We were delighted when guest Mr Lee Ruddin (pictured below) offered to send us a write up of his stay recently, and so we decided to share his experience as an RCH guest here in our blog!
“A Dacia-driving guest could feel like an interloper when pulling up outside The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa given the number of Range Rovers and Teslas parked at the apex (Nos. 15 & 16) of the semi-elliptical curve of 30 Grade I-listed townhouses. Yet Head Concierge Mark Hanks instantly made us feel at ease when retorting that the Sandero was probably worth more than the valet chit – exchanged for car keys – depending upon how much petrol it contained! (There was a fuel crisis in late September due to a lack of tanker drivers delivering to forecourts.)
This human interaction, albeit short and simple, was like a luminescence that positively glowed on a grey autumn day as we rattled our dripping umbrellas in the foyer. This is no mean feat in the age of coronavirus, when customers are increasingly deferred to chatbots, and when staff at certain other reputable and luxurious hotels seem to have perfected hostility, citing the pandemic as an excuse for a lack of services/facilities. This isn’t to say that the RCH is indifferent; it’s a COVID-secure environment, to be sure, which only lifted restrictions on pre-booking spa slots in early October. When my companion and I did don our gown and slippers, we wondered why we followed the throngs of staycationers to a much-hyped local tourist spa (15 minutes’ walk away), for the latter is as overrated as the former is understated, with only the monastic-looking, zen-inducing space back at the Royal Crescent Hotel and Spa (pictured) providing relief to our cobbled street-worn feet.
But this shouldn’t have surprised us since the RCH is a byword for subtle elegance. Planning law prohibits non-discreet signage at the hotel’s frontage meaning the remarkable venue remains largely unmarked. Yet our eyes were drawn repeatedly – from the moment we checked in until the moment we checked out – to the tastefully decorated, commodious room (with handwritten name on the door, unlocked with a key rather than a swipe card that malfunctions, behind which Georgian period-style prints adorn the walls) and the tasteful cuisine in the classy yet cosy surroundings of the anything but dour Dower House.
First-class service ensures I’ll be booking a second visit to this five-star establishment that blends eighteenth-century heritage with twenty-first-century amenities.”
Mr Ruddin was not paid (nor paid in kind) for his guest blog post, which he kindly sent to us of his own volition.
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