The Richmond Gate Hotel

We stayed at the Richmond Gate for a weekend trip into the West End with our family. The room was spacious and very clean, the food in the Restuarant was excellent, the kids loved the swimming pool, and it was convenient for the tube into London. The staff were all very friendly and accommodating too.

Overall a good hotel in a very nice area. Check in was rather slow, however we were pleased that our room was available earlier than the 3pm check in. The room was small, but pleasantly decorated, very comfortable bed and pillows. Excellent shower.

Rather disappointing was the lack of toiletries in the bathroom - no shower gel! When my wife asked a cleaner for some, there was none available. The soap & shampoo were not up to much either.

Pool and gym facilities are outstanding (perhaps one of the best in greater London). Free parking on site is a real advantage.

Would recommend this hotel for those wanting to be close to the hustle and bustle of the city (Waterloo 15 min by train), but want somewhere a bit more relaxed to come back to. Some lovely restaurants nearby - Rock and Rose a real gem!

Be aware that wedding receptions are held in the hotel which might be disruptive / noisy (however the reception on the Sat night was reasonably quiet and was from 8 to 11pm).

We stayed at the Richmond Gate Hotel when attending friends' wedding last weekend.

We checked in at around 2:30 pm on Saturday. The hotel made a very good first impression and the reception staff were very nice. We just dropped our bags off in our small-ish, but modern, well decorated and spotlessly clean room, then left to attend our friends' reception at Pembroke Lodge, not far from the hotel.

When we returned from the wedding at around 11 pm, we were both completely beat - it had been a long day, lots of travelling etc. We were craving peace and quiet. However, we came back to the hotel to find that there was a wedding held in the downstairs conservatory. Our rooms were pretty much directly above this; the loud music from downstairs made it completely impossible to sleep and went on until around 12:30. After that, loud (drunken) voices in the garden, which our room overlooked, meant we still could not find any rest, and there was much running in the corridor outside our room. Youth-hostel atmosphere really. The single glazing meant that even tightly shut windows (and the stuffy room that this created) didn't make any difference. We finally slept at around 2pm...

On waking up the next morning, we didn't feel particularly rested, but were still looking forward to a nice, leisurely breakfast and a relaxing Sunday. We went down to breakfast at 9:30, were promptly seated. Coffee was served within a few minutes and everything seemed quite nice. They were a bit slow in keeping the buffet stocked up, but at least it felt like they tried to keep it going and the breakfast itself was nice. I had some lovely fruit salad and croissants. My partner commented that the English Breakfast wasn't fantastic due to having sat out on the buffet for too long, but he still enjoyed it. Unfortunately the quite nice breakfast was completely ruined by the waitress, who came over after just a few minutes and started clearing our table while we wee still sitting at it. I don't mean she just took away our used plates - but cutlery, serviettes etc, and even my saucer the second i lifted my cup to take a sip of coffee! Completely unprofessional, but with the clear message that we were to hurry up and get out of the way. When I said to her that we were still eating, she looked at me uncomprehendingly, and removed the (uneaten!) toast in its rack and full glasses of juice as well.

When we checked out, we complained about the noise and unfriendly treatment. The lady at reception reacted very well initially, she seemed genuinely sorry. However, she said she was unable to take anything off our £200 bill; then she asked her boss, who offered to give us the breakfast for free, but that was it. I think this is ridiculous - we would have had a better experience in a Travel Lodge for £50!