Hotel Rafayel Reviews

Room was fantastic,staff where great and the gym/spa facilities where fantastic,would recommend it to anyone who wants to do the whole London sight seeing thing, hotel was 1/2mile from Clapham junction station which was one stop away from Victoria station which is at the heart of everything, had a fantastic stay and can't wait to do it again

From the friendly staff on arrival and throughout our stay to the quality of the room including the fantastic bathroom the experience was a memorable one. Secure car parking at the hotel although not included in the room cost is good value for money when you consider other London hotels. The free shuttle service to the nearby Station was most welcome. A very enjoyable weekend made even more special by the reception staff, many thanks.

The hotel was well presented and the room was clean and fresh (as you would expect from a 5*. The usual facilities with a great double aspect room with floor to ceiling windows. Staff were polite and freindly, I would recommend this hotel but would think twice about returning myself as a little too far from the underground. A shuttle car was put on free to ferry you back & forth but can be booked up and runs every half an hour so you have to plan ahead. The breakfast was lovely and plenty of it.

The Hotel is a little disconnected from London Transport (although they do offer a free shuttle from and to clapham junction). Its not 5 star but a good 4 star with good quality of fittings and furnishings with a spa / gym etc on tap. The restaurant the Banyan is however truly awful (particularly in terms of service) we left after no main meals after waiting 1hr and 50mins (and it wasn't particularly busy). It was such a shame as the restaurant has a great view. The owner even walked the floor but seemed to be completely oblivious to the quality of his waiting staff.... if he wants a 5* experience he should hire 5* staff....

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I cannot fault the hotel for quality of rooms and service. A lovely position next to the Thames with free pre-bookable transport to Clapham Common and Clapham Junction. If arriving at Clapham Junction, catch the 170 bus which drops you outside the hotel. Food can be excellent but seems to depend on the chef on duty as the same dish may be excellent or disappointing depending on the day. On both my stays I have been automatically upgraded which was a nice surprise. Thoroughly recommended.

We wondered about the location of the hotel on booking but our fears were immediately allayed on arrival. This is a beautiful hotel. Our room was booked as partial river view but in reality we had a good view of the river. Our room was extremely spacious even with the provided travel cot and extra bed. There were lovely touches such as a proper baby duvet and fleece blanket for the cot we had requested and little brightly coloured animal stickers put on the shower floor for my grandson My bed was so comfortable and my daughter reports the extra put up bed was better than most ! The room was beautifully decorated and bathroom was large with quality fittings.
The hotel is finished to a high standard and much thought has obviously been given to both decor and fittings giving an overall feeling of quiet elegance.
Our meal was flawless , staff in the restaurant were so helpful and gave us a quiet corner as we had my sleeping grandson in his pram . The view of the Thames from the restaurant was lovely .
I normally visit other hotels more centrally located in London but this would now be my hotel of choice when in London on business or pleasure

We have stayed in London a lot recently and normally the west end. We felt a bit isolated here as you really need a car to go anywhere. You can't even get a coffee unless you walk 15 mins. They say they are 5 star but hav'nt the basics in customer service. If you dont get a 'partial river view room you end up pulling the curtains to the big yellow storage centre and jewson. Spa poor. Sorry but would of rather paid a bit more for a true London hotel. No atomsphere.

Standard rooms not located conveniently as overlooking valet area so u cannot relax or get changed without doing curtains!!! After much complaining we managed to change rooms. Jacuzzi not big at all and only allows 3 people at a time and u feel rushed when someone else is waiting. Nowhere to eat around the area which is walking distance.

Room was modern, decorated well and very spacious. Bed was comfortable. Ipod dock very useful. Great walk in large shower (although a bit complicated to work).
Staff very pleasant on arrival and throughout stay. Would definitely visit this hotel again.
Didn't try free spa facilities but they sounded great.

Amazing and I will stay here again

Great hotel with a genuine 5 star experience. Staff are fantastic and the free gym is a real experience with good quality equipment

Room was superb - beautifully equipped, but there are residential flats above and there was a student party on the Saturday night at 4am!! Also the location isn't ideal. Clapham Junction is a 15 minute walk (or 5 minute free shuttle if booked 30 minutes prior) - but the best part of 30 minutes trains into the centre of London, including using the Overground service, which late at night can mean a 30 minute wait!!
Shame you can't pick the hotel up and move nearer to centre...or a tube station!!

