The Royal Hotel

The hotel is well situated and the staff, rooms and food were all brilliant. Staff were very friendly and accommodating. The room was serviced daily. Bar drinks are reasonably priced and food tasty. I swam in the pool most days and enjoyed it.

The royal hotel might of been sold But it’s all the same as before it was so for those whom doubt you don’t need to had lovely afternoon tea lovely pastries sandwiches very tasty and very delicious and very nicely done so hopefully your come back I have been coming for some time very nice excellent service always happy to rectify anything very clean nice front of house making you feel very warm and welcoming and always happy to accommodate were if possible highly recommend it and I’m very particular myself

This is the fourth Christmas we have spent at the Royal. The food is excellent and the staff look after us very well. We did notice that some of the temporary staff were a little vague about some things/ The housekeeping staff were very efficient and everyone welcomed us back

A really excellent hotel, primarily because of the staff. We've stayed here many times, but only once before at Christmas. As usual everything was up to the expected standard. Yes, the hotel needs some sprucing up as areas of it are tired and in need of some remedial work. For our part, on this occasion, we had a splendid, seemingly recently refurbished premium room, so no complaints there. Wi Fi was excellent as ever. Impressed, as before, that the hotel has the right 'festive balance' and doesn't go wildly over the top! The Christmas entertainment programme offered performances from the Shanklin Town Brass Band on the Monday, Christmas Carols from a local choir on Christmas Eve, and a jazz duo on Boxing Day. The latter isn't my thing, but all were good at what they did. There is also a good resident pianist. Food is usually good, here. There were various afternoon tea type buffets and meals - the offering was excellent for the most part, although I, myself, found Christmas Lunch a bit ordinary and my wife and I both felt the Christmas Day evening buffet left a lot to be desired (especially compared to memories of having had Lobster in the buffet back in 2019!) Staff were very welcoming, professional, helpful and on the ball, as they always are. In essence, the staff make the hotel! Particularly notable for excellence amongst a generally high standard were Dan, the Duty Manager, Hannah, Madeline and Janice in the restaurant, Luke in the Bar, and Caroline and colleagues on Reception. I see I noted in my review of our 2019 stay that "The personal stocking gift bag left in the bedroom was a nice touch". It was, and it wasn't replicated this time. Cost cutting? Maybe. But nonetheless disappointing. The Ventnor Boxing Day swim in 2019 was cancelled due to the stormy weather (not the hotel's fault, obviously). This time around it took place and is well worth the walk down (and back up) the steep hill to the sea front to watch. The atmosphere was terrific. The hotel, generally, has a very high rate of returning guests, especially over Christmas/New Year. It will be interesting to see if this remains the case under the new ownership! We will definitely come back again, and intend a future Christmas visit, albeit next year we anticipate trying the New Year package instead.

A really relaxing and traditional hotel. We stayed here last year for four nights and decided we hadn’t seen enough of the island and so happy with the hotel we’ booked for a week this June. Lovely room which catered for my wife’s slightly limited mobility. There are lifts to many ( all ? ) rooms. There were two shallow steps down from reception to the bar. But there was a large foyer area where afternoon teas and some other food was served where drinks could be had. I didn’t see a ramp in use up for the one step up from outside to reception but there were a few guests in wheelchairs in the hotel, so one may be available or another option. There is also at least one room with a fully accessible shower. Staff were lovely and really helpful, volunteering to help without being asked. Cannot fault anyone, well maybe the very new barman who didn’t get the cocktail quite right and put in too much of the key alcoholic ingredient on our first night :). The food is wonderful in quality , presentation and portion sizes. Choice was wide as well, especially breakfast. The one comment we had was that the vegetable accompaniment to the fish of the day remained the same all week even though the fish varied and was never the same all week. Afternoon teas looked amazing although we didn’t try one. Our appetites just couldn’t manage that and dinner. There is a quiet more or less enclosed garden with a pool, a covered veranda and some other lawn areas where there are tables and chairs etc to relax. We would be happy to go back.

Well me and my husband had an amazing stay with the Royal the reception staff were so welcoming and bar staff we lovely Rooms were lovely and clean We had an amazing meal in the evening we dine in many places the art school in Liverpool Ritz in London and of course the ivy in Manchester and your chefs have are so creative with the flavours the quality of the food the way they arrange the food true chefs The grounds are kept so well with wonderful plants I would like to thank you all for an amazing time oh service in the dinning rooms was wonderful