Richmond Hill Hotel

Expensive for a basic room

The hotel is well located at the top of Richmond Hill with easy access to Richmond Park for walks, and great views over the River Thames. My trip was to stay over following a company Christmas Party. The party was well organised, the food adequate, and we all had a good time. The hotel was quiet inside. Most hotels I stay in, from about 6am, you can hear doors banging - I didn't hear anything in my room. The room had fast, free Wifi, with no "big brother is watching you" warnings (although I am sure they are monitoring your use of the internet).

The hotel is expensive - over £100 for a single room with a single bed. My colleague described his room as the "smallest hotel room in the world" and mine was the same. I would estimate the room was no more than 2.1m wide x 3.5m long. The car park is an additional charge (£8 for the night) yet the hotel is not located anywhere near public transport, so a car is mandatory and should be included in the price. The car parking charge is used to deter hotel booking companies - they are clear that, if you book direct, then you don't pay for the parking, but I doubt this is better value than using Kayak. The room temperature was set at 26 degrees, but it was easy to reduce this to 23 degrees with the wall-mounted controller. The bathroom had a single shower cubicle, sink and toilet. There was no towel rail (the towels were on the windowsill). The shower was adequate on maximum temperature. Certainly not hot. On the day of departure, my bill was presented with a cheeky £1 "charity donation" but no mention of which charity. I asked for this to be removed and it was. Maybe the hotel could donate the parking charge to charity? Finally, the hotel would not provide me with a VAT invoice for the room cost as this had been booked through Kayak.