Leonardo Royal Hotel Oxford — Hotel in Oxford

Terrible hotel! We booked a superior double room and there was nothing SUPERIOR about it! The room was hidden at the back of the property and we were forced to walk around narrow corridors, passing through multiple small doors, getting lost on the way eventually, before finding out our room was on the second floor. We had to carry a large suitcase up the very narrow staircase, because there is no lift at the premises, we were not informed about it. The room turned out to be nothing we have expected, surely not what we paid for. It was tiny, with small double bed and equally tiny bathroom. What we saw on the website while booking it, was simply a different room. We were appaled. We paid upfront, so for next 2 hours maybe, we were considering leaving or to complain. We've decided to complain at the reception and yes, we were given another room with no hustle at all, but were told we're getting an upgrade, which honestly, it wasn't at all, because we paid for the room on the photos and description and the first room wasn't it in any shape or form. The new room itself was spacious and relatively clean,fair enough, but the bathroom remained tiny,so we guessed it was just the case in the entire hotel. Everything was little scrappy, curtains were off the rail at the ends, few very visible stains on the carpet and the bed side. The bathroom needs more care too, clean enough but visible imperfections, like side panel of the bath hanging onto it on few shy screws. Even though, we are regular size people we struggled with size of the bathroom and it was also quite challenging to go in and out of the bath itself,due to hights of it I guess, and the position of the glass screen. The lobby was alright, so as the gym, but the pool was tiny. To use it you had to book 30mins beforehand, and only possible when wasn't too busy. We didn't use it once! We used room service twice. The 1st one was okay, it was just a sandwich and chips. The 2nd day we ordered margarita pizza, but I think it wanted to be called that, but in reality it didn't have anything to do with it. It contained no tomato passatta at all. It was pretty much just an enormous amount of very questionable cheese, definitely not mozzarella as you would expect from margarita. The macroscopic extra toppings of your choice, ours were maybe 3 olives and some pepper and onion, chopped into even smaller pieces and scattered on it. Ridiculous! Just awful! It was provided from a hotel bar. Luckily, we discovered an M&S shop across the road the following day, so in the hour of need another night's supper was way more tastier, courtesy of the m&S. The breakfast was served at the hotel restaurant, with very little healthy choices, small English breakfast buffet style. On the first morning there were literally no fresh vegetables available. Some fruits and not fresh looking at all. We had an impression the experience should be the same for all the guests, so the staff should top up what's finished regularly. Not managed well. Some staff were at some point standing and chatting about their life issues, which we thought also wasn't very professional in front of guests. Generally, staff members didn't seem that attentive within the hotel, nobody from the reception ever said good morning to us, didnt even look our direction, constantly staring at the screens in the front of them(we stayed 3nights unfortunately), when f.e. going past to get breakfast, only some cleaners were lovely and smiling.

We stayed in multiple hotels around Europe and the rest of the world, so we have some experience and kind of understanding of how things work in hotels, value for the price etc,. This was the worst hotel experience we've ever had! It's advertised as 4starts, but we stayed in thousand times better quality hotels that were supposed to be 3stars only. What's certain, we won't be recommending this hotel to anyone, and surely,...

The hotel is very modern and looks freshly decorated throughout. We stopped in a family room, one double, one single bed. Upon arrival I was disappointed at the size. There wasn’t even three chairs in the room for us all to sit on when in the room relaxing. There was one chair and one office chair. This meant sitting in the beds most the time which isn’t great for the posture.

First night stay we decided to eat at Coopers, the in house bar. The food wasn’t that nice and totally overpriced. My daughter (4) doesn’t each much and only wanted a soup off the child’s menu. I asked what the cost of this would be as it only started the mains were £6.95 or you could add a starter or desert for an extra £2. They wanted to charge me the £6.95 just to have a starter. Disgusting. So I ordered the soup off be adult menu instead for cheaper. When the soup arrived I wish I hadn’t bothered getting it for her though as it was completely flavourless. The burger and chips meal doesn’t even come with a side of salad or anything, and for £15 is more expensive than the on site Marco Pierre White restaurant burgers.

We didn’t get to visit the Marco restaurant as it doesn’t start serving until 6pm which is a little late for our daughter to be eating as she goes to bed at 7pm.

The staff were friendly on the reception desk. We needed to enquire about the local bus tour. They informed us we could buy a ticket for the bus tour and city add on on the local number 6 bus. When we got on the number 6 bus they were unable to provide us tickets. We were told it was only the park and ride that could issue those tickets. Reception staff need to update their knowledge on this.

There was an on-site gym and swimming pool which was included in our stay which we made the most of. Towels were supplied for use so we didn’t need to take our own.

We also had breakfast included. One of the positives about the hotel. This is served in the Marco restaurant. The range of food available was great. The waiters/waitresses were very friendly and prompt.

The cleaners could do a better job. There were remenants on the carpet from the previous customers. The spoon for the in room tea facilities was dirty. The wrappers for the hot chocolate etc were sticky from god knows what. They didn’t replace the spoon when we put it out for wash and neither did they replace the room service breakfast menu. During my stay I dropped the lid of a bottle which rolled in the bed. Upon trying to retrieve it I noticed there was other things under the bed, hair clips etc. I don’t know how frequently the beds are moved to hoover under them but given the lack of space in the family room I can only assume it impossible to do so. So my bottle lid may by there for some time to come.

Another positive from our room was it over looked a field and in the mornings we got to see Deer roaming around. Beautiful.

Overall it wasn’t a terrible stay, it was an adequate base for our trip to oxford, just little bits...

Booked 3 rooms and surprised to be charged on arrival, and without an invoice against which to check the booking was correct. This became a problem and it took 2 attempts later to get fee corrected. 2 rooms were okay although view onto internal courtyard for 3 rooms grim. Ordered huge bed but this came with the tiniest bathroom so it was barely possible to close the door and use the toilet. Clean and with bath as requested but usual problem that toiletries clamped to wall at shower height only.||Had been offered deal so if I paid £80 up front could spend £100 in restaurant which suited. Regrettably the food was mediocre and ridiculously expensive (£20-22 for a pork main but an extra fiver for new potatoes and another fiver for spinach. My daughter asked for Portobello mushroom to be replaced by greens but was told this was impossible and she would be charged for the veg even if the mushroom was left off the plate. My grilled chicken was raw in part and unsafe to eat so at end of meal when waiter asked how was the meal as was told, his response was "no worries" when I declined an alternative dish because it was too late. It was exactly a time when worry was appropriate. Later he chased after us because we had not paid and insisted we had to hand over a prepaid voucher we had not been given - in front of the staff member who had sold us the deal.||In contrast the breakfast range and quality is exceptional. Service efficient but impersonal and non-smiling (except for Kiran).||Gym cramped but better equipped than many hotel gyms. Pool tiny but warm and attendant friendly and helpful. Clean enough.||Great to have control over air con in bedrooms but restaurant, half of breakfast room and front foyer very cold.||Outraged about being charged £6 per day per car for car parking when one has spent well over a grand in this out of town establishment set in its own grounds with barrier controlled car park only used by residents. Overall this is a business clearly focused on squeezing out the most money from customers (advertising it's £2 charge to borrow an umbrella as if it's something to be proud of). Our overall party was 17 strong and we won't be...