Claridge's vs the Connaught: Which Mayfair Hotel Is Right for You

Claridge's and the Connaught are about five minutes' walk apart in Mayfair, the same company runs both, and each now says on its home page that it is among The World's 50 Best Hotels 2026. Ask people who have stayed at both which is better and they will answer quickly and firmly, and the next person will answer just as firmly the other way. That is because the two hotels are not chasing the same guest.

Claridge's is the grand one: the Art Deco landmark on Brook Street, with a ballroom, a celebrated lobby, and restaurants and bars open from breakfast until late. The Connaught is the quiet one: a smaller house on Carlos Place, in the corner of Mayfair it calls Mayfair Village, built around a three-Michelin-star dining room and the Connaught Bar. Everything below comes from what the two hotels publish about themselves, read on 8 October 2026, plus what our own booking engine shows. Where the hotels are silent, so are we.

The short answer

• Book Claridge's for a first London trip or a celebration, for bigger rooms at every price step (its smallest is 35 sq m, against 29 sq m for a double at the Connaught), for afternoon tea in the Foyer, for a lively all-day restaurant in Dante Mayfair, and if you want to book online today.
• Book the Connaught for a quieter street and a more private house, for a butler from a 40 sq m studio upward, for Hélène Darroze and the Connaught Bar, for the Aman Spa, and if you are travelling with children who will want to come to the bar with you.
• The same at both Bond Street station five minutes' walk away, a pool and spa included in every stay, identical in-room basics, the same seasonal offers, a 24-hour butler in the suites, and Flexjet helicopter transfers for the top suites.

Two histories, a few streets apart

Claridge's started in 1812, when James Mivart opened a hotel in a house at 51 Brook Street. William and Marianne Claridge expanded it into the five buildings next door and gave it their name in 1856, and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were soon visiting. Richard D'Oyly Carte bought it in 1893 and had it rebuilt by C.W. Stephens, the architect of Harrods; it reopened in 1898, the ballroom followed in 1929, and Oswald Milne gave the lobby the Art Deco look the hotel is still known for. In 1945, at Churchill's request, suite 214 was declared Yugoslav territory so that Crown Prince Alexander II could be born on his own country's soil. A 2021 project restored the ballroom and dug a five-floor basement for a spa, a pool, a gym, a wine cellar and new kitchens.

The Connaught opened in 1815 as the Prince of Saxe-Coburg Hotel, in two houses owned by the Duke of Westminster, and was renamed during the First World War for Queen Victoria's son Arthur, Duke of Connaught. Its modern shape dates from a £70 million restoration completed in 2007, which added a new wing, the Aman Spa and David Collins' suite, The Apartment. Tadao Ando's water sculpture, Silence, has stood outside the entrance since 2011. The hotel says it hangs a 3,000-piece art collection, and its long-time designer Guy Oliver calls it "the handmade hotel".

The rooms: Claridge's is bigger at every step

Average sizes from each hotel's own room pages. Rooms vary within a category, and both hotels mix classic and contemporary designs.

• Entry rooms Claridge's starts with the Superior Room at 35 sq m, over the courtyard, then the Mayfair Room (40 sq m) and the Mayfair Balcony Room (45 sq m). The Connaught starts with a 21 sq m Superior Single for one guest, then the Courtyard Superior (29 sq m), the Superior (30 sq m) and the Deluxe rooms (33–35 sq m).
• The big rooms Claridge's Room (50 sq m), Claridge's Balcony Room (55 sq m) and Claridge's Studio (60 sq m), the studio by David Linley or Michelle Wu. The Connaught's nearest equivalent is the Contemporary Studio, 40 sq m on Adam's Row with walnut parquet and original art.
• Junior suites At Claridge's, 65 sq m, and the Terrace Junior Suite adds a private terrace. At the Connaught, the Deluxe Junior Suite is 45 sq m, and the four Lodges average 51 sq m, one-of-a-kind rooms such as the Mughal-inspired King's Lodge, made with the craft charity Turquoise Mountain, and the Eagle's Lodge, a 1930s-yacht cabin with a wraparound terrace.
• One-bedroom suites Claridge's runs from the Mayfair Terrace Suite (75 sq m) through the Claridge's Suite (95 sq m) to the Corner Suite (105 sq m), in Victorian or Art Deco style. The Connaught's Guy Oliver suites run from the Carlos and Coburg (56 sq m) to the Connaught Suite (72 sq m) and the Sutherland (90 sq m), with original fireplaces and antique chinoiserie cocktail cabinets.
• Signature suites Claridge's has the Penthouse, 1,100 sq m by Rémi Tessier with a heated pool and a rooftop garden; André Fu's Residence (280 sq m, with a hydrotherapy pool); the Royal Suite (225 sq m); and Diane von Furstenberg's Grand Piano Suite (180 sq m). The Connaught has The Apartment (285 sq m, by David Collins Studio, with a double-height sitting room); The Mews (225 sq m, with its own street entrance); the Library Suite, with a secret door behind a bookcase; and the Terrace Suite, whose terrace the hotel calls the largest in Mayfair, landscaped by Tom Stuart-Smith.

