The Royal Hotel, Cardiff

10 St Mary's St, Cardiff, CF10 1DW
4

The Royal Hotel, Cardiff hotel is the city's newest and most fashionable hotel. The hotel is perfectly situated in the centre, 50 metres from the station, bars,... more

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8/10 Overall rating

Category Average Rating
8/10 Check-in process
8/10 Your room
8/10 Working order of facilities / equipment
8/10 Order and cleanliness of the hotel
8/10 Performance of staff
8/10 Overall experience
9/10 Overall value for money
  • 9/10 Anonymous ( Family with young children) 

    on  August 26, 2008

    "Lovely clean modern hotel. Just a shame it was located in the centre and above the main road for bars and clubs." (97693371)

    Modern rooms with nice furniture. Great bathroom and a lovely breakfast! Great central location to all tourist attractions.

    Front door locked during evenings so have to keep buzzing to be let in. Very noisy as hotel is above bars and clubs. Felt uncomfortable leaving and returning to hotel late at night as road is full of drunk people and lots of shouting. Many use the steps of the hotel to sit and smoke so have to try and ask people to move out the way. Hotel was actually quite difficult to find dispite the directions as it looks like just another bar/club entrance late at night.

  • 8/10 Anonymous ( Solo business traveller) 

    on  August 21, 2008

    "OK. Bar staff not very helpful this time. Choice at Breakfast time was poor." (107297837)

    Cleanliness of hotel good and reception staff friendly and helpful.

    Very Noisy room, although doubled glazed the outside windows were open.

  • 8/10 Anonymous ( Family with young children) 

    on  August 19, 2008

    GOOD BREAKFAST, CENTRAL LOCATION

  • 10/10 Anonymous ( Solo leisure traveller) 

    on  July 30, 2008

    "Would recommend this hotel" (108047646)

    Great Location near to Cardiff Castle and bus sightseeing tour that takes you to Cardiff Bay/Millenium centre

  • 10/10 Christine ( Same sex couple) 

    from Peterborough , CA  on  July 23, 2008

    "Would highly recommend this hotel & would stay here again." (99118476)

    Great facilities. Beautiful room. Excellent location! Excellent staff!

  • 7/10 Andrew ( Group of adult friends) 

    from London , GB  on  July 18, 2008

    "very convenient and centrally located. Nice rooms. Minor annoyances, noise at night and confusion at hotel rather spoilt the experience for us." (97800710)

    very central location and convenient. Excellent overall decor and rooms

    Different charges suggested on arrival to those booked on website, Confusion again over booking room rates at checkout, Confusion over breakfast rates, Car parking off site and despite prepaying at the hotel, charged again at NCP car park, Settee in bar broken arm rest. Lots of noise from street during the night disturbing sleep. Access to hotel for luggage and car difficult, disabled access would be even more problematic.

  • 10/10 Anonymous ( Mature couple) 

    on  July 15, 2008

    "hotel was very central to cardiff,a good base.and not far from cardiff central station,a plus for us as we dont drive." (97381454)

    staff friendly,very clean and tidy,spaceous room(with view).

    no bad points,just that we could not open the window in our room to get any air.

  • 7/10 Robert c mccaren ( Solo business traveller) 

    from Plymouth , GB  on  July 13, 2008

    "Reasonable" (108001238)

    Good location; good sized room and facilities.

    Difficult access to second floor reception; bar of soap, bath robe and tea bags missing from welcome pack in bedroom; tables in dining room very shabby with damaged corners.

  • 9/10 Anonymous ( Mature couple) 

    on  July 13, 2008

    "very pleasant stay. Make sure you specify you require a room with some natural light/ windows if this would bother you." (108031283)

    very clean room ,and pleasant staff.Contemorary decor and furnishings. Excellent central location close to rail,millenium stadium, shops and great restaurants.

    initial room allocated did not have windows but were reallocated another room on request Slow lift system fom reception to ground floor Breakfast could be better organised

  • 7/10 Anonymous ( Same sex couple) 

    on  July 12, 2008

    "Fair" (97147636)

    Staff friendly. Room clean and comfortable

    Staff seemed overwhelmed by the large number of guests who, like ourselves arrived early at the hotel as they were attending a childs graduation. The need for these guests to change, and to leave their cases, having arrived before they could book in, did seem to put staff in rather a panic. Also the break down of the lift which provides the main access into the hotel, did cause my elderly mother some distress as the 'back stairs' were steep, and numerous.

