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.

 

[kermatu]

Pretty impressive kermatu. I have no idea what you ordered for breakfast ... I guess I had better go and Google it!

Parathas are flat bread but layered in the making / rolling with butter or ghee, so much tastier IMHO than chapattis or naan. Pooris are also flat wheat breads but fried so they puff a bit and become somewhat flaky. Extremely tasty. The bhaji is a mild potato curry. Very common and popular Indian breakfast.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

My most recent stay at the Doubletree Jakarta was the usual: lots of helpful interaction with staff, great breakfast (I adore the breakfast buffet there) and standard 3-4pm late checkout for QF42 convenience. No upgrade to a corner Exec room this time though but no issue with that considering the price you pay for a standard room. Had a long chat with the front office manager in the Exec Lounge; I was the only person he greeted. The limo airport transfer has increased in price from IDR500k++ to IDR550k++ and as a comparison I've done a blue cab ride for under 200k

 

[Deleted member 29185]

My most recent stay at the Doubletree Jakarta was the usual: lots of helpful interaction with staff, great breakfast (I adore the breakfast buffet there) and standard 3-4pm late checkout for QF42 convenience.

I haven't spoken to my daughter yet, but she recently did a couple of stays there and +1 tells me she loved it. Looks very nice for a DT.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

I haven't spoken to my daughter yet, but she recently did a couple of stays there and +1 tells me she loved it. Looks very nice for a DT.

It's a very good property considering the price for an entry level room, which is all I need to book as a Diamond.

 

[boomy]

Property: Hilton Amsterdam
Booked: King Deluxe Room
Received: King Executive Room

The hotel is close to airport which means not so close to city centre. The location is not terrible, about 15 min walk to the museum quarter and 35 min to Dam Square. If the weather is good it’s a nice walk however it’s not convenient to have the hotel too far away.

Hoped to get an upgrade to the famous John & Yoko suite which was available at check in but our stay was multiple days so chances were slim.
The standard rooms are small and need to be refurbished.

Exec lounge is nice and has great open views (guess that’s one advantage of being outside the city).

Breakfast buffet was decent and while there was no a-la-carte menu they did offer to prepare omelette, egg benny, etc. They even had “to go” station with coffee and fruits which was nice to take on the walk to city.

The highlight of our stay was the restaurant in house called Roberto’s which seemed out of place looking so nice but located in a dated hotel. The food and all-Italian wine list were very good.

Note that Uber is significantly cheaper than taxi:
To/from airport to Hilton Uber is around €20 while taxi is double at €40! To/from city centre Uber is €10-€15.

Overall the hotel is ok but I’m sure there are better options in town. I was hoping to try the WA which has much better location but was too expensive both in cash and points for the dates we needed.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Property: Hilton Amsterdam
Booked: King Deluxe Room
Received: King Executive Room

[...]

Thanks for this review. I've considered this hotel when planning ex-EU itineraries.

 

[k_sheep]

Property: Hilton Dead Sea, Jordan
Date: October 2018 -- 2 nights
Status: Diamond
Booked: Deluxe room (cheapest). Hideous rate thanks to adjacent conference. Second mortgage required.
Received: Deluxe room
Benefits: Plate of Arabic sweets with 2x orange juices. Executive lounge access, but this is a pretty sad affair. Very poor food offering in the evening, with 4 spirits (rum, vodka, gin and ..... something else!) plus (ordinary!) local wine.

We were sold at check in what a nice room it was, but it actually had the worst view of any of the rooms, barring those on the first floor (of 5). She also said we were next to the elevator like it was a good thing - but I have in my profile prefer away from the elevator.

Interestingly at checkin I managed a sneak peek at a list of "VIPs" expected that day which they left on the desk. Only 2 diamonds, the others were obviously politicians or other people of note. They ranked them on their VIPness, with a different amenity listed for each. Diamonds were rated second - the one beforehand was a silver but obviously TKWTA

 

[k_sheep]

Property: Hilton Dead Sea, Jordan
Date: October 2018 -- 1 night
Status: Diamond
Booked: Deluxe room (cheapest).
Received: Deluxe room
Benefits: Executive lounge.
Separate booking from above, this time under Mr k_sheeps membership to assist in night credits. Cheekily we checked out, went for a walk then checked back in, hoping for a better room. We were put in exactly the same room. Sigh. No amenities either. So we are back in our room with a view of a concrete wall and the adjacent tacky resort blaring bad pop music.

