Grand Royale Hyde Park

We had trouble with the air conditioning, but the staff did their best to keep us comfortable, bringing fans while they tried to fix it. In the end they couldn’t, and moved us as soon as another room was available. The lobby and main area are beautiful, and though the rooms are small and sometimes awkward, that’s understandable in an old building converted into a hotel. The location is fantastic, with two Tube stations nearby for getting into central London. We loved being so close to Hyde Park and spent evenings walking there. We stayed last summer and would definitely recommend the hotel and return.

We stayed for a weekend for my daughter’s 18th birthday, and the whole thing was basically ruined. The staff were friendly when we arrived at 9:30am, even though check-in wasn’t until 3pm. They took our bags for storage, and we went off to see London. The reception and other rooms in the building are historically beautiful, with stunning details, though a little tired in places. It was hot that weekend, 23-25 May. When we came back at 3pm, there was a queue to go through the whole check-in process again. We were given two adjoining rooms, both tiny, tired-looking, and like a sauna. They didn’t look like the pictures on booking.com, and neither air conditioner worked. Reception said an engineer would come. Another couple also said their AC was out and they’d been moved, though their new room wasn’t much better. Reception then said they had one room left, but we needed two. We took the double room anyway, and the AC worked, so I gave it to my wife and daughter and tried to sleep in the sauna until they could give us another room the next day. It was about 25-26 degrees Celsius, too hot for me to manage. I took the pillows and duvet and slept on the hard floor in the replacement room. No sleep at all. The reception staff could only apologise when I explained what happened. What annoyed me was that nobody offered compensation, or even a refund for one night in one room. I’m now pursuing some sort of compensation through booking.com. On the plus side, the next day I eventually got a good night’s sleep in the replacement room. Would I come back? Maybe no.

The building itself is beautiful, and the hotel and my room felt very clean and comfortable. My single room was small, as expected, but it had everything I needed. It got a bit warm because the air con was only set to heating, so I opened the window. The bar is lovely, though the drink quality and service were questionable. Breakfast had a wide selection of the basics. The location is excellent, just a few minutes from two Tube stops, with buses right outside going to Oxford Street and Hyde Park a stone’s throw away. I’d absolutely come back.

The tiny rooms are cheaply done, with hardly any space around the bed, and the carpet doesn’t even fit the room. Worst of all, the bed or mattress was either collapsed or just cheap. It gave me back pain, and I didn’t get a good night’s sleep. I wouldn’t stay here again.