  • 8/10 Anonymous ( Solo business traveller) 

    on  July 11, 2008

    "The hotel has a central location, which was very convenient for me. I have stayed here on two previous occasions and find it very good." (108051678)

    A clean and friendly hotel. I arrived on a Sunday evening and was pleased to find that a bar meal was available.

  • 10/10 Anonymous ( Mature couple) 

    on  July 10, 2008

    "Very good." (108058824)

    Excellent hotel / Staff

    We cannot class this as a bad point, but due to severe wet weather, we went back to the hotel to change. We were hoping to be able to dry out our wet clothing on the towel rail in the bathroom (there were no radiators in the bedroom). However, the rail failed to come on. We did turn on the heating on the bedroom wall thinking this would bring on the towel rail, but it did not work. We then assumed that perhaps it would come on during the night - nothing happened. Anyway, this is only a minor point, but it would have been nice to have been able to dry out our clothing.

  • 10/10 Georgi ( Young couple) 

    from Cambridge , GB  on  July 9, 2008

    Was a bit difficult to enter with baby pushchair from St. Matys street

  • 8/10 Anonymous ( Young couple) 

    on  July 7, 2008

    "Good friendly clean central hotel which we found offered us excellent value for money, would definitely return" (108068422)

    staff were very friendly, prices were good value, rooms fairly decent, even though we had one of the lower grade rooms. Great location for most central events CIA Millenium etc. Brakfast was included and even the continental was plenty for a good feed!

    can be a little bit noisy due to location, parking might be a problem for some although we didn't have any trouble with it

  • 7/10 Nigel ( Young couple) 

    from Bristol , GB  on  March 30, 2008

    The Royal Hotel was easy to find a very contemporary feel the staff were very friendly and the breakfast was very good. Would recommend to any one. looking forward to visiting the Royal again. Nigel&Sarah from Bristol.

    2 of 2 people found this review helpful:

  • 8/10 Anonymous ( Mature couple) 

    on  July 6, 2008

    "Comfortable and convenient. " (108004637)

    Wonderful linen and comfortable bed. Very close to St Davids Hall.

    I do not believe you should have to pay extra for a cooked breakfast after all one would be eating less of the continental breakfast.

  • 6/10 Anonymous ( Mature couple) 

    on  July 4, 2008

    The Hotel and the room was of a nice decor, and it was very central.

    The room was on the small side, plus the room was made up for one person as we received one towel, one bathrobe and one bottle of water. The safe did not operate correctly.

  • 10/10 Anonymous ( Solo business traveller) 

    on  July 2, 2008

    "Thanks to the royal hotel i had an excellent stay and enjoyed being in my room when i was not attending the conference i was in cardiff for." (97504956)

    the style of the room was very modern, groovy if you like. the room service, and housekeeping services were excellent and extremely prompt.

  • 5/10 Michael ( Mature couple) 

    from Oswaldtwistle , GB  on  July 1, 2008

    "Hotel was clean, location good and the staff very helpful in trying to resolve the room issue we had, but the room frankly was very disappointing, considering we booked in December 2007. " (97822398)

    Hotel was clean, breakfast good and staff courteous and polite.

    We stayed here in 2006 and had a lovely room. The room this time was disappointing. On the 7th floor up in the roof, room was small and cramped. For the money this was poor. As this hotel obviously has varying standards of room quality and size this should be reflected in the price tariff.

  • 7/10 Malcolm ( Mature couple) 

    from Kenilworth , GB  on  July 1, 2008

    "Suited a purpous " (97878030)

  • 8/10 Helen ( Mature couple) 

    from St minver , GB  on  June 24, 2008

    "Enjoyable stay." (97122859)

    Convenient central location. Well presented comfortable accommodation and bed.

    Booking process via the internet excellent at the second attempt. First attempt hopeless - told no availability.

