How many keys does Raffles London at The OWO have, and what's the suite mix?

The hotel operates 120 guestrooms, of which 39 are suites. The configuration leans heavily toward larger key types: entry-level rooms start around 36 square meters, suites run from roughly 50 square meters up to the Heritage Suites in the building's corner turrets, and four named signature suites including the Granville and the Haldane occupy the principal first-floor rooms that once housed senior ministers. That suite-to-room ratio, just under one in three, is unusually high for a London luxury property and reflects the building's original layout of large ministerial offices rather than purpose-built hotel rooms.

Who runs the food and beverage program, and is the Mauro Colagreco restaurant the same concept as Mirazur?

The F&B program runs across nine venues. The flagship is a Mauro Colagreco signature restaurant on the ground floor that picked up its third Michelin star in early 2025; it is not a Mirazur clone but a London-specific concept built around British produce with the same biodynamic philosophy. Heritage, a separate Argentine-influenced grill from the Colagreco team, occupies the historic Army Council Chamber. Other venues include Spy Bar in the former map room, the Drawing Room for afternoon tea, the Guards Bar, and pool-deck dining at the Garde Manger spa level. Day-to-day F&B operations sit under a director of restaurants reporting into the GM rather than a separate hospitality group.

Are the residences above the hotel still being sold, and can hotel guests access them?

The 85 Raffles-branded private residences on the upper floors were marketed by Westminster Development Services and largely sold out at completion, with a small number of resale units now trading on the secondary market at price points typically north of 5,000 pounds per square foot. They are not hotel rooms and are not in any rental pool; residents have a private entrance on Horse Guards Avenue and a dedicated lobby. Hotel guests do not access the residential floors, but residents may use hotel F&B and the Guerlain spa on a paying basis.

How does the corporate rate compare with the Connaught, Claridge's, and the Berkeley?

Negotiated corporate rates at Raffles London at The OWO landed in 2025 broadly in line with Maybourne's Connaught and Claridge's and slightly above the Berkeley for comparable room categories, with published BAR for an entry-level Deluxe King running between 1,150 and 1,450 pounds depending on season and demand. Volume corporate accounts in financial services, law, and sovereign government typically negotiate in the 850 to 1,050 pound range with breakfast and a suite-upgrade clause. The hotel's RFP team prices aggressively against the Beaumont and Twenty Two for relationship accounts and tends to hold firmer against the Maybourne properties.

What's the best room category for a senior executive on a two- or three-night Westminster trip?

For a working stay tied to meetings at Westminster, MoD Main Building, or the Foreign Office, the Whitehall Suite category offers the best balance of footprint, layout, and rate. These rooms run 65 to 75 square meters with a separate living area suitable for one-on-one meetings, dedicated dressing room, and views over either Whitehall Court or the inner courtyard. The Heritage Suites in the turrets are more spectacular but carry a meaningful rate premium and are typically held back for sovereign and ultra-high-net-worth clientele. Below the Whitehall Suites, the Junior Suite category is the value play, particularly midweek in shoulder seasons.

Raffles London at The OWO: One Year Later, A Whitehall Power Address Comes Of Age

LONDON — When Raffles London at The OWO opened the doors of the former War Office in September 2023, the hospitality press treated the event as one of the decade’s set pieces. A 120-room luxury hotel and 85 branded residences inside the Edwardian baroque pile where Churchill ran the early years of the Second World War, where Lawrence of Arabia, Profumo, and a generation of secretaries of state for war held office, is the kind of asset that gets written about whether or not it deserves to be.

What was harder to assess in those first months was whether the property would settle into a working role in London’s luxury and corporate travel ecosystem, or whether it would float as a trophy asset, priced for occasion travel and not much else. The arrival of a third Michelin star for Mauro Colagreco’s signature restaurant in early 2025, a clean second operating year on the books, and a corporate rate sheet that has now been negotiated through two full RFP cycles give travel buyers and trade press enough information to make that call.

