The Royal York Hotel

We stayed there in Easter this year(2004). the double room cost £100 per night. I accept that the price was higher as this was a holiday weekend. The hotel was very handy for the rail station and the Hotel was impressive at the reception area and from outside, but not inside. The room was smelly and dated, the bed was uncomfortable, the towels were threadbare, the shower curtain was disgustingly mouldy, the bathroom was old and didn't look very clean, the window coudn't be opened as this was nailed shut so the room was oppressively hot until we found some fans to use in a store cupboard. A total waste of money.

I travel a lot throughout the United States and Europe, usually staying in four or five star hotels. In my opinion the Royal York is completely undeserving of its four star status. When we first arrived we were shown into an attic room which was so hideous, I could not believe we were in the same hotel that we had seen advertised on the hotel website. The walls were dirty. One would not wish to walk bare foot on the carpet. The bed was uncomfortable, badly sprung and the mattress cover also looked old and grubby. The door had obviously been smashed open at some time and poorly repaired. We complained about the room and fortunately we were moved to a lower gorund floor room which had recently been refurbished. The newly decorated room was acceptable because it was at least clean, although bland and unimaginatively furnished. It wasn't that functional. There was enough room to include a writing a desk, a sofa, coffee table etc. But instead it had just a wall desk, a double bed and lots of empty space. The bathroom was also large, yet there was only a tiny shelf space to put your toiliteies! We made use of the gymnasium - the pool and sauna were very pleasant, but the gym area was quite small and it was not much fun training on a running machine facing a plain wall. But overall I still don't understand how the hotel room we were intitially booked into could have been rated as four star acccomodation. Even someone forced to rely on hotel accomodation supplied by a local authority/DHSS would deserve better than that. As I drove back I considered the quality of hotel rooms one can get in 'New York'. I have booked into a Holiday Inn or the Doubletree in New York City for the same room rate as we paid in 'olde York' and I have become accustomed to a much higher standard of service. The owners need to do a lot of work with this hotel. Because it could be made into a nice place that matches ones expectations. But there is so much work to be done. They need to redecorate (starting by removing all the worn carpets in the lobby) and redesign all the room interiors to a proper four star standard. If you can get an ultra-cheap room rate, can insist on being put in a renovated room and are not too bothered about design aesthetics, this might be an OK place to stay, but otherwise give it a miss and seek out a proper four star luxury hotel elsewhere in the city.

Run down hotel with rude receptionist. I was booked into a basement room with a stale odour. Noise levels made it impossible to sleep. Suffered an upset stomach.

I really wanted to like this hotel, but it did its best to ruin our visit to York. The initial impression I got when walking into the lobby was very favourable. It's certainly impressive to look at. However this was tempered when we found that our room was on floor -1. I suppose as we weren't willing to pay extra for one of the bigger suites overlooking the minster, then being moved somewhere like the basement is to be expected. To be fair my fears were eased when I found the room to be large, well lit and clean. Some of the staff were also very helpful: the fuse for our lights blew on the first morning but was immediately resolved by the friendly maintenance crew. The real problem I had with this hotel was the noise. It seems that paying 80 pounds a night just gives you the privacy of a room and not a quiet night's sleep. The walls to the adjoining room and corridor were thin and so we were treated to both the sound of the fire door constantly slamming shut and our neighbour's phone calls. On top of the that, there appeared to be a problem with the air conditioning unit outside our room. Every 10 minutes it would start producing a loud buzzing noise which would last for a further ten minutes. We had this constantly for the first two nights until someone must have listened to our complaint and fixed it. The final indignity happened on checking out when we found out that breakfast had not been included (we had asked for bed and breakfast when we had booked directly with the hotel, so I don't understand why they neglected not to make that clear). Adding an unexpected 25% to our bill certainly soured the return journey home. It's a pity I didn't find these other comments until it was too late.

We stayed at the Royal York in February 2004 and it is certainly not an experience we would wish to repeat. The hotel has an excellent central location but the car- parking space is minimal and costs £5 per day. On entering the hotel our impressions were favourable as the building itself is Victorian and imposing and the décor in the central lobby echoed this. However our good mood was soon to be shattered. We were told that our room was in the annexe, known as the Royal Garden Suite, and we were given directions to reach it. This involved taking a lift to the basement, then a long trek through empty dingy corridors past conference rooms and kitchens, then when we finally reached the annexe, another lift. We had been told to go to the wrong floor but finally located our room. As we had sacrificed the old world grandeur that we had been expecting in the main hotel, we were at least hoping for modern comfort and convenience but we were to be disappointed. Our room was extremely small and all the furniture and décor dated and shabby. There was no mini-bar, safe, air-conditioning, robe or any of the usual amenities that can be expected in a four star hotel and the overall impression was extremely gloomy. In the night we found that the window could only be opened a little by climbing on the furniture to reach it and noises from the corridor and adjacent rooms were highly audible. Needless to say we spent as little time in the hotel as possible. The final indignity came the next morning when we checked out and they tried to charge us for breakfast which we hadn t eaten. We would definitely not stay here again.

