Knebworth Holidays from NZ$9,915

My husband and I stayed at Riu The Westminster last night - it has fallen incredibly short of the minimum expectation a hotel has placed upon it - a good night’s sleep and good hygiene. We checked in fairly late after going to the theatre - approximately 10:30/10:45pm. We were staying in room 842. On the surface the room appeared clean, I noticed a very slight odour from the shower but nothing to warrant ringing reception at that point. I woke several times, the last time I woke was just after 4:30am to the most horrendous smell - to the point I was nauseous and trying not to retch. We located the smell - the shower. We opened the window, got dressed and telephoned reception - this was approximately 4:45am. Someone arrived at our room to inspect and to pour something down the drain. We asked to swap rooms and were initially told maintenance would be in at 7am. They opened the shower door and immediately agreed we couldn’t stay as the smell was horrendous. After a few minutes he reappeared with who we presume was the night manager, who immediately could smell it too. They were apologetic and we moved rooms to room 919. At 6:48am our door was opened by house keeping - woke us up - startled, we called “hello”. I could see a female member of staff in the mirror. We ended up with about 4 hours sleep. The breakfast would have been average, but was cold so we rank it as poor. It’s not the experience we expected from Riu - we’re certainly not the only ones that have had this issue.

After staying at a number of similarly priced hotels in London, this one stands out. The location and hotel were great. I would definitely recommend this hotel.

Clean and well maintained. Good location close to the South Kensington tube stop. Friendly and helpful staff. For a historic property, it has been nicely updated and modernized.