Inside the finest hotel in London... you've probably never heard of, with seemingly telepathic staff, jaw-dropping bedrooms and next to some of the capital's fanciest shops

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I'm not famous so I shouldn't be recognised in the street. But I was when I arrived outside The Biltmore Mayfair, an opulent five-star hotel named after the prestigious London neighbourhood it's located in.

'Good day, Mr. Reid,' smiled a smartly dressed man beside the hotel's doorman. 'I'm Francis, and I will be your butler during your stay.'

Huh? I'd just hopped off my folding bike, baseball cap hiding much of my face, and had yet to say anything other than 'hi'.

I was with my son, Josh, on his full-size bike. We were three hours early for check-in, about to seek permission to stash our dusty bikes and scruffy bags before heading off to the Roman Army exhibition at the British Museum. I was not expecting to be name-checked.

'How did you know who I was?' I asked Francis, shaking his hand and getting a cupped handshake in return. 'We know all of our VIPs,' replied Francis with another smile.

Carlton Reid check in to The Biltmore Mayfair, an opulent five-star hotel named after the prestigious London neighbourhood it's located in

The 307-room hotel operated as the Millennium Hotel London Mayfair until 2019, when it reopened as The Biltmore Mayfair following a £60million refit

The picture above shows the hotel's swanky Pine Bar

'Yeah, but how?' I managed in return before Carlos, the top-hatted doorman, cut in with a cheeky grin, 'Put it down to experience. We're very old.'

I've stayed in plenty of fancy hotels, so I'm used to staff graciously and warmly using my name. However, the back-of-house intelligence briefings that such greetings must require are usually post-check-in.

Being greeted warmly on the pavement in front of the hotel with zero forewarning of our arrival - no chauffeur pick-up from the airport, for instance - was next-level.

This supreme attention to detail elevates The Biltmore from a bog-standard five-star hotel - yes, such a thing exists - into something special.

Fizzing with class: Above is the hotel's Veuve Clicquot terrace

The hotel overlooks leafy Grosvenor Square, home of the US Embassy from the 1950s through until 2017

Of course, it helped that we were booked into one of the hotel's eight signature suites, each of which rather grandly comes with butler service. Francis was too discreet to reveal how the magic works but, clearly, that butler service starts with a pre-arrival Google search of what future guests look like.

'Here, let us take your bikes,' said Carlos, beckoning for concierges as our bikes and bags were silently whisked away, with zero sniffiness about our mode of transport. And no looking down at us for hopping on 'Boris bikes' from a Santander Cycles stand opposite the hotel.

Returning later from the British Museum, Francis showed us to our suite and pointed out the many amenities, including a dining room, a kitchenette, a walk-in drinks cabinet, and two remote-controlled Japanese heated toilets for the ultimate in posterior pampering.

I felt a warm glow, not from the loo seats but from the hotel's choice of toiletries. Biltmore's bathrooms sport Quercus soap, shampoo, and lotions from that quintessential English fragrance company Penhaligon's, which has been the favourite smellies brand in our house since my wife and I first came across its Blenheim Bouquet when staying at a posh country house hotel on our honeymoon 26 years ago.

The Biltmore has eight signature suites, all with views over Grosvenor Square. Two are named for Americans: the Roosevelt Suite and the John Adams Suite

I've not been to another hotel that has featured Penhaligon's, the perfumery choice of Oscar Wilde.

The hotel's strong association with Penhaligon's extends to a curated fragrance experience in the upmarket brand's Regent Street store, a few blocks distant. There, scent specialists ask about your style preferences, selecting samples based on the types of textures you like, your fashion sense, and your palate.

A quirky version of this fragrance profiling is also available on penhaligons.com. 'This is a place where keen noses have long come to have their curiosity satisfied,' asserts the website. Turns out I'm a 'sporty gent' who's 'somewhat ambitious and rather partial to a bit of healthy competition'. According to the astute penhaligons.com, I also 'ooze certainty, elegance, and breeze through conversation' with a 'seemingly bottomless confidence'. You'd better believe it!

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (there's a statue of him at the centre of Grosvenor Square) died in 1945 before The Biltmore's construction in the 1960s, notes Carlton

Carlton and his son, Josh, stayed in the fifth-floor Duchess Suite

I was offered samples of The Tragedy of Lord George, a £235 woody perfume, and £175 Lothair, 'scented with the spoils of adventure', which turned out to be juniper, fig milk, and ambergris.

I was not directed towards the £235 The Blazing Mister Sam eau de parfum, which is for the 'American abroad' with 'all the cocky confidence you might expect'.

This would be an appropriate choice of fragrance for the classical red-brick Biltmore because the hotel overlooks leafy Grosvenor Square, home of the US Embassy from the 1950s through until 2017. The square — it's actually an oval, built in the Regency period, with 69 per cent of the square's first tenants being aristocrats — has long links to America and was nicknamed 'Eisenhower Platz' in the Second World War.

'The Duchess Suite [above] is named for Duchess of Devonshire Georgiana Cavendish, the charismatic Regency beauty, socialite, and political organiser,' reveals Carlton

Carlton writes: 'A stay in The Biltmore is indulgent - the Duchess Suite is £2,800 a night - yet with an understated classiness'

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The Biltmore has eight signature suites, all with views over Grosvenor Square. Two are named for Americans: the Roosevelt Suite and the John Adams Suite. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (there's a statue of him at the centre of Grosvenor Square) died in 1945 before The Biltmore's construction in the 1960s. John Adams, later America's second president, was the first US ambassador to Great Britain, living at 9 Grosvenor Square from 1785.

We stayed in the fifth-floor Duchess Suite, named for Duchess of Devonshire Georgiana Cavendish, the charismatic Regency beauty, socialite, and political organiser.

There's nothing Regency about either this suite or the hotel in general.

The 307-room hotel operated as the Millennium Hotel London Mayfair until 2019, when it reopened as The Biltmore Mayfair following a £60million refit. Then part of Hilton's LXR upmarket brand it has operated independently from May this year.

'The Biltmore Mayfair does not yet have the name recognition of The Dorchester, say, but that's in its favour,' remarks Carlton

Carlton says that thanks to his butler, Francis (above), he enjoyed 'unrivalled customer service'

A statement about the conscious uncoupling said: 'The hotel will continue to offer elevated experiences and unrivalled customer service under the new management structure.'

Unrivalled customer service? Well, yes, and we can thank Francis for that.

I'd worried about having a butler, fretting that he'd get a shock if he tried to unpack my overnight bag (no formalwear in there, just a laptop and some underwear and socks). It turned out that Francis was either there or not, depending on your needs. We had few, so we rarely saw him and didn't call his mobile phone, the number for which was on the business card he handed to us on arrival.

He did, however, silently tidy away espresso cups from the dining room table when we weren't looking. There's an exterior door to the kitchenette for butler entry, and Francis had clearly been in to clean up, quietly.

Other luxury hotels — including some nearby in this most gilded of neighbourhoods — also offer butler services for their suites. In truth, Francis was more of a super concierge than an in-your-face personal butler, and I was happy with that fact.

A stay in The Biltmore is indulgent — the Duchess suite is £2,800 a night — yet with an understated classiness. The overall ambiance is brighter than in many of London's other luxury hotels, some of the older ones of which can be dark and almost cloying. The proximity to London's top-tier shops and royal parks is a crucial part of The Biltmore's appeal.

The Biltmore Mayfair does not yet have the name recognition of The Dorchester, say, but that's in its favour. It's a discreet, upmarket large-yet-friendly hotel for those in the know.

You can find Carlton tweeting/X-ing at x.com/carltonreid.