non-smoking, has comfy sofas offering views across the city, and has a good range of healthy meals, a lunch buffet, fresh juices, smoothies and champagne.

The hotel’s signature restaurant is the famous Rib Room and Oyster Bar (see Eating in, Business Traveller June 2006), but guests can also sign for meals against their room at the new La Noisette restaurant (Restaurant revival, Business Traveller October 2006) with New York chef Bjorn van der Horst in charge of the 65-seat, fine-dining restaurant.

Another highlight is the excellent Peak Club, which includes a 20m swimming pool and must have the best views from a running machine anywhere in London (review in Just relax,Business TravellerFebruary 2006). All in all, a far more attractive prospect than it seems when viewed from Cadogan Square.

Prices £351 for a standard room and £410 for a deluxe room.

THE LANESBOROUGH

Hyde Park Corner, SW1X 7TA, tel +44 (0)20 7259 5599, starwoodhotels.com

Walk 10 minutes along Knightsbridge towards Mayfair, and you’ll pass the Sheraton Park Tower, Mandarin Oriental and The Berkeley before reaching The Lanesborough. Even in the company of the hotels reviewed here, The Lanesborough stands out – in part for its position right on Hyde Park Corner and opposite Apsley House, home of the first Duke of Wellington.

Dating from the 1820s and designed by architect William Wilkins (best known for London’s National Gallery), the building was previously home to St George’s Hospital before being converted into a luxurious boutique property after the hospital moved to south London in the late-1970s. The exterior – a combination of classical and Greek-revival styles that marked the Regency period – remains unaltered, while the interior has the feel of an elegant 19th century home, with the Royal Fine Arts Commission, the Georgian Society, The Victorian Society and English Heritage all having a hand in supervising the restoration.

A member of Starwood’s luxury brand St Regis, The Lanesborough is one of London’s most expensive hotels, so you expect to see the money on show, and it is – from the liveried doormen waiting to open your taxi door or park your car, to the personalised check-in and every room having its own assigned butler for 24-hour service. The high staff-to-guest ratio means that everything the hotel does, it does very well.

The 95 rooms (including 43 suites) are filled with handcrafted 1820s-period furnishings, though these conceal 21st century technology. Each room has a state-of-the-art, fully interactive TV system, with infrared keyboard and printer, email, movies on demand, and extensive CD and DVD libraries. This emphasis on technology extends to the butlers, who are currently being equipped with wireless PDAs so that guests can email them at any time with requests. Yet when they deliver room service tea, it is on traditional Royal Worcester Fine Bone China.

All rooms offer a mobile phone that, on request, can operate throughout Europe. There is a welcome basket of fresh fruit, bottles of mineral water, and assorted sweets, replenished daily on a complimentary basis, with welcome tea or coffee served on arrival. The private telephone line, dedicated fax machine and personal business cards, printed and prepared for arrival, are nice touches, as is the Spa Studio, small, but perfectly formed, and equipped with La Prairie and Comfort Zone products. Step into the bathrooms and you’ll find them panelled with premium-grade Carrera marble and toiletries from Lady Primrose, produced specially for The Lanesborough.

The restaurant was in the process of being updated during our stay. The food in the Conservatory combines European traditions with flavours of the Orient: crab spring rolls with soy and pickled ginger; roasted sea bass with aubergine caviar and soft red pepper polenta, with grilled vegetables and wilted rocket pesto. Executive chef Paul Gayler was known for imaginative vegetarian food long before anyone thought it was necessary.

The hotel’s “high tea” recently won an award from the United Kingdom Tea Council, while the Library Bar is one of the finest cigar bars in London, with a stunning range of cognac, and prices that reflect this (£2,000 for a glass of cognac from 1786). However, a standard Hine is £12, so this bar is affordable for an after-dinner drink.

The Lanesborough is definitely not for run-of-the-mill business trips, but for something a bit more special, it’s definitely worth the stretch (one thing to note, however, is that it is not a member of the Starwood Preferred Guest Programme, so there’s no chance of burning those points here).

