If it was possible to give negative stars, I would. I made the reservations online at Booking.com…read moretwo days prior to arrival. It was the only hotel left with ocean views and a good price. We walked in and were immediately assailed by very loud Indian music and a strong curry smell. We decided to press forward, they said no ocean views available and put us on the top floor, room 401. We decided to look at the room and discuss. We had a wonderful view of the trash heap on the roof of the building behind. The other thing we noticed was the room door had been kicked in, several times and was repaired but not well. Then there was water on the floor and the worst part was the beds. You sat on it and it sank all the way to the floor. We discussed and told the man at the desk that with those beds and the broken door, we couldn't stay in that room. Did he have another? Referred us to 306, we went to check out the room, we stopped abruptly because there were clothes strewn across the bed, a suitcase open on the floor and a light on in the bathroom. We left quickly and went down in the death trap of an elevator to the desk and told him there must be a mistake, there was someone in that room. He sighed and said, "They checked out, we are just watching their luggage. Did you at least check the beds?" It was almost 9pm at this time, check out is 11am. I questioned this and he proceeded to get more irritated. He said, "Fine, you don't believe me" and "I was going to get the room cleaned for you but you didn't even try out the beds. I'll do whatever you want, I'm at your mercy here." However, he couldn't offer us another room. When we asked for our money back, he would only agree to half. It was late so we accepted that. Went across the street to Premier Inn. Night and day difference. So much better!!
Royal Lion proceeded to not only NOT refund our $181 dollars but charge an additional $113. We had to go through our credit card company to get it back. Booking.com that we booked through told us we had to deal directly with the hotel since they were refusing to give our money back. Horrible experience on an otherwise fantastic vacation. Three weeks, 8 hotels across the entire UK and this is the only one that gave us a bad time. That should tell you something. Apparently, these Indian gentlemen had only taken over the lease a week prior to our stay (per the other hoteliers in the area). I think they should have taken some customer services classes first. I'd give this place a miss if I were you!!