[5] On 13 June 1910, two days before Robert Falcon Scott's ship departed from Cardiff for his ill-fated expedition to Antarctica, a fundraising dinner for the expedition took place at the Royal Hotel, hosted by Cardiff Chamber of Commerce.

[7][8] The hotel closed in 2001 and underwent a full refurbishment in preparation for the centenary of Scott's farewell banquet in 2011.

A new bar was opened, named Fitz's after Pat Fitzgerald, a baby who was abandoned in the lobby of the hotel in 1939 and subsequently adopted by a local steelworker and his wife.

[9] In 2013 a hive of honey bees was installed on the roof of the hotel and given its own room number, 6B.

[10] The 2015 edition of the Rough Guide to Wales says of the Royal Hotel "this Victorian building conceals a modern interior; the bold red-and-black furnished rooms and limestone-finished bathrooms are well appointed, if somewhat devoid of charm.