Stayed at the Rafayel on Sat 28th Jan and it was not the experience I had been hoping for. When I booked on 12th Jan I emailed and also telephoned with one request - A river view room. I had also booked a Deluxe room and upon arrival at 3pm on Sat was told by the receptionist that unfortunately our river room was not available and so they had upgraded us to an apartment. This was on the 9th floor overlooking a builders merchants yard and a view of South London - not the Thames. I was then told that my booking had stated 'urban view- deluxe room' so I should have known that the urban view was not river-side. Hello but isn't every London hotel view an urban one??!! When I pointed out that all I requested was a river view and a luxury bedroom and ensuite bathroom - not an apartment with three large cold rooms / kitchen /corridor /living room! It certainly wasn't 5 star as the bath had chipped areas on it and the floor was very squeaky.The lighting in the bedroom was no where near the mirror so difficult to apply make-up. ( poor lighting in bathroom too)( I felt like I was at home not in a luxury hotel.) very disappointed. All the doors were fire safety so banged shut ever single time and there was vinyl wood effect flooring so the atmosphere was cold. Not what I had asked for at all. The final straw was that when I ran a bath at 6pm the water was cold . The engineer arrived but it was too late to fix the problem as it was going to take too long to get hot and we had a taxi booked for 8.30pm. So I had a cold shower. Upon returning at 1pm I had another cold shower as the my partner had an extremely hot shower!!! Thank goodness the bed was comfy.
The management gave us a 50% discount on the bill and apologised . But to be honest it was too much too late. I feel they should have told me about the room prior to arrival and I would have looked at an alternative hotel.

Great location on the banks of the Thames, I have stayed here on several occassions now and never been disapointed.

Amazing place to stay!!!! it - was lovely for our anniversary and well worth a visit.
The view of the Thames from room 124 was amazing, and so were the cupcakes!
Can't recommend it enough.
And the best shower ever!!!

This hotel is one of the best value 5 star hotels in London. modern large rooms with all you need. good mattress. Location a 10 minute bus ride to Victoria or short free shuttle to clapham common. Only downside is that there is not much around the hotel. ie no typical high street so you need to jump in taxi or bus for 5 mins if you want to go out. this suits me as. I have stayed 4 times so that says a lot.

First I have to say Ali the driver was fantastic! The staff on the desk seem a little under trained but very willing to help - 5* should mean top quality staff though so unforgivable on the part of management. The double room was a bit scruffy with blistered formica and visible screw heads and the superior room had a bit of a hiccup with the bathroom TV but it was the noise coming up from reception was the real blight! The breakfast was truly awful - full english in 5* should be outstanding especially at £15 - where was the service, the variety? And the hash browns were cooked in dirty fat which made them truly inedible. Butter in a plastic packet? Fruit cut up too early so dry and brown? Poor quality cereal? No croissants? Sliced bread? No eggs? And there was no vegetarian option to be seen..Hellooooo!!!!!! This isn't even a 3* breakfast. The price was good as we got a special offer, would have been very upset to have paid full price.

Hotel was clean & modern. Bed linens were spotless, as was the bathroom. Requested extra milk in the room on arrival, which was delivered instantly. However, a request for additional coffee the following morning, went unaccommodated.
Waited an unacceptable length of time for the car to be brought back to us. When I queried why we were waiting so long, we were told the car was ready and waiting. Unfortunately, the car which was "ready & waiting" was someone else's.
Attempted to pay, on arrival, with a debit card, but there was a problem, so I paid cash. However, I rec'd a phone call today from my bank alerting me that the hotel had attempted to swipe my card without a PIN, and therefore my bank would not authorise the transaction.
Language difficulties on front desk, albeit pleasant and sociable.
Main gripe: Requested a taxi that evening, and was bundled into a vehicle by the doorman, only to be told by the driver that it was not our cab. We were subsequently scrambled into the vehicle behind, which wasn't clean, my rear seat belt failed to lock, and we were raced at speed in a direction unfamilar to us, only to be asked by the driver how to get to our destination! It was less than 0.5 miles away, but we were charged £9!! The hotel should be aware of this, and the safety of their guests should be paramount. I felt neither safe, nor confident of where we would end up.
Having said all that, I do not believe these issues to be insurmountable, and with some tweaking, this hotel could potentially give a first class service.

We were lucky as on arrrival we were upgraded to a Junior Suite and what a fantastic room. The only tiny issue was that the TV in the bathroom did not work but hey probably could not hear it anyway over the noise of the jacuzzi. If you want to impress your partner then this room is a definite winner. My girlfriend made little whooping noises as soon as I opened the door. A late check out made it a fantastic night and very relaxing morning most of which was spent in the bathroom which was almost as big as the bedoom itself. Awesome.

A new hotel with character, great staff and wonderful food. It has a great feel about the place, rooms are spacious and modern, bar and resturant lively and in the summer the outside seating areas in the roof terrace and on the banks of the Thames offer good choices.

Great room. Tv in bathroom didnt work .We aslo had to ask a couple of times for the same thing ie tvs were not working and more milk eventually was all sorted .

Beyond the "art" the room was over priced even at a discounted rate, I have paid less for the same quality. That being said, it was very local to clapham junction.

Stayed at the Hotel in 10, 11 November. Visited to go and see Fourplay Jazz at the Clapham Grand. The band seemed to think that the hotel was good as they had also booked in.
Rooms well appointed with quality fixtures and selective mood lighting. Extremely comfortable bed and the food was very good at 50% discount if you are a hotel guest.
Met up with the band after the gig and shared a few beers. Fantastic place to stay. Enjoy the Spa.

Very nice hotel, made better by the free upgrade, although due to distance from the main transport links it seemed the hotel had plenty of spaces and everyone got an upgrade. The hotel did try to make up for its isolated position but only ran a shuttle to the nearest overground station up until 7pm.

Great room & good value,although breakfast very disappointing!

Inspired interiors. Large comfortable rooms, with tasteful decor and sharp modern feel. Restaurant overlooking the river. Did not use the spa. Good value overall. Being a 10 min walk away from the rail network is a small sacrifice, especially as Clapham Junction leads so quickly to the City and West End. Will definitely use again.

The hotel itself, the rooms and quality was great.
However we hit a number of things i wouldnt expect when spending nearly £300 a night.
1./ When we called on the day to ask the best way to get to the hotel from oxford circus, the reception staff spoke such scattered english we couldnt get to understanding our options
2./ On arrival there was a desk which looked like it may be a concession stand. There were 2 guys that looked like staff there arguing which didnt do much to the atmosphere
3./ We ordered a taxi to get us to our restaurant booking. Reception forgot to book it and it took 40mins meaning we arrived with 5mins to spare. There went the pre-meal drink we had planned
4./ The jacuzzi bath had a part that was loose and the side sprays didnt work
5./ Our breakfast in bed (at nearly £30) arrived cold

It was nice to see great reviews before I booked this hotel but everything about the reviews and what the hotel promised was more than fulfilled. Whilst only a brief stay - lovely courteous staff, a wonderful room with everything you needed, very reasonable parking cost and great location and the courtesy lifts to the station a lovely extra touch. Faultless and trying to find reasons to stay again and this time to try the restaurant too!

Room was exceptionally clean,
Staff were very polite and helpful when needed,
Everything you could want was at hand, thoroughly enjoyed my stay!

Very warm welcome, impressive mod cons in room and central location to all of londons attractions, just wish we could have stayed longer!

What an excellent surprise it was finding this hotel. Awesome stay and what value for money. Cant recommend highly enough.

I have been working in London for 18 years and staying every week in hotels, not very often do I come out of a stay 100% satisfied. One or two apartments have been close but this hotel is in a different league, yes its 5 star but its worthy of them and the prices are reasonable to say the least. Yes its not close to a Tube Station, yes its not right in the centre of London but boy they try very hard to make you forget that with polite staff, complimentary shuttle to Clapham Junction, 50% off at the restaurant overlooking the Thames, rooms and facilities which are just so well thought out. I have already booked a few more stays and I'll be bringing the girlfriend next time too. So to summarise, if you want to stay in a lovely hotel and you don't need to be in walking distance from the London attractions and you don't care if the tube station is not close give it a go, I will be surprised if you don't like it ...

