Royal National Hotel - 3 star

While we were in London on our honeymoon we had to stay over one night before we started our Cosmos tour of Europe (see review). One of the places that the tour met you at that we were told about was at the Royal National Hotel so we thought it probably would be easiest if we stayed at this hotel instead of trying to find it in a panic. So my husband booked it and it cost £99.50 online. This price also included breakfast.

I have to say my first impression of this hotel wasn't great the staff were not very helpful, pleasant or friendly. They did not seem interested in helping us and to be quite honest didn't seem happy at all and had sour faces.

When we arrived there was long queues with pushy angry and inpatient people. We had to wait about 40 minutes to check in which was rather annoying as we were limited to time and wanted to explore a bit of London.

I think what took the process so long was that everyone who was booking in had to fill out a form with your name, address and passport number. So everyone was scrambling trying to find their passports.

When we finally did get to the end of the long queue we were told after waiting all that time that we weren't allowed to check in until 2 o'clock.

We were told we could leave our bags in a room (there was no individual lockers) and there was a man keeping an eye on them however he was busy doing other things too. I wasn't prepared to do this, as I was afraid that our things would get stole.

Once we finally had checked in on the way to our room the corridors looked like a school and the lifts were very outdated with carpets on the walls. We met some of the cleaning staff here and I have to say they were very nice and helpful and showed us what direction to go to find our room.

The hotel looked old and outdated. The rooms were very basic and the bathroom was not very clean in fact it was very grubby. The sink and bath just looked very dirty and I was reluctant to use them.

The bed wasn't much better as the mattress was not comfortable and you could feel the springs. The pillows were exceptionally gross and all yellow. They also were very flimsy so you weren't comfortable while sleeping on them.

They didn't have a duvet on the bed just blankets and a sheet underneath. I also found it difficult to get the heating on and it was freezing. It was only turned on for a few hours automatically and my husband and I woke very cold in the morning.

In the room there was a small uncomfortable chair and a stool at a bench. Another bench was there which you could set your suitcase on. It seemed to be covered in carpet.

The room had a small wardrobe with extra blankets and a few open shelves to hang clothes in. There was a medium sized flat screen television. This was the only modern thing in the room.

We didn't have a nice view from our room either just other crappy rooms everywhere.

Breakfast was simple you got tea, cereal, toast, they had limited fruit (just mango and pineapple). We didn't realise but you had to pay an extra £4.50 for a cooked English breakfast even though I thought we had paid for a full breakfast. The toast was cold but you did have several choices of cereals in containers. The cutlery was very obviously grotty and dirty. The cups were so grimy it took me a few minutes to find clean ones and even they were still dirty. This is something I really hate!

The hotel is situated very close to Euston Road Station and as we were getting off the train this was very handy as we had our luggage to carry and it only took us 10 minutes to get to the hotel.

Outside the hotel has a tour place however the man who was on the desk was not very helpful and we asked him for night tours but he just said he didn't have any. It didn't offer to help and I felt like he could be bothered. I got the impression he didn't want us there at all. However inside the hotel there is an information desk and the people on this desk was very helpful and gave us all the information that we needed. So I would advise you to talk to them first.

Right beside the hotel is London coffee shop this is where we started our Cosmos tour and it sort of looked to me like a backpacker's café. I have to say the staff was friendly and it seemed like a nice enough place. It was really only a place for snacks and if you wanted a meal there was plenty of food places within walking distance.

Overall I don't think I would recommend this hotel to anyone and I think it is very bad value for money. If I ever were going on a Cosmos tour again I would stay at a different hotel which was near this area. I didn't enjoy my stay at all.