Our second ever EventProfsLive event was held at the Andaz Hotel nearly 2 years ago and a lot has changed….we’ve gone from 10 to over 150 members and as the Andaz has gone through their own changes since then, we decided it was about time we returned and return we did, and in style… We had a pamper evening in our own private suite!
If you have been living on Mars and aren’t aware, The Andaz Hotel is a 5-star hotel located in the heart of the City of London with 14 unique spaces for events.
On Friday, we said goodbye to the week and hello to the weekend with some champagne in the gorgeous lounge…the first thing you notice at this hotel is how helpful and friendly the staff are, within 2 minutes of arrival our bags and coats had been whisked away and replaced with a glass of bubbles! The hotel has moved away from the traditional “front desk” for check-in and replaced this with an interactive desk with helpful staff and iPads – so much more welcoming and modern and we love it!
After catching up with the fabulous Federica and Abigail from the Andaz and our lovely members, we moved onto a tour of the event spaces.
The hotel has 14 spaces to suit a range of events from small boardroom meetings, private dining spaces, large conferences for up to 250 people or standing drinks reception for up to 500 people. Federica and Abigail are amazing and full of unique ideas of how the spaces can be used. Of all the spaces, the highlights for us on the tour were the Temple, the Studio and 1901….
The Temple has to be one of the best event secrets ever (sssh keep it a secret!) it is a grade 1 listed Masonic temple that was built in 1912 and was hidden before World War II and not discovered until recently. The Temple really does have a wow factor and is perfect for dinners, drinks receptions, fashion shows, creative events and about a million other types of events…
The Studio is a complete modern contrast to the Temple, this space has a New York loft feel. It has a floor to ceiling walls of wine; (we would like to work our way through that!) A working kitchen adds an interactive element to your meeting, and the hotel can bring Chefs in from their various restaurants to add this interactive element from a sushi making lesson, cocktail making, bread making, interactive canapes etc. A lovely touch to the studio is a wall of photos of people that have inspired the hotel including their own Chef from Miyako the uber famous Japanese restaurant.
A recent change to the hotel is that 1901 is now an event space and it is gorgeous! Perfect for drinks receptions or a seated dinner. This space can hold up to 180 people and is worth checking out!
As well as the event spaces, the hotel has two restaurants, a wine lounge, champagne bar and a pub! All of these can be taken exclusively.
We love a bedroom so we also checked out one of the newly refurbished bedrooms. The hotel is currently working their way through refurbishing the bedrooms. The room we saw looked amazing with the most fabulous bathroom – we are suckers for a good bathroom! Technology was also a big factor in the room refurbishment, the TVs all have access to Netflix which we love.
After the tour, we moved onto our pamper evening – very much needed after everyone’s busy week! Our pamper evening took place in a gorgeous suite, we were welcomed by a glass of champagne and was served delicious food throughout the evening. The food was amazing and such a variety of healthy and less healthy options – the perfect combo! The service from the staff was outstanding.
During the evening we were spoilt by a neck and shoulder massages and also all got our hair done. It really was such a special evening. We were pampered by Pamper Me (www.pamperme.co.uk), they are beauty therapists that deliver expert treatments at events, companies and at home. We highly recommend them! They can do all treatments from massages, manicures, pedicures, facials and hair styling. I have held a few ladies only corporate events and know that Pamper Me would be perfect – so lovely and so professional!