Leonardo Royal Hotel Oxford

excellent lunch This hotel has been through many reincarnations but I think Leonardo Hotels have now got it right. Lovely spacious lobby, pleasant and helpful staff. Toilets are on lower ground floor and bar/restaurant on first floor. There is also another more formal restaurant. Leisure center on site. Cool and space between tables in the bar for privacy. Masses of function spaces. Very large and full car park. Over 200 bedrooms so I look forward to staying there. Food was an excellent standard, especially the salmon. The waitress struggled with getting our order correct, she was writing it down on a scrappy piece of paper - just needs more training. Otherwise a positive first visit.

Terrible customer service Extremely rude and unhelpful staff, with zero customer service skills. Staying on Friday 4th July for one night and want to extend that stay for a second night on Saturday 5th July. I rang hotel and chose option 1, I explained I was already staying on Friday and wanted to extend for a second night. I was told repeatedly I couldn't book for one night (even though I am already staying and wanted to stay longer). She told me to call back and choose option 6 for reception. I did and I explained again that I was part of a booking for Friday evening and wanted to stay longer and was willing to pay over the phone or arrnage for the group booker to call and arrange. The guy on reception told me it wasn't possible, even though they have availability, the computer was saying the hotel 'was closed for an event'. I explained that I can book online on several hotel booking sites to stay on Saturday and Sunday evening or Friday and Saturday evening, which clearly meant there was availability for Saturday. I understood if I was trying to book one night but I am already a guest on Friday and simply want to extension my stay and pay the hotel more money. Clearly I don't want to pay for 2 nights when Im already staying one of them??? The guy got really abrupt and told me to 'book it online then' as he couldn't help me and was unwilling to ask a supervisor for help. The sheer incompetence and unwillingness to help a paying customer who wanted to stay longer is unfathomable especially when all we hear is 'hospitality is struggling'? Shocking service and attitude.

Fabulous meal with superb staff! We enjoyed a lovely meal at the Marco Pierre White restaurant within the hotel and all I can say it was fabulous. The staff were superb, from the GM to the waiting staff. All smiley and friendly and kept popping back to make sure everything was to our liking and to see if we needed anything more. Mark had a prawn cocktail to start and he said it was tasty and fresh with ample prawns. He then had a rib eye with all the trimmings, which again cooked to his liking. I opted for the fillet with bernaise sauce. I asked for it to be cooked blue and it was. Most restaurants are wary of offering it this way for health and safety reasons but I believe that you should get what you ask for and I did. I then had the Eton Mess but asked if I could leave out the raspberries and raspberry sauce on the top (allergic) this was no problem to them. They only said it was a shame as they couldn't give me the dish as they would like to serve it but they still made it look really appetising. I'm not a big eater and the dish was enormous but what I eat was really enjoyable. We would revisit in a heartbeat when next in the area.

Should be repurposed as a half way house. I stayed at this hotel for work. I paid £271 per night for 2 nights including breakfast. For what I paid this was embarrassingly bad. I arrived at the hotel at 8:30 and was given room 152. At this part of the hotel, every single room had broken aircon (which the hotel staff had decided should be a self discovery process rather than giving a heads up) on entering the room there was a glorified air con unit that blew hot air around a the room and the windows opened a “crack.” Having complained to the hotel management they decided that rather the finding alternative accommodation for their guests, they would rather them have an authentic tropical rainforest experience in 32C heat, take the cash and compensate me with a single glass of wine. When I complained about the experience the receptionist said “well madam, we all are suffering in the heat”… except he got to go home to an open window rather than sleep a Turkish steam sauna. The second night I was moved to another room. It was ok. The aircon was middling at best but at least it was closer to what I expect for £271 a night. The food was pretty uninspiring and generally the overall hotel was poor. I won’t be visiting again and perhaps they should lower their prices to £80 a night.

A proper bed for once So as the title suggests we booked a family room and received two double sized beds. Most other hotels provide double bed and sofa bed so was delighted to actually sleep on proper bed. Room was spacious. Bathroom a little on small size but hey, we don’t spend too much time in there so was fine. The view outside wasn’t great as we faced out onto some building suite but this didn’t bother us as net curtains always drawn for privacy. The room was generally clean. Some dust on headboard could be seen, which is general feedback. We used the pool and kids loved it. We also had drinks (which were a little on expensive side) and dinner Leo restaurant and unfortunately there were several items missing off the menu, which made it difficult. I opted for salmon and was nicely cooked. Children enjoyed the kids menu options. The overall presentation of hotel is nice and clean. The grand entrance with sofa’s to sit down and the smell is devine as you walk through reception. Would highly recommend this hotel. Few minor changes needed with regard to restaurant, room cleaning but otherwise I would say very grand hotel.