Chessington Safari Hotel — Hotel in London

We planned out the trip in advance of a long weekend and were able to get a room with a king bed and a view for £515 for 2 nights, including VAT and a VIP birthday package. Unfortunately, our stay was booked for the 8th of October and there was a forecasted strike, so the only way to do the trip was too make a separate reservation in a room with a double bed (view also) for £290 for the night. Fortunately, all room rates do also include breakfast and park entry tickets, well at least ours did.

The first room was a double bed, nothing fancy, but it had a great view. The issues with that room were that it was not very clean, especially the carpet and the lower portion of the walls, plus the outside of our window. We also observed that there was no hair dryer in this room. However, despite the negatives, the sheets and towels were clean, so that room served its intended purpose.

We ate dinner at the Zafari Bar & Grill and honestly, while there was no doubt that the ingredients were fresh, the execution was horrible. The food was really not very good and was consistently undercooked. All 3 of our meals weren't cooked enough.

The next day, we ate a mediocre breakfast and checked out, left our luggage with the hotel, and went to the park. Let me tell you that with everything on offer, a zoo, amusements, rides, an aquarium, etc..., the experience here really made up for what the room was lacking. We had even forgotten about the food issue.

In the late afternoon, we got checked into our new room with a king sized bed. The room condition was very much the same as the first night though, except only half the room was carpet, so we didn't see the stained carpet as much. We just noticed the lower walls, filthy windows, and of course, no hairdryer again.

In the evening, we arrived to the Zafari for tea time and let me tell you, it was one of the most amazing tea times that I have had in my 2+ years of living in the UK. This was extremely well done!

The next day, 9 October, another mediocre breakfast and off to the park again. Being our final day to do things, we did everything that we couldn't fit in the first day and really enjoyed ourselves. The park is very good and I am not sure why it isn't really known on an international scale. It is great.

In the evening, we ate the all-you-can-eat buffet at the Temple Bar & Grill. While it looked tasty, it was very much the same as the other meals, just good enough to manage with. None of us got a second plate and we probably ate less than a single person would, between the 3 of us, but it was very disappointing. The cost wasn't justified.

On the final morning, we ate breakfast at the Temple. It was the same breakfast that we had eaten at the Zarfari. Nothing better than acceptable.

Overall, I rate our experience as 5 stars, even though there were problems and the food wasn't that great. The reasoning is because we went to stay at the hotel for the park and it delivered in volumes. Also, the entire staff, everywhere, was exceptional, with special mentions of Amber at Chessington World and Key the zookeeper. I do not know the other names, but the young bearded chap at the pool gets kudos and all the staff of the restaurants and hotel were great.

The pros of the hotel are obviously rooted in the staff, with the rooms needing to be cleaned much better, especially the carpet and the outside of the windows (ruined the view to an extent). The food could use a massive improvement as well, but as for the park, giraffe feeding and the pool, all get top marks from my family.

Thank you Chessington Safari Hotel and Chessington World of Adventure for making my family and I very happy during our 3-day stay. We realize that there are items that you should focus on, which are lackluster, but it will not deter us from coming back...

