Win a Downton-themed stay at The Royal Horseguards!

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Guoman






To celebrate the return of Downton Abbey we’re offering you the chance to win a Downton experience that’s fit for a Crawley at our luxurious Royal Horseguards hotel. Just tell us your favourite Downton moment to win a night’s stay, a scrumptious afternoon tea and your choice of a ‘downstairs master class’ with our head housekeeper, head chef, concierge or sommelier.

Just keep reading for more information on how to enter as well as some trivia around how the aristocracy would have spent a trip to London, and holiday as though you were a Crawley …

Our Competition:
 ■The prize:

To celebrate the return of Downton Abbey, we’re offering you the chance to win a ‘Downton experience’ that will give you a taste of life above and below stairs.

First, you’ll start off in style with a scrumptious afternoon tea and an overnight stay at the Royal Horseguards. This hotel won the TripAdvisor Traveller’s Choice award for 2012 and is also a member of the prestigious Tea Guild – so you can rest assured, both your room and afternoon tea will be fit for a Crawley, even by Mr Carson’s exacting standards.

Next, you can step into the world of Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes with your choice of a special ‘downstairs master class’ with our very own hospitality experts. You could pair up with our head housekeeper and discover Mrs Hughes’ secrets; our head chef to pick up some tips on how to make a dinner fit for an earl and an afternoon tea to please a countess; our concierge to find out more about our gentleman’s library and how to be a gentleman’s ‘man’; or our sommelier to find out how to select wines for fine dining.

All you have to do is tell us your favourite Downton moment to be in with a chance of winning.
 ■How to enter:

We all have a favourite Downton moment – whether it’s one of the Dowager Countess of Grantham’s withering put-downs or the tender moment where Lady Mary asked Carson if she’d “do” on the morning of her wedding.

Whatever your favourite Downton moment is, we want to know. Just leave a comment at the end of this blog with your favourite Downton moment or tweet us with the hashtag #downtoncomp for your chance to win. Just make sure to get your entry in before our competition closes at 12 noon on Friday the 5th of October.
 ■Have you won?

We’ll be updating this blog post on Friday the 5th, naming the lucky winner and their favourite Downton moment – so please check back then to see if you’ve won.

Make every trip away a Downton experience with some 1920s travelling trivia

The latest series of the Downton Abbey is set in the 1920s – arguably one of the most glamorous eras in world history. During this time, manners and etiquette where still the order of the day, even while travelling or on holiday – but one knew how to enjoy oneself as hemlines began to shorten, jazz music became all the rage and the cocktail was born.

Here are just a few rules of etiquette travellers then would have abided by …
 ■Guests to hotels in the 1920s would be expected to add their name to the guestbook – which would often read like a veritable who’s who of society in grander hotels. The ‘done’ way to ink the guestbook would be to list every member of the party and to note the presence of serving staff like ladies maids, valets and nurses. A lady would never sign the register without using her title or a ‘Miss’ or ‘Mrs’ prefix, though a gentleman could sign using just his first and surname.
 ■Titled guests or well-to-do travellers would usually have been known to the concierge at their hotel – and they would usually entrust or have ‘their man’ entrust the concierge to reserve a table for them at a first-class restaurant where they could mingle with other fashionable ladies and gentleman of the day.  Some members of the aristocracy would simply have their London mansion ‘opened’ for them if coming for the season, but others would choose to take a suite at a grand hotel – particularly if the hotel’s smoking and drawing rooms were a favourite among other high flying members of society.
 ■When taking afternoon tea – even in a hotel – the hostess responsible for the gathering would make and pour the tea, handing each guest a cup and saucer.  Ladies attending afternoon tea would have been expected to wear ‘tea’ dresses, hats and gloves while gentleman would be expected wear a jacket and tie.
 ■Cocktails may have started life in the 1800s but gained in popularity as American speakeasies began to mix drinks to cover the sharp taste of bootleg alcohol during the ‘prohibition’ years in the 1920s – a trend that soon spread to Britain. Popular cocktails at the time included the Colony (a mix of gin, grapefruit juice and maraschino), the Mint Julep (mint, water, sugar and whiskey) and a French 75 (London gin, lemon juice, syrup and chilled champagne). Cocktails were particularly fashionable in London’s west end, but some ladies choose not to drink them at the time as doing so was often looked down upon (the Dowager Countess did think it was all a little vulgar).  Sherry and Champagne were much more socially acceptable after-dinner tipples.

Tell us – what’s your favourite Downton moment?

**Updated: We’re pleased to announce that the winner of our competition is Penny Grieve whose favourite Downton moment happened to be: “When Matthew Crawley was reported missing in action and then shows up just in time to join in with a good old sing song to melt Lady Mary’s heart.” Congratulations Penny – we hope you’ll enjoy your stay with us.

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 Terms & Conditions:
 1.One entry per person
 2.Entrants must be 18 to enter
 3.The Twitter account must be valid and established
 4.The prize is One night’s stay for two at the Royal Horseguards Hotel, including afternoon tea and an ‘etiquette’ workshop
 5.The competition ends 05.10.12 at 12pm and the winner will be chosen at random, then notified by DM or email and announced on the Guoman Blog
 6.There will only be one winner, if the winner is unavailable or does not respond within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen at random
 7.This competition is open to UK residents only


3 Oct  Guoman Hotels ‏@GuomanHotels
Tell us your greatest #Downton moment and be in with a chance to win a stay at The Royal Horseguards http://bit.ly/PKGYZ1  #downtoncomp

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18:48 AM - 3 Oct 12