How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

[QF WP]

Just thought I'd create a thread for this - looking back over the last year, I thought I'd done a thread here as well as on Priority Club.

I'm a Gold member.

Friday, 22 May to Sunday, 31 May (yes, 9 nights)
Property: Hilton Cairns
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Travelzoo $135 package rate (included bottle of red wine)
Received: Upgrade to King Suite, card from GM and the wine, obligatory 2 free water bottles per day

Wednesday, 8 July
Property: Hilton Parmelia Perth
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Award room
Received: Upgrade to King Suite, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Thursday, 9 July
Property: Hilton Adelaide
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Award room
Received: Upgrade to Exec Floor, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Saturday, 11 July
Property: Hilton Brisbane
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Met Package (birthday present for Mrs LW, included 2 buffet breakfasts at Atrium Cafe & 2 tickets to Qld Art Gallery for Impressionists Showing from Metropolitan Museum New York - to get some culture)
Received: Upgrade to Exec Floor, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Got some more travel to do to Melbourne this Friday, so hoping to fly down Thursday night to sample the new Hilton.

 

[jetlagger]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton coughet
Dates: 25 - 27 Sep
Booked: King Deluxe Garden View
Received: King Junior Suite Sea View

We were surprised when we received the Suite when checking in via the HH desk. Regular check in was swarmed with chinese tourists so we were glad we got a personal check in desk to ourselves. Welcoming drinks as well as cold hand towels were offered and we were ushered to our suite which was on the same floor as the executive lounge.

The hotel is showing signs of old age but renovations are going on around the place. Staff are friendly as well as standards, service and attention to detail are much higher than you would find in Australia.

Food offerings in lounge is fantastic, we had a variety from lobster and zucchini en croute, deep fried crab, fish cakes.

Nice review..
I also had the opportunity to stay earlier this year. I found that, though it is an ageing property, the grounds & gardens are magnificently kept & the resort is on very spacious & sought after grounds.
The only detractions were the: large numbers of noisy chinese tour groups (about 50 stood in the middle of the road one night & piled onto the tram pushing & shoving everyone.. :shock: & the Russian pool lounge hogs so ubiquitous in Thailand.
We had a spacious suite, with a great ocean view along with a four poster bed & timber floors with fresh fruits daily.
Agreed that the EL is fantastic with some smiling & charming hosts, a lovely spread of fresh offerings, cool drinks & the balcony sunsets were memorable..



Hope you enjoyed as well..

 

[robd]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton London Tower Bridge Hotel
Date: 27 - 30 Sept. 2013
Rate: The Great Getaway £159 p/n.
Booked: Twin Hilton Deluxe
Received: Executive Twin
Other Benefits Received : Exec. Lounge, breakfast, Internet, 2 bottles water each day, welcome letter & chocolates.

Really enjoying the stay here so far. The staff have been welcoming and pleasant. The complimentary breakfast is in The Larder restaurant and the offerings in the Exec. Lounge have been consistently good. Even the weather has been good.



A lovely evening on the terrace last night!

 

[turtlemichael]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton Cologne promo
Rate: Any weekend anywhere promo rate 107.40 euros pn
Dates: 27-30 Sept.
Booked:King Hilton
Received: King Junior Suite
Other Benefits Received : One large bottle of water each day (the restaurant charges 11 euros for the same bottle!), small packet of bar nibbles, letter from GM, breakfast in the restaurant, speedy internet.

No executive lounge. Very well located in the centre 200 metres from the main station and the amazing Cathedral. Friendly professional staff. Very good size and comfortable room with excellent bathroom. Room is well furnished and bed is very firm but we got used to it. Breakfast in the restaurant was comprehensive and good with standard Hilton fare. We went to "Fish market buffet" in the restaurant Friday night and though pricey it was really very good. All up, excellent stay and I'd definitely return.

 

[mel-world]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton Sentral, Kuala Lumpur
Date: 27 Sept. - 3 Oct. 2013
Rate: Corporate Rate - about RM450pn
Booked: Twin Hilton Deluxe
Received: 22F 2 room suite - station view not park view
Other Benefits Received : Exec. Lounge, breakfast, Internet, 2 bottles water each day etc.