The short answer is that the property has, as expected, become the Whitehall address for senior corporate travel, government-adjacent business, and the kind of one-night stopover where the meeting is at Westminster and the dinner is at Petersham Nurseries. It has also, more interestingly, started to take share from the Maybourne properties at the very top of the rate card. This briefing looks at how that has played out across rooms, F&B, residences, and the negotiated corporate book, and where the property sits against the Connaught, Claridge’s, the Berkeley, the Beaumont, and Twenty Two as 2026 corporate RFP season opens.

The Building and the Conversion

The Old War Office, completed in 1906 and known across Whitehall simply as the OWO, occupies a triangular site between Whitehall, Horse Guards Avenue, and Whitehall Place, directly opposite Horse Guards Parade and a five-minute walk from both Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament. The Hinduja Group acquired the freehold from the Ministry of Defence in 2014 for a reported 350 million pounds and assembled a development consortium with Onex Holdings. The conversion took roughly nine years from acquisition to opening and is estimated to have cost between 1.4 and 1.6 billion pounds all-in, making it the most expensive hotel conversion in London history by a clear margin.

Accor’s Raffles brand was confirmed as operator in 2019, with the management contract structured as a long-term agreement rather than a franchise. EPR Architects led the conversion under a Grade II* listing that constrained almost every external and many internal moves; ground-floor public spaces, the principal staircase, the Army Council Chamber, and the corner turret rooms are protected fabric. Thierry Despont, the late designer who also worked on the Ritz Paris and the Dorchester refurbishment, designed the hotel interiors before his death in 2023; the residences interiors were led by 1508 London.

The conversion delivered 120 hotel keys across the lower five floors, 85 private residences above, nine food and beverage venues, a 1,950-square-meter Guerlain spa with a 20-meter pool, a ballroom for around 200, and a string of smaller meeting and private dining rooms. The decision to cap the hotel at 120 keys, despite a building footprint that could have supported substantially more, was deliberate; the operator and ownership wanted a high suite ratio and large average room size, both of which command premium rates and protect ADR in soft markets.

Rooms and Suites

The 120 keys are split across 81 standard guestrooms and 39 suites. Entry-level Deluxe King rooms start at 36 square meters, which is large by London standards; comparable entry categories at Claridge’s and the Connaught typically run 30 to 35 square meters, and the Beaumont’s entry rooms are smaller still. Premier and Grand King categories step up to 42 and 48 square meters respectively. The suite ladder begins with Junior Suites around 50 square meters, moves through the named Whitehall Suite tier at 65 to 75 square meters, and tops out with the Heritage Suites in the building’s four corner turrets and the principal Granville and Haldane suites on the first floor.

The Granville Suite, occupying the original office of the Secretary of State for War, is the property’s signature key and carries published rates in the 18,000 to 25,000 pounds-per-night range depending on season. The Haldane Suite, named for Richard Haldane who occupied the same office in 1906 when the building opened, is similarly priced. The four Heritage Suites in the turrets are smaller in footprint but carry the most distinctive interior architecture, with curved walls, original windows over Horse Guards Parade or Whitehall, and bespoke furniture detailing from the Despont studio.

The suite-to-room ratio, just under one in three, is unusually high for a London property and reflects the building’s bones; the original Edwardian floor plate was built around large ministerial offices, and the conversion preserved those volumes rather than subdividing them into more, smaller keys. The trade-off is rate. ADR at The OWO ran in the 1,400 to 1,600 pound range across 2025, materially above the comparable Maybourne and Beaumont numbers, and the suite mix is the principal driver. Corporate buyers should expect that suite-upgrade clauses, which are standard at the Connaught and Claridge’s at the GM’s discretion, are tighter at The OWO; the property has more suite inventory but also more demand for it from leisure and sovereign segments.

The F&B Program

Nine venues is a lot for a 120-key hotel, and the F&B build at The OWO was the part of the project most watched in the trade press during the long pre-opening period. Two years in, the program is mostly working, with one venue clearly outperforming and one or two finding their footing more slowly.

Mauro Colagreco at The OWO

The signature ground-floor restaurant, branded simply as Mauro Colagreco, is the headline. Colagreco, whose Mirazur in Menton was named World’s Best Restaurant in 2019 and holds three Michelin stars in France, opened The OWO as his first London project. The London room picked up its first two Michelin stars in the 2024 UK guide, less than a year after opening, and was elevated to three stars in February 2025, the fastest three-star ascent in London since the 2010s.

