Maybourne vs Dorchester Collection: London, LA and the Riviera

Maybourne and Dorchester Collection collide in London: Claridge's, the Connaught, the Berkeley and the Emory on one side, The Dorchester and 45 Park Lane on the other. They meet again in Beverly Hills, where the Maybourne Beverly Hills faces The Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air. Beyond that they part ways: Maybourne adds a single coastal hotel, the Maybourne Riviera, while Dorchester Collection goes on to Paris, Rome, Milan, Ascot and Dubai. Maybourne operates six hotels in all; we track ten from Dorchester Collection.

We put both on the same scales: the same stays priced at every hotel, and the most recent guest reviews scored ourselves, 700 of them across the seven hotels with enough recent ones. Then we lined the hotels up city by city, where the comparison is fair. The short version: Maybourne's guests are happier, Dorchester Collection is easier to buy, and in Beverly Hills the Maybourne was the cheaper stay on the dates it had rooms. If you are new to the group, start with our guide to all six Maybourne hotels.

Both Brands by Our Numbers

On 1 October 2026 we priced the same stays at every hotel through our own booking engine (the one behind hotels.biirdee.com) and scored the 100 most recent verified guest reviews at each hotel ourselves: the mean out of 10, the share scoring 9 or more and the share under 7. Rates are the lowest per night the engine charged that day; taxes the hotel collects at checkout are extra. Our four test stays were 10–13 Nov 2026, 27–30 Dec 2026, 12–15 Mar 2027 and 15–18 Jul 2027. A hotel counts toward its brand's score only with at least 50 reviews written since June 2024: four Maybourne hotels qualify (the Connaught, the Maybourne Beverly Hills, Claridge's and the Berkeley) and three from Dorchester Collection (Le Meurice, The Dorchester and Hôtel Plaza Athénée).

Reading the Scorecards

Maybourne ranks second of the eight brands we could score on recent guest score, behind only Belmond, and its 5% of guests scoring under 7 is the second-lowest. Dorchester Collection ties Rosewood at 9.14, and its 10.7% under 7 is the second-highest of the eight brands we could score, after Ritz-Carlton. Two caveats cut both ways. Dorchester Collection's figure rests on three hotels, and Hôtel Plaza Athénée (8.83, with 13% under 7) pulls it down, while seven of its other hotels score 9.30 or better on older or smaller review samples that sit outside the brand figure. Maybourne's rests on four, with the Maybourne Riviera (9.66 on only 29 older reviews) and the Emory (9.33 on 43) outside it.

Brand price medians mix very different cities, so treat them as a sketch: Maybourne's March and July medians rest on just two London hotels, Claridge's and the Berkeley, and Dorchester Collection's on seven hotels from Los Angeles to Dubai. The fair comparisons are city by city, below. Two brand-wide differences hold anyway. Breakfast costs more at Maybourne ($112–184 a night for two, median by stay, against $79–89). And Dorchester Collection simply had more to sell: on our November stay nine of its ten hotels had rooms, against four of Maybourne's six.

Two lines stand out. Spa reviews average 9.91 at Maybourne and 7.62 at Dorchester Collection. And breakfast is Maybourne's soft spot: its reviews that mention breakfast average 8.8, against 9.57 for those that do not, while at Dorchester Collection the reviews that mention breakfast (9.06) score higher than the ones that do not (8.88).

London: Six Hotels, Head to Head

London is where the two groups collide: four Maybourne hotels against The Dorchester and 45 Park Lane. We scored 14 London luxury hotels across all brands; here is where these six land, with their 2026 awards and our four test stays.

The Connaught is the best-reviewed hotel in either group: 9.79, with 95% of guests scoring it 9 or more and 1% under 7, the top score of the 14 London luxury hotels we scored. It also had no rooms through our engine on any of our dates, so it is a hotel to plan through a desk. 45 Park Lane scores well too (9.39, with 93% at 9 or more), on an older review window. Among the three that sold rooms on all four of our stays, The Dorchester (9.26) edges Claridge's (9.21) and the Berkeley (9.12), but the margins are small and the shapes differ: Claridge's has more guests at 9 or above (89% against 82%), The Dorchester more under 7 (11% against 8%).

What guests write sharpens the picture. At Claridge's, the 8% of written reviews that mention noise averaged 5.67; at the Berkeley, breakfast reviews (14%) averaged 7.75. The Dorchester's guests write about service (77% of written reviews, averaging 9.4) and breakfast (24%, averaging 9.42) more than those of any of the other five, and like both.

On price, the Berkeley was the cheapest of the London hotels we could price on three of our four stays ($1,205 in November, $1,611 over New Year, $1,049 in March), and Claridge's the cheapest in July ($1,239). The Dorchester was the most expensive on three of the four, topping out at $1,957 a night over New Year. Breakfast runs the other way: adding it for two cost $115–260 a night at Claridge's depending on the stay and $107–110 at the Berkeley, against $78–79 at The Dorchester and $66–68 at 45 Park Lane. On the calendar, January was the cheapest month at Claridge's ($1,238) and the Berkeley ($1,049), and March at The Dorchester ($1,315), which had no rooms in January or February.

