As you'll have picked up from the other reviews, the Royal Hotel is in the centre of Cardiff, and suffers most of the problems associated with the convenient location. It is both above and opposite pubs (the one across the road is a Wetherspoons), and although I didn't stay on a Friday or Saturday night, I really wouldn't want to. Even on a Tuesday night the street noise provided a constant background, with occasional yells and catcalls throughout the night. The advertised "triple glazing" (double secondary glazing inside period windows) can only do so much, although the blackout curtains do an excellent job of shutting out the light. On the bright side, you're only seconds away from somewhere to eat or drink.

Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to have wooden floors in the rooms? I accept it must be easier for cleaning, and it does look quite stylish, but every footstep (particularly in heels) is amplified ten-fold, and as for dropping something... my apologies to the people below me. The cleaning was OK although half my towels went missing halfway through my stay, and I inherited the "spa products" of the person using the room before me. My hairdryer only blew cold air, and was hardwired into the wall and therefore not easily replaceable. The toilet provided a constant rumble until I worked out the trick of resetting it, and the shower screen leaked water across the floor (perilously close to the electric towel rail!). Internet access was hardwired and expensive, and the television gave terrestrial channels only. A radio of some sort would be useful to screen the street sounds - I ended up sleeping with my headphones in, listening to my MP3 player.

The breakfast was OK although I found the staff a bit busy chatting among themselves to deal with the pesky customers. It took me ages to get a cup of coffee each morning.

All in all, a very average city centre hotel. Next time I'll probably give Cardiff Bay a try instead.

The hotel was tired. The staff were sloppy with one or two exceptions, and someone needed to use the vacuum in the public areas. The room was reasonable but gave you the impression it needed a good scrub! Safe was locked , one robe and no one cleans behind the taps. It is not as good as the Park Plaza or the St Davids, and both of these were cheaper. After our night out we returned at 03.00 but could not get back in as no one was on the reception. I physically forced the magnetic lock on the door and found the receptonist vacuuming with a very small vacuum!!! He was suprised but said he could not hear our constant buzzing. The continental breakfast left an awful lot to be desired, and at 10.20am they had run out of food to supply any guest with a cooked breakfast. The whole set up appeared to be in dissaray. Another party we met at the hotel had been double booked. A plus...good location for Le Monde. I will not stay here again.

We stayed here for 3 nights, having booked and received a good price for a "deluxe double room". I had wanted to stay here since delivering a training course a year previously in the Captain Scott room of the hotel, and was impressed by the public areas at that time.
The hotel has so much going for it- the location is fantastic, it is a stone's throw from bus and train stations with the NCP car park around the corner. It is a five minute walk to the castle, and an even quicker walk to the excellent restaurants and bars in the Brewery Quarter, so much so you can happily wear "car to bar" shoes for your night out. Try the Spice Quarter, Thai Edge and Bali- all wonderful places to eat.
The Captain Scott room where we had breakfast the first morning is very impressive and the reception and bar area are spacious and airy. The decor is modern and everywhere is clean. It should be perfect in every way- it isn't, because you get the feel of extreme penny pinching going on for everything.
On arrival the lift to the reception was out of order and a sign proclaimed there was no date for the lift to be fixed. Why not? There was just no way you could stay here with mobility problems but there was nothing on the hotel's website about this. Fortunately we are able bodied but beware they are 49 (we counted) steep steps in 5 flights, not fun with even the smallest amount of luggage.
Check in was fine, pleasant receptionist. We had asked for a room as high up as possible as we knew that St Mary's Street can be noisy given the amount of bars. We were on the 7th floor and the room was very quiet at all times. We had 3 windows which did not open but there was air-conditioning which could not be adjusted to lower than 19 degrees. When we arrived it was a very warm day and the air con had been turned off so the room was very hot and stuffy, it took a while for it to cool down.
The website had promised a cafetiere, and bathrobes, neither of which were there. The safe was locked shut. There was one handtowel, one bathtowel and a bathmat in the bathroom. There were 5 tiny jars of toiletries, none of which were replenished throughout our stay. I have no idea what was the difference between the double and the deluxe. The bed was very comfortable but we had to ask for an extra pillow as the ones provided were very flat.
In fact the housekeeping was very hit-and-miss- one day you would get 4 towels, one day one towel. If we had started asking for things that were missing we would never have stopped. One day you could not even tell they had been in- the quilt on the bed looked just as we had left it.
The safe was sorted out quickly and cheerfully.
So was the toilet paper that we ran out of, housekeeping having left us with a very small amount.
The bathroom is very modern but the extractor fan is not very effective, so much so there is quite a bit of black mould on the bath and between the tiles.
The shower is terribly erratic- sometimes it would cut out completely while in use.
The internal lift was working and was very efficient.
Breakfast the first day was in the Captain Scott Room. When we entered there were no servers to be seen. There were yoghurts and cereals and cold meats and cheese, croissants and muffins. The fruit juice dispensers every morning had about an inch of juice in. Once an item was gone, it was never replenished and this was an hour before the end of breakfast. We asked for 2 coffees and got 1 coffee and 1 tea. 2 racks of toast arrived, and we enjoyed our breakfast the first day. The second day it was a farce- there was no bread or bread rolls, we asked for toast but the server forgot our order, it was a struggle to get another cup of coffee, on each morning a woman in a suit came in and rearranged the remaining items but did not put any more out, just tried to make the buffet look bigger than it was.
The servers were more concerned with clearing away the tables than with actually serving the guests.
On the third morning we just didn't bother, we got our breakfast from Starbucks across the street.
One was left with the impression that what was done was the minimum possible acceptable, which was pretty poor as it is by no means cheap to stay at this hotel.
Overall, we did enjoy our stay, but with a little more care and less penny pinching this hotel would be great.

Arrived Friday 9th May for Birthday celebrations. Lift was out of order so had to climb about 50 stairs to get to reception, Room was okay. Bathroom was better. Flat screen tv. Safe wasn't working. Bed made badly. Went for breakfast on Saturday morning and had full english at extra cost of £4 which to be honest was well worth it. Shame they didn't continually fill the orange juice dispenser as i was a little parched!!! The lifts weren't fixed during our stay and in fact another internal lift broke whilst we were there. It got a bit much towards the end constantly going up and down those stairs but to be fair the receptionist was lovely and so was the night manager. Not the best hotel i have stayed in and not the worst. If i was to return to Cardiff I would check out the Angel hotel nearby as it had parking included and or the Holiday Inn or Hilton.