The London concept is not a Mirazur clone. The kitchen draws on British produce sourced primarily from southern England, with a biodynamic philosophy that mirrors Mirazur’s lunar-cycle menus but rebuilt around UK growing seasons. The tasting menu runs 295 pounds at dinner and is taking reservations roughly six to eight weeks out as of January 2026. The room itself, designed by Despont with original parquet and a curved bar, seats around 70 and is one of the best-looking dining rooms to open in London in the last decade.

For corporate buyers, the Colagreco room functions as both an amenity for resident guests and a destination revenue line in its own right. Resident guests have a soft priority on bookings but no guaranteed table; the property does not pre-block resident tables in the way the Connaught Bar manages walk-ins for in-house guests. Expect to confirm dinner reservations at the time of room booking for any stay where Colagreco is part of the agenda.

Heritage and the Other Venues

Heritage, the second major F&B venue, occupies the historic Army Council Chamber on the first floor. The room itself is one of the most architecturally significant in the building, with original oak paneling, the chamber’s original ceiling, and views over Whitehall Place. The concept is an Argentine-influenced wood-fire grill, also under the Colagreco team but with a separate executive chef and a distinct menu identity. Heritage has been the more polarizing of the two restaurants; it earned warm but not glowing reviews through 2024 and 2025, and has been more reliant on hotel-resident covers than the Colagreco room.

The other ground- and lower-level venues round out the program. The Drawing Room, off the principal lobby, runs afternoon tea and all-day light dining. The Guards Bar, in the former officers’ anteroom, is a classic hotel bar with a focus on rare spirits and a strong cocktail program from a former Connaught Bar team member. Spy Bar, in the basement near the lower spa level, leans into the building’s intelligence-services history with low lighting, a 1940s soundtrack, and a more theatrical drinks menu; it has become the property’s late-night room and runs to 2 a.m. on weekends.

Saison, on the lower ground floor, is a more casual all-day room oriented around in-house breakfast and informal dining. Mauro’s Table, a chef’s table within the Colagreco kitchen, seats eight and operates as a separate tasting experience at 595 pounds per cover. Paper Moon, a private dining room on the first floor, handles small group bookings up to 24. The pool-deck Garde Manger handles spa-level light food and wellness drinks.

The total F&B count of nine is high relative to the room count, and the strategy is clear: the property is being run as a destination for non-resident covers as well as a hotel. Resident-to-non-resident cover mix across the F&B program has been running roughly 35/65 through 2025, well below the 60/40 typical of the Maybourne properties and an indication of how aggressively the OWO is competing for outside food and beverage spend.

The Residences

The 85 Raffles-branded private residences on the upper floors of the OWO were sold off-plan and at completion through Westminster Development Services, the in-house sales arm of the Hinduja-Onex consortium. Pricing at launch in 2019 ran from roughly 3.5 million pounds for one-bedroom apartments to north of 50 million pounds for the largest penthouses; by completion in 2023, average sale prices had moved to around 4,200 pounds per square foot, and resale activity through 2024 and 2025 has cleared at 4,800 to 5,500 pounds per square foot depending on floor, view, and finish.

Roughly 80 of the 85 units sold at or before completion. Resale inventory at any given time runs to three or four units, with the buyer pool weighted toward international UHNW with existing London exposure; sovereign and Gulf buyers have been the largest single segment, followed by US and continental European. The residences are not on any rental program, formal or informal, and the building’s residential lease structure includes anti-short-let provisions standard for Westminster prime stock.

Residents have a separate entrance on Horse Guards Avenue, a dedicated concierge desk, and access to the hotel’s F&B venues and Guerlain spa on a paying basis with priority booking. Hotel guests do not access the residential floors. The residences component is structurally important to the project’s economics; the residential sales effectively underwrote a substantial share of the conversion cost and allowed the hotel to be operated at 120 keys with high average room size, rather than the 200 to 250 keys that would have been needed for a hotel-only project to pencil at the cost basis.

