Founders in town: pick the neighbourhood before the building

London's big enough that the wrong base can cost you an hour a day in taxis, so for a founder here for a week of investor meetings, the best five-star accommodation is simply whichever good apartment sits closest to them. Map the diary first, then choose the neighbourhood, and only then the building.

Mayfair, St James's and the City

A lot of London's private equity, hedge fund and family office world works out of Mayfair and St James's, in the streets around Berkeley Square, Grosvenor Street and St James's Street. Stay here and you can walk between meetings and host dinner without booking a car. For the big-occasion table, Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester on Park Lane has three Michelin stars, and for something louder after a signing, Sexy Fish on Berkeley Square is the Mayfair standby. The downsides are price and the weekend, because Mayfair empties on a Sunday, which suits some founders and bores others rigid.

Banks, insurers and the big law firms cluster round Bank. A City base makes early breakfasts easy, and the Tube network converges here, so getting anywhere else is simple, but the Square Mile goes quiet in the evenings and at weekends, so plan to eat in Clerkenwell or across the river. The Elizabeth line from Liverpool Street and Farringdon also runs straight to Heathrow, which makes a Friday departure painless. The Sky Garden at the top of 20 Fenchurch Street is free and a handy place to take a visitor between meetings, though you do have to book, with tickets released a few weeks ahead.

Holborn, King's Cross and Canary Wharf

If there are lawyers in the diary, the barristers' chambers round the Inns of Court and the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand make Holborn and Chancery Lane the obvious base for a week of legal work. It sits between the West End and the City, and Farringdon's Elizabeth line station is a short hop east.

For tech and life sciences, look at King's Cross. Google has its London offices around Pancras Square, the Knowledge Quarter round King's Cross and Euston Road holds a dense cluster of research and tech organisations, and Eurostar leaves from St Pancras International, which is useful if the week takes in Paris or Brussels.

You don't have to sleep on the Wharf to meet a bank there. Paddington is under 20 minutes away on the Elizabeth line, so a West London flat still works for a couple of meetings, but if most of the week's in Docklands, stay east. The Wharf itself is tidy and corporate, with evenings calmer than anywhere in the West End and weekends calmer still, which is fine for a head-down week and less so for one full of dinners.

Co-founders, and what five-star should mean

Two founders on a fundraising trip rarely need two hotel rooms on different floors. A two-bed gives each of you a bedroom and bathroom, plus a shared table for the evening post-mortem, and most of the residences we list have them; add a third person and a three-bed is often still simpler than three rooms. Founders also book late, and a direct enquiry helps here because it lands with the residence's own team, who know what's actually free that week rather than what a booking site last synced.

Stars are a hotel system, and serviced apartments aren't graded the same way, so judge a building on the service it really offers. A staffed reception, air conditioning and a lift are the basics for a senior guest, yet each turns up in only around half of residences. Then check the working kit: a proper desk and chair, a TV you can mirror a laptop to for a rehearsal, and mobile signal, which can be dire in lower-ground flats in period buildings, so ask which floor you'd be on. Rates vary a lot, and the top end buys room and service without automatically buying a better location for your particular week.