Elite treatment at Hilton Surfers Paradise

[Daver6]

I'm here tonight and heading up to the EL shortly. I'll report back.

This was the afternoon tea offering though...

 

[Daver6]

HSP has impressed us tonight!

Upgrade to relaxation suite and ........ wait for it.......

the EL has a change in canapé offering ......a trial of curry puffs and homemade sausage rolls! (In addition to all the HSP EL staples ..... Including the jelly beans)

We've already let them not to give up on trialling new offerings. Hope has returned to this near jaded stayer ;-)

Short lived trial. None were on offer last night

Rather sad food offering. However, the spirits were out so one could help oneself. No tumblers were available. I asked for one. Lady looked confused and asked what a tumblet is. Once explained I got one...straight out of the dishwasher and very hot. No ice available (except what was in the wine bucket). They really should send their staff up to the BNE EL to see how its done.

 

[jetlagger]

Short lived trial. None were on offer last night

Rather sad food offering. However, the spirits were out so one could help oneself. No tumblers were available. I asked for one. Lady looked confused and asked what a tumblet is. Once explained I got one...straight out of the dishwasher and very hot. No ice available (except what was in the wine bucket). They really should send their staff up to the BNE EL to see how its done.

It seems evidently they just don't care.. :evil:
Some clientele of mine arrived at HSP last night, lots of luggage.. No assistance offered & Orchid Ave was like a circus in full swing.
I'm apprehensive to ask them ' How is your stay so far? "

 

[boomy]

Short lived trial. None were on offer last night

Oh well, looks like I'll have to go for the ribs at Hurricans when I'm there next week

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Short lived trial. None were on offer last night

Bugger! Here I was feeling all up beat about the place. When we checked out, we did so in the EL (to avoid the usual madhouse downstairs) and spoke at length with the very charming EL manager (Lena) who assured us they realised their offering was somewhat restricted and that they are committed to bringing it up to scratch. She asked us about how we felt about the rice and whatever dish to which I replied I personally preferred proper canapes rather than a quasi-meal offering. I may certainly be out of kilter with general thinking on that so I'm thinking I might start a poll to see what others think, as now is definitely the time to make our general thoughts known. I'll see if I can manage to do that and if so post a link here as well.

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....emium-club/what-would-you-like-see-54866.html

 

[boomy]

Had a good stay at HSP. Big improvement compared to previous stays.

The front desk service was better.
The upgrade I got was better.
The food in the lounge was better, chicken skewers one day and chicken ragout the next day were both nice, but the delicious banana cake was the most popular item in the lounge
The staff at the restaurant were very attentive at both breakfast & dinner.
Room service was good and the order was delivered within reasonable time.
The 2pm late checkout was much appreciated.

To be fair, this time the hotel was not busy at all so everyone were very relaxed and did their job well.
I really hope it will be the same at busier times.

 

[DeKa]

Today's afternoon tea

 

[k3nnis]

Looks like the same as when I was there in early sept.

 

[DeKa]

Looks like the same as when I was there in early sept.

Ok.

Canapés tonight are nice - really good compared to Feb.

Home made dips - really tasty.
Nice bread (baked here).
Spaghetti with olives and chicken
Soup (not sure what type but smells good).

 

[boomy]

Today's afternoon teaView attachment 20123

Looks like I just missed the cake

 

[DeKa]

Tonight is good too.

Chicken soup (spicy and tasty)
Beef rogan josh and rice.

The same house made dips are here again. Yum!

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Looking at boomys and DeKas pic of afternoon tea above, one can understand why HSP does get criticised. Although the afternoon tea has become considerably better, the presentation is woeful. Is it really that hard to display the offering with a little bit of creative flair?

Nice to hear the dips are good.

 

[coolumbla]

ok so tonite its beef goulash

i seem to be in a relaxation suite instead of the exec floor room

 

[DeKa]

I meant to post that Saturday night was a visually unappealing pasta and a soup.

 

[Ricardo]

Ok so we had our stay on Friday night.

We were able to check in early at about 1.30pm which was nice, got two rooms upgraded to relax rooms on floors 5 & 8, which were very nice, kinda like a junior suite, 3x beers but only light, but a nice touch with a note from management.

The Lounge was nice and modern, was nice to have to two seating areas I thought, one with water views and another area round the back for a loud group like us, newsapers mags etc all good ....

Also the afternoon tea was a little underwhelming also but you could argue it's the GC and who has afternoon tea at 3pm when it's 30 outside ??

Anyway the drinks were fine an ok offering I thought, food was ok too, had dim sims, spring rolls etc with some nice sweet chilli sauce, breads antipasto type cold cuts.

I did find the brekky a bit underwhelming and wet down to the main resturant for brekky which was the standard stuff, but nice when you were a little hungover from the night before.

The lounge manager was a very nice, Lena and gave me her card and said if I had any suggestions etc to let her know and if she could do anything to assist during the stay please let her know, which was nice.

All in all very happy with the Lounge and room and would return.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

The lounge manager was a very nice, Lena and gave me her card and said if I had any suggestions etc to let her know and if she could do anything to assist during the stay please let her know, which was nice.

All in all very happy with the Lounge and room and would return.

Lena is good. Very proactive, it seems. We were also there on Fri night, but missed the lounge as we had a function earlier and then dinner in Surfers. Good to hear the hot canapés are continuing.

HSP does seem to be getting better. We ow seem to be getting the Relax Suite most stays and they even extended my Diamond privileges to my daughter last night, for her 20th birthday (including the relax suite and a nice bottle of wine for her b/day). I really hope they strive to be better each and every stay, but we're certainly more impressed of late!

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Just an update for HSP.

Nice to see the lounge is still considerably better than it use to be. Lena is still there and still pleasant and efficient. The offering, whilst still not up to HSYD or HSW is a vast improvement on the past. Last night they had on offer, the standard antipasto spread, potato and leak soup which was hot, vege spring rolls and pumpkin dumplings along with a lovely cheese platter. All and all, a nice offering.

The check-in experience was OK except I can never fathom the HHonors queue. Does that ever work? They spasmodically man the lane but no attempt is made to direct HHonor guests into the line. So standing in the general queue, we have no idea who else is HHonors and who isn't so it would be very DYKWIA to push past and stand in front. No request for Gov't ID but the lady recognised me anyway.

Room was upgraded from King Guest to King Relaxation (our favourite) so happy with that, but no other recognition (no card, no water, etc) and Nespresso machine does not work. Delivered coffees to our room along with newspaper instead. Turn down service and chocolates offered.

 

[drross]

Did they charge you for the coffees?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Did they charge you for the coffees?

We haven't got to the payment part yet, so I don't know.

Had breakfast in Salt and ordered a flat white which was delivered and no mention of additional charge. I'll see tomorrow when we check out.

 

[drross]

Thanks swanning_it.