As has been pointed out before, this Hilton has one of the better Exec Lounges in the region - one reason why I have been staying there every couple of months for 5 years now. The staff in the Lounge - and in fact all over the Hotel - are most pleasant and generally efficient. The lobby and associated lounge and restaurant have recently been modernised. They need to start on the rooms next.

I have not tried the Doubletree Hilton downtown as I cannot stand the downtown traffic and Sentral is a little out of the centre of town, near the airport express and not far from the office in PJ. Do not bother with the PJ Hilton unless you are desperate.

A couple of comments - not related to the thread but of interest if you are thinking of booking:

The Internet is sometimes overloaded and unreliable - I guess this is a common problem at business hotels. Similarly their hotel taxi service - especially at peak hours and at weekends. Plenty of town cabs downstairs outside the station.

More seriously - during breakfast yesterday the lights in the Exec Lounge (on the 33F) went out and all the lifts stopped working. Had to walk down to 22F room with some safety lights in the stairwell not working then down to the ground floor where everything was working as normal (except the lifts, of course). Interestingly, not a word of apology from the management. The ladies in the Lounge made a simple apology at the time but nothing more from the GM. Maybe it happens a lot (but never before on my watch).

 

[jetlagger]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton Sentral, Kuala Lumpur
Date: 27 Sept. - 3 Oct. 2013
Rate: Corporate Rate - about RM450pn
Booked: Twin Hilton Deluxe
Received: 22F 2 room suite - station view not park view
Other Benefits Received : Exec. Lounge, breakfast, Internet, 2 bottles water each day etc.

As has been pointed out before, this Hilton has one of the better Exec Lounges in the region - one reason why I have been staying there every couple of months for 5 years now. The staff in the Lounge - and in fact all over the Hotel - are most pleasant and generally efficient. The lobby and associated lounge and restaurant have recently been modernised. They need to start on the rooms next.

I have not tried the Doubletree Hilton downtown as I cannot stand the downtown traffic and Sentral is a little out of the centre of town, near the airport express and not far from the office in PJ. Do not bother with the PJ Hilton unless you are desperate.

A couple of comments - not related to the thread but of interest if you are thinking of booking:

The Internet is sometimes overloaded and unreliable - I guess this is a common problem at business hotels. Similarly their hotel taxi service - especially at peak hours and at weekends. Plenty of town cabs downstairs outside the station.

More seriously - during breakfast yesterday the lights in the Exec Lounge (on the 33F) went out and all the lifts stopped working. Had to walk down to 22F room with some safety lights in the stairwell not working then down to the ground floor where everything was working as normal (except the lifts, of course). Interestingly, not a word of apology from the management. The ladies in the Lounge made a simple apology at the time but nothing more from the GM. Maybe it happens a lot (but never before on my watch).

Gosh.. Well about the power outage.. Should that happen.? In KL.. I would assume that a back up systematic approach instantly implemented?? Budgeted option for the building?? Appears another SOP in Malaysian building codes.. :shock:
Sure hoped the service made up for it..

 

[Simo]

Staying at DT ASP for the next few days will let you know.

 

[mel-world]

I would assume that a back up systematic approach instantly implemented?? Budgeted option for the building?? Appears another SOP in Malaysian building codes.. :shock:
Sure hoped the service made up for it..

One would have thought they would have a generator. However, as the lower floors still had power, it was obviously a localised problem on the upper floors.
I guess my situation was better than the engineer I passed on about the 10F puffing hard on his way up to check the fault!!

 

[robd]

Status: Diamond
Property: The Waldorf Hilton London
Date: 30 Sept - 1 Oct (1 night)
Rate: Advance purchase £224
Booked: Twin Hilton Room Plus
Received: Twin Hilton Deluxe Plus

The Deluxe Plus room had 2 double sized beds, which they list as 2 queen singles. They also list turndown service with chocolates, which were not received. We did however receive Exec. Lounge access, complimentary breakfast in the lounge, free wifi and 2 bottles of water.

I actually tried to extend our stay at the Hilton Tower Bridge from 3 nights to 4 and was not able to get the same Getaway rate, so thought we'd try the Waldorf. The Waldorf is in a great location for the theatres and restaurants of Covent Gardens. IMO, the offerings in the Exec. Lounge were better at the Hilton Tower Bridge, which I couldn't fault on any level.



Waldorf Twin Hilton Deluxe Plus room.

