Luton Hoo Hotel

Luton Hoo, a majestic and impos­ing grade I lis­ted build­ing, has been sens­it­ively and immacu­lately trans­formed into a lux­uri­ous five-star hotel by new own­ers, Elite Hotels, fol­low­ing a £60 mil­lion invest­ment. Although less than a mile from the M1 motor­way in Bed­ford­shire, this Robert Adam man­sion house enjoys a beau­ti­ful rural set­ting in 1,065 acres of park­land and gar­dens cre­ated by fam­ous land­scape gardener, Cap­ab­il­ity Brown. The grandeur of the house with its giant tapestries, elab­or­ate fire­places and glint­ing crys­tal chan­deliers is reflec­ted in the way it has been used as a back­drop to some very fam­ous films, per­haps most not­ably, “Four Wed­dings and a Funeral”.

The res­tor­a­tion work has res­ul­ted in an impress­ive com­plex of hotel, con­fer­ence centre, golf course and spa with 35 spa­cious rooms and suites in the Man­sion House and a fur­ther 109 bed­rooms in the Park­land, Adams and Flower Garden wings. The improve­ments con­tinue with War­ren Weir, a purpose-built 84 room con­fer­ence centre avail­able for exclus­ive use, set to open in spring 2009.

For exquis­ite fine din­ing there can be few more spec­tac­u­lar set­tings than the award-winning Wernher res­taur­ant, named after one of Luton Hoo’s most dis­tin­guished former own­ers, dia­mond mag­nate, Sir Julius Wernher. The exotic marble pan­el­work and richly col­oured fab­rics are remin­is­cent of the Palace of Ver­sailles. Housed in the his­toric former stables, the Adam’s Bras­serie offers a more informal style of din­ing. Its décor is bright and con­tem­por­ary; its walls lined with stills from the many films shot on location here.

Each of the bed­rooms has a Ser­vice en Chambre Petite. This neat way for guests to serve bever­ages in their room com­prises teas, cof­fees, hot chocol­ate and ancil­lar­ies all housed in a styl­ish mahogany box together with pol­ished stain­less steel cafetiere, mini kettle and two por­cel­ain mugs.  The hotel has dis­creetly incor­por­ated it into the built-in ward­robes. Café du Monde has recently joined forces with Newby Teas to become the main sup­plier of teas and herbal infu­sions to hotels and res­taur­ants through­out Eng­land and Wales. Luton Hoo chooses from a range of black, green and fruit teabags for guests’ bed­rooms and uses Newby leaf teas through­out the hotel.

“The qual­ity of the Ser­vice en Chambre present­a­tion appealed to us imme­di­ately” said Deputy Gen­eral Man­ager, Mat­thew Long. “It fits well with the décor in our rooms and handles bed­room bever­age ser­vice in a com­pact and eleg­ant way. The products are first rate and the ser­vice response from Café du Monde is outstanding”.

| testimonial | Tags: cafetiere, espresso, featured, serviceenchambre