The in-room basics are almost identical, down to the Dyson hairdryer, Surrenne bath products and free soft drinks in the minibar, and every stay at either includes the spa pool.

The butler line

This is the difference that changes the booking. Both hotels give suite guests a 24-hour butler: unpacking, pressing, shoe shining, and at the Connaught a martini mixed in the suite from the Connaught Bar's trolley. Where they draw the line is not the same. On Claridge's own pages the butler starts with the one-bedroom suites, from the 75 sq m Mayfair Terrace Suite upward; its junior suites and studio do not list one. At the Connaught the butler comes with the Contemporary Studio (40 sq m) and the Deluxe Junior Suite (45 sq m), and with every suite above them.

So if a butler is what you are paying for, the Connaught gets you one in a much smaller room. If space is what you are paying for, Claridge's gives you more of it at every step.

Where to eat and drink

The two kitchens point in opposite directions. Claridge's is built for being seen and for coming and going all day. The Connaught is built for the one great dinner and the one great drink.

At Claridge's

• Dante Mayfair Dante, the Greenwich Village bar and restaurant founded in 1915, now has a permanent address at Claridge's: Italian-inspired plates such as lobster linguini and chicken alla diavola, aperitivo cocktails, breakfast from 8am and dinner until 10.30pm Thursday to Saturday.
• The Foyer & Reading Room The Art Deco heart of the hotel, serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and the afternoon tea. Tea runs from £95 a person (£110 with champagne, £125 with rosé champagne); from 3 November to 3 January only the festive tea is served, from £120 on weekdays and £130 at weekends.
• The bars Claridge's Bar, by David Collins Studio, for rare champagnes; the Fumoir, an intimate Art Deco hideaway with Lalique panels, open since 1929 and taking no reservations; and the Painter's Room, a cocktail bar open Tuesday to Saturday evenings.
• The rest L'Epicerie, a 14-seat table inside the kitchens; Claridge's Bakery on Brook's Mews; and Art Café by Thibault Hauchard, sitting atop the Perrotin gallery's London space.

At the Connaught

• Hélène Darroze at The Connaught The hotel's three-Michelin-star restaurant, cooking from producers the chef has worked with for decades, with a chef's table under the ceiling art. Book festive meals early: the hotel lists a £145 three-course festive lunch and a £495 eight-course New Year's Eve dinner, prepaid and non-refundable.
• Jean-Georges at The Connaught The all-day restaurant overlooking Mount Street, open from breakfast (for hotel guests) to midnight, mixing British classics with South-east Asian flavours. It also serves the Connaught's afternoon tea, at 2.30 and 4.30, with a harpist from Friday to Sunday.
• The Connaught Grill Reopened in 2020 with woodwork by Mira Nakashima: British produce from an open kitchen, a Sunday roast carved from a silver trolley, and crêpes Suzette flamed at the table.
• The bars The Connaught Bar, with its platinum-leaf walls and the Martini Trolley, open Monday to Saturday from 4pm and taking no reservations; the Coburg Bar, open from 9am, with India Mahdavi's velvet wingbacks and Julian Opie's cameos; and the Red Room, a wine bar behind a velvet curtain hung with work by women artists, Louise Bourgeois among them. There is also a cigar merchant and Nicolas Rouzaud's patisserie.

One practical difference for families: Claridge's Bar and the Fumoir admit only children staying at the hotel, with an adult and until 6pm, and the Painter's Room none at all. The Connaught's bars welcome children with an adult, resident or not, though there is no room for pushchairs.