 

[ash.1111]

Status: Gold
Property: Hilton Brisbane
Date: Late September
Booked: King Basic
Received: King Exec

Received 2pm late checkout when checking in. Room had a big bottle of water but no other goodies. Didn't go down for breakfast (slept in...) or use exec room (ate out).

A nice, peaceful stay. I find Brisbane very consistent.

 

[Danger]

Property: Hilton Singapore
Room booked: King Hilton Deluxe
Rate: 2 nights SGD114++ +24k HHonors points (about AUD255 all in); 1 night 60k HHonors points
Received: King Hilton Executive, 9am check-in, 2pm check-out, full breakfast in restaurant, 2 bottles of water per day, three red apples

I really like this hotel and rank it as one of my favourites in the Hilton portfolio worldwide, It has an excellent location, great lounge, spacious rooms and wonderful breakfast. This stay was a little disappointing, however. Three red apples - wow, what a joke. The wifi in the lounge was very patchy compared with the same activity in my room using the room wifi connection. An 8pm closure of the pool seems ridiculous given the climate. The executive lounge had only reopened a few days prior and a lot of the staff enjoyed taking photos of the food with their cameras and phones over the three days I was there. The lounge is now modern and sleek, similar sort of styling to The Wing refurb in HKG. The cold drinks fridge is well overhead. I'm neither tall nor short but had to get on tip-toe to reach the top shelf. It seems to be in a ridiculous spot. And only five spirits (Smirnoff Red, Gordon's, Jim Beam, JW Red and Bacardi). The food offerings weren't substantial but were very tasty and continually replenished. I can't remember the last time I stayed at a Hilton hotel and, even after being granted a late check-out at least the day prior to departure, not being disturbed. I had a 2pm check-out but at 1.05pm the phone rings with the front desk manager wanting to know when I was leaving, then a knock on the door from the housekeeper at 1.20pm. The same happened at the Hilton Bonaventure in Montreal and the Hilton Petaling Jaya in KL. Very poor. I also wasn't given any information on the lounge benefits. I only found at the night before leaving that I could have had an item of clothing pressed free of charge (which would have worked out nicely in preparation for brunch at the Ritz-Carlton).

 

[turtlemichael]

Status: Diamond
Property: Doubletree Istanbul -Old Town
Rate: Comfort package 138 euros pn
Dates: 01-03 Oct
Booked:King Guest room
Received: King Guest room
Other Benefits Received : Two bottles of water each day, replenished bowl of fruit, numerous cakes etc, letter from GM, breakfast in the restaurant, very fast internet.

Liked the location for a short stay - easily walkable (or two tram stops) to Sultanahmet. Friendly service. Room was small but good shower, toilet and bed. Breakfast faily standard but great fresh paoched eggs cooked to order. Would stay again. Excellent afternoon yesterday at Topkapi. Now getting on a cruise ship for 12 days

 

[pauly7]

Status: Gold
Property: Hilton Adelaide
Date: October 2013
Booked: King Basic ($199 AAA rate)
Received: King Executive Spa Suite

Received 12pm late checkout after requesting. Room had 2 bottles of water.

Pretty amazing upgrade - room was seriously too big for me! Hotel pretty worn and dated but well kept. Bit musty...

 

[ash.1111]

Status: Gold
Property: Conrad Singapore
Dates: Early October
Booked: Basic King
Received: Business King

Outstanding stay. Front desk agent walked us to our room and even came inside to ensure we were comfortable with the room. Water, buffet breakie, fruit, chocolates, cute Conrad bear and duck to keep and a 4pm late checkout given without asking. Also other business room benefits received which include some laundry benefits and meeting room access.

I've heard the lounge here is amazing so we are coming back for 4 nights (booked exec; no upgrades needed) after we test out Marina Bay Sands. They've already given us a 10pm checkout at half day rate (usually full day rate after 6pm). Going to write in re service because this hotel just goes above and beyond.

 

[boomy]

Status: Gold
Property: Conrad Singapore
Dates: Early October
Booked: Basic King
Received: Business King

I've heard the lounge here is amazing so we are coming back for 4 nights (booked exec; no upgrades needed) after we test out Marina Bay Sands. They've already given us a 10pm checkout at half day rate (usually full day rate after 6pm). Going to write in re service because this hotel just goes above and beyond.