Breakfast deserves a special mention though. They seem to keep a table by the window free for Diamonds, so we got the same nice table each morning. However every time we went up to get food someone else would sit there. Sigh!! The third time this happened, the lovely staff member manning the front desk seemed to notice and managed to concoct a "Diamond breakfast benefits" sign which she put on the table. Very proactive!

 

[kermatu]

Property: Conrad Centennial Singapore
Date: October 2018 -- 1 night
Status: Diamond
Booked: Executive room
Received: Premium Room (Yes, a downgrade!)
Benefits: Several waters, small bowl of fruit, chocolates, newspaper, turn down service (all standard).

Hideous rate and nothing but Exec rooms available when I booked (and pre-paid) but decided to stay here. Had a very early arrival and figured I’d have a decent chance of getting a room early and saving a second night. Desperate for a room after a long day and overnight flight plus long onward journey the following day. Thankfully it panned out. Only room was on floor 24. Basically the same as the Exec room. If anything a bit better as it had a functional couch.

Check-in somewhere around 8am and granted checkout 4pm the following day, which allowed me to visit a friend in the morning and over lunch then use the room again before departure, so pretty happy in the end.

Superb food in the lounge too. Great seafood salads, spiced crabmeat with fried breads. Really enjoyable.

And always amusing to see newcomers eyes light up when they realise wine, champers and beer are available all day!

 

[dairyfloss]

Property: Conrad Centennial Singapore
Date: October 2018 -- 1 night
Status: Diamond
Booked: Executive room
Received: Premium Room (Yes, a downgrade!)
Benefits: Several waters, small bowl of fruit, chocolates, newspaper, turn down service (all standard).

Hideous rate and nothing but Exec rooms available when I booked (and pre-paid) but decided to stay here. Had a very early arrival and figured I’d have a decent chance of getting a room early and saving a second night. Desperate for a room after a long day and overnight flight plus long onward journey the following day. Thankfully it panned out. Only room was on floor 24. Basically the same as the Exec room. If anything a bit better as it had a functional couch.

Check-in somewhere around 8am and granted checkout 4pm the following day, which allowed me to visit a friend in the morning and over lunch then use the room again before departure, so pretty happy in the end.

Superb food in the lounge too. Great seafood salads, spiced crabmeat with fried breads. Really enjoyable.

And always amusing to see newcomers eyes light up when they realise wine, champers and beer are available all day!

On the drinks... I've been aware from this and other forums about it, but have never partaken, for various reasons... is it self serve, or waited?

 

[kermatu]

On the drinks... I've been aware from this and other forums about it, but have never partaken, for various reasons... is it self serve, or waited?

During the day it is all waited. Some drinks are out in the evening and fridges are open but it’s generally frowned upon to get your own, not that the staff would tell you off. I’ve never poured my own drink. And never waited more than a couple of minutes for a staff member to offer or be around to ask and then deliver. If you had a particular way you like a mixed drink then you’d probably want to supervise as they are not really bar staff so might get things ‘wrong’.

Staff are a bit flexible on the cutoff time, especially for regulars or anyone who comes late to the lounge.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

If you had a particular way you like a mixed drink then you’d probably want to supervise as they are not really bar staff so might get things ‘wrong’.

How difficult can "shaken, not stirred", be?

 

[kermatu]

How difficult can "shaken, not stirred", be?

Haven’t seen this particular example!

 

[straitman]

Property: Conrad NYC
Date: 13 October 2018 -- 1 night
Status: Diamond
Booked: Standard Room Reward
Received: Deluxe Suite with one King bed. -- This appears to be a standard room at this hotel. Ours had a river view between buildings and if you angled correctly a view of the Statue of Liberty. .
Benefits: 4 bottles of water.

The problem was that there was no communication between staff. We arrived at around 1am and organised a late checkout for 1pm. This didn't get through to housekeeping who knocked at about 11am. I explained to the floor supervisor about the late checkout and he was fine and extended it to 2pm for us. When I went to get the keys recut (about 1230) reception said we didn't have any late checkout organised.
At 11am there was a lineup of about 10 people to checkout and one receptionist on duty.
Breakfast was in the restaurant downstairs for everybody and there was a wait of about 25 minutes. Once in it was a buffet OR a $20 credit toward a served breakfast though this was not conveyed very well. The waiter was great and allowed my wife the credit even though she had had something from the buffet.

