The Royal Trafalgar

This location could not be better. On the first day I was able to quickly walk to Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and to the Tate Modern. Check in was quick and easy. The staff was very nice. We arrived at 7:30 am from a seven hour flight. Although our room wasn’t clean and they couldn’t check us in right away they did rush the cleaning and had us in by 10:30 am. Overall very pleased with my first stay in London and first stay at The Royal Trafalgar.

Amazing location right in the heart of Picadilly circus. The room is modern and clean. The staff is courteous and very helpful. The concierge service (Mr. Laszlo) was very helpful in booking tours and giving advice on what someone new to the city should see/​do. The breakfast buffet was not so good but otherwise given the location you can’t beat it. Right near the National Gallery and Picadilly circus.

Staff was superbly helpful, except for the concierge who appeared to have only a passing familiarity with London. The lobby generally had smoothies or chocolate for check-​in, and the room was clean. I checked in at 9 am, and was given a room early at no extra charge.

Despite the grandiose name this hotel is quite poor. I arrived after 20 hours of travel to what appeared to be a building site from the outside. I was fully expecting them not to honour my early check in request but at least they didn’t balls that up. The best part of the hotel were the check in staff, very helpful, polite and didn’t miss a beat trying to upsell me stuff. The place is clearly in the middle of being refurbished but it looks as though they went to the cheapest contractor they could find. The whole venue has a very cheap feel to it and the smell of cheap carpet and pain abound. I opened the door to the room and was at first pleasantly surprised, it looked clean, tidy and well maintained. There was enough room to swing a cat provided that the cat was quite short. The bathroom is a joke, it’s very cramped and. just crap. The sound proofing is also very poor which is great if you’d like to follow the conversations of the people staying either side of you in different rooms but not much use if you’d like to sleep. Why do so few hotels pay attention to these details? My next bugbear is the Internet and for a business hotel it was again poor. The internet (which you have to pay £10 a day for) worked then it didn’t work, then it worked again. Poor. If I had the choice in the future of sleeping rough on the street or staying in this hotel then it would be a close call.