"We went to London for 5 days and wanted a nice 5 star hotel. We found this hotel on the web and saw how cheap it was compared to other 5 start hotels. Everything was great except the area was a bit out of the way"

"The closest Tube was a fairly long walk away ( about 35 minutes) but there was a frequent bus right outside the hotel that went to Victoria so it was ok. A really nice walk was available along the Thames and thanks to the nice weather we did it a few times. We really enjoyed the complimentary little sweet treats we got at the hotel as well. All in all great experience"

"(For general info Management reply- Due to lack of underground facilities Battersea has a reputation of little outside main London, though Bus 170 opposite the hotel takes you to next to Sloane Square and Victoria station in 12-15 minutes, walking to Kings Road is 22 minutes at leisurely pace, we also drop free to Clapham Junction and Clapham common on Northern lime that takes you to heart of London Leicester Square ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester_Square), London city and Wimbledon within 20 minutes))"

“Not 5 star yet…45 minutes to check in as staff hadnt keyed in reservations from late rooms. then showed key to dirty room. room details written on slip of scrap paper. no details of breakfast given.”

*Management Response*

The booking was made at 5 pm on the day of arrival. Since there is no direct connection on our booking engine for lateroom connections, for security purposes Laterooms sends confirmations to us by fax. The reviewer/guest arrived at 7:01. In between 5 pm and 7:01, unfortunately the fax was missed, and was not received until 7:11 pm and promptly entered into our reservations system.

It was all purely an error of communication. The reviewer was then given a room which he did not like, so we straight away offered him another. The reference made to a “small piece of scrap paper” is part of our eco saving policy because we can reuse plastic cards with covers. Plastic cards with cover can be reused. Therefore room numbers are issued on a small piece of paper simply because in case a card with cover is lost we are able to use it again. Even our magnetic cards are biodegradable and have a long life.

If you print them, then 65 rooms means waste of nearly 20,000 covers a year, which absolutely goes against our eco philosophy, never mind the fact that we maintain a very good control to preserve our eco credentials.

Our slogan saves us unnecessary wastage. It would be important to note that even though it was a same-day reservation, the reviewer got rock bottom prices. And when he didn’t like the original room, we offered another immediately. He himself has rated the cleanliness and room quality of the hotel very highly.

If he found our service a little lacking, we apologize for the inconvenience caused. However, we would like to let our reviewer know that the delay in booking was only caused due to miscommunication and not through any fault of the hotel. We take every customer claim and feedback very seriously based on which we try to improve our hospitality standards to the best of our efforts.

"lovely looking hotel but no choice and noisey next to heliport..."

*Management Response*

Dear guest,

Thank you for your patronage, and stay at the Hotel Rafayel.

"While we appreciate your positive comments and on our part do our best to implement all our guests’ suggestions to further improve our services, our innovative business and management policies where intellectual honesty supersedes everything else, also demand that we correct any assumptions our guests may make that could prove misleading to the public."

With all due respect, we take exception to some of your comments where it is implied you were misled about our location and/or services offered, and accordingly have taken the liberty to respond.

If you sought us out through the net, you must have visited our website, in which we are very clear about our location and about taking great pride in being a Battersea business and why. Rather, we have gone over and beyond pretty turn of phrases and highlighted our weaknesses. Please check out what people have to say and in some instances about the location: http://www.hotelrafayel.com/whatpeoplesay.php, although we don’t think it is an issue, given that we have tried to overcome transportation impediment perceived by some and enhanced our services three-fold by offering complimentary shuttle services to both Clapham Common and Clapham Junction, which then takes you to most popular stops of the city within an average of between 10-25 minutes depending on your location of choice. Or you can take a brisk walk along the river bank and reach King’s Road within 15 minutes. We have never pretended to be a Chelsea business, but are right opposite to it. Battersea will soon host the new American Embassy premises that are due to be completed in Nine Elms Corridor.

We cannot reiterate enough how proud of where we are, but are fully aware of certain limitations people perceive that we have striven to overcome. This is the reason our website is laden with information on Battersea so as not to keep our guests misinformed by omission. Please check our site at: http://www.hotelrafayel.com/index.php. Notwithstanding this fact, our guests would appreciate that the prices we offer are incomparable to any other hotel in West End or Knightsbridge given the spaciousness of our rooms – from 220-700 sq.ft. If you had requested a smaller room (on the lower side of 220 sq.ft.), you probably paid less than £100. For deluxe luxurious rooms like ours, you would probably pay four times the price at any West End hotel.

Being rated the “most beautifully designed” hotel, or as being “among the top ten for the most beautiful views,” our guests would acknowledge and appreciate that our prices include, over and above these citations, that we take great pride in not only offering very airy rooms, but the best beds, the best televisions, the fastest internet speed, the best technology, a gym and Wellbeing spa considered to offer cutting edge treatments, with our restaurant rated so highly on Toptable.com, and hospitality gestures such as free organic iced tea and cupcakes on guest arrival, and so much more – all built into cutthroat prices that are aptly encapsulated in the phrase “affordable luxury.” We are discounting prices up to 50-60%! And offer free services to our guests to facilitate transport and commutes.

