REVIEW | Pillows Grand Boutique Hotel Reylof in Ghent

My Friend Gillis invited Sam and me to celebrate his birthday over a dinner in Ghent. As we would like to be able to drink a bit, we decided to stay the night in Ghent. For our stay we selected the Pillows Grand Boutique Hotel Reylof, one of the best hotels in Ghent. It also helped that the dinner was to take place in the Hotel´s Lof Restaurant. The hotel is located in a classical city palace with some modern annex buildings containing more rooms, centred around a central garden.

Upon arrival we had a short wait as it was busy at check-in, but soon we were helped by the extremely professional and courteous agent. After the typical formalities, he told us everything we needed to know about our stay and the hotel before showing us to our room. We had booked and received a basic room, ours was located on the ground floor with a sliding window opening out into the central garden with a smell terrace in front.

The room was relatively small but well-appointed with a big double bed in the middle of the room and a table with some chairs near the window. A tv was mounted on the wall opposite the bed.

Also power plugs and USB charging points, along with a bottle of water and some hand cream where provided on both sides of the bed. On one side there was an iPad which provided all hotel information and could be used to order room service. A gimmick I liked a lot was that there was a radio in the room, playing music as we entered, a nice change from the typical hotel tv welcome message or video.

Tea, coffee and bottled water where included in the room rate, while the minibar was nicely stocked up with a number of items you could purchase. As a welcome gift we received some chocolates.

The bathroom was small, but cleverly designed. The door to the bathroom doubled as a door to the toilet, useful when someone needed to use the toilet while the other could use the bathroom. The rain shower was nice and big, with good water pressure and instant hot water.

Plenty of towels where provided, as well as slippers and bathrobes. The toiletries used where Pillows Hotels branded and had a nice neutral scent.

The hotel had a very nice spa in the former stables located in the garden. To get there you had to exit the main hotel building via the lobby, walk across the garden and enter the spa building.

There were changing rooms where towels, slippers and bathrobes where provided, so you didn’t have to bring them from your room. On the ground floor there was a relaxation room and a plunge pool, one level up you had some treatment rooms and on the attic you had another relaxation room as well as the sauna and steam rooms. All in all a pretty good facility, only the pool could have been bigger.

In the evening we had a multi-course dinner with a wine pairing at the hotel restaurant Lof. It was a delicious affair, the menu changes along with the season.

They also really took care with allergies, as I am not able to eat lettuce and leafy vegetables they came checking for each course whether certain ingredients where ok to use or not in case of doubt. The service was excellent and we discovered some very delicious wines.

In the morning the breakfast was served in a buffet format, with both seating in the main restaurant and the smaller bistro at the garden side. The breakfast offering was very extensive and of good quality. Everything you could wish for was there. Normal tea and coffee could be grabbed from the buffet, speciality coffees could be ordered from the waiting staff.