The Royal Station Hotel Newcastle, Balmoral

We came to say for our annual mum and son holiday! My six year old absolutely loved staying in a fancy hotel and the fact that he could see the trains coming into the station from our room. Two minute walk from the station too which is great when you come by train. We ate in the restaurant, food was amazing (tapas was so good!) and the staff were really friendly. Lewis and Catherine served us and were super sweet chatting to my son, allowing him time to order for himself and praising his colouring in. Really fantastic service!

When I checked in, I was told my room was on the 4th floor but what they failed to mention was when you get out the lift at the fourth floor you then have to climb a further two flights of stairs as the room is actually in the roof. This wasn’t and issue for us but may be an issued for anyone with mobility difficulties. The room itself was tired looking and generally clean, However the bath was stained (there had obviously been water left in there at some point) and several hairs. This in itself wasn’t a huge issue. The real issue began when we returned to our room after attending the New Year celebrations on the Quayside. The hotel is situated in a busy part of town and as it was New year we did expect some noise. However, the single glazed window in the room offered no protection at all from the noise which was unbearable and made it impossible to sleep. To make matters worse the room was freezing cold, and we could not get warm. We eventually decided in the early hours we could take the cold and noise no longer and packed our things to leave. As we approached reception the young man ask if it was the street noise bothering us so I explained yes but also the freezing cold temperature. He stood looking very sheepish and made no effort to try and rectify the problems, so we handed in our keys and left. Never have I stayed in a hotel so bad I had to leave in the middle of the night so the next day I emailed the hotel to which I received a reply say its was New years eve so nothing they can do about noise and also, we refused the offer of extra duvet and heater for the room. I email back pointing out that it is not unreasonable to expect a hotel of this type of location to have double or secondary glazing which would have reduced the noise level and pointed out that at no point were we offered anything to rectify the cold. The hotel have not bothered to acknowledge or reply to my email…truly customer service at its worst!!! So, my advice to anyone looking to book a stay at this hotel DO NOT waste your money and book somewhere else.