I was quite sad to read some of the reviews on this hotel. Agreed, it`s has some renovation to be completed, and it is expensive (as are most city centre hotels?), but renovations were well underway on our visit in March 2004, and they came up trumps with their professional, kind and courteous attention to my mother-in-law, who became seriously ill during our visit. The food, whilst nothing special, was perfectly acceptable and well cooked, and the breakfast superb! I hope the renovations are a success, the hotel regains the status it deserves, and would like to thank the staff for a memorable stay.

My self and my partner first started visiting the Royal York Hotel (Le Meridian as it is now) some 11 years ago, For very special weekend breaks and fell in love with the place. It was everything you could possibly want from a traditional city hotel. The food used to be superb (My partner and our friends still rave about a Chateau Briand they had there 5 or 6 years ago). Our last visit was in January 2004 and we were so disappointed with the food and service we vowed never to return. On arrival on Friday morning we felt we were being treated to a display by the olympic smoking team, A grey haze filled the whole of the ground floor and the place stank of smoke. On checking the (Bad news board) for that day we noted on that day we had the benefit of no less than 8 seminars or meetings. I suppose one plus point was that the smell of fresh paint stifled the smell of smoke in certain parts of the hotel. The evening meal was awful. My partners deep fried goats cheese lacked any cheeese and was obviously straight from the freezer with no preperation. This had to be replaced with soup. The four main courses were only just edible and we could not face desserts. The following morning the buffet style cooked breakfast was tepid and over cooked. On the saturday night we had to use a resteraunt in the town in search of a decent meal. This hotel is trading on past glories and if it feels it wants to devote its self to "Alan Partridges" so be it.Good bye Royal York.

This hotel has got to be one of the most overrated hotels we have ever stayed at. My husband stood on a piece of metal in the swimming pool, my niece could not sleep due to the noise from the function room below, and the staff did not seem to care. Avoid this hotel and save yourself some money by staying somewhere else in York!

I had read the reviews here before I stayed but after I had made the booking. I wanted to keep the reservation because of the proximity to the train station, but I was a bit worried, so I requested a refurbished room on an upper floor. Reception was courteous and they did give us a refurbished room with a gorgeous view of the Minster! It was on floor five, however, and the lift goes only to floor three. I didn't mind the extra exercise, actually. I was bothered by the early morning construction noise outside our room, however. The hotel is being refurbished s-l-o-w-l-y. I can imagine that it used to be very charming, and I actually enjoyed our stay for the most part because I didn't go into it with high expectations. Given time and loving care, this place could really be great! I'd like to see it again a couple of years in the future. Another warning: The breakfast that I assumed was included in the price of the room was extremely expensive. Either get it included with the room or eat elsewhere is my advice.

My wife and I choose the Royal York (Le Meridien now) as it had a swimming pool, a car park and purported to have comfortable rooms. We arrived and were told that as there were no parking spaces available (most given over to day conference guests) we should park on a public, open car park a good walk away. The public car park cost the same five pounds a day that the hotel charged its guests for parking. We were allocated a room in the Royal Garden Suite. After walking over 100 yards along a basement corridor to the annexe (carrying our own cases) we found we were in a 4 or 5 storey "motel" style block with no character. The rooms were only three quarters of the size of a good Travel Inn room although the en suite was fully tiled. Space was definately at a premium. Apart from the buffet style breakfasts we didn't eat in the hotel so can only say that the food we did eat was of a satisfactory standard. To add insult to injury a notice on the wall proudly declared that the gym, including the swimming pool closed on Friday night at 10pm and didn't open again until Monday morning. We, of course, had gone for the weekend.Considering the cost of staying at the Royal York we were very disappointed. Trying to get to reception to check out on our last day we were stranded in the basement when both lifts declined to drop down to our floor ( -1 ) despite waiting over 10 minutes with the lights indicating they were on the ground floor. In the end I walked up the fire escape stairs and pressed the lift button to send it down to the guests below. A very unsatisfactory stay not to be repeated.