Our Away Day With The Doyle Collection

So as everyone knows, hotels have finally been allowed to open again and we were lucky enough to have our away day with the wonderful Doyle Collection.

Our away day entailed Day 1 at The Marylebone and Day 2 at The Bloomsbury - We were extremely excited to all be able to be together again and inside sheltering from the rain! 

Day 1: Check-in & Cocktail Tasting 

The team checked in to The Marylebone’s glamorous entrance at around 4 pm, we were shown to our bright, spacious rooms, each with a beautiful en-suite and sleek decor/furnishings. We were blown away! 

The first event was the team photoshoot which was in The Marylebone's Courtyard room; a super warm and snug space, and in the summer they open the roof making it a really flexible and non-weather dependent space.

That evening we toured the hotel and spent our time in The Courtyard, Number 6, The Library, and The Long Room. Each room is suitable for different types of functions, whether it’s a casual, drinks reception or a more formal, conference-style event. The bar manager at Number 6 took us through a journey of tasting barrel-aged cocktails. This included 5 different drinks, accompanied by prawn and chicken canapes. Two of the team don’t drink alcohol, but we weren’t left out, the bar team created incredible homemade non-alcoholic cocktails for us, with all the ingredients being made on-site at The Marylebone which made it that extra bit special and truly unique.

Day 1: Dinner & More Drinks 

For our formal dinner, we enjoyed a spectacular 3-course meal (Burrata, Paillard of Chicken and a Vegan choc tart for dessert) in The Blue Room, both the staff and space made us feel very safe and comfortable – plus the service was exceptional, we never once asked for a top up!

Day 2: Breakfast & Location Change 

After such an amazing night the team woke up to a full-on Irish breakfast at The Marylebone before taking a short walk to The Bloomsbury for a morning of team-building with Charlotte Johns. We were located in the traditional Library Room - The Seamus Heaney Library, which was filled with decades-old books - we found one that was last checked out in 1945!

We then had a hotel tour and checked out the function rooms, from the bedrooms to the event spaces (The Chapel, Queen Mary Hall, The Seamus Heaney Library, The Bloomsbury Club, and the vibrant George V room) which all represented a different vibe and presented a more quirky feel to The Doyle Collection. The combination of both hotel locations created a conjunction of modern luxury and twisted traditional and left us with an amazingly rich experience, a melting pot of bright colours, exquisite food and cocktails and top notch service.  Between the hotels, there will be an event space perfect for whatever it is you are looking for in an event.

Day 2: Lunch & Sparking Wine Tasting 

For lunch, we entered the George V room which was one of the grandest spaces we had been in, a ballroom hand-painted with brightly coloured safari murals. We had a range of different foods from club sandwiches, baba ganoush, Korean chicken and more! (The catering at the Bloomsbury did a great job of managing our teams’ dietary needs where required - we have quite a few allergies in the group, but this was organised with ease).

We then had an ‘apprentice challenge’ as we were divided into two teams to see who could make the best TikTok about the away day and it's fair to say that the best team did win! And received some Hotel Chocolat treats and an ‘oscar’ trophy (which we will be cherishing FOREVER). 

Shortly after, we sat down for the sparkling wine tasting – all made in the UK too! One of the great things about the Doyle Collection is they champion local produce. They have a particular focus on ensuring they have wines that are not only local, but sustainable, vegan and organic too - so you can be assured that you’ll find something delicious AND good for the planet. We tasted 5 different English sparkling wines, from zesty and fresh to bubbly and rich. We had a competition between us all to see how we would market the wines, and we got very into it!

Overall

Our hotel break did finally come to an end (darn) and it was one of the best experiences in London we have had! The Doyle Collection has been a wonderful venue for our work trip, the staff and other guests were so fun and accommodating! It was a brilliant way to celebrate the end of lockdown. There were still lots of restrictions in place, and The Doyle Collection team dealt with all of these perfectly, ensuring that guidelines were met, and we all felt safe and comfortable. Things such as each delegate having their own water, sanitizer, sweets, and stationary for the meeting part of the day, and socially distanced table set-ups for the dinners made it incredibly easy to keep safe. The team-building activities all had to be done sat down, as it is not yet allowed to be standing whilst drinking, but again, this was carried out perfectly, without any reduction in the fun, or overall experience itself. It truly was a covid safe work trip!

If you’re looking to book a team away day, work trip, board meeting, hen party, or friends getaway, make sure to check out The Doyle Collection. They have something for everyone, from sleek luxury for fashion events, to understated glam for a private party, they have packages to suit all budgets too. (The Doyle Collection also have hotels in Kensington, Bristol, Dublin, and Cork so you can get the same fabulous experience outside London too). 

If you’re interested in booking an event, or just talking through your ideas - drop us a line at hello@thisisgoho.com