Royal Garden Hotel

I’ve stayed here twice for 3 – 4 nights at a time and I really love it. Great location with everything you’d need close by:
Coffee bar, juice bar, pub, shopping, a park and restaurants all super close/​within walking distance. The breakfast is quite delicious, the room service is fine enough and the staff is super helpful. Hot tip: they shine your shoes for free.

Review is for afternoon tea only. Fine selections of tea and great presentation, although I wasn’t too crazy about some of tea sandwiches. The desserts were really nicely done too. What I enjoyed most was not feeling rushed at all. They allowed for ample time between sandwiches and sweets and offered many refills on hot water. The price is comparatively reasonable for others in the area.

Lovely, lovely staff but a disappointing afternoon tea.
Sandwiches and a range of cakes but nothing memorable… best of the bunch were the scones.
At £26 per head this was a bit of a let down.

J’aime bien cet hôtel dans le quartier de Kensington. Bien desservi par le métro et les bus. A deux pas de Hyde Park et de Kensington Palace.
Les chambres sont confortables, propres et agréables.
Le service est bon sans être exceptionnel. On s’attend à mieux mais compte tenu de la taille assez importante de l’hôtel, ça ressemble un peu à de l’industriel parfois. Personnellement, ça né me dérange pas du tout. Je préfère plutôt un service discret à un service ostentatoire.
Le petit déjeuner est bon mais pas exceptionnel non plus.
Au final, une bonne impression. J’y retourne avec plaisir.

This is a good, solid 4-​star business hotel located on High Street Kensington, adjacent to Kensington Palace and about a 5 minute walk to the tube station. You will find the rooms comfortable and a bit bigger than what is common in Europe. They serve up a good breakfast and although I was not able to try it, their Chinese restaurant is rumored to be one of the best in London.
This is definitely a BUSINESS hotel and you will find that everything is centered around convenience and efficiency. So you will find that there is not much atmosphere or character here. The neighborhood is also pretty quiet at night so you can be assured of a good night’s sleep. f you’re looking for nightlife, other than a few pubs in the immediate neighborhood, you’ll need to travel elsewhere in the city. But with the tube station close by that shouldn’t be a problem.
Since I like to go out at night, I don’t know that I’d stay here again but you could do far, far worse. I do have to give a shout out to the night staff, who were very good-​natured and friendly when I stumbled in after a long night out.

Came here once for afternoon tea and again for an overnight stay and both times had a great experience.
The hotel is a little out of the way of the tube station and the front leaves a lot to be desired, but the interior is great with amazing views of the park. We unfortunately stayed on a particularly windy night and the sound on the windows was very loud which means that sleep quality wasn’t great, so I’ve knocked a * off for that.
Both the afternoon tea and room service we had were lovely and I would definitely return.

At first I thought this location was a half mile further west than I usually like, but I had my eyes opened. The location is quite nice, perched right beside Kensington Palace, right on the edge of Kensington Garden. Great park walking, quiet nearby streets around the palace. Easy walk to Royal Albert Hall, and a healthy walk to Knightsbridge shopping. Easy cabs and tube to everywhere else. Ignore the touristy restaurants immediately nearby, plenty of restaurant gems in Kensington and Notting Hill and beyond. So, a good location in the end.
The hotel itself is not your classic period London hotel, if that is what you are looking for, but it is modern, very clean, well-​equipped, effective concierge, etc. I’ll stay here again.
The only thing to watch out for are things like the add-​on charges, if you don’t book a package including WiFi (I didn’t pay attention) that adds another £20 a day which is aggressive.

I stayed here for work, so I was very busy and had little interaction with service/​staff. But my room was larger than a typical european hotel room, and the views are gorgeous. I could see the Kensington Palace, and was right over the park. If you get the right rooms, it’s like this hotel is in a cozy countryside, not on a crazy busy street in London.
The lobby is large and modern and shiny, very different from other older, boutique-​y London hotels.
They stock your fridge with a very nice selection of beverages, so if you don’t mind paying way too much for alcohol, you could have a little party by yourself.
My favorite thing about the room was the seating area on the raised floor. It gives the room a city apartment feel, rather than a cliché square room with a bed in the middle.
My only issue was the window cleaners who suddenly were dangling smack against my window face to face when I was in a towel. THAT was strange and scary. We made eye contact and I snuck away to the bathroom.

Since I travel quiet a bit, I expected a bit more from this Hotel. As an American in London, for the 5^th time, I am somewhat familiar with deal! The room & bathroom were very nice by any standard… the room service was great, and food was surprisingly good+++.
I do think though there is something that interferes with your wifi device so you have to use theirs and pay. I would stay there again. Prepare to pay, really rich people are staying here, lots of Arabs & Russians who don’t care how much anything costs…

This so-​called luxury hotel is full of money-​grabbing schemes. There is no free Internet to the guests, the business center charges you for every 15 minutes of use, local calls are also not free.
The newly renovated rooms and especially bathrooms are quite nice albiet a bit small. Service is mediocre.
The only factor that would make me consider staying here again (which is highly unlikely) is the location — right next to Hyde Park and very close to a tube station.
I wouldn’t mind returning for another visit to the Min Jiang restaurant though, but that’s a different review.