For corporate travel buyers, the residences component is mostly relevant as context. The presence of a permanent UHNW resident population in the building means the hotel’s public spaces, particularly the Guards Bar and the Colagreco room, run with a different mix than typical hotel F&B; expect to see residents at adjacent tables, which is part of the value proposition for the property and part of why the bar program has gained traction so quickly with London locals.

Business-Traveler Positioning

The corporate buyer question is straightforward: against the Connaught, Claridge’s, the Berkeley, the Beaumont, and Twenty Two, where does The OWO fit, and which accounts is it winning?

Versus the Connaught and Claridge’s

The Maybourne pair, Connaught and Claridge’s, are the OWO’s most direct competitors at the top of the rate card. Both sit in Mayfair, both have long-established corporate books in financial services, private equity, and sovereign wealth, and both run at the same general ADR range. Through 2025, The OWO has taken meaningful share from Maybourne in two specific account categories: financial services accounts with heavy Westminster and government-relations activity, and US sovereign-adjacent travel where proximity to Downing Street and the Foreign Office matters.

Maybourne retains the edge in pure Mayfair-centric corporate business, where the Connaught’s bar and Claridge’s lobby are network destinations in their own right, and in entertainment and creative accounts where the Mayfair social geography is the draw. The OWO’s location, while spectacular for Whitehall-facing business, is a 20- to 25-minute drive or a 35-minute walk to most of Mayfair, and that gap matters for accounts where the working day involves Berkeley Square or Mount Street rather than Parliament Square.

Versus the Berkeley

The Berkeley, the third Maybourne property and the one most often used as a value comparison against the Connaught and Claridge’s, sits a clear half-tier below The OWO on both rate and corporate desirability. The Berkeley’s strength is its Knightsbridge location for retail and leisure crossover; it is rarely the first pick for a pure corporate Westminster trip, and The OWO has not been competing for the same accounts.

Versus the Beaumont

The Beaumont, the Corbin and King property in Mayfair off Brown Hart Gardens, is the closest competitor to The OWO in style and service ethos; both lean into building character and service detail rather than the more polished, brand-forward approach of the Maybourne properties. The Beaumont is smaller at 73 keys, with a tighter F&B program and a more intimate operating feel. Corporate accounts that have historically favored the Beaumont for senior US visitors, particularly in publishing, law, and policy work, have shown some movement toward The OWO when the meeting agenda is government-heavy; the Beaumont retains the edge for purely Mayfair-centered stays and for accounts that value its smaller scale.

Versus Twenty Two

Twenty Two, the Grosvenor Square members’ club with 31 hotel keys, is a different product entirely; it competes on access to the club, programming, and the smaller-scale feel of a townhouse-conversion property. Corporate accounts that have a member tie-in or book Twenty Two for senior visitors are a distinct segment from The OWO’s core book, though there is overlap in the financial services and creative accounts where Twenty Two has been winning younger principals. The two properties are more complementary than competitive; several of the largest corporate accounts in London now have both on their approved lists, with property selection driven by traveler preference and meeting geography.

The Overall Competitive Position

Two years in, The OWO occupies a distinct slot at the top of the London corporate book: the address you choose when the meeting is at Westminster or the briefing is at MoD, when the visitor profile is senior enough that a 1,200-pound-per-night room is in policy, and when the building itself is part of the value proposition. That slot was previously fragmented across the Maybourne properties, the Savoy, and a small set of Mayfair townhouses; The OWO has consolidated it, and its corporate book reflects that.

Corporate Rates and the 2026 RFP Cycle

Negotiated corporate rates at The OWO landed in 2025 broadly in line with Maybourne and slightly above the Berkeley. Published Best Available Rate for an entry-level Deluxe King ran between 1,150 and 1,450 pounds across 2025 depending on season and day-of-week, with peak demand around Royal Ascot, Wimbledon, the autumn statement, and the spring budget pushing the upper bound higher.

For volume corporate accounts, the property’s RFP rate sheet for 2025 ran from roughly 850 pounds for entry-level rooms at low-volume accounts to 1,050 pounds for higher-volume relationships, typically with breakfast included for two and a soft suite-upgrade clause based on availability. Accounts in financial services, law, sovereign-adjacent government, and the larger US tech companies with regulatory or policy activity in London have been the dominant corporate categories.