We enjoyed our second stay in this hotel. We dined in the restaurant and were very impressed with the quality of the food and as there was a discount for hotel guests the cost was also reasonable. The room was spacious and comfortable with a sofa and table which was useful. Would recommend this hotel to anyone wishing to stay in London.

Lovely hotel, very stylish, great service and the shuttle service to Clapham made it fine.

It was a good hotel with a nice decor. I do not think it was 5 star as it looked like it was kited out from ikia. Also it was no a green hotel because when u left the room the lights and air con came on by its self. I think it would help if the people at the othere end of the phone could speak better english. Also £15 for the all english breakfast was a joke for the size of it. Over all nice hotel good size shower room and for what u get good value for money

My mother and I arrived at The Rafayel at 10pm on a Friday night, following a gruelling 20hr flight from the Far East. The cab could not get us near the hotel entrance as there seemed to be a line of empty cars parked outside. There was no-one at reception, and no staff were in evidence anywhere to ask for help. It was a full 15mins before anyone arrived. No apology or explanation was given. No-one helped us with our (many) bags to our room, we were just told we were on the 2nd floor and left to find it. Very hungry, we decided to order room service, the restaurant being closed! The choice was terrible, If you don't like chicken, don't bother. We ordered 2 sandwiches, which when they arrived were wrong...too tired to argue we ate them anyway, they were horrible! Warm damp bread and limp salad...the chips, at least were o.k......but no sauce or condiments were offered. We then had to call down to ask someone to show us how to turn on the shower. Whilst a "hi tech" bathroom may look good, if you can't turn on the knobs OR decipher the woefully inadequate instructions, it's useless! Someone came, eventually, and turned on the shower, which was impossible to control. We took your shuttle to Clapham the next day, and really your driver is your most shining asset! At last the polite, professional service we were expecting from a hotel of this standard. That evening (5pm) We went up to the Spa, hoping for a relaxing massage.There we were informed that unless you booked at LEAST 1 MONTH IN ADVANCE you could not have ANY of the offered treatments. You can't even use the pool after 8pm as it has to be accessed via the spa. How can you advertise all of these facilities if actually they are not provided at all!? We hated The Rafayel so much that we cut our stay short and went to stay in the spare room of a friend. NOT the way we wanted to end our lovely holiday at all. On checking out we raised our complaints with the girl on reception, who refunded us our room service bill. However really an explanation/apology would have been better. I have to say, I had the impression it was not the 1st complaint reception had dealt with that day. In fact the couple checking out near us were also complaining. We travelled all over Cambodia before coming to The Rafayel and even in the most basic hotels there, we received better service than with you. We would never grace your establishment again and will certainly tell all our friends of our bad experience. I have written a Review, in the hope that others do not suffer the same bad experience as ourselves.

Stayed two nights and can recommend this hotel,it is clean ,spacious rooms with great river views ,very comfortable high tec rooms all with mod cons,mini bar and fantastic bathrooms ,power showers tv in bath tub !! Only downside the hotel is a fair way out of the centre of london but the hotel runs a free complimentary shuttle service to the nearest tube station which is clapham common which is 10 mins by there shuttle car and did not cause us any problems wht soever you just ringa nd they turn up and collect you and drop you off ,all in all best hotel and service we have stayed at for several years and we are fairly well travelled people both in th uk and internationally

Arrived late circa 10pm and staff were friendly and efficient. Room was larger than I expected and was fitted out to a high standard. For business travel it was perfect and a tourist would be very pleased also.
The restaurant had an special offer (effectively half price) and for this price the food was good value - and very good. The staff were fine, but catching their eye required more effort than subtlety.
The only complaint was the various noises in the room. The a/c system, even on low speed, was too audible, more air noise than machine noise. Having turned that off, it was the turn of the LED drivers, buzzing away in the background.
Nevertheless a good stay, good value (at the Late Rooms price of around 30% of the normal rate), and will use again.

Never disappointed by this hotel. Can't fault it.
A few drinks with friends on the Thames side terrace is a great way to end the day.