I spent a week in London as a tourist and while searching for London hotels on the Hilton website, The Samuel Ryder Hotel St. Albans, Tapestry Collection by Hilton popped up. I therefore decided to spend a day in this small town, famous for its cathedral, staying in what was once Samuel Ryder's house and office, a 1911 grade II listed Edwardian building, which has now become a 60 room hotel, the first Tapestry by Hilton to open in the UK after a rebranding of the previous Clarion Collection Hotel St Albans City Centre. This was also the first Tapestry Hotel I had the opportunity to stay in.
Location
The hotel is in an excellent position, in fact it is practically opposite the cathedral: just cross the road and you can get there in a couple of minutes. The city center is a few hundred meters away.
I arrived in St Albans by train: from the West Hampstead Thameslink station in London it is a comfortable 11-13 minute journey on non-stop trains. From the station (St. Albans City) it took me less than 20 minutes to walk to the hotel, an easy walk even with the baggage in tow, with half of the way slightly uphill and the other half downhill.
Check-in
I booked, about 3 weeks before my stay, a twin room with a rate of 88 pounds. The rate remained largely unchanged and, also for the day of my arrival, it was still slightly less than £ 100.
From what I saw, the hotel apparently does not offer upgrades for Gold and Diamond members on its own initiative: in fact, on the morning of my arrival, the app was still showing a double room. (I also indicated in my reservation whether it was possible to have a king size bed). I had to call the morning of my arrival to ask if there were any upgrades available.
Only upon my arrival in the late afternoon was I told that I had been assigned a King room, which also appeared on the app. I asked if it was possible to get a King Deluxe just to have a Nespresso coffee machine, given that at breakfast the coffee from the Hilton machines is quite undrinkable for Italian tastes, but there was no way and the operator seemed disoriented when I asked. This was strange because on the app late in the evening there were still all the rooms available and the occupancy rate was not more than 50/60%.
Luckily I then found Starbucks and Caffe Nero coffe shops within 15 minutes walk, where the following day I was able to drink a decent espresso.
Upon check-in it was explained that continental breakfast was included, but that there was a £5 charge for each hot item, I was then provided with a breakfast menu, like the one in the photo in post 7, with the only difference that now the price indicated is £ 17.95 per person. Lastly I was asked to choose a breakfast slot, and I chose 8 o’clock, but the following day, when I arrived right on time, the breakfast room was almost empty.
A couple of bottles of water delivered in a brown bag after check-in completed.
Room
The rooms are arranged on three floors: ground floor with rooms 101-120 (at a lower level than the reception which is on the Upper Ground floor), first (rooms 201-220) and second (rooms 301-320). There are 20 rooms per floor, for a total of 60 rooms.
The room I was given was on the first floor, overlooking the small car park towards Albert Street. Right in front of my window a half-destroyed street lamp. In the room the temperature was set to 25 degrees or more, it felt like entering a sauna. I had to turn off the thermostat and open the windows to have an acceptable temperature. However, I was surprised by the waste of energy due to this choice to keep very high temperatures in the rooms.
Although the hotel, after the rebranding from Clarion Collection, opened just under two years ago (from what appears online it opened on December 20, 2021) and although very well furnished, my room was already showing signs of wear and tear in the furnishings, in particular in the very thin plasterboard wall that divides the bedroom from the bathroom, with evident signs of collapse (maybe a kick in the wall from someone who didn't get an upgrade?). Furthermore, I also found significant traces of limescale on the pipes and brass taps in the bathroom shower. In the end what I thought was a drawer in the cabinet next to the bed was actually a fixed structure, which remained in my hand as I tried to open it. Evidently it had been fixed falsely after some other guest before me thought the same thing when trying to open it. I also fixed it as best I could, but the next guest will probably have the same problem as me, and so on for all subsequent guests who will stay in that room.
Bar
The bar is the only common space available for guests. Very pleasant environment, able to accommodate around twenty customers. I looked at the price list and found it overpriced compared to what was offered, so since the bar was deserted at 6.30pm, for the pre-dinner drink I opted for a more vibrant place in town before the dinner at Ivy.
