London’s plush hotels are charging almost £50,000 for a one-night stay during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The Corinthia – a five-star hotel minutes from Buckingham Palace – is offering a ‘royal fanfare’ package during the Jubilee weekend beginning on June 2.The package includes caviar-laden finger sandwiches, a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce and cocktails served by a butler on the balcony of the royal penthouse at the lavish accommodation near Embankment.
The offering includes dinner cooked by Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge as well as the opportunity to watch the Trooping the Colour flypast, as part of the Queen’s official birthday parade, from the roof of the hotel.The package costs £48,000 + VAT and the hotel says while it would not confirm reservations, they had serious interest from the Gulf and the Americas in the package to the Times.
When pressed on the exorbitant price of the package, a Corinthia source told the Times: ‘If you saw what Tom Kerridge normally charges to come into your home and cook you dinner, this is a relative bargain’.
The package’s price is further justified with a guided tour on Brompton bicycles and spa treatments.
The royal penthouse is usually booked by foreign dignitaries during their stays in the capital with the room costing £26,400-a-night.
The Rolls-Royce Phantom which is on offer can be rented for around £300 an hour.
The Goring hotel, where the Middleton’s stayed before Kate married William in 2011, is offering a slimmer package for £1,736 for two people over the Jubilee weekend.
Its website says: ‘Having been honoured with the only royal warrant awarded to a hotel for hospitality services and as the closest to Buckingham Palace, the Goring has been a firm royal favourite and the Coronation of the Queen in 1953 saw the hotel filled with royalty from all over the world.’
Tourism chiefs are hoping that the Jubilee weekend will kickstart the tourism industry in the UK after it went into hibernation during the pandemic.