Prices £370 for a deluxe room and £617 for an executive room, which includes 24-hour butler service and free wifi.

[EDIT: LATER JOINED THE OETKER COLLECTION]

LONDON HILTON ON PARK LANE

22 Park Lane, W1K 1BE, tel +44 (0)20 7493 8000, hilton.com

Just across from The Lanesborough – and just as distinctive in its own way – is the well-known Mayfair landmark, the London Hilton on Park Lane. Hilton’s flagship property is conspicuously businesslike, although it has softening touches such as bright flower displays, glass sculptures and a rich, warm-coloured carpet.

Built in 1963 as the capital’s first Hilton, it has been subject to rolling refurbishment programmes, reflecting its prominence as one of Hilton’s most famous properties. The 453 rooms (including 56 suites) are spread over 25 floors and are gradually being updated. Floors 5-8 were completed this year, and a further six floors and the Park Brasserie are slated for 2007. Room categories are standard, deluxe, executive and suite; however, when the old room decor is phased out the lowest category is likely to be deluxe. Many first-time visitors request a park view room, but the finest view is actually of the city side, which at night is fabulous. On each floor, there are two suites, called Mayfair and Park Lane depending on their view. Theyhave balconies (the hotel does not allow travellers staying here alone to step out onto the balcony due to the suicide risk).

Standard, deluxe and executive rooms all measure 22sqm. All have air-conditioning, a work desk (with adjustable lamp), safe, bathrobe, TV with pay movies, Sony Playstation and high-speed internet access (£20 for 24 hours). There is no wifi access in the guestrooms. Due to popular demand, the hotel has introduced ironing boards and tea and coffee-making facilities. The older rooms have more colourful decor and furnishings, and feel dated compared with the new minimalist and modern rooms, with their chocolate-brown chairs and modern art. Deluxe and executive rooms are the same size but with extra amenities, such as larger bathroom toiletries (by Crabtree & Evelyn’s La Source).

Guests staying in executive rooms have access to the executive lounge and its free drinks, continental breakfast, afternoon tea, evening drinks and canapés. The upgrade to executive costs £40, which is good value if you make use of its facilities, since otherwise breakfast alone costs £22. When I visited the lounge at 7am it was quiet and spacious with the background murmur of TV news and a wide array of pastries, cereals and several bowls of fruit. The drinks machine was not a huge success – I would have preferred a handmade cup of tea, but otherwise I would pick this lounge to start my day.

Hilton’s revamped Galvin at Windows restaurant reopened earlier this year, (reviewed in Business TravellerOctober 2006) with 1930s-style decor and a menu of modern French food and wonderful views from the 28th floor windows (the three-course set lunch menu for £28 includes dishes such as risotto of girolles, herbs and shaved parmesan – very good). The restaurant is open daily from 7am to 10.30pm having recently started serving breakfast. Breakfast was served previously at the Park Brasserie on the ground floor, a large restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner and open daily.

A more casual alternative is Trader Vic’s Restaurant, which serves French Polynesian cuisine and is a tropical-style, kitsch place for a meal. For drinks, champagne fans should head to POP Bar, which opened in September 2005 and is a small trendy bar with Pop Art on the walls and a fine line in bubbles (champagne by the glass is available up to a princely £80 for Cuvée Louise).

The Grand Ballroom hosts large functions for up to 1,250 people, and is starting to draw a younger crowd – the closing night of London Fashion Week was held here for the first time in September. The Wellington Suite holds up to 400, while eight meeting rooms on the fourth floor holds between four and 50 delegates. By the end of 2006 all meeting rooms will be equipped with wifi access. The business centre is also on this floor and has wifi and wired internet access charged at £10 per 24 hours.

The basement level has a gym (which has a wheelchair-access fitness machine along with the usual cardio machines), sauna and steam room and massage and beauty treatments available in its three treatment rooms.

Parts of this famous Hilton are showing their age, but the hotel group’s continual investment is bringing the facilities up-to-date and keeping things fresh.