  • 7/10 Jamie ( Young couple) 

    from Hereford , GB  on  June 9, 2008

    "Good and clean with easy to sort 'situations'." (97799769)

    Clean hotel in good location

    Noisy through night and woke up by cleaning staff in morning, poorly signposted to get to reception and drunks (harmless) on hotel doorstep at night to try and get past.

  • 8/10 Anonymous ( Solo business traveller) 

    on  June 9, 2008

    "Quite agreeable!" (97997659)

    The rooms are in very good order and well fitted.

    The access into the hotel is a little strange! I appreciate that it may be difficult but a reception desk downstairs would be much better than the current arrangement. An ironing board in each room would be a useful addition.

  • 7/10 Michael ( Mature couple) 

    from Stockport , GB  on  May 30, 2008

    "OK, mainly a hotel for people visiting an event at the Millenium Stadium next door and enjoying the vast array of bars and restaurants close by. A rugby match was plyed on the weekend we stayed and Cardiff was alive with Irish and French getting slowly intoxicted together!! No hassles. The Brewery Quarter is a good location to eat and Cardiff Bay well worth the visit." (97084375)

    Location in relation to city centre. Friendliness of staff Dog friendly Disabled parking outside hotel. Excellent breakfast

    Air con control set too high and couldn't be adjusted, with no engineer available until after we had vacated! Above O'Neills so a bit noisy at night. Generally the area seemed a bit rundown with vacant retail units and buildings.

  • 7/10 Declan ( Group of adult friends) 

    from Clonmel , IE  on  May 30, 2008

    "Great weekend ,very helpful that the hotel was so central,no problems,no hassle,no real complaints." (97990389)

    had no problems with accomodation -person that booked the trip screwed up the booking in that he booked 3xdouble rooms as opposed to 3x twin rooms,which thro'no fault of yours couldnt be rectified as the weekend in question was the Heineken Cup Final w/end and you were booked solid.

    At times the bill of fare as in the menu was rather skinpy --you did not seem to be prepared for the large influx of guests such a large sporting weekend would bring.

  • 8/10 Margaret ( Group of adult friends) 

    from Co kildare , IE  on  May 30, 2008

    "As part of the terms of conditions of booking our stay was to be pre paid. This was NOT clearly visible at the time of booking. On looking more closely at the booking details I could see the small print about the pre payment but it was not apparent at first glance. I think it is unfair to ask people for full payment prior to the stay and for this reason I am not recommending this hotel. A non refundable deposit should suffice." (99168092)

    Facilities were very comfortable and the location is excellent.

    The Grey slate walls in the bathroom look very dreary and give the impression of coldness

  • 7/10 Anonymous ( Group of adult friends) 

    on  May 28, 2008

    good central location, clean rooms and good bathrooms, excellent breakfast buffet.

    There was a function takin gplace in the 2nd floor bar / function room and the loud disco music permeated to third floor bedrooms disturbing sleep.

  • 10/10 Elizabeth ( Solo business traveller) 

    from Aberystwyth , GB  on  May 19, 2008

    "Excellent as always - good efficient staff - check in painless at the end of a long tiring day and journey." (97052015)

    Clean modern rooms with fantastic beds with loads of comfy pillows - excellent curtains which cut out the light - nice quiet room with all necessary facilities.

    Not to sure about the stndard of the food - some further attention possibly needs to be given to the quality although for the price it is acceptable.

  • 5/10 Anonymous ( Mature couple) 

    on  May 16, 2008

    "bijou hotel with adequate but small room;massively overpriced due to weekend city activities so par for the course,perhaps. Would not recommend at these prices.If the audience is captive, and getting ripped off,then the show might have to be moved. That is under active consideration. Well done Cardiff hoteliers." (97261910)

    proximity to city centre venues

    access to rooms via lifts that fequently broke/noise from streets

  • 9/10 Anonymous ( Solo business traveller) 

    on  May 1, 2008

    "excellent thank you for your attention and quality" (97625907)

    simple clean comfortable bed/duvet and pillow room temperature excellent

  • 9/10 Eileen ( Solo business traveller) 

    from Colwyn bay , GB  on  May 1, 2008

    "Good. Would stay again." (97706077)

    Lovely clean modern room and helpful staff.

    Not enough choice at continental breakfast. Room very small.

