Completely renovated in 2009, The Royal Horseguards sits in a wonderful French château styled listed building overlooking The River Thames dating back to 1884.

Fortunately the hotel’s period features, including the only freestanding marble staircase in the UK, have been retained and combined creatively and tastefully with fresh décor and modern technology to give the business and leisure traveller everything he or she needs.

The hotel has 281 rooms including 4 suites.  The rooms either overlook The Embankment and Thames, Whitehall or are inside facing with no view. They are all however similarly decorated and equipped.  The inside facing rooms have an aqua marine colour to give them an enhanced sense of light and are the hotel’s Standard Single, Double and Twin rooms ranging in size from 24 sq m to 28 sq m.  The Deluxe Doubles at 28 sq m face the Thames and have splashes of red in the carpets and curtains and red bed valences and scatter pillows.  The Executive Doubles and Twin rooms start at 34 sq m and have a nice marble floored entrance hall and are really very spacious.  My Executive King bedded room was 38 sq m and overlooked the Embankment and Thames and as the evening drew in I had the most wonderful view of the lit up London Eye.

Most of the rooms have tall ceilings thanks to the age of the building giving a greater sense of space and I also liked the fact that a lot of the rooms I looked at had a window in the bathroom, again giving lots of natural light.  All the rooms have a built in Philips Flat Screen TV plus a facility to plug your laptop in as well US and Continental power points and complimentary Wi-Fi in the rooms.  You can also plug your iPod into the room’s sound system.  The good sized wooden desk with draws each side doubles up as a dressing table with the centre piece lifting up to reveal a mirror and good quality hairdryer.  I was impressed with the generous double closet with a personal safe, mini-umbrella and long handled shoe horn.  Although the rooms are double glazed you can still open the windows to let some air in.  I also liked the choice of two firmer and two softer pillows on my bed.

The oatmeal coloured tiled bathrooms are very well equipped with a heated towel rail as well as a heated floor, very welcome on those colder mornings.  Depending on the layout of the room, some bathrooms have a separate walk-in shower and bathtub or a decent rainforest shower over the bath.  All baths do have a TV at the end the tub and I thought the leather boxed vanity set was a nice touch with just about everything you might need from a shaving kit to toothbrush and toothpaste.  The bathroom toiletries are Elemis.

The hotel has a number of connecting rooms for families as well as a special kids’ menu and 4 accessible rooms.

The unique Tower Suite sits in the building’s tower and has two levels with 180-degree views of the London skyline.  The Horseguards Suite also has two levels with the bed upstairs and sitting room downstairs, which is similar to the Library Suite with its amazing bathroom, built in Jacuzzi in the bath and separate walk-in shower.  It has a strong red theme and is traditionally furnished.  The Apartment is decorated in a more business-like style.

The small Fitness Room located on the 8^th floor is equipped with Precor cardio machines, rowing machines and free weights.

As well as enjoying Afternoon Tea in the newly refurbished Lounge, the real hidden gem is The Terrace, where you can enjoy a cigar or barbeque on those warmer evenings or simply a cocktail before dinner in the excellent One Twenty One Two, which also serves a wonderful full Continental breakfast.  The warm and cosy Equus Bar is a nice alternative.