The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa

I do not normally write reviews like this, but our experience at The Royal Crescent Hotel during our wedding celebrations was so disappointing that I feel people should know about it. We chose the hotel for a very important part of our wedding and were prepared to spend a significant amount of money there. Even during the planning, though, we found the process far more difficult and less welcoming than we expected from a hotel of this standard. On the day itself, everything was absolutely fine until around 10pm. At no point before then had anybody approached our family to say that our party was too loud, behaving badly or causing complaints. At around 10pm, my father brought members of our wedding party into the hotel bar, which at the time was otherwise empty. It was only then that he was told that the group would no longer be served because they were supposedly drunk. Of course people were in good spirits. It was a wedding. My mother, who does not drink alcohol, then tried to speak to the manager responsible for the decision. She was effectively included in the suggestion that the group was drunk. When she questioned this and tried to understand what had happened, both of my parents felt that the response was rude, dismissive and incredibly arrogant. Rather than having a proper conversation with her, the manager simply walked away. My parents were eventually escorted back towards reception and went to bed. The following morning my father met with hotel management because he wanted to understand why things had been handled in that way. His question was very simple and it is still the question we have not received a satisfactory answer to. If our wedding party had genuinely been causing enough of a disturbance to justify refusing further service, why did nobody speak to us beforehand? Someone could easily have come over at any point and said that there had been a complaint and asked us to keep the noise down. There would have been no issue. It would have been dealt with immediately. That conversation never happened. The first time my parents were made aware that there was supposedly a serious problem was when the decision had already been made to stop serving the group. What has made the situation even more disappointing is the way it has been dealt with since. Our private correspondence with hotel management was far more conciliatory and even acknowledged that further staff training may be needed. We have kept that correspondence. Yet when my mother later posted about the experience on Tripadvisor, the public response was completely different. The hotel went straight back to defending its position and again described our party as drunk and disruptive. That difference in tone is difficult to ignore. I completely accept that there are two sides to any disagreement and that a hotel has a responsibility to all of its guests. But good hospitality also requires communication. If a group is causing a problem, tell them. Give them the opportunity to sort it out. Do not say nothing all evening, then suddenly refuse service and afterwards rely on behaviour that nobody felt the need to raise with the people involved at the time. What has disappointed us most is not simply that something went wrong. Things go wrong everywhere. It is the apparent unwillingness afterwards to accept that the hotel might have handled the situation poorly. The Royal Crescent is a beautiful property in an incredible location. Unfortunately, our experience of the service and the attitude of some of the staff was nowhere near the level we expected. We have been lucky enough to stay in some exceptional hotels around the world and this was comfortably one of the poorest service experiences we have had. For it to happen during our wedding celebrations made it even more disappointing. It is certainly not how we expected to remember our time at The Royal Crescent.

We had a fantastic stay. The staff were great and the dinner was excellent. We enjoyed the pool and the steam room. Overall, it was great.

Lovely hotel. We were in room 16 which overlooks the rear garden. The bed was very comfortable and is probably 6’ wide. It had impressively soft bedding which means I’ll be buying new at home! Incredibly quiet - we didn't hear a sound from other guests or outside. Reception, the concierge and our waiter at breakfast all blended professionalism with friendliness very nicely. Alfie the cat was a nice bonus. I can’t wait to go again!

I normally don't write reviews because they are free advertising for the product, but I am making an exception this time. We had a simply OUTSTANDING stay at the hotel. The room and the grounds were impressive. The staff was attentive. Our two night stay was just too short.

Wonderful! An absolute delight to stay in this fantastic hotel. Great food, lovely rooms and garden, and of course the beautiful Alfie the cat!