Royal Albert Hall Reviews 105

Booked for Verdi requiem...only seat left was box that after I had booked said seat was at back of box and "highchair" restricted view...£60
I arrive and go into box via door which intially leads down a short narrow corridor then down a step by curtains into the box. My seat is not in the box but in the corridor. So I cannot see anything and am not in the auditorium at all. This is very unsatisfactory. And a completely misleading rip off.

Had really bad seats. Tickets purchased form ticket master that didn't mention. It was a a restricted view (pillar right in front of us) spoken to the two female supervisors who worked (July 8th pm) and they were helpful and friendly and moved us (to better seats) to vacant seats. No fuss and didn't make me feel like a Karen. Really really helpful. Thank you so much!! Made out night

The complete allocation for tickets for this years prom season is not fit for purpose and needs a complete rethink for the 2025 season.

Customers keen to attend this years prom were invited to submit a prom planner for the concerts they wished to attend and apply for tickets on the 18-5-24.

I had applied for tickets for Florence and the machine prom 69 and have found the complete process for allocating tickets unfair despite the anticipated huge demand.

Such was the unfairness I have contacted the Customer services team at the Royal Albert Hall and not found their responses satisfactory.

My real concerns are as follows.

1. No matter where people were in the waiting room for tickets prior to 9am on the 18-5-24 people were then chosen at random for the chance to buy tickets from
9am.

2. I have been informed that there were in the region of
100,000 people in the waiting room for tickets prior to
9am on the 18-5-24. However I was really disappointed to note that if people were successful in applying for tickets that they could then purchase upto TWELVE tickets. I have ben informed that this approach has been adopted for a number of years.

3. Surely a fairer approach would be to restrict allocation of say 4 tickets on very popular performances. So the Royal Albert Hall for prom 69 is going to be flooded with people having purchased tickets on third party sites. These will be people who have not even submitted prom planners.

The sound was awful..my 21 year old son treated me to the concert. I've seen Eric many times but he had never.
We got the seats as returns from the RAH box office and they were good(stalls L).
I know you as a venue can't question the performers set list but it was really disappointing.
I came up from the South Coast and met my son in London who had travelled down from Loughborough University.
With the tickets at about £400 and travel onto it was a very expensive night out to be ket down.
Also..the price of the drinks was ridiculous.
I've been to the RAH many times but this came over as a lazy andbeen there done it presumptuous evening both from Mr Clapton and the Royal Albert Hall
I'm so disappointed more for my boy. He payed with savings and was underwhelmed with the whole experience.
I look forward to yiur reply.
Dave Cook
Tonbridge

We were so looking forward to seeing Eric Clapton live at the Royal Albert Hall. We've been to previous Clapton concerts here before and have always had a good experience. This time, however, the experience was bad: it started off in the Entrance 12 bar where we were charged an exorbitant £16.50 for a glass of lukewarm Sauvignon Blanc which just tasted horrible - even with an ice cube in it! The beer at £8+ a pint was good but these are ludicrous prices! When it came to the concert the PA system was so loud and "screechy" that I spent most of the time with my fingers in my ears. It would be interesting to know if anybody had checked the sound level - I've been to lots of gigs and this was most definitely the worst sound I have ever experienced. The concert itself was O.K but spoilt by the lack of memorable hits and a lot of showing off. Plus, of course, the indescribably poor sound.

Worst ticketing site on the Web. Tried to book proms tickets, set up account selected tickets etc. Logged in an hour before golive at 9am. "Randomly" allocated a c35000 in queue, watched it tick down to c25,000 to Randomly re-allocated c49,000 in the queue.... ticked down again to c21,000 to be told it now believed I was a bot....unclear why, and now refused to let me on the site at all. Eventually got onto he site 8hrs later to no tickets, so deleted my account. Site isn't fit for purpose. Won't ever bother again....waste if time and effort.

The booking for the Proms has changed again and is discriminatory to older customers and those with less IT experience.

I tried entering the waiting room at 8:38 and found that I should stay there and a final position at 9:00 would be allocated randomly. Imagine my surprise to find this to be 28,600! and it was 2.5 hours before I could see what was left for my chosen Proms. I understand that some people open up a number of devices thus giving themselves lots of chances for a low random number. This is not possible for me having just a PC and I consider the system extremely unfair, particularly for older customers like myself.

How is this new system any better than previous ones? Getting Proms tickets has always been stressful and is now more so than before

DO NOT BOOK from overseas.
George Benson cancelled on us and we lost $130 AUD booking fee. They would only give us a credit for the full amount, which we couldn't use in the week that we are in the UK. Refund is minus the booking fee and levy. $130 down the pan for their cancellation - ridiculous!

RAH stewards appear to have no procedure for dealing with late arrivals. The majority of the support act set was disrupted by a constant flow of people arriving late. This was a fully seated show so your view was constantly blocked by people being escorted to their seats & removing their coats before sitting down.This spoiled the show and in my opinion is disrespectful to the performing artist & the people who arrived on time. Most venues of this type have a policy where they wait for a suitable break to allow late arrivals to enter.

It is with real regret that I sent this letter to TRAH. It was one of the most disappointing theatre experiences I have encountered. The reply I received was patronising and unsympathetic to any of my points so I have taken the decision to share my letter, which they are aware of, to alert new theatregoers to some of the pitfalls that COULD happen to them. Especially considering there only "solution" if there was a next time was to purchase ALL 8 seats!
"It is with regret that I strongly feel I have to raise a complaint with you about a recent visit to The Albert Hall.

For a very special occasion we booked to see The Cirque Du Soleil on the 26 January 2024 and were allocated Loggia 11, seats 5 and 6. As an added treat we also booked food for arrival and dinner for 2 during the break. Obviously this was not an inexpensive trip, but felt it would definitely be well worth it even at a price of just under £500!

Sadly, this was definitely NOT the case. We were not advised, or certainly couldnt find that we would be sharing a SMALL box with 6 other people, with the even more annoying fact that we were the couple sitting at the back of the box, in front of quite tall people. It made the experience of dining in a box, embarassing, difficult to eat and cramped. It was so cramped the last couple were so annoyed and angry at sharing a box with all of us...the male lost his balance and fell down the step! Eating was near on impossible and trying to sort the food out, with the other guests using the "food" area to put all their glasses etc on was a complete and utter nightmare, and actually spoilt the, not inexpensive experience for us all completely!

The box was also right in front of the "wires" which trying to look over adults heads at the performance made viewing a complete nightmare. We did however notice that there were many boxes completely empty around the hall. In fact after the intermission one couple got up and moved in the box NEXT door and had it completely to themselves. We couldnt take advantage of this because of the food and drinks we had preordered!

I do find it hard to believe that this complaint has not been raised previously. But saying that, surely you, as the hospitality "experts" could keep an eye on people choosing to dine in a box and have some sort of automatic flagging system to advise people that dining in a small box with SIX other adults would not be the most desirable situation and give them a choice!

This was a terrible experience, I believe not only for us, but actually for the people sharing this small area whilst 2 others were trying to enjoy their dinner on their laps, and in fact to try and alleviate the situation we offered some food to the other box guests!"

Saw cirque de soleil. What a fantastic show.Also had meal in Coda. Wonderful evening with very polite and courteous staff. We will definitely be back .Thank you.

Amazing amazing place - history and magic. The gospel choir was a night of Christmassy joy.

First time at the Royal Albert Hall to see Trevor Nelson which was amazing but when I visited the bar to buy two regular size Merlot red wines I realised the next day that they charged me £11.50 each.I thought that this was incorrect and contacted The Royal Albert Hall but they said all prices are displayed in bar.For this reason I will not be back again even if I was offered free tickets who likes to be ripped off especially for poor quality wine.

Amazing show, brilliant service, felt so welcomed by everyone at the venue.

Terrible experiences.
I have ordered a jacket and am not getting any updates on delivery dates.
I have tried to get in touch via email, since the phone number isn't working.
Out of 4 email I sent, I got one reply with the tracking number, which I already had been given as soon as my order was dispatched.
This has not solved the problem and left me in the exact same situation, which is not knowing where my parcel has been delivered to.
No more replies after this.

It was amongst one of the best experiences in my life. My husband & I went to see the Carols at Christmas, this is something I’ve always wanted to do & we weren’t disappointed, the amazing Choirs, to the brilliant Philharmonic Orchestra, to the singers & hosts, to the magnificent surroundings, & the atmosphere, it was truly an amazing experience we’ll never forget. The seats were good we could see & there were times when everyone was participating with the singing, so we were all standing at times, we were in Arena C, row 23, seats 11 & 12 right on the end. We attended the 7.30 evening concert. When I entered the auditorium for the first time, I stood & looked around, I was very emotional & speechless, the beauty of the superb surroundings was truly fantastic, I was blown away, it was breathtaking & I couldn’t stop the tears streaming down my face, it is a beautiful memory I’ll never forget & an amazing night. So get it booked.

Oh what a night!

The fiasco of a big venue and poor front of house management headed up by sales Manager Kinny was nothing short of rude, obnoxious and lack of customer support.

We arrived at the venue scanned our tickets got in okay no issues until we got to our seats where someone else was already sitting. The usher to block O was as much use as a chocolate fire guard no care didn’t help support checking seats etc to make sure the people hadn’t sat in wrong seats. We were. Just told was told I can’t help go to the box office.

So off we went when faced with 10 staff members headed up by Kinny the sales manager. This felt so intimidating as she basically said we were at fault and nothing they could do to help as we had brought tickets through viagogo. If this was the case why were we allowed entry into the venue when the security and Terror alerts are high in the uk.

Kinny just issued us a printed letter signed it waved it at me and said this will help you get a refund. Her and the team didn’t have any compassion to help despite there being 3 seats in a box then not!!! Hopes dashed and left let down by the venue big style.

Managers and security need serious retraining.manhandled for taking pictures of the outside which is perfectly lawful and after all this place is a tourist hotspot so it is expected to be photographed if the don't want pictures taken I suggest they build a massive wall round it so no one can see it.....👎

Went to the bar, and found that they only do cards, im old fashioned and prefer to deal in cash, this is not right, and everything that's wrong with the UK today, won't visit again.

The customer service and support at The Royal Albert Hall has been beyond useless.
I'm booked to see a show but now there are train strikes plus works on the line and LNER are warning of delays of 90 minutes. I'm supposed to be traveling to London from York for the day with my elderly mother. I've explained the situation to the Albert hall but they've refused to refund. They've refused to give us a credit note. And they've refused to try to re-sell our tickets. Their only advice was to try and sell them ourselves.
I'm genuinely surprised by their response because I had exactly the same situation earlier this year and the theatre in the west end that I was visiting were super helpful and gave us a credit note for a performance on another day.

A theatre local to me in York were also proactive in selling my tickets for me this summer after the friend I was going with caught covid.

I don't understand why The Royal Albert Halls policies and customer service is so much shoddier. I think they're missing a trick. Although I can see their trustpilot reviews are reflecting their level of service.