Catching Up with Stephen Alden of The Maybourne Group

We’ve just had a visit from Stephen Alden, CEO of Maybourne Hotel Group, who updated us on all that’s going on at Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Berkeley, three iconic hotels in London.

Perhaps the biggest news is that British-born Simon Rogan, who has earned two Micheln stars at his restaurant L'Enclume in Cartmel, Cumbria, will head up Claridge’s new restaurant, which will open next spring. The new establishment will replace Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, which closed in June. The Telegraph is reporting that Rogan “has signed a 10-year contract with the hotel … The name of the restaurant is yet to be decided, but it won't be an eponymously titled venture,” said the report. Alden says the move helps “protect the Britishness of the brand, yet moves it forward.” The hotel recently renovated one wing of rooms as well, and has added a new business lounge where two barber shops once sat, he told us.

At The Berkeley, which has the sole rooftop pool in London (shown here), we hear, as well as a “secret garden,” has a new spa has opened a new spa up there as well. The Bamford Haybarn Spa is the first urban facility that Lady Carole Bamford, founder of British luxury lifestyle brands, Bamford and Daylesford has opened. She is known for her spa in the Cotswalds.

The Berkely has also just opened a new suite designed by Andre Fu, who is known for his work on The Upper House in Hong Kong. The 2,800-square-foot, two-bedroom Opus suite (shown above) replaces five hotel rooms that were removed to make way for the new project, which is being acclaimed as perhaps the largest accommodation in London.

Related Link: The Maybourne Group has just added a new director of sales and marketing in New York.

Alden tells us that the three hotels are seeing more and more families coming to visit. To keep up with the trend, he said, Claridge’s for example, now has more tables for six and eight set at the corners of its dining outlets to accommodate them. as well the Opus Suite has three connecting bedrooms rather than the traditional two.

The hotels are also being kept up with the latest technology for guests and for its staff so they have access to as much destination information as possible immediately, since the guest already knows so much about what is going on in London when they arrive. Maybourne Group is also working with a local company called Fox and Squirrel, which provides insider experiences for guests who want to be beyond the typical sightseeing.

The company is positioning its hotels as the venues for "the Modern British Social Season" since the properties are synonymous with many of the events that go on during London’s high seasons, such as Wimbeldon.