Our desk's London pattern is short stays: Claridge's and Connaught bookings average about 1.3 nights. The Connaught books around New Year and in spring and early summer, at a median of about $1,650 a night with taxes; Claridge's entry rooms ran about $800–1,100 a night on the extended, multi-room early-summer stay we booked there. For the three-way London decision, see Claridge's vs the Connaught vs the Berkeley, and for the wider field, our London ranking.

Beverly Hills: the Maybourne vs the Dorchester Pair

Beverly Hills is the second front: the Maybourne Beverly Hills against Dorchester Collection's two Los Angeles hotels, both of them Three-Key.

Beverly Hills is a closer fight than London. The Maybourne has the top recent score of the 7 Los Angeles luxury hotels we scored, a hundredth of a point ahead of Hotel Bel-Air and just ahead of The Beverly Hills Hotel, and its reviews are the more recent: both Dorchester Collection scores rest on older windows. On the two stays where the Maybourne had rooms it was the cheapest of the three: $1,276 against $1,446 and $1,448 in November, $1,079 against $1,323 and $1,347 over New Year.

The Dorchester pair answer with availability and awards. Both priced in every month from November to September on our calendar, while the Maybourne priced only in January, when it was the dearest of the three ($1,438 against $1,262 and $1,142). Both hold Three MICHELIN Keys to the Maybourne's Two, and both are in The 50 Best Hotels 2026 (Hotel Bel-Air at No. 57, The Beverly Hills Hotel at No. 65). Forbes splits the difference: the Maybourne and The Beverly Hills Hotel are Five-Star hotels, and Hotel Bel-Air a Four-Star hotel with Dorchester Collection's only Five-Star spa. Our desk books the Maybourne for autumn and summer at a median of about $1,900 a night with taxes, and our clients' September stay at The Beverly Hills Hotel ran about $1,500 a night.

The Riviera, and the Cities Only One of Them Has

Only Maybourne has a hotel on the Riviera. The Maybourne Riviera, above Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, scored 9.66 with guests, though on only 29 reviews from an older window; it became Forbes Five-Star in 2026 (France's only new Five-Star hotel that year), holds Two MICHELIN Keys and is No. 93 in The 50 Best Hotels 2026. Our engine had rooms there only in November, at $797 a night with breakfast on our test stay, and our clients stay about six nights, in July and August, against one or two nights at the city hotels in this comparison.

Dorchester Collection answers with cities Maybourne has not reached yet: Paris, where Le Meurice (9.33) and Hôtel Plaza Athénée (8.83) are both Forbes Five-Star with Three MICHELIN Keys, plus Rome (Hotel Eden), Milan (Hotel Principe di Savoia), Ascot (Coworth Park) and Dubai (The Lana). Paris will not stay uncontested for long: Maybourne's first hotel there, The Maybourne Saint-Germain, is due in 2027 with 101 keys. Our Dorchester Collection guide scores and prices all ten of its hotels.

MICHELIN's top tier favors Dorchester Collection (four Three-Key hotels to two, all four in Paris and Los Angeles), Forbes favors Maybourne (five Five-Star hotels out of six), and The 50 Best Hotels 2026 is a draw at three each, with Claridge's the highest-placed hotel in either group at No. 13.

What Our Desk Books

Maybourne hotels are among the most-booked on our desk over the past year, and our agents priced them 18 times since June 2026. The pattern: Claridge's for an extended, multi-room early-summer stay; the Connaught around New Year and in spring and early summer; the Maybourne Beverly Hills in autumn and summer; the Maybourne Riviera in July and August. London stays are short (about 1.3 nights at Claridge's and the Connaught) and Riviera stays long (about six nights). Our Dorchester Collection bookings were short, one or two nights each: Hôtel Plaza Athénée in June, Hotel Principe di Savoia in July at about $780 a night, and The Beverly Hills Hotel in September at about $1,500.

Our Verdict

Our verdict, and it is ours: for the guest, Maybourne is the stronger collection right now. Its four scored hotels average 9.40 to Dorchester Collection's 9.14, its share of guests scoring under 7 is about half (5% against 10.7%), five of its six hotels are Forbes Five-Star, and the Connaught posts the top score of the 14 London luxury hotels we scored. Dorchester Collection wins on reach (Paris, Rome, Milan and Dubai, where Maybourne has no hotel yet), on MICHELIN's top tier (four Three-Key hotels to two), on cheaper breakfasts and on availability: it simply had rooms for sale on more of our dates.

City by city, here is how we would book. In London: the Connaught first if you can get in, Claridge's for the occasion, the Berkeley when price matters, and The Dorchester if its guests' favorite things, the service and the breakfast, are yours too. In Beverly Hills: the Maybourne for autumn and holiday dates; The Beverly Hills Hotel or Hotel Bel-Air for spring and summer, or for Three Keys. On the Riviera, in this pairing, it is the Maybourne or nothing.

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