#5 in Top 20 London for Business · ★★★★★
The Dorchester
Park Lane address, Promenade afternoon tea for the soft-meeting, Alain Ducasse for the hard one.
Park Lane address, Promenade afternoon tea for the soft-meeting, Alain Ducasse for the hard one.
"Park Lane address, Promenade afternoon tea for the soft-meeting, Alain Ducasse for the hard one."
The Dorchester opened on Park Lane in 1931, was famously the unofficial Allied command headquarters during the Second World War, and remains the largest of the Park-Lane palace hotels. Two hundred and fifty rooms and suites, the Penthouse Suite (8,500 sqft, three bedrooms, two private terraces) is the largest London hotel suite product. The Promenade (the lobby tea room) is the working afternoon-meeting room — the Edwardian-era columns and the live pianist create the working ambience. Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester (three Michelin stars, the only London restaurant by Ducasse) is the working business-dinner room. The Bar (recently re-opened after a £15 million refurbishment) and the China Tang restaurant are the after-meeting spaces. The Dorchester is the right pick for the London business trip with a Middle-Eastern-family-office client (the property has been the unofficial London base of the Saudi royal family for fifty years), with high-stakes Park-Lane meetings where the geography matters (the major sovereign-wealth-fund London offices are within a five-minute walk), and with multi-night stays where the suite product needs to be apartment-grade.
Penthouse Suite (8,500 sqft, three bedrooms) or Harlequin Suite (the working flagship). For the entry-level, a Park Suite is Park-Lane-facing.
The Promenade for 3.30pm working tea — the table near the central column is the editor's table. Alain Ducasse 7.30pm is the business dinner; the table near the kitchen window is the working table. China Tang is the more-discreet alternative for client dinners.
The Dorchester sits within our broader Top 20 Hotels in London for Business list. It scored an aggregate 9.8/10 across the three editorial criteria — competitive against the field but, on business-specific factors, the angle above is what earned its rank. For the alternatives in the same London neighbourhood, see Mayfair, Park Lane and adjacent. For a different city entirely, see the related lists below.
If you have already chosen the dates, our editor recommends booking the room twelve weeks ahead. The best suites with the right view orientation go first, and inventory for the popular months is quoted in months, not weeks. Suite-level rooms with private plunge pools or terraces — the ones that earn this rank — are typically the first to sell out.