Spa and pool

Both spas are underground, both have a pool, and both are included in every stay. Claridge's Spa is the bigger operation: seven treatment rooms, steam rooms and saunas, an "electrolyte-rich" relaxation pool designed by André Fu, a gym equipped by NOHrD, PENT and Peloton, and resident names such as Dr. Barbara Sturm and Augustinus Bader. It is open daily from 8am to 9pm, with family swimming from 8am to 10am.

The Connaught has the Aman Spa, which it describes as the first Aman spa outside Aman's own resorts: five treatment rooms, a pool, a steam room and a private Technogym gym for hotel guests and spa members. It is the smaller of the two. If the spa is a reason for the trip, Claridge's offers more to do; if it is somewhere to disappear for an hour, the Connaught's is the calmer room.

Brook Street or Carlos Place

Claridge's stands on the corner of Brook Street and Davies Street, five minutes' walk from Bond Street station and ten from Oxford Circus: central, busy, and close to the shopping streets. The Connaught is on Carlos Place, just off Mount Street, also five minutes from Bond Street station and ten from Green Park, in what the hotel calls a quiet setting moments from Bond Street and Hyde Park. Each puts Heathrow about 45 to 50 minutes away by car.

Arriving by private jet into Luton, Stansted, Farnborough or Biggin Hill, both hotels offer Flexjet helicopter transfers to the Battersea heliport and a Maybourne car from there, on 72 hours' notice. Claridge's offers them from The Octagon up, the Connaught from The Mews up.

Families and Christmas

For families the two hotels run the same offer, A Family Story: book a one-bedroom suite for the adults and the hotel adds a second room, connecting or close by, for children up to 16, with daily breakfast for everyone, for stays of two to five nights. Both set aside family swimming times at the spa. The Connaught's bar policy makes it the easier hotel with older children who want to come along in the evening; Claridge's bigger rooms make it the roomier one with younger ones.

Christmas is where they differ most. Claridge's sells a three-night package arriving on 23 or 24 December 2026, with a horse-drawn carriage ride round Mayfair, Father Christmas and his elf, children's entertainers, Christmas lunch in Dante Mayfair or the French Salon, and your own Christmas tree from the Mayfair Suite up. The Connaught sells two nights arriving on 24 December, with carols, stockings for everyone, the carriage ride, and Christmas lunch at Jean-Georges, the Grill or Hélène Darroze (the last with a supplement of £190 an adult), and a tree from the Coburg Suite up. Both packages ask for a 50% non-refundable deposit, with the balance due, also non-refundable, on 25 November.

The offers are the same; read the fine print

Both hotels publish the same set of offers this season, valid until 30 April 2028. Rates at both are quoted including VAT and subject to a 5% discretionary service charge.

• In Advance 15% off the room-only rate when you book at least 14 days ahead, paid in full at booking with no changes and no refunds. At the Connaught it applies to stays from 3 January 2027.
• Stay Four Longer The fourth night free on a stay of four nights or more.
• Life is Suite 10% off the bed-and-breakfast rate in the one-bedroom suites, for two nights or more.
• A Family Story The free second room for children, above.

None of them combine with each other, and the Connaught's Christmas package also excludes negotiated and consortia rates. That makes the choice of rate as important as the choice of hotel: a prepaid advance rate is cheaper until your plans move.

How to book each one

Claridge's sells online, and our Claridge's page shows live rates for every room for your dates. You can book it there yourself, or send us the dates and we will price it against the hotel's own offers and tell you which comes out ahead.

The Connaught does not. Our booking engine has shown no Connaught rooms on sale on any date we have checked: it sells through Maybourne's own reservations team and its partners, so a rate comes from a request rather than a search. Send us your dates from our Connaught page and we will request the room you want, and come back with what it costs. If you would like both priced side by side, ask, and we will request the Connaught for the same dates as your Claridge's rates.

For more depth, our property guides cover Claridge's and the Connaught in full, and our three-way comparison with the Berkeley adds guest-review scores and same-dates rate checks.

Our verdict

Choose Claridge's when the hotel is part of the occasion: a first trip to London, a birthday, a family Christmas, a stay where you want to come down to a buzzing lobby and an afternoon tea with more than a century of tradition behind it. You get more space at every step, and you can book it online in minutes.

Choose the Connaught when the hotel is where you retreat from the occasion: a quieter street, a butler from the studio up, the three-star dinner downstairs and a martini at the end of it. It takes a request rather than a click, so start a little earlier.