Hilton Surfers Paradise (Hotel or Residences)?

[straitman]

I know a few here have stayed at the (relatively) new Hilton at Surfers Paradise.

What I am trying to get my head around is the differences between the 'Hilton Surfers Paradise Hotel' and the 'Hilton Surfers Paradise Residences'

Any thoughts please?

 

[markis10]

Residences = apartments AFAIK - self catering etc

 

[oz_mark]

For residence, see Residence | Surfers Paradise | Australia Gold Coast | Hilton Surfers Paradise Hotel

Hilton Surfers Paradise is the first Hilton hotel in Australia to offer 250 spacious one, two and three bedroom Residences. Providing all the comfort and convenience of a fully contained holiday apartment each Residence features a separate living and dining area, and contains luxury appliances such as a fridge, freezer, electric stove top, washing machine, dryer and dishwasher. The added benefit of the spectacular Residences is that they also include access to Hilton's five star services and facilities such as Luke Mangan's In Room Dining menu, valet parking, mini bar, 24 hour reception and daily housekeeping.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Hi straitman the apartments are great
In practical terms they are two separate towers with a common lobby/ reception area and different lifts. One thing I noted was that there was no Wi-fi reception in the apartments.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

We love the residences! Have so far stayed in the 3,2 & 1 bedroom apartments and enjoy them. All the spaciousness and facilities of an apartment with the conveniences of a hotel.

Probably should say we haven't tried the hotel rooms....why would we?

PS.....There are two towers but apartments are in both. The taller tower is mainly hotel (I think) but we've also been on the 49th floor of that one in a 3 bedroom as well as the 19th in a 2 bedroom. Don't think by booking a hotel room, you'll miss the families.

 

[straitman]

Hi straitman the apartments are great
In practical terms they are two separate towers with a common lobby/ reception area and different lifts. One thing I noted was that there was no Wi-fi reception in the apartments.

Probably should say we haven't tried the hotel rooms....why would we?

PS.....There are two towers but apartments are in both. The taller tower is mainly hotel (I think) but we've also been on the 49th floor of that one in a 3 bedroom as well as the 19th in a 2 bedroom. Don't think by booking a hotel room, you'll miss the families.

Mmmmmm,

I'm not sure really what I'm after with the question as I have not really learnt anything new. Thanks anyway.

The Wifi is worth remembering.

The hotel rooms consistently seem to be cheaper and only go to the 15th floor so I guess I was trying to establish the extra value of the residences over what I've seen of the hotel.

The Exec lounge is on the 15th floor of the hotel tower. (Tower 2)

 

[Andyc]

I just checked into one of the residences tonight for the first time. There definitely is WiFi.

I was a little underwhelmed by the rooms. While alright, they are not of the same standard as the apartments at South Wharf. The finishings inside are a lot cheaper, the bathrooms not as nice, and soundproofing poorer (but understandable given that there are balconies).

 

[Deleted member 29185]

The hotel rooms consistently seem to be cheaper and only go to the 15th floor so I guess I was trying to establish the extra value of the residences over what I've seen of the hotel.

The Exec lounge is on the 15th floor of the hotel tower. (Tower 2)

Extra value? I can only comment for us, but the additional space in the apartments along with cooking and washing facilities is the value. With kids, the apartments are great......without, the hotel rooms may be fine. One thing that may sway you is the elevators. The hotel rooms can access the elevators that only go to level 15 (exec lounge level). The higher floor apartments or the other building apartments have to travel down to the lobby level (or at least the pool deck), change elevators and then go back up to 15. For the other building, the trek between elevators is substantial.

I agree totally with Andyc about the furnishings in the apartments. Bloody awful springs to mind. The beds, of course, are the same as the hotel rooms and very comfortable. The lounges are just acceptable, the dining table and chairs are almost unusable due to them being so uncomfortable (bare timber).......but at least they have lounges and dining tables. Do the hotel rooms? The walls are sparsely decorated with little or no nice paintings/prints) but the appliances are Miele and the kitchen usable. The balconies, however, are what makes any room that little bit more special. We certainly prefer hotel rooms with balconies (I believe all HSP rooms have balconies) or opening windows. Our pick is the apartments in the taller tower. The views are great and the access not to bad. The lobby will surprise you (I'll leave it at that ).

 

[Homer]

The smaller tower only has apartments ("residences"), whereas the larger tower has both hotel rooms and apartments. If you book an apartment they tell you that you could be in either tower and are unable to specify which one. I agree with other comments about the low-end furniture and fittings. The common areas also look very used and abused. We stayed there only once but probably won't be back.