The hotel's website also mentions room service available, but there was no information in the room regarding this option and the times it is available.
Beyond that no restaurant, gym, spa or any other amenity.
Breakfast
On the left corner of the reception desk was proudly displayed a “Breakfast Award 2023-24” certificate issued by VisitBritain, and so, also thanks to the positive reviews I read here in previous posts, I had high expectations for breakfast, but unfortunately my expectations were disappointed.
To start, their continental breakfast is extremely limited and poor. What follows are my thoughts and comments.
Bakery and pastries: regular, chocolate and almond croissants, plus small swirls with raisins and small braid with chocolate chips; maybe something else but I don't remember. They call these items “freshly baked” but they seemed absolutely identical (apart from the almond croissant which I couldn't find elsewhere) to those I found in all the Hiltons and Doubletrees in London throughout my week-long stay. I could be wrong, but my suspicion is that these are frozen products, then heated in the oven on the spot, which are delivered by a single supplier to all the hotels in the Hilton portfolio in the area. I also found the Bon Maman jam in several other Hilton family hotels.
Cereals: the same Kellog's that I found in all the other Hiltons
Fresh Fruit / Fruit Salad: banana, orange, apple / fruit salad very good and certainly home made.
Overnight Oats/ Granola / Yogurt pots: choice of different options proposed in small glass bowls, all apparently very tasty, in particular the Greek yogurt, which however was offered already mixed with fresh fruit, granola or the fruit compote. These home made products, of excellent quality, are those that distinguish an otherwise anonymous and standardized breakfast.
Juices: orange, cranberry, apple and, out of the list, peach. In a boutique hotel like this, when reading fresh juices, I would have expected, at least for the orange juice, a "freshly squeezed" juice and not simply a "fresh" (cold, chilled) industrial juice.
These are the exact same fruit juices I've found at all other Hiltons, including the new peach juice, which I've never found before. Even the glass juice containers were the same in all the hotels (and out of curiosity I also found the same containers and the same peach juice in a lounge at Heathrow on the day of departure). Here too I can imagine a single supplier supplying all the hotels in the area
Coffee: here too, as in all the other Hiltons and Doubletrees I have been to in London, the usual “Piacetto Italian coffee” machine, which, apart from the Italian sounding name, of Italian seems to have nothing. For Italian tastes, the espresso coffee is undrinkable, perhaps it would go better with Americano, Mocha, Chocolate or something else.
Tea: I don't drink tea for breakfast, and I'm not even an expert, so I won't comment on this choice.
Apart from the items mentioned above, the usual selection of cold savory products was missing: cheese, ham, salami, smoked salmon etc.
As already mentioned, for the "à la carte" breakfast there is a supplement of £5 for each dish chosen (so if you take two the price increases to £10). I chose the Eggs Benedict, certainly good, but if I'm honest a few weeks ago, in a hotel of the Hilton portfolio in Germany, I ate better ones for breakfast, and for free.
Conclusions
For a golf enthusiast, a visit to what was the home of the gentleman who gave the Ryder Cup his name by donating the first trophy (for information the Ryder Cup was played in Rome last September), even if very few relics now remain, is always an important cultural moment. If you then add everything that St Albans offers, first of all its cathedral, I was satisfied with this interlude in my London holidays.
As regards the hotel, the impressions are mixed: reading the standards of the Tapestry brand I would have expected a small and charming boutique hotel, with its own personality, unfortunately in many aspects the impression was that of finding an upscale Hilton Garden Inn, or a small Doubletree without cookies and without the minimum comforts (restaurant, gym, etc.) of such brand.
The much-vaunted (and award-winning) breakfast seemed almost identical to that of most hotels in the Hilton portfolio. In my opinion, the "à la carte" selection or the granola or yogurt pots is not enough to give it a distinctive personality that can distinguish it from the average breakfasts of other hotels.
However, it is undeniably a good hotel, but I would choose it, for a possible new trip to St Albans, only if the rates remain in the range of 100-120 pounds.