  • 9/10 Anonymous ( Mature couple) 

    on  April 18, 2008

    "The external appearance is old and dirty and the entrance is very shabby, which creates a bad first impression. Once you get inside the whole appearance of the hotel changes. The interior of the hotel has recently been completely refurbished with styish decor and modern fittings. The location is very central, with all of the city centre attractions very close by." (97317126)

    The decor is modern and very stylish.

    The room was a little too small. We only had one bathtowel, and although we requested another, it never appeared.

  • 8/10 Anonymous ( Family with older children) 

    on  April 12, 2008

    "Better locatiobn map - had to ring to find out eaxctly where the hotel was" (97517636)

    Central Location;price

    Cafetiere coffee provided in rooms but without a cafetiere to brew it in - no instant coffee provided as an alternative so resorted to going across the road to Starbucks!

  • 8/10 Anonymous ( Young couple) 

    on  April 9, 2008

    "Despite no window in room the room was very pleasantly decorated, clean and had good facilities." (97795338)

    The bed, shower and breakfast

    No window in room

  • 10/10 Heather ( Mature couple) 

    from Whitley bay , GB  on  April 8, 2008

    "Excellent would recommend and return, very central and pleasant, large selection of food for continental breakfast, access to local transport." (97359892)

    The location was excellent, it was clean, and smart

    the entrance hall was awful, and we only had one bath towell and when we asked for another one it had gone by the next day and the bath robes never materialised, also ground coffe is not suitable in a bedroom

  • 10/10 A j ( Mature couple) 

    from London , GB  on  March 19, 2008

    "Expectations were not high having stayed in many hotels around the world on big match days. But the Royal was ideal. Well situated for the stadium and for the 'delights' of Cardiff centre, right in the middle of the action and atmosphere without having to be a part of it! The staff were friendly and efficient. The hotel itself bright and well appointed. The breakfast room was a delight, so much space available. One never felt excluded in this exclusive hotel. Something to consider - a discount off the NCP car parking bill, but that's very small beer." (99479779)

    For our purposes, ie the Wales-England international, the Royal could not be faulted. Perfect situation with excellent, modern facilities. A top class hotel.

  • 10/10 Marion ( Mature couple) 

    from Manchester , GB  on  March 17, 2008

    "I found the information about getting to he hotel was very good and as we were travelling by train it was very convenient. The outside gives no clue to what you find when you reach reception and the reception and the general ambiance of the hotel was welcoming and elegant It is really convenient for sight seeing and we appreciated the buffet breakfast. All the employees of the hotel were polite and helpful especially the receptionist who told us that she was Polish and was really informative for us" (97671774)

    It was a good sized room with pleasant decor.

    I like to read in bed and the lighting by the bed was not sufficient to do this

  • 9/10 Anonymous ( Solo business traveller) 

    on  March 17, 2008

    The room was very large and modern. Bed was huge and very comfortable. I asked for a quiet non-smoking room and thats what I got. Only small problem was the little corridors and steps up and down to get to the room.

    The promised bathrobes in the room werent to be found and the toiletries took a bit of working out what to use them for as they were labelled in a very 'trendy' format. Still trying to work out what the one called 'shine' was for.

  • 9/10 Anonymous ( Young couple) 

    on  March 13, 2008

    "Very accomodating staff, very helpful. The dressings gowns and cafetiere we missing from our room,, but they were brought up to our room as soon as we asked. Comfortable room - the bed was fantastic, great location, good value for money. Nice continental breakfast with a good selection." (97062104)

    The comfortable bed!

    The hike up some stairs and then a lift to get to reception!

  • 6/10 Gina ( Group of adult friends) 

    from London , GB  on  March 13, 2008

    Central location; modern decor

    small room size; lack of facilities that were promised as standard (i.e. no towelling robes, slippers, etc.); lack of natural air and light (i.e. small window which did not open more than a matter of inches!); no option to upgrade from continental breakfast to cooked breakfast as chef was awol; buzzer entry system feels very hostel-like; cleanliness of shower - all in all, I felt that the reduced rack rate available through booking online probably reduced the overall standard of our stay and would hope that guests paying the full rack rate would certainly encourage a much warmer welcome...I would have been extremely unhappy with the experience had I paid paid full whack!...