Prices £434 for a deluxe room and £481 for an executive room.

THE ATHENAEUM

116 Piccadilly, W1J 7BJ, tel +44 (0)20 7499 3464, athenaeumhotel.com

Head round the corner from the Hilton and start along Piccadilly, passing along the way the newly reopened Intercontinental. You’ll soon find the Athenaeum Hotel – not to be confused with the private members’ club on Pall Mall with a similar name (the Athenaeum Club).  The Athenaeum is part of a small group of hotels which includes The Grove in Hertfordshire (see review, Business TravellerApril 2005), Runnymede Hotel & Spa, and 23 Greengarden House.

The Athenaeum is a small hotel, with 111 rooms and 12 suites, and has completed a refurbishment of its public areas under Martin Hulbert, design director of Fox Linton Associates. The style is described as quintessentially English, with a theme of “Provence in Piccadilly”, which means olive trees and lavender to greet you at the door. Inside there’s a panelled oil painting of roses, on layered Plexiglass by Ricardo Cinalli, while opposite is a metal hand-rail inspired by the Sussex hedgerows near Hulbert’s home. Herringbone parquet is laid throughout the ground floor, with bespoke rugs and a colour scheme that is far more welcoming and feminine than most hotel lobbies; gold, ivory, saffron and champagne feel welcoming to both men and women.

Guestrooms combine traditional English elegance with 21st century technology. Many have views of Green Park towards Buckingham Palace. There are also 30 one- and two-bedroom suites within a row of Edwardian townhouses on a side street next to the hotel (you have to walk around the corner to access them). There are several styles here, some being classical British with sophisticated furnishings and traditional fabrics, and others being more modern or more family-friendly.

The restaurant, Damask, has a wave of “lovers’ seats” with high, curved backs and tables with what at first looked like petals under glass, but which we later learned was onion peel. Framing the door are decorative screens with some 135,000 mother of pearl buttons (inspired by London’s Pearly Kings and Queens). The Library Bar is a tiny place, but quite excellent, with one of the largest (25) ranges of whiskies in London. The decoration consists of black and white Getty images of London in the rain, three copies of vintage Playboy magazine framed in Perspex boxes by artist Julie Cockburn in the Whisky Room.

It will be interesting to see how this hotel ends up after the renovations. If the public areas areanything to go by, it will be an outstanding boutique hotel, and, given the location, for an extremely competitive price.

Prices £247 for a standard room and £282 for an executive room.

THE STAFFORD HOTEL

St James’s Place, SW1A 1NJ, tel +44 (0) 20 7493 0111, thestaffordhotel.co.uk

Turn off Piccadilly and head down St James’s Street. By turning right into St James’s Place you’ll find The Stafford. Owned by family brewing firm Thwaites (which also owns of the regional hotel chain Shires), the hotel is currently finishing a £26 million renovation involving a new, extended bar and more guestrooms (to be completed in 2007).

The 81 guestrooms are divided between the main house, the coach house and, from March next year, another 26 suites in the Stafford Mews Development. All rooms (floors 1 to 6) have complimentary wifi access, UK and US plugs and Floris toiletries. Rooms are in a range of styles, including some very feminine choices with floral wallpaper and bateau-lit beds.

The coach house annexe makes up one side of Blue Ball Yard and once formed part of the Royal Mews. The two-storey block has stable doors on the ground floor and each room is named after a famous horse; the first floor level is named after artists and poets. The suites in the new annexe will be in a more modern style, accessed via a separate lobby with the option of in-room check in, and will have Bose CD radios, iPod docking stations and plasma-screen TVs.

US visitors make up 70 per cent of guests here, a relationship apparently nurtured during the Second World War when the hotel served as a club for American and Canadian officers stationed overseas. There’s no mistaking the US connection in the American Bar, with its flags and baseball caps hanging from the ceiling, framed prints of old regulars, and gifts from satisfied guests around the world (the hotel has a 60 per cent repeat-guest ratio).

