Just add your own gossip
Fancy a girls' night in? Then head off for the five-star Berkeley Hotel in London, writes Alison Jones...
Staying in is the new going out, or at least that is the premise behind The Berkeley Hotel's new Girls' Night In.
They are slumber parties in five-star surroundings where, should you choose to eat in the restaurant downstairs, the catering is by Gordon Ramsay.
But to be honest, even a meal from the hand of the Michelin man would be wasted as sleepovers are all about snacks judging by the hat box full of sweet, sticky and savoury goodies waiting for us when we got to the room.
The essential ingredients for the perfect girls' night in are simple - junk food, alcohol, chick flicks and beauty treatments. The only thing the hotel doesn't provide is the gossip.
The overnighters are aimed at girlfriends on a mission to indulge. Maybe they have something to celebrate, like a big pay rise at work, or perhaps they are bidding farewell to singledom with a hen night that involves something a little classier than crawling from pub to club wearing a hat made out of condoms and L-plates.
The Berkeley certainly has class. It is located in affluent Knightsbridge, just across the road from Hyde Park and a ten-minute stroll from Harvey Nics and Harrods.
The hotel was originally on the corner of Piccadilly and Berkeley Street, which is where it gained its name, and was popular with debutantes because of its proximity to Mayfair.
Interestingly, the restaurant was one of the few places where parents would allow their daughters to go unchaperoned as the staff could be relied on to keep an eye on them and their escorts.
The hotel was bought by Richard D'Oyly Carte in 1901 because he couldn't persuade the then managing director George Reeves-Smith to leave it to come and run the Savoy.
The hotel outgrew itself by the late 1960s and relocated in the 1970s to a newly-built Berkeley on the site where Tattersall's, the famous bloodstock auction house, once stood. One of the private dining/meeting rooms is named after it in tribute.
In spite of being built in one of the most architecturally unfortunate decades, it is a graceful, honey-coloured building that looks perfectly at home in the up-scale neighbourhood.
There are two restaurants located either side of it: Gordon Ramsay's New York influenced Boxwood Cafe and Marcus Wareing's decidedly more European Pétrus. Hotel guests have first options on the tables there.
Stars such as Madonna and Leonarda Di Caprio have all been spotted either taking a dip in the rooftop pool (one of only two in London) or a sip of a cocktail in the Berkeley's Blue Bar which is famous for being a celebrity hang-out. Though the debs have had their day, the Berkeley has been recognised as "the most female friendly of London's hostelries, a tottering high heel of a venue". And while it wouldn't want to put off any male guests, it does offer a number of women-friendly indulgences.
Such as Prèt-â-Portea, a stylish take on traditional English tea involving cake inspired by the cat-walk collections of famous designers.
Naturally the patisserie changes to reflect the changing textures and colours of the seasons.
And when the sales are on, or in the run-up to Christmas, the hotel has its up-to-date guides of where to get the best bargains or the best presents.
The Berkeley prides itself on having a "sixth sense" about how to make guests feel at home. Certainly we couldn't fault the service as we were greeted by at least four people offering to help us when we arrived and when we were taken to our room I had no less than three cards of welcome.
The traditional way of assessing the standard of a hotel is the number of stars, but the quality of its mini-bar contents and guest soaps and shower gels are also a good way to judge.
In our suite the in-room nibbles were from Harvey Nichols and the bits and pieces in the magnificent marble bathroom were by Floris.
Part of the pampering package includes an in-room manicure, but because there was a hen party visiting, demanding all of the manicurist's attention, ours had to wait until the following morning.
Settling in for the night we ordered from the long list of cocktails to be delivered from the Blue Bar. There were fun, fruity and alcoholic concoctions such as Ginger Pine Cosmos, or Mojitos. We opted for a San Tropini (fresh strawberries, raspberries and blackberries with crème-de-fraise, vodka and Champagne) and strawberries and cream (blended fresh strawberries and cream with vanilla vodka and crème-de-fraise).
We ordered a pot of ice cream each and a film from the chick flick list which includes the obvious favourites like Dirty Dancing, Titanic, Bridget Jones, Breakfast at Tiffany's and even Layer Cake.
We opted for Sideways, an Oscar nominated film all about wine drinking and romance, slipped on the robes, slapped on the face mask, smeared on some peppermint foot cream, broke open the Kettle chips and the family size Maltesers, lit the Diptyque candle and settled in for the night.
The combination of alcohol and too much sugar meant we slept late the next day and missed our chance for an early morning swim.
Instead we strolled down to breakfast, served in the Caramel Room. Here we encountered the only flaw in a weekend of otherwise impeccable service as the queue for breakfast snaked into the lobby.
Customers who were paying a premium price to stay at The Berkeley were understandably annoyed and made several complaints to staff in order to chivvy things along.
Finally, after a full English, we headed back upstairs for our manicures, the beauticians even managing to make my friend's badly gnawed nails look presentable.
Leaving our bags at the hotel we struck out for a spot of retail therapy, discovering a branch of H&M that had had a fresh delivery of the impossible to come by Stella McCartney Collection.
Then it was a trip to the shopping mecca of Harrods before staggering, bag-laden, to the train to Birmingham and reality.
* The Berkeley Girls Night In is £320 per room based on two people sharing. For details log onto www.theberkeley.co.uk or ring 0207 235 6000. ..SUPL:
