San Domenico House
Style Restrained Italian extravagance
Setting Steps from Sloane Square
Created from two five-storey, red-brick Chelsea townhouses, complete with original brick balconies and verdant window boxes, family-owned boutique hotel San Domenico House is a little piece of Italy in West London. Communal areas and bedrooms are stuffed with antiques from the bel paese, and English and Italian traditions are blended throughout. It’s warm, welcoming and extremely inviting.
Need to know
- Rooms 15, including nine suites.
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Rates
Double rooms from $229.07 (£150), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency (£150) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
- More details Breakfast is an additional £12–£18 a person.
- Facilities Free broadband, laundry service, meeting facilities. In rooms: standard or flatscreen TV, CD/DVD player, air-conditioning, minibar, Molton Brown and Masseria San Domenico toiletries.
- Check-out Midday. Earliest check-in, 2pm.
- Children Kids are welcome at the hotel. Complimentary cots are provided for under-threes, and extra beds can be added to rooms for £70–£110 a night. Babysitting is also provided for £10 an hour – though you need to give 48 hours notice.
- Also Fear not, nicotine addicts – you’re permitted to smoke in six of San Domenico House’s rooms.
Food and drink at San Domenico House
- Hotel restaurant The hotel doesn’t have its own restaurant, but the small breakfast room in the basement does offer traditional full silver service if you’re after some afternoon tea or coffee. The room is a lovely spot, with duck-egg blue wallpaper, brightly coloured silk curtains and golden damask everywhere, and sits just on the right side of formal.
- Dress code Go for creams and neutral colours – but avoid light-blues unless you want to camouflage yourself against the walls.
- Top table All of the white-clothed tables in the downstairs breakfast room are equally elegant.
- Room service Guests can order from a 24-hour room service menu, which contains a selection of breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes, as well as drinks and afternoon tea.
- Hotel bar There is no bar at San Domenico House. If you sit yourself down in one of the communal areas, though, it won’t be long before one of the staff comes over to see if you would like them to mix you a cocktail.
San Domenico House 29-31 Draycott Place, London, United Kingdom SW3 2SH
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Smith extra at San Domenico House
A fruit basket and water on arrival
In the know
Our favourite rooms
We absolutely love Room 103, a junior suite that’s fit for a queen. It comes with gloriously high ceilings, hardwood floors, ragged walls with original panelled features, a bed with a draped headboard and red velvet coverlet, gilt-framed mirrors, a beautiful antique desk and its own terrace overlooking Draycott Place. We also like Gallery Room 304, which is divided up by latticed screens made from antique wooden doors, and Deluxe Room 404, which has a small private terrace that looks out over the rooftops of Chelsea towards Battersea Power Station.
Packing tips
Make sure you remember your best pastel-coloured cashmere jumper – to wear over your shoulders, of course. You also might want to start practicing your plummy accent if you really want to fit in with the hotel’s Sloaney clientele.
Also
The hotel might not have any gardens, but there’s a small, secret terrace up on the top floor. If your room’s not blessed with outside space, then head up there and ask for some cocktails to be sent up to you.