This is an honest and fair review and after reading it i hope you can understand why it only got 2 ⭐ which is a shame. I arrived at the hotel on sun 23rd July just before 4pm and showed the member of staff my confirmation booking through Agoda. She then told me that they don't have a record of this booking and could i wait while she checks with the duty manager. She can clearly see i have a little girl with me but obviously at this point doesn't know she has mental health issues which I clearly let her, Sarah and Agoda rep's know as time progressed. 10 mins later she returns to tell me the hotel doesn't partner with Agoda and my booking is not genuine and they've had this problem before. I asked her if that's the case why hasn't this been rectified and what is she prepared to do to resolve the situation. She tells me that I will have to pay for a room and get a refund back from Agoda. I showed her the confirmation booking again and made it clear to her this was non refundable and i will be fighting a losing battle trying to get my money back. Well sir there's nothing i can do for you until you have paid for a room. By this point I'd asked to see the manager. So she rung them and told me to wait next to the reception desk with my daughter. The next customer had exactly the same problem and was told to wait with me. Another 10 mins passes and the duty manager Sarah appears and introduces herself. We express our dissatisfaction and ask if she can call anyone to help resolve the issue but she told us that they don't partner with Agoda??? To cut a long story short and to spare you all the phone calls i had to make, holding time's and trying to deal with a very stressed 10 year old the time was now passed 6.30 pm. By this time I was drained with the whole situation and couldn't bear to see my daughter crying so I was left with no choice but to pay for another room. I only live an hour and a half away from Chessington and could have travelled up in the morning but i booked this hotel for the magical experience it should have been but the way the hotel staff handled the situation it has ruined this and now she has bad memories of the place! They didn't even offer us a drink while we stood there for nearly 3 hour's trying to get in our room we had paid for. As for the hotel it was pretty good, room was spacious, buffet restaurant was nice and after dinner walking around the path and seeing some animals was a nice experience but unfortunately the damage was already done and tbh didn't really sleep much that night because I was wound up and had to write a long unnecessary email to Agoda. 8 email's later and speaking with 8 different agent's I'm still trying to get a refund. Please don't let this put you off the hotel but don't book through Agoda even though they have told me that they do make lots of booking at this hotel because I wouldn't want anyone to experience what we did. The next morning i did have a card under the door apologizing for the delay checking in and a voucher for 5 doughnuts. Without sounding ungrateful would anyone que for nearly 3 hour's to get 5 doughnuts? NOT good enough...

I'm reposting the review that I wrote about this hotel on Tripadvisor because I'm still angry that our family Christmas treat was such a disappointment. My children looked forward to this all year. Merlin Entertainments don't care about anything other than profits and I will never trust them again.

It's frustrating to write this review because the venue is great but the service is very bad which meant that we were disappointed by a stay that we have been looking forward to all year.

Starting with the good the Gruffalo rooms are well done and fun in terms of decoration. The view from the window was great and the kids were excited to see an ostrich when we woke up and giraffes a bit later.

We were supposed to have a named parking space but there was not one for us. A small thing but it set the tone. In the room the TV in the kids' room was not working and the water was luke warm. We wanted showers after a two hour drive and this was not good enough.

We went down to the bar. We waited for 10 minutes while four staff moved menus around and two had a heated discussion about another family who were complaining. We were told that our host would be with us and she eventually turned up and demonstrated her unique skill set by walking us about 10 metres to our table. The table was greasy and the zebra skin chairs were stained.

Food arrived promptly once we had ordered. I had a meat platter with bread which was very hard, the consistency of croutons and pretty much inedible. I told our host and her manager came over to tell me that was how it was supposed to be. I suggested that he try it himself but he left and our host remained to apologise. I organise events and stay in hotels two or three times a week, and the manager in this case has the honour of having delivered the worst customer service that I have experienced this year. I explained that I was unhappy at the end of the meal and was told that a guest services rep would contact me. That did not happen.

Breakfast in the Aztec restaurant the next morning was adequate, but the staff were not engaging and there was the same level of stress about the place.

The other issue is that you definitely feel that you are on a conveyor belt while you are there. Book your pool space, book your breakfast time, buy a Gruffalo costume, buy an electronic Gruffalo, buy a feeding time experience. I don't mind that if it's delivered properly and you don't feel like a target for a shakedown.

We went hoping to get a bit of magic for our hard earned cash, but instead had a soul less corporate mugging executed by disengaged staff. Actually our hostess turned out to have one particular skill, the ability to deliver a proper apology with eye contact. She should train her manager.

The rarest breed appears to be the guest services rep. We're in no hurry to go back. Friends who have asked us to tell them what it was like will be advised to go for the room, view and park but not...