Great service — the afternoon tea service was cool to experience. The room we had was surprisingly large, with an elevated seating area overlooking the park.
We received the night’s stay as a gift from someone, otherwise there’s no way that we’d consider dropping that sort of change on a single night’s stay in a non-​resort hotel.
Even though we were a youngish American (me in shorts and baseball hats) they still treated us like the typical people that stay there.
Recommended if you can handle dropping that sort of cash on a hotel room. We didn’t find any decent, casual restaurants in the immediate area, so be prepare to walk/​hop the tube if you’re looking for decent, cheap eats.

If you are a wealthy Brit or a foreign tourist then you will like it here. If you are a very wealthy Arab who owns a Lambo or a £300 000 Merc, then you will REALLY like it here! If however you are just a normal working class person who happened to fancy a treat for the weekend then tread carefully.
Myself and my Wife first stayed here courtesy of my in-​laws in 07 and everything was fine, bit pricey, but that was to be expected. We had a lovely room overlooking the park to the side of the Hotel, the staff were friendly and we had a really nice weekend.
Now I don’t know if it was because we were with my pretty well off in-​laws the first time round, but when we went back last year minus the in-​laws we had a totally different experience.
To start with all posh cars were being parked by the door staff who dissappeared when it came to our turn. So my wife parked the car herself. We were there quite a bit to early to check in so we left our bags with reception and went out for the day.
When we returned we were given the key card and went to our room and this is where the problems started. My Dad in law booked the same room we had been given in 07, a really nice big room with the bed on a raised floor and a great view overlooking the park. What we were given though was a tiny room round the front over looking the main road. When we queeried this we were told that the room we had booked was being redecorated so we couldn’t have it. Fair enough, apart from the fact that the room we had been given was cheeper to stay in than the other room but no money back was offered, in fact it turned out that the pokey little room we had been given was actually costing more than the really nice room we’d had previously!!! The room was so poor that a Hotel should not be able to class itself 5star while it has rooms like it.
The whole thing left a nasty taste in our mouths. When we checked out we voiced our dissapointment and were told that they would make sure our next stay there would be a much nicer experience… next time??? next time??? Yeah right!!!
And to top it all off we got a parking ticket for putting the car in the wrong part of the car park (cheers for going missing doorman!!!)
So think on, if you are a normal Human Being either borrow a supercar for the weekend or stand really close to a double parked Arab at reception and they may think you’re with him and treat you normally.
Bitter? Me? Never :)

nothing to compare it to in london per se, but in general a good hotel from an american’s pov. beds are comfy, although it gets cold in the room and they don’t have much for covers, but they have heat and the windows open a bit so you can make it work. bathrooms are quite nice. really nice hairdryer for the ladies :) love the 42″ flat screen in the wall. outlets for american 3 prong laptops with no need for an adapter, great for business travel and a little fun squeezed in. everything is close by, subway, buses, taxis, parks, buckingham palace, picadilly circus, regent st, oxford st, train station is close, gatwick is closer than heathrow, atms/​banks close by, shopping close by… good food and theatres close as well. great location if you like to walk and get about. wifi sucks tho and very pricey, like 30 pounds a day, which is about 32 usd a day now. great views too… would def go back. good service considering how rude the brits can be, breakfast omelets were good in the restaurant, don’t recommend room service.

The hotel is a luxury hotel in the Kensington area of London. It is a great location for shopping, dining or even commuting.
I ended up staying in a smoking room which I was not asked if I am a smoker – I am not. The hallway reeked and the smell could be detected into my room. I opened the window to make it more bearable.
The room itself is clean and the bed is comfortable.
If I have the opportunity to stay here again, I would take it. But I will make sure that I specify that I want a non-​smoking room!

This place doesn’t get it.
As I heaved my suitcase up the stairs the doorman looked at me and said, «Do you need some help?» What does it look like I need, sir? If you know of a porter, please send him my way!
After securing a room I got to the door and the key didn’t work. I called reception from the phone in the elevator bank. They told me they were too busy to bring a key up to me. I went downstairs to fetch one.
The supervisor who checked me in said I «should’ve just called for the key.» I explained that I had.
The room was freezing. I had to turn on the heater to make it bearable. Odd. Just odd.
I called for room service — and tried to ask for condiments before he hung up. So I called back to ask for mayonnaise and ketchup.
10 minutes later I got condiments but no food. Uhhhh…
After that, room service called me back and asked me for my order again.
A beacon of light came when I saw the options for plug in the desk: 230 volt (European), 110 volt (American) etc. but then none of them worked.
Are you surprised? By then, I shouldn’t have been but somehow still was though only a smidge.
The next day I spoke to the manager who offered a half-​hearted apology and said that my experience was an anomaly and that I should try them again.
Unlikely.

The Royal Garden hotel is a really lush hotel on Kensington High Street. You really feel like you’re staying somewhere classy as soon as you step into the building.
The bar is really expensive… probably not the best thing to be drinking here if you’re on a budget but then again if you are staying here, the chances are you’ve got a bit of money. The bar is open till the wee hours too, which is always handy…
The rooms are pretty standard despite all this lavish expense. You are really paying for the area and the fact this is a big gorgeous hotel near central London, nothing more.
If you have the money, it’s worth checking this place out. The staff are very accommodating and the area is beautiful — close to the centre and also Notting Hill (10 minute bus ride away).