Entering the 2026 RFP cycle, the property is reportedly holding rates flat to slightly up against 2025, with the hotel’s revenue team prioritizing rate integrity over volume given strong demand and occupancy that ran above 78 percent across 2025. Corporate buyers negotiating 2026 should expect:

Modest rate movement, 2 to 4 percent on most accounts.
Tighter suite-upgrade language, with category-specific caps rather than open availability-based language.
Stronger pushback on third-night-free and value-add structures that were available in 2024 negotiations.
Continued willingness to flex on F&B credit for accounts that book the Colagreco room and Heritage at hotel-pace volume.

For corporate accounts that did not negotiate The OWO into the 2025 book, the property is open to mid-cycle additions on a case-by-case basis, with the RFP team prioritizing accounts that bring senior-traveler volume Monday through Wednesday during the parliamentary session. Accounts with heavy weekend or leisure-leaning travel patterns are less likely to clear an off-cycle add.

Meeting Space and Group Business

The property’s meeting and group space includes a ballroom for around 200, the Granville Room and the Haldane Room for smaller board meetings, and several private dining options across the F&B venues. Group corporate business has been a slower build than the transient corporate book; the meeting inventory is limited by the building’s geometry and the property is not competing for large conferences. Where it has been winning is board-level meetings, senior leadership offsites for 20 to 40 people, and private dinners tied to government and regulatory affairs.

Day delegate rates ran 195 to 250 pounds across 2025 depending on room and catering. Private dining minimums at the Granville Room start at 12,000 pounds for dinner. The ballroom for a seated 200 with a working AV setup runs north of 80,000 pounds before food and beverage.

What’s Changed in Year Two

The most meaningful operational changes between year one and year two of the property have been in F&B leadership and corporate sales structure. The original opening director of restaurants moved on in mid-2024 and was replaced with a hire from Maybourne; the new director has tightened service standards across the program, with the most visible improvements at Heritage and Saison. The corporate sales team was restructured in early 2025 with three dedicated account directors covering financial services, sovereign and government-adjacent, and corporate-leisure crossover accounts respectively.

The Guerlain spa, which opened with the hotel in 2023, has been the quietest part of the program publicly but has built a strong London resident membership; the 20-meter pool and the hammam suite are the standout facilities, and the spa runs largely independently of hotel demand. The spa membership has been a useful side revenue line and also functions as a soft acquisition channel for the residences resale market.

The rumored second Colagreco concept on the lower ground floor, which trade press speculated about through 2024, has not materialized and is no longer on the property’s medium-term plans. The decision was a deliberate consolidation around the existing two-restaurant Colagreco footprint; the kitchen team has indicated that maintaining three Michelin stars at the main room and operating Heritage at consistent quality is the priority for 2026 and beyond.

The Booking Calculus for a Senior Stay

For a corporate buyer or executive assistant placing a senior executive at The OWO for a working trip, the practical guidance through 2026 is:

Book the Whitehall Suite category for stays of two nights or more where any business meeting in the suite is plausible. The footprint and layout are right for a working trip; the entry-level Deluxe King is a clean room but is not built for in-suite meetings.
Confirm Colagreco reservations at the time of room booking. The 6-to-8-week reservation horizon means walk-up tables are not reliable, and resident priority is soft rather than guaranteed.
Use the dedicated corporate sales team for any account-level booking; the property’s revenue management for negotiated rates is concentrated in the RFP-managed inventory and not always visible in the GDS.
Consider Heritage rather than the Colagreco room for working dinners. The Army Council Chamber is the more impressive setting for a hosted meal, and the menu is better suited to a working agenda than the Colagreco tasting format.
For onward connections, the property’s location is closer to St Pancras International than Mayfair properties, which matters for trips with a Brussels or Paris leg.

The OWO is no longer the newest luxury property in London; the title has moved on to several smaller openings through 2024 and 2025, and the Mandarin Oriental Hanover Square is in the pre-opening phase. What The OWO has become, two-plus years in, is something more durable: the Whitehall power address, a working asset rather than a trophy, and the property at the very top of the corporate book that has most clearly justified its opening positioning. For 2026 RFP planning, it stays on the approved list and, for the right account profile, moves up the preference order.