You should try the club rooms at Marina Bay Sands, maybe you will not want to go back to Conrad after that

 

[ash.1111]

You should try the club rooms at Marina Bay Sands, maybe you will not want to go back to Conrad after that

That's what we're doing... The lounge there sounded absolutely stunning.

 

[jetlagger]

Status: Gold
Property: Conrad Singapore
Dates: Early October
Booked: Basic King
Received: Business King

Outstanding stay. Front desk agent walked us to our room and even came inside to ensure we were comfortable with the room. Water, buffet breakie, fruit, chocolates, cute Conrad bear and duck to keep and a 4pm late checkout given without asking. Also other business room benefits received which include some laundry benefits and meeting room access.

I've heard the lounge here is amazing so we are coming back for 4 nights (booked exec; no upgrades needed) after we test out Marina Bay Sands. They've already given us a 10pm checkout at half day rate (usually full day rate after 6pm). Going to write in re service because this hotel just goes above and beyond.

Sounds pleasant..
IMO I don't mind to be escorted to my room & given the option for a room orientation as some properties call it.
It often allows the chance to find out about the property & its services.
Also it can allow a chance for undistracted sharing of information from Concierge of perhaps of the local area nice places to eat, drink etc.in an unfamiliar city.
Look forward to your MBS review.

 

[moa999]

That's what we're doing... The lounge there sounded absolutely stunning.

MBS rooftop lounge is very nice

 

[DeKa]

Status: Gold
Property: Hilton Parmelia Perth
Rate: Corporate rate (sub $200)
Dates: 2-6 October 2013
Booked: Twin Guest Room
Received: Queen Suite
Other Benefits Received : Two bottles of water on day one, free drink at Adelphi for each guest, breakfast in the restaurant (full buffet), welcome back letter reminding me of HHonors benefits.

We had a good stay. It was a far nicer room than my previous stay, which was on level 2 near the pool.

 

[DAC1]

Status: Gold
Property: Hilton Surfers Paradise
Dates: 1st-2nd October 2013
Rate: Best Available
Booked: King Hilton Deluxe
Received: King Hilton Deluxe

Got a continental breakfast which is a downgrade from the usual full breakfast I get. Nonetheless, did not take the breakfast as I woke up too late. Other than that nothing (no note, beers, water, upgrades - all stuff I have gotten in the past), another underwhelming stay at HSP but I've become used to it now.

 

[Flashback]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton Prague Old Town
Dates: 5th-7th October 2013
Rate: 4,495.00 CZK / night
Booked: King Executive Room
Received: King Executive Plus Room

The check-in process was great and we even received a personal greeting from the Duty Manager. Once up in the room there was a fruit platter, large bottle of water, olives, cheese and some nuts. Also received a signed card from the GM as well as the usual letter explaining the benefits / EL access times, etc. The service side of things here has been great, however the rest has been really lacking. The hotel is starting to look/feel a bit dated and not sure why in a reasonable sized room/bathroom the toilet is jammed up against the wall. The aircon doesn't seem to have an off button either and each morning we woke up with very sore lips / throat due to the dryness of the air. Even using lipbalm throughout the night didn't help....

Our water wasn't replaced after the first night, so had to request that. The Exec Lounge is OK - offers a small selection of food/drink, but again I wouldn't rely on it for anything more than a quick pit stop. The other thing I noticed very prominently was the amount of 1) American tourists here 2) organised tour groups here.

I don't have a problem with either, however in the case of this hotel Mrs Flashback and I have both found the American tourists to be very loud, noisy and just darn right rude. This is the complete opposite of most Americans I've met through FT!

The lounge from 6pm onwards is a no go zone for us. You can hear the noise coming from it before you even enter the door. Bumped into a few rude people also during breakfast this morning, I was patiently waiting in line for some fruit and they decided they would just push their way in front of me and get what they wanted.

Breakfast in itself was an average affair. I think from all the Hilton's I've stayed at so far the breakfast was the most average here. It really was the bare minimum in terms of options / quality.

Next time I'm in Prague I think I would try out the other Hilton property. It's not quite as nicely located to the sites as this property is, but perhaps it offers a better atmosphere. It's a shame as the staff here are very friendly/helpful.

Edit: the other thing is the Wifi here is terribly slow. Tried in multiple areas of the hotel at varying different times of the day (even 3am!).