Would I go there again? I would try almost anywhere else first.

 

[straitman]

Property: Hilton at the Ageas Bowl Southampton
Date: 20 October 2018 -- 1 night
Status: Diamond
Booked: King Guest Room Gov't rate.
Received: King Junior Suite with Pitch View.

A night image from our room window.



Daylight image with the Shane Warne Stand on the right hand side.



An awesome response by everyone here. We left most of our bags here for a week whilst we travelled the UK and Scotland.

Arrived back tonight about 15 minutes after drinks and canapés went off in the lounge yet the lounge lady kindly opened the fridge for a couple of drinks and gave us a plate each of good food.

Would we come back here? Absolutely.

 

[mel-world]

Property: Garden Inn, Hong Kong
Date: October 2018 -- 2 nights
Status: Diamond
Booked: Standard Room
Received: Standard Room - as all the rooms are the same - no view - high floor
Benefits: 2 bottles of water, replaced the next day. A free beer in the lounge but the promised snack never arrived.

The staff tried hard (for a tourist hotel) with a suitable welcome and explanation of the limited benefits. Given it is about half the price of the Conrad, you have to consider this property if using your own money. But the location is not good for surroundings, accessibility and transport - even the taxi driver got lost finding the place from the Airport Station. It was a longish walk to the Nathan Road buses or the Mongkok station through a typical Chinese business area filled with small shops. Some may like the atmosphere but it just took a while to get anywhere. Not a first choice in future.

 

[mel-world]

Property: Conrad, Cotia Central, Macau
Date: October 2018 -- 1 night
Status: Diamond
Booked: Deluxe King Room
Received: Junior Suite (two rooms) - see photos - not much of a view and a low floor
Benefits: Multiple bottles of water - lost count but they were only 100ml bottles (so much for the environment). Lounge access on the 39th floor. An amazing lounge with just excellent service. Multiple drinks offered and a large buffet in the evening - easily enough for a meal if you were not very hungry.

Not too busy so a break from the crowds downstairs. Only went for 1 night between Hong Kong appointments just to experience the place again. I had already done the sightseeing in the old town previously, so just relaxed and was amazed by the number and range of high end shops and restaurants. Not sure I could spend too long there unless you wanted to gamble (not as many shows as Vegas) but easy to get there on the ferry (or by the bridge from next week).

There was a major housekeeping failure that affected my overall favourable opinion of this typical Conrad property- found empty bottles under the work desk and in the bedroom - the last guests must have had a good time.


Comfortable for relaxing


You have to have these on the breakfast buffet in the former Portuguese territory.
The main lobby - not even reception

And the orchids are all real.

 

[mel-world]

Property: Conrad, Pacific Place, Hong Kong
Date: October 2018 -- 1 night
Status: Diamond
Booked: Deluxe Standard Room - Senior Rate
Received: Executive King, Top Floor
Benefits: At least 2 bottles of water, replaced as required. Welcome tea. Executive Lounge benefits.

So many posts on this property so I'll not add much. The rate seems to increase each stay but the property really needs a refresh to stay competitive - but it is always full so I guess there is no incentive to do an upgrade. My Peak View room was just tired, the TV never worked despite a couple of visits by the technician, one of the bathroom basins had no hot water and the staff in the lounge were not really interested in finding a solution and were just providing the basic levels of service. I guess the smallish lounge is always full to overflowing so they are regularly hassled and have difficulty remaining positive. Excellent location though.

 

[boomy]

Property: Conrad NYC
Date: 13 October 2018 -- 1 night
Status: Diamond
Booked: Standard Room Reward
Received: Deluxe Suite with one King bed.

By far the worst Conrad I’ve stayed at and that was shortly after they switched from Embassy Suites (which is why it’s suite only hotel). Sad to see staff still not properly trained and queues for breakfast remained the same. Looks like nothing changed.

 

[boomy]

Property: Conrad, Cotia Central, Macau
Date: October 2018 -- 1 night
Status: Diamond
Booked: Deluxe King Room
Received: Junior Suite (two rooms) - see photos

Looks like you got full size suite, not Junior.