1. Cool capsule: Yotel Heathrow Airport
Hot on the heels of the first Yotel, which opened at Gatwick Airport in spring 2007, the second opened in Heathrow's terminal four in December. Its revolutionary cabin concept is modelled on first-class aeroplane accommodation, with a choice of Standard or Premium cabins bookable for a whole night (if your flight is cancelled, for example) or in four-hour segments if you just want a power nap and freshen-up. 2. Home from home: Hotel 55
This substantial Edwardian house converted into a modern hotel is something of a rarity in a large city – it's affordable and homely yet stylish. The breakfast/dining room is in a glass-covered extension overlooking the garden, and there is a surprisingly slick bar area, open 24 hours, where you can order cocktails while you slave over a hot laptop.3. Calming influence: myhotel Bloomsbury
An unbeatable address if you want to hang out in Soho, walk back from Theatreland or stroll to the British Museum. East meets west here, in one of the capital's first boutiques (opened in 1999). The interior of 78-room myhotel was created by Conran & Partners with attention to the principles of Feng Shui. 4. Step back in time: The Rookery
A warren of bijou quirky, character-packed rooms hewn from two Dickensian buildings, this hotel is a stone's throw from Smithfield meat market, the Old Bailey, Fabric nightclub and a host of hot restaurants. The antithesis of modern minimalism, expect wood panelling, flagstone floors, antiques, faded rugs and real fires. 5. City slicker: The Zetter
This restaurant with rooms, a short cab ride from the new Eurostar terminal at St Pancras, pulls off contemporary design around a spectacular central atrium within a 19th-century warehouse. It was opened in 2004 by the people behind fashionable restaurant Moro – in nearby Exmouth Market – and The Zetter's Mediterranean restaurant similarly buzzes day and night.
6. Luxury budget: The Hoxton
Don't be discouraged by the unprepossessing exterior, inside you'll find Frette linen, flat-screen TVs, cocktails and bistro-style dining. If you want to stay in the City of London's Square Mile, this "urban lodge" as it calls itself, is a modern bolthole.7. Chic and cheerful: Guesthouse West
A 20-room B&B with a difference – you can pay by the night, in the normal way, or if you think you might become a regular you can invest in a room. In return you get to use it 52 nights per year and receive a rental return the rest of the time.8. Hip hotel: Portobello
Models, the pop fraternity and those in the know retire behind the low-key entrance to this elegant neo-classical mansion off the famous Portobello Road. Forget pared-down functionalism, this place is all about sexy indulgence among drapes, flounces, potted palms and four-poster beds with splendid dashes of oriental exoticism for good measure.
9. Inn vogue: Fox and Anchor
"Hops and chops, cuvees and duvets", says the Fox and Anchor's website, a clue that this beautifully preserved London hostelry on a little side street close to Smithfield aims to offer the best of both worlds. All the charm of a traditional pub (it is 200 years old, and a splendid example of a Victorian watering hole) with food and accommodation upstairs that's all bang up to date. 10. No-frills: Piccadilly Backpackers
Space-saving Pods, four- to 10-bed dorms, private single and double rooms - there is something to suit every traveller's budget at this hostel which has 700 beds over five highly individual floors decorated by specially commissioned artists.
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