  • 9/10 Anonymous ( Young couple) 

    on  February 28, 2008

    Location,modern and clean

    Noise from nightclub below and very poor breakfast selection on Sunday morning due to non-replenishment/maybe staff shortage even though it was just 9 o'clock

  • 9/10 Robin ( Family with older children) 

    from Woking , GB  on  February 26, 2008

    "The hotel was in a great location, near to Castle, Millenium Stadium,shops and restauarnts. You could not have wished for a more convenient position." (97699050)

    Very nice modern facilities.

    Would have liked a hotel car park.

  • 9/10 Anonymous ( Solo business traveller) 

    on  February 24, 2008

    "Excellent hotel. Highly recommended" (97308751)

    Room and food were excellent

    Workstation was a little small to actually do any work on

  • 9/10 Anonymous ( Solo leisure traveller) 

    on  February 23, 2008

    "It was a very pleasant hotel, it was within walking distance from rail/bus stations and the Millenium Stadium which made it easy to find. The staff was helpful and nothing seemed too much trouble. It was clean and there were plenty of places in the area to eat if you did't want to eat 'in'." (97611823)

    Modern look and friendly staff

  • 3/10 David ( Family with older children) 

    from Lindstrom , US  on  April 9, 2008

    The room wasn't equipped with everything it was supposed to have been, no bathrobes as promised or spring water, the TV only got one channel, the staff was extremely rude, didn't speak good english, and had no idea about local attractions. At night, there was only two people working the whole hotel, no housekeeping or anything. We asked 24 hours in advance if we could cancel the second night, and at first they said we could not, then when I asked again, they said we could, and then the third time we tried to cancel our second night, they finally did something and let us leave. The location is terrible if you want to get any sleep, it's right on a huge party street that is actually closed off to traffic at night, and drunk pedestrians roam on the street, being very loud until the early hours of the morning.

    1 of 2 people found this review helpful:

  • 8/10 Anonymous ( Young couple) 

    on  February 22, 2008

    "very good and nice hotel.the breakfast was excellent, the croisssant were absolutely delicious, I will come back just for the breakfast." (97430193)

    the shower was working really well, it was nice to have a warm shower

    the walls and floor had marks, the bed linnen had hair, looked like it has already been used.

  • 8/10 Rob ( Group of work colleagues) 

    from Alfreton , GB  on  February 15, 2008

    very nice, large, clean room

    lift wasn't working and there was no toast for breakfast!

  • 9/10 Anonymous ( Solo business traveller) 

    on  February 12, 2008

    Close to train station. Above busy bars, but not noisy. Reasonable continental breakfast included in room rate. Lovely contemporary rooms with great bathrooms.

    Entry is via intercom, which during busy periods can take some time for staff to let you in as guests are not given access cards to the front door of the hotel.

  • 6/10 Anonymous ( Solo business traveller) 

    on  February 9, 2008

    "A comfortable enough hotel, but staff not as polished as they need to be. Put into a standard room initially instead of the deluxe booked, but moved (into a suite!) without any fuss. Food generally good, room service v. good, prices not bad. Would stay again, on balance." (97044345)

    Clean, spacious

    Minimalist style a little too minimalist!

  • 7/10 Rosalind ( Mature couple) 

    from Champs sur marne , FR  on  March 19, 2008

    "Generally, our stay was fine, apart from the fact that the bedding was real i.e. contained feathers. As we are both allergic to feathers, we asked for a synthetic quilt and pillows. A single synthetic quilt was found, but that's all (and this disappeared the following day). On the 2nd night, we had 2 synthetic pillows, but still no quilt, so we slept (badly) under our coats. It wasn't until the 3rd night that we finally had a synthetic double quilt and pillows. We surely can't be the only clients who are allergic to feathers, so it would be wise to keep a stock of synthetic quilts and pillows in the hotel. Many thanks to the staff who were very sympathetic about this problem." (97839984)

    Central location, modern, uncluttered decor.

    Windows too high, it felt like we were in a box.

    0 of 1 people found this review helpful:

The views expressed on this page are the personal opinions of guests and therefore do not necessarily represent the views of Active Hotels, Active Reservations or our distribution partners (About our hotel reviews).

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