The Guerlain Spa at Raffles London at The OWO runs to 27,000 square feet across four floors. Its private option inside that is one single and two double VIP treatment suites.
Which is the distinction this whole category turns on. A private suite inside a very large spa that other people are using is not the same product as exclusive hire of a small one, and the two are advertised in almost identical language at broadly similar prices.
A private spa booking should mean the facilities are yours, with nobody else in them: no sharing a sauna with strangers, no queue for the steam room, no keeping your voice down. In a city this crowded that is worth more than the price difference suggests. Below, which of the two each place is actually selling.
The hotel suites
Raffles London at The OWO
Inside the old War Office, which is worth the visit on its own, and the most architecturally impressive option on this list. The Guerlain Spa spans 27,000 square feet and four floors, with Guerlain Paris on treatments and Pillar Wellbeing on movement and nutrition.
What is actually private: one single and two double VIP treatment suites, each with private showers, changing rooms and soaking tubs. That is a private room, not a private building. The shared facilities around it are the draw in their own right: a 20 metre indoor pool under a double-height ceiling, a vitality pool, sauna, steam room and experience showers, and a gym and movement studio. There is also a ground floor Guerlain atelier doing express beauty treatments, hairdressing, make-up and fragrance.
Book this one if you want a great spa with a private room in it. Do not book it expecting to have the pool to yourselves.
The Peninsula, Hyde Park Corner
Private treatment suites designed for two, in what is currently the most expensively built hotel in London. Everything here is new, which in the spa world matters more than it does elsewhere.
Four Seasons Park Lane
The Sky Suite is double-sized and has 180 degree views, which the hotel publishes, and the view is the differentiator: nothing else on this list competes with it. The suite has Hyde Park views, a private steam shower rather than a steam room, and separate dressing and relaxation rooms.
The published two-hour experience includes use of the spa facilities, a welcome drink and a sound bath session, which is a more specific proposition than the couples package language most guides use. Elsewhere in the spa the treatment rooms are glass-walled with floor-to-ceiling windows over the park, and most of them include private relaxation pods.
The dedicated private venues
Banya No.1, Hoxton
Russian banya rather than a conventional spa, and the most interesting thing in this category. Genuinely different from a hotel spa: hotter, more social, and built around the contrast of heat and cold plunge rather than quiet treatment rooms. The best choice if you want the afternoon to be an event rather than a rest.
Its own site could not be reached when this page was checked, so treat the specifics as questions rather than facts. Ask what the minimum hire period is, whether exclusive use covers the hot and cold facilities or only a room, whether there is a dining area included, and whether a massage room set up for two comes with the hire or is charged separately. Those four answers are the entire booking.
Savannah Private Spa
An exclusive-use private spa aimed squarely at couples wanting a secluded few hours. Small, private by design, no shared facilities at any point.
The Private Spa
Fully private rooms for anywhere from two to eight guests, which makes it one of the few options that works for a small group rather than a couple.
The Skin Co Spa, Spitalfields
Private hire of the whole facility in a Georgian building in Spitalfields. The setting does a lot of the work.
Choosing between them
For a couple: the hotel suites, and Four Seasons if the view matters.
For a small group: The Private Spa or Banya, both of which are built for more than two.
For something memorable rather than restful: Banya, comfortably. Heat, cold plunge, food and drink, two hours, nobody else there.
For pure seclusion: the dedicated private venues, which are private throughout rather than a private room inside a shared spa.
What to check before booking
What private actually means here, which is the only question that matters. It ranges from a private treatment suite inside a spa other people are using, to exclusive use of an entire facility. Raffles is explicit about being the first kind: one single and two double VIP suites inside 27,000 square feet. The dedicated venues are the second kind. These are very different products at similar-sounding prices, and the word private is used for both. Ask which one you are buying before you ask anything else.
Minimum hire and minimum spend. Most private hire has both, and a two hour minimum is common.
What is included. Facility access, treatments, food and drink are often priced separately. The advertised rate is frequently the floor rather than the total.
Weekday availability. Private hire on a Saturday is expensive and books out. Midweek is both cheaper and easier.
Who is doing the treatments. If treatments are part of the booking, ask about the therapists rather than only the room.
The alternatives
If exclusivity is less important than the facilities themselves, an ordinary day pass at one of the big hotel spas gets you more for less. Spa days in London covers the Corinthia, Bulgari and the rest, with what their passes include.
If the appeal is really just not having to go anywhere, mobile massage in London sends a qualified therapist to your hotel room instead.
And the best hotels in London covers the properties several of these spas belong to, if you are making a weekend of it.
Nearby and in the same spirit: the barbers, where twenty pounds buys fifteen minutes and two hundred and twenty five buys ninety, plus Savile Row and Jermyn Street.
Checked in September 2026 against each property’s own published pages, and rechecked on 2 October 2026 for the two that publish detail. Raffles London at The OWO and Four Seasons Park Lane publish enough detail to quote and their figures above come from them. Banya No.1, Savannah Private Spa, The Private Spa and The Skin Co could not be reached, so nothing is stated about them as fact and their specifics appear as questions to ask instead. None of these venues publishes a private hire price openly, which is itself worth knowing before you ring.
Questions we get asked
What does private spa hire actually include?
It depends entirely on which of two products you are buying, and both are sold as private. The first is a private suite inside a spa other people are using: the Guerlain Spa at Raffles London at The OWO publishes one single and two double VIP treatment suites, each with private showers, changing rooms and soaking tubs, set inside 27,000 square feet across four floors. The second is exclusive use of a whole small facility, with nobody else on site at any point. Ask which one before you ask the price.
Which London spa suite has the best view?
The Sky Suite at Four Seasons Park Lane, which the hotel describes as double-sized with 180 degree views. It has Hyde Park views, a private steam shower and separate dressing and relaxation rooms. The spa’s ordinary treatment rooms are glass-walled with floor-to-ceiling windows over the park and most include private relaxation pods, so even outside the suite the view is the point.
Is a two hour spa booking long enough?
It is the standard unit and it is enough. Four Seasons Park Lane publishes a two-hour experience that includes use of the spa facilities, a welcome drink and a sound bath session, which is a full afternoon’s worth of structure rather than a rushed treatment. Longer bookings exist and are worth it if the point is the afternoon rather than the treatment, but two hours is what these places are built around.
How long do you need for a private spa in London?
Two hours is the standard minimum and it is enough: heat, a cold plunge, food and drink, and nobody else there. Longer bookings exist and are worth it if the point is the afternoon rather than the treatment, but two hours is the unit these places are built around.
When should you book a private spa in London?
Well ahead if you want a weekend. Private hire on a Saturday is expensive and books out, because there is only one of each room and it can only be sold once. A weekday booking is both cheaper and available, and it is the same facilities with the same exclusivity.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 21 in the guide.
Last checked 2 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
