TUCKED away in London’s posh Belgravia neighbourhood is a hi-tech hotel that has ‘smart beds’ worth as much as a house deposit.
I’m The Sun’s resident tech expert, and I spent a night in the gadget-laden Eccleston Square Hotel earlier this month.
From the outside, you’d never guess that it’s packed to the rafters with tech.
The hotel lives inside two Grade II-listed late-Georgian townhouses. Winston Churchill and his family once lived just a few doors down.
But despite its obvious history, the Eccleston Square Hotel is very much in the 21st Century.
The handcrafted Swedish Hästens bed is the main attraction of each room. My own bed might never feel the same again.
These luxurious smart beds retail at over £30,000 and are electronically adjustable.
A remote control by its side lifts various portions of the bed up and down to your liking. You don’t even have to sit up on your own. It’ll do it for you.
And when you’re done? Vrooosh. Back down for a peaceful slumber.
Better still, there’s an in-built massage function that gives your entire body a rub-down.
It’s jarring at first because – obviously – beds don’t normally massage you. Usually that’s a hefty fee to a skilled masseuse at a spa.
But this free massage is all part of the £152-a-night ESH experience.
It’s great fun, and very welcome after a long day traipsing around London.
Bizarrely, the eye-wateringly expensive bed wasn’t actually my favourite bit.
The top feature goes to the smart-glass bathroom wall that turns from see-through to totally opaque with a single touch.
It’s shockingly effective and lets you immediately block out the rest of the room – or open it up, if you’d prefer.
The glass transforms right before your eyes, so suddenly that it’s hard to believe what you’re seeing is real.
This effect is so magical that it’s probably worth a visit for any Harry Potter fans visiting the capital.
I lost about ten minutes just turning the smart-glass in the loo on and off. I had a similar experience in a Porsche with a roof that did much the same thing earlier this year. That was more expensive, mind.
The bathroom wall isn’t the only thing that’s electronically controllable.
Here's what you need to know...
Smart-glass is a special type of glass that can be opaque or totally see-through.
It’s also known as switchable glass, dynamic glass, or smart-tinting glass.
Typically, smart-glass works by have a layer of liquid crystals between two panes of glass.
These liquid crystals are aligned when electricity is applied so that the glass looks totally transparent.
But when the electrical current is removed, the crystals move to a random state that scatters the light.
This suddenly makes the glass appear opaque or frosted.
It can be changed from see-through to opaque at will, and in an instant.
Picture Credit: Sean Keach / The Sun
Glossy panels let you tinker with lighting and heating, and the room curtains are powered too.
There’s also underfloor heating built to keep the hotel temperature stable, avoiding “dips or spikes”, I’m told.
Once you finally finish tinkering with all of the gizmos, you can hop back on the bed and enjoy a bit of telly.
Yes, it’s a smart TV – an Apple TV in fact, which means you get a dizzying array of apps, as well as the option to AirPlay content to it from your iPhone.
And the hotel is also equipped with super-fast Wi-Fi so the above features actually work, rather than just drive you mad by not loading properly.
The problem with the hotel, really, is that the rooms are so fun that you can forget you’re supposed to be on holiday.
So if you do stay, make sure to limit yourself to strict gadget-handling hours – and then head out into the city for a bit of a tech detox.
Just make sure you back after for that free smart-bed massage.
GETTING THERE: Head for London Victoria’s main train station concourse (upstairs from the tube). If/when exiting the tube, follow the exit signs for national rail, you don’t want to follow signs for Cardinal Place. If you do accidentally find yourself at Victoria’s Cardinal Place, follow the street signs to Victoria Station – then make your way to Platform no.1.
Arrive at Victoria’s main overground train station concourse and make your way to platform 1, where there is an exit. You’ll find yourself across from the Hilton Doubletree. Take a right at this exit and walk up the small hill, to the main road, which you will cross. You will now be at the bottom right-hand corner of Eccleston Square. The hotel’s entrance is at the opposite side to where you are standing, at no.37 Eccleston Square.
STAYING THERE: Rooms start at just £152 per night. You’ve got a better chance of an upgrade if you book via www.ecclestonsquarehotel.com,
MORE INFO: Guests staying at the hotel have access to the beautiful, award-winning Eccleston Square gardens which, besides the beautiful rare blooms, feature vast picnicking spaces, BBQs, and even a tennis court.
Picture Credit: Eccleston Square Hotel
