Review of The Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London

Feb 2015 (33)

 

To celebrate my mum’s birthday, she and I went for a girly weekend in London, just the two of us. We booked to stay in the stunning five star Royal Garden hotel in Kensington. I had stayed at The Royal Garden Hotel before, for the MAD Blog Awards in 2013, when I won Best Baby Blog for my family lifestyle and parenting blog Crazy with Twins. I returned in 2014 when I was a finalist for the Outstanding Contribution award, but I did not stay overnight. My attendance at the MAD Blog Awards, meant I already knew the Royal Garden’s high standards, but if anything, this made my expectations even higher, for my 2015 overnight stay.

 

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Royal Garden Hotel Feb 2015 (5)

 

We were not disappointed. We were upgraded to a garden view room. The “garden” we had a view of was actually Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park! The view was immense. Nobody expects to see that much greenery in central London and the full length windows, meant we could see Kensington Palace too. Sunset and Sunrise looked incredible.

 

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Our room was bigger than expected, immaculately clean and ready for us straight away, even though we checked in early. Our room was a split-level room, with steps up to the window area, where there was a table, chairs, magazines and a desk with the usual stationery products, mini-bar, tea and coffee making facilities and hotel information.

 

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What I loved about the desk, was it’s multifunctionality. Everything was positioned to make the perfect office workspace, but also one section of the desk folds into a dressing table, with a big mirror, sockets and a swivelling desk lamp, making it perfect for doing hair and make-up.

 

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The spacious bathroom boasted a bath as well as a large shower with a multitude of settings and the sink was adorned with high quality toiletries. White fluffy towels in a variety of sizes, floor mats and warm cosy bathrobes completed the modern bathroom, as a comfortable home from home.

 

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Beds were made up with crisp white linen sheets, which were “turned down” for us in true five-star style in the evening. An iPod dock and additional telephone (so you don’t have to get out of bed to call room service) were on the bedside tables, along with not just a Christian Bible but a book on Buddhism too. My mother and I found it a fascinating read, as we sat in bed in our luxurious hotel bathrobes, sipping rose wine and reading snippets to each other in the TV ad breaks.

 

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Complimentary water was refrigerated in the extensive mini-bar and clean glasses were put beside additional bottled water on our bedside in the evening. As an aside to the mini-bar, we even had the option to buy a variety of snacks, wine, chocolate, fine biscuits and even perfumes direct from the desk drawer in our room. A variety of glassware was also available, so if you wanted wine, you could drink it in wine glasses, rather than a tumblers, without having to call room service and request them. It seemed every eventuality had be pre-empted and prepared carefully for all manner of hotel guests.

 

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The Royal Garden Hotel has, quite honestly, the most extensive room service menu I have ever encountered in a hotel and it was all very reasonably priced. Everything from nibbles, to main meals, English classics to Thai cuisine, desserts and even a designated children’s room service menu!

 

hotel, room service, family friendly, children's room service, menu

 

Having eaten at strange times throughout the day, Mum and I were only hankering after a filling snack, rather than a full meal, so (much to the criticism of my husband) we ordered pizza and chips. Unlike other hotels which add on a tray charge, the prices on the room service menu at The Royal Garden hotel, were fully inclusive of the tray charge, which was a welcome surprise. A somewhat bigger surprise, was the actual “tray” the food arrived on… It was a fully laid table, which was wheeled in, completely set-up, with our food kept piping hot in a heated box underneath. It felt as though they had brought us a restaurant, direct to our room. The waiter who had brought it to us was exceptionally courteous and made it his priority to check we were happy with everything and didn’t require anything else, before he left the room. We simply had to enjoy our food, and telephone them when we wanted the “tray” collected.

 

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We had also enjoyed a selection of spicy nuts and some hand-baked cheese straws earlier in the afternoon, which was brought up to our room with our mail.

 

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After a restful night’s sleep in very comfy twin beds, we headed down to the restaurant for breakfast. Breakfast includes anything from the cooked breakfast menu (made to order), however we were heading out for afternoon tea at 11 and didn’t want to be too full from breakfast, so we stuck to the buffet.

 

Breakfast, hotel, Royal Garden Hotel

 

Cold meats, cheeses, different breads, a whole host of pastries, cereals, yoghurts, fruit juices and both dried fruit and fresh fruit were on offer for us to help ourselves. Tea and Coffee was brought direct to our table by the waiting staff. Breakfast was delicious, as it had been the first time I stayed at this hotel and it was difficult to practise self-restraint.

 

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The Royal Garden hotel has a number of additional facilities, which we did not try out on this occasion, including an award-winning Chinese restaurant with spectacular views of London, another restaurant, two licensed bars, conference facilities, a fully equipped gym and beauty treatment rooms. The Royal Garden Hotel is also renowned for being an extremely child friendly hotel. In addition to the children’s room service menu, they have toys and scooters to lend, family rooms, travel cots and each child is given a Royal Garden backpack full of goodies!

 

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We had a thoroughly enjoyable stay at The Royal Garden Hotel and not only would I continue to return, but I’d recommend it to anyone looking for somewhere luxurious to stay in London. I just can’t fault it. If you’d like to read more about the hotels extensive family offering and the lengths they go to to welcome children, you can read more about that on my parenting blog, where I’ve written a post specifically about how the Royal Garden Hotel is a child friendly haven.

 

 

Our Rating
  • Customer Service
  • Location
  • Family Friendly
  • Food and Drink
  • Value for Money
  • Quality and Comfort
5

3 Comments

  1. fashion-mommy May 1, 2015 Reply
  2. Kim Carberry May 1, 2015 Reply
  3. kidGLloves May 4, 2015 Reply

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