Secondly, we take exception to your comment on the noise from the heliport. Our website clearly states in various places that we are right next to the heliport on the south bank of the River Thames, with photographs of helicopters landing at the heliport. Our hotel’s design had to implement the highest acoustic installation standards demanded under the council’s stringent planning permission. The windows are tightly sealed and the room is fully insulated to keep out any noise.
Thirdly, our restaurant, Banyan on the Thames, does serve a limited menu for lunch but it is not restricted to six Indian dishes, like: Tilapia fish cakes, Cromer crab, mango and king prawn, hot smoked salmon, duck breast salad, 3 spice chicken tikka Banyan Style, free range chicken Caesar salad, classic Greek salad (all with exotic herbs and spices) tomato and mozzarella, various pasta and rice dishes, fish and chips Banyan style, tender pieces of monkfish fried in lime and coriander tempura batter, fillet of sashimi tuna, sweet chilli beef with jasmine rice, an assortment of delicious filling sandwiches, and a variety of indulgent desserts. Our dinner menu is far more elaborate affair with a wonderful variety of main courses to choose from. Therefore, to dismiss Banyan, a restaurant that has been top-diner rated on Toptable.com in a short span of 120 days since opening, an achievement not enjoyed by many, is unfair. The restaurant has 228 recommendations already on a sensitive barometer like http://www.toptable.com/en-gb/venue/?id=14170! Not many restaurants have gained such a huge following in so little time.

The purpose of this response is to gently correct the assumptions you have made and to make clear to our future guests that Hotel Rafayel has taken great pains to highlight factual accuracies which would help them take an educated decision to choose Rafayel. Your views are certainly valuable and we are grateful to the high praise you have accorded to the quality and beauty of Rafayel. Our hotel ethos is to run our business with intellectual honesty and transparency and this is the spirit in which this response has been written.

We thank you once again.

Kind regards,
The Management

Hotel Rafayel on the Left Bank.

"45 minutes to check in as staff hadnt keyed in reservations from late rooms…then showed key to dirty room. room details written on slip of scrap paper..."

*Management Response*

Dear guest,

Thank you for your patronage, and stay at the Hotel Rafayel.

"The booking was made at 5 pm on the day of arrival. Since there is no direct connection on our booking engine for lateroom connections, for security purposes Laterooms sends confirmations to us by fax. The reviewer/guest arrived at 7:01. In between 5 pm and 7:01, unfortunately the fax was missed, and was not received until 7:11 pm and promptly entered into our reservations system. It was all purely an error of communication. The reviewer was then given a room which he did not like, so we straight away offered him another. The reference made to a “small piece of scrap paper” is part of our eco saving policy because we can reuse plastic cards with covers. Plastic cards with cover can be reused. Therefore room numbers are issued on a small piece of paper simply because in case a card with cover is lost we are able to use it again. Even our magnetic cards are biodegradable and have a long life. If you print them, then 65 rooms means waste of nearly 20,000 covers a year, which absolutely goes against our eco philosophy, never mind the fact that we maintain a very good control to preserve our eco credentials. Our slogan saves us unnecessary wastage. It would be important to note that even though it was a same-day reservation, the reviewer got rock bottom prices. And when he didn’t like the original room, we offered another immediately. He himself has rated the cleanliness and room quality of the hotel very highly. If he found our service a little lacking, we apologize for the inconvenience caused. However, we would like to let our reviewer know that the delay in booking was only caused due to miscommunication and not through any fault of the hotel. We take every customer claim and feedback very seriously based on which we try to improve our hospitality standards to the best of our efforts."

We thank you once again.

Kind regards,
The Management

Hotel Rafayel on the Left Bank.
http://www.laterooms.com/en/p1301/pv00006w/hotel-reviews/197700_hotel-rafayel-london.aspx

"Modern Version of Faulty Towers…Room was changed, but the airconditioning didn't work that well in ..."

*Management’s following response to this review remains unpublished*
"...The systems are controlled by VDA leading technology; sometimes, due to its latest version, if a system is not properly handled, it acts erratically.  Therefore, to avoid any discomfort to the guest, we have deputed a 24-hour service to address any such concerns. We don’t see any complaint from you during your stay logged on our data for room temperature; but if you still suffered, please accept our deepest apologies..."

"Plenty of other places to stay that are better…So the hotel is fine, but with unnecesarily small beds, though ... "

*Management response*
"Our beds are from Hypnos known as Queens bed, known as the best in the hospitality trade…We have only 5 of beds that are 1.40 wide as highlighted by the guest; these are located in some of our standard rooms. Our standard room is 220 sq-ft and to create an office desk space plus a small sitting place that contains hi-fi internet access and a media hub we did compromise on 1.40 by 2.00 m bed in these rooms, but yet no compromise was made on quality of the beds.
We do offer free drop off to Clapham common tube station, Clapham South and Clapham Junction, that helps our guests a lot…"

"Failed to impress…I'm sorry this had to happen as this hotel has such potential but still has so much more to learn!"

*Management Response*
…We do accept the problem of pollution in Thames, but I hope it is recognised that this is beyond our control, we have even planted reefbed and done lot of work on this encatchment and will continue to do so. On a smaller scale we try our utmost to keep 'Thames' free from debris, therefore the hotel maintains a plastic free policy…
…The second photo is that of portion above the bar that has a screw so that Jacuzzis and power controls remain hidden and safe. The screw was left open for monthly maintenance of the Jacuzzi…
We are constantly trying to improve and we hope our guests will provide us the opportunity to reach to our potential, the very reason we changed the rooms twice and upgraded to the best of our ability demonstrate our eagerness towards guest care…