Great discovery

We booked the Rathbone for ourselves and our elderly parents for a special birthday weekend ladt month.

Most London hotels prove disapointing but the Rathbone was a little gem. Great location with a nice little pub opposite and a great restaurant over the road-Fino.

The rooms were small like most central hotels but comfortable and well equiped. The lobby was lovely and all the staff were incredibly helpful especially the concierge. The bar was small but sold great cocktails to begin the evening and breakfast was freshly cooked to order-no grease and curly toast!!

We booked a Thursday to Saturday deal through a website and only paid £119 per room per night well below the tarif price and I think at that price the Rathbone is a brilliant option.

Boutique Hotel that lives up to the name.

Having booked a double room at the Rathbone then read a highly critical review, we wondered if our choice for a weekend break for shopping and theatre would turn out to have been a bad one. We need not have feared - the Rathbone was an ideal choice. The staff could not have been more friendly and helpful throughout our stay. Our double room was very clean and tastefully furnished, immaculately and discreetly serviced. The airconditioning/heating was easily contollable, and the doubled glazed windows ensured the room was a peacful sanctuary of rest between the exhausting shopping treks.

Yes, the room was small by big hotel standards - but this is a boutique hotel, and a high quality one at that. The location is ideal for Oxford Street shops, and even more ideal (if that is possible) for the restaurants of Charlotte Street just yards away - one of the best range of eating places in London in our view.

The hotel is but a short walk from most of the cental London attractions - threatreland, Soho, Chinatown, etc. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a break to enjoy the very real delights of London's shops, theatres and restaurants.

Oh dear Oh dear

I am astonished that anyone rates this hotel, ok from the entrance it looks ok but then it just goes down hill fast. First of our room was smaller than the average broom cupboard & stank of smoke, strange considering we requested a non smoking room. To be fair we got moved even if the receptionist was far from happy. New room had damp, 1970's bathroom & the smallest TV in London. Came back from A1 service at The Ivy to have some drinks in reception. Ordered the drinks at the bar, 30 mins later still no sign. When we asked porter where the drinks were he informed us they had no coffee? what is that about. Still breakfast wasnt that bad we only had to wait 15 mins so they could prepare a table. Overall a joke, butlins would give it a good run for is money.

Great location, superb hotel

Just returned from 3 day stay in London staying at the Rathbone. Best hotel I've experienced in London - friendly, polite, efficient staff. Good sized, clean rooms. 3mins walk from Oxford St, 15mins Trafalgar Sq in quiet side street. 3 mins walk from Goodge St tube. Excellent.

Great Hotel, Hostile Reception

Stayed in Rathbone hotel for weekend visit to London recently. Great location within walking distance of Oxford Street; Regent Street; Soho; Leicester Sq etc. Lovely botique style hotel with plentiful array of restaurants, coffee shops, grocers etc proximate. Room was tastefully decorated and little extras like paper delivery in the morning made a difference. Breakfast was average - if you didn't choose the english breakfast then the buffet was pretty limited. The service was efficient. I would have rated this hotel above average except for a distinctly cold and un-customer-friendly attitude from staff at reception. For a hotel promoting itself as one of London's only remaining indpendent hotels, a courteous, friendly reception would have been expected. It's one of the reasons I had chosen to stay there. Pity - this aspect spoiled an otherwise satisfactory stay.

What a Hidden Gem - Fantastic!

I have stayed in many hotels in London over the years and all have dissapointed in many ways but the Rathbone is 'something special'.

The staff are immaculate and friendly - this goes from the front of house, through restaurant to the cleaning staff.

The breakfasts are well above average and service is generally slick.

The bedrooms are attractively decorated, with crisp clean and expensive looking sheets, pillows etc. No repaired holes in this linen, it looks brand new and no smells of other people in the large fluffy pillows. A very comfortable bed.

Nice bathroom and powerful shower with a better than average hotel, supply of hot water at busy times.

Some sophistocated energy saving electronics are present in the room which requires your room card to be docked on entry, to make things work.

This hotel is surounded by hundreds of fine cafe's and resturants serving every nationalities food imaginable. The 'pickiest' diner would be hard pushed here. Soho, Oxford Street and Theatreland are less than 5 min walk away.

The only downside with a hotel surrounded by so much attraction is - the bins of surrounding restaurants are emptied at about 6am in the morning. We discovered though, that if the rooms air conditioning was left on low - the gentle hum of the fan muted most outside noise and was not at all obtrusive.

4 Star Deluxe - are you having a laugh?

Whe I booked up to stay at the Rathbone I was looking forward to the comforts a 4 star "deluxe" hotel would give.

What I ended up with was a very small double room situated next to a generator that kept me awake all night and a television with no reception to receive the Sky channels I was promised. The room was cold and heating took hours to come through. When I complained they were polite enough and promised to send me a person to come and fix the television and temperature. No one came so I ended up having to complain again to get me moved to another room. Hardly 4 star deluxe so this is one hotel I shall not be staying at in the future!

Great Catch

Very friendly staff, really nice rooms for a smaller hotel in London. The buffet breakfast is more then enough to keep you going till lunch and the location of the hotel in Soho is excellent. Lots of small interesting and well priced restaurants in the area.

Simply Perfect

It's not often you can hand on heart hold high expectations for something as simple as booking a hotel room in a capital city and be so presumptious as to expect you will get high standards of accomodation, courteous staff and above all else value for money.

The choice of hotels in London is somewhat daunting so having chosen the Rathbone on the basis of a previous review I can honestly say that I was not disappointed.

The Concierge was polite on the phone, the reservations manageress was efficient and promptly emailled confirmation when requested. On arrival again the Concierge was (as were all the staff) friendly, courteous and polite. The room was comfortable, clean and exactly as advertised. Breakfast was very enjoyable and even the dining room staff were not put out by our late Sunday morning arrival.

This hotel is in an excellent location in the heart of theatre and shopping land.

The best indication of my satisfaction is that I would happily book to stay there again and will definitely recommend it to anyone looking for somewhere to stay in London.

Great place, but don't tell too many people!

The Rathbone is a lovely small townhouse hotel and in a great location in Fitzrovia which is just north off Oxford Street.

We booked with SelectBritain and got a rate of just £100 for a double room with breakfast included.

There was no restaurant open for dinner, but with so many places to eat on our doorstep this was not a problem.

Service and staff were both excellent and very accommodating. I'll definately be going back again.