Green leather banquette seating and a small intimate atmosphere make it a popular place for those who know about it – generally the banks and hedge funds in the area. Jackets are required, guests can reserve a table, or you can just have a drink before moving into the restaurant. Martinis and the Owner’s Brew, Thwaites’ Draught Bitter (£5), are recommended, though you could also have a glass of house white for £7 or a bottle of Corton-Charlemagne Domaine Bonneau Du Martray 1999 for £166. The bar has an outside seating area in the cobbled Blue Ball Yard, which is popular in the summer.

The fine dining restaurant is under executive head chef Mark Budd, and serves modern and classical British gourmet specialities such as beef wellington, and dover sole done four different ways. It’s not cheap – £35 for a main course is common – but the food is of a high standard, as is the service, and in this area of St James, the price is less important than the decor and ambience. There are also several private dining rooms.

Head sommelier Gino Nardella conducts regular wine tastings in the 350-year-old cellars – these are a feature of this part of St James, with Justerini & Brooks and Berry Bros and Rudd also having cellars beneath street level. The Stafford’s wine cellar has over £20,000 of wine and it is worth asking to have a look or, better still, convince a company to invite you to a corporate wine tasting.

Prices £294 for a classic queen room and £394 for a deluxe double room.

SOFITEL ST JAMES

6 Waterloo Place, SW1Y 4AN, tel +44 (0)20 7747 2200, sofitelstjames.com

This sole central London Sofitel property – the top-end brand of the Accor hotel chain (which also has the Novotel, Ibis and Mercure brands) – is on the corner of Waterloo Place and Pall Mall, close to Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace. It is a sensitive renovation of the English Heritage Grade II-listed former home of Cox & Kings bank, though one which is extremely imaginative in its interior design by Pierre-Yves Rochon. It manages to walk a fine line in style, welcoming both the chief executives of multinational companies and a younger audience.

Reception is a case in point, where the traditional black and white marble flooring is covered with a large rug, a glass pane has an etching recounting the history of the building (“Designed by E. Keynes Purchase completed in 1923”) and all around there is banking memorabilia in glass cases (“on loan from Lloyds TSB Group Archives”).

Walk forward to the right and you’ll find the all-black St James Bar, which offers the most extensive range of non-vintage and vintage champagnes in London, such as Krug Grande Cuvée 1990 and Cristal Roederer 1995.

To the left there’s The Rose Lounge, home to the hotel’s library, which is a riot of colours – mainly pinks and creams – with a 1950s chandelier and a deep wool rug. The same applies to the extremely private boardroom and private dining room accessed to the left, (with rooms themed in blue, red and green), one of which comes complete with a tartan carpet and deep red walls. No one is ever going to accuse this hotel of being boring.

The 166 guestrooms, 19 suites and one apartment all benefit from excellent double-glazing and soundproofing (the corner position of the hotel means it has busy roads on both sides, but it is surprisingly quiet). All rooms have spotlight bedside reading lamps, CD players, Loewe TVs, modern art and prints, and some elegant print wallpaper of antique clocks. As with every top brand, there is the signature bed – MyBed, available for sale from soboutique-hotelsathome.com – and while the classic superior rooms have a combined shower and bath, executive rooms have the two separate.

The restaurant, Brasserie Roux, has three 15ft arched windows overlooking Pall Mall and Waterloo Place. The buttercup-yellow walls, contemporary furniture and giant lampshades create an Alice in Wonderland effect. The food is French classic, inspired by Albert Roux: dishes include ballottine of foie gras, French bean salad with shallots £12.50; cassoulet of duck’s leg confit £12.50, with lighter and healthier menu options available at lunchtime.

Conference and banqueting is strong here, though the basement rooms have no natural light and a rather low ceiling. Nevertheless, they remain a popular choice, partly because of the facilities and the excellent service, and partly because of the great location. There’s a small business centre on the ground floor and on level one a small gym and spa or “leisure suite” with two treatment rooms and his and hers steam rooms.

Prices £229 for a superior room and £270 for a deluxe room.

All prices quoted were for a fully flexible internet rate for a midweek stay in December