What best describes “value for money?”

 

“Value for money” may be a clichéd expression, but it never rings truer than at Rafayel.  Not just a place for leisure or pleasure, our hotel is the perfect place if you are here on short or long business stay.   Rafayel is a complete package, with spacious and beautifully designed rooms, equipped with state-of-the-art intelligent technology, free WiFi, quiet library areas, teeming cigar and shisha lounge on the rooftop terrace, a fully equipped gym, a fantastic spa, and not to forget our famous Banyan on the Thames restaurant that offers a cuisine to delight your senses or our Crystal Bar that mixes some mean never-to-forget cocktails.  Icing on the cake: 50% guest discount at the restaurant and our River Wellbeing Spa.  “Value for money” just can’t get better than this!

The “Rafayel experience” is well summed in this review posted by one of our guests:

 AMAZING HOTEL, ESPECIALLY FOR A LONG BUSINESS STAY

I booked Rafayel for 10 nights while on research trip for work at Kew Gardens and the British Library. The experience from the start was amazing. I was picked up at Clapham Junction with the free shuttle service. I was then escorted to my Amazon Suite room, which is absolutely gigantic. It has touch temperature control, a huge hallway leading to the main room, a large desk, sofa and coffee table. The bathroom was huge as well, the shower enormous. The one issue I had was the water, while hot, was not hot hot. Also, the shower nozzle in my room was hard to turn at times, but this is a minor issue, the main point is that bathroom was HUGE. Bigger than mine at home!! The bed is extremely comfy, and I had a 32 inch flat screen at the foot of the bed, and with a great selection of channels. Huge windows also (although I did not have river view ;-(....Overall, the Amazon Suite is a stunner at the price....another hotel in central London...over £400 easy...which is funny, because its pretty easy to get to central London as the bus number 170 to Victoria runs directly outside the hotel, so it very easy to get to either Clapham Junction, or just straight in to central London on the 170...

Now, this is not all...the hotel had so much more...I am a gym rat, and wanted a hotel with a gym,,,don't be fooled by the limited pics of the gym, its good size, and has all the equipment for a good solid workout. It has a dumbell set up to 20kg, it has a cable machine! and plenty of nice, high grade cardio and nautilus equipment...I love my lifting, and while I could not do squats, bench or deadlift, I still got a good workout....also, it was nice to take a run along the Thames when the weather was nice...Now, after the workout, I hit the Sauna, then Steamroom, and polished it off with the Hot Tub!! Now that is quality...and after I headed back up to my enormous room. Awesome!

Now comes the food. Hotel guests are offered 50% off for dinner if you get a starter and a main...the food is fantastic! Real quality, nicely prepared, and for one person, after the discount, was never more that £20, even when I had the filet mignon with a crab/shrimp starter. The breakfast is good too. Nice selection, and always the full monty on offer....but I am on a strict diet, and still had good option of wholewheat bread, cheese, cold cuts, fruits etc. Coffee is also good!

However, what makes the Rafayel really fantastic, above and beyond all this: the STAFF!! The staff were ALL nice and helpful, always ready with a smile, and nothing was too much to ask. The drives, Iain and Ali were amazing blokes. When I was waiting in line to speak to reception about getting some extra coffee 'sticks' for my room in the morning (I like two cup while I wake up, before breakfast) he came over, asked me what I needed, and then he went upstairs and actually got it from housekeeping himself, and he is the DRIVER!! He went out of his way to do something completely unrelated to his job. That is called service.

Overall, the hotel is in good shape, the rooms and facilites are top notch, as is the food and service. And all for very cheap..ridiculously so....if you're on a long stay in London, and aren't bothered by an extra 20mins to get to central London, and can't spend £400-500 a night for luxury, than this is for. It truly is affordable luxury...whenever I am back in London, I'm always, without question, staying at Rafayel, its that good...Hope this helps fellow travellers!!

Room Tip: Amazon Suite, is sweet!