The Peninsula vs Raffles: how London’s 2 new Asian-brand hotels square up – rooms, suites, restaurants, prices and more
To borrow from the popular British saying about buses, in this case you can wait years for an Asian grand dame hotel to come to London, and then two open in the same month.
When the original Peninsula and Raffles hotels opened, their owners had aspirations for them to be the finest “east of the Suez”. Now, arguably two of the most venerable, storied and luxurious hotel names in the world, with their roots in Hong Kong and Singapore, respectively, have just opened their first British properties.
Both The Peninsula London and Raffles London at The OWO ( Old War Office) were slated to open in the spring of 2023, teeing up a Hong Kong-Singapore rivalry in the erstwhile colonial capital.
That both were delayed, and then had their openings in September, fuelled even more speculation over these properties belonging to brands that already compete directly in Istanbul, Manila and Paris.
The simultaneous launches have the British capital abuzz with talk of billion-pound budgets, and room rates that start at more than £1,000 (US$1,200) per night. And that is for the “entry point” rooms.
Raffles Hotel began life in Singapore in 1887 as a modest 10-room bungalow, and it wasn’t until the early 1900s that it became the grand hotel we know today.
The four Sarkies brothers named their establishment after the founder of modern-day Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles, the name being designed to attract British travellers, then the world’s most moneyed wanderers, resident historian Leslie Danker told me ahead of the hotel’s 125th anniversary.