Our last stay in this area was just across the road at the new Sea Temple Surfers Paradise (the Soul building) and I can tell you that this is a much nicer building. Sea Temple/Soul is the building that obstructs most of your ocean view if you stay at the Hilton. Aside from the fact that it is a beachfront property with a very good outdoor and indoor pool, I think it has significantly better rooms. We had a three-bedroom room and, while it's still done in the typical Gold Coast paired back style (I think they expect not very discerning guests) it is still much better than the Hilton offering. For example, while the Hilton has a balcony it is devoid of furniture while the Sea Temple has both an outdoor dining setting and a very serviceable daybed on its balcony.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Our last stay in this area was just across the road at the new Sea Temple Surfers Paradise (the Soul building)..........
........while the Hilton has a balcony it is devoid of furniture while the Sea Temple has both an outdoor dining setting and a very serviceable daybed on its balcony.

I didn't realise Soul was open yet! Must be very recent!

Hilton (at least the times we've been there) has balcony furniture. Rudimentary typical BBQ setting (glass top table, 4 uncomfortable chairs) but it is there. Now the daybed idea, I Like (with a capital L) .

 

[Homer]

I didn't realise Soul was open yet! Must be very recent!

Hilton (at least the times we've been there) has balcony furniture. Rudimentary typical BBQ setting (glass top table, 4 uncomfortable chairs) but it is there. Now the daybed idea, I Like (with a capital L) .

We've only stayed at the Hilton once, back when only the "Orchid" (smaller) tower was open, and there was no balcony furniture. I have also seen a review either here or on Tripadviser that mentions this so I thought it was normal. Obviously some apartments have furniture.

Sea Temple had a "soft opening" late last year but we stayed in mid-January. Here's the web site: Gold Coast Accommodation | Sea Temple Surfers Paradise | Luxury Accommodation Gold Coast. Only the first 49 (I think) floors are open as the upper floors are still under construction. There are five rooms per floor, two three-bedders on either end (i.e. one with northerly views, one with southerly views) and three two-bedders in the middle. We had a three-bedroom with a southerly view. We'd definitely go back. Surfers Paradise is really unattractive but the location for passable restaurants, theme parks and the beach is very good. But in our 7-night stay we didn't get to the beach once. The resort pools are perfectly good enough.

Oh and here's a pic of our view:

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Soft opening eh? and blindfolds hopefully.....the man-hoist was still working and the place was still being painted in early Jan. Sounds like you were one of the firsts. I like the look of the pool! I've got the feeling the HSP was constructed to "meet a market". Surfers has an abundance of very cheap accomodation so for HSP to be anywhere near competitive, I'm guessing they've built with that in mind. Soul would have been a far better choice for Hilton to jump into bed with (so to speak)!

 

[Andyc]

I can confirm that there HSP does have a table and 4 chairs on almost all balconies. It is certainly the best hotel I've stayed in at the Gold Coast, but don't expect it to be at the same level as other Hilton's in Australia.

While it may have been built to suit the area, I actually think that the finishes and furnishings are probably more to do with GFC than anything else. For a hotel that was being finished off during the GFC, I'd say these would be easy areas to cut costs.

 

[Homer]

Soft opening eh? and blindfolds hopefully.....the man-hoist was still working and the place was still being painted in early Jan. Sounds like you were one of the firsts. I like the look of the pool! I've got the feeling the HSP was constructed to "meet a market". Surfers has an abundance of very cheap accomodation so for HSP to be anywhere near competitive, I'm guessing they've built with that in mind. Soul would have been a far better choice for Hilton to jump into bed with (so to speak)!

The lobby and reception areas, both pools and both gyms, the barbecue areas and all the floors I saw were completed. If I looked at the building from a distance I could see the cranes on the upper floors but other than that it would be difficult to know that it was still under construction. The TripAdviser reviews go back to last October so we definitely weren't one of the first.

 

[Moopere]

I'll re-open this thread rather than start a new but related one.

Having reviewed this thread from earlier this year, I still don't really understand what the on-the-ground differences are between a standard hilton hotel room and say a 1 bedroom residence. Is the residence sort of like a suite but with kitchen and laundry??

I assume one can order a pizza in the middle of the night, daily housekeeping, front desk and concierge, etc

I'm looking at Sri Lanka and India next year, Colombo has a Residence and Bangalore is due to open a residence mid 2013. From reading the blurb at the Sri Lanka property it sounds like a normal Hilton Hotel (pool/gym/in-house restaurants) but with extra space in the 'apartments' as compared to a usual 30-40-50-60sqm hotel room

Is there a real difference between a Hilton Hotel and a Hilton Residence that I'm just not understanding?

 

[NT2010]

I have stayed in this Hilton Surfers Paradise in a two bedroom apartment, one have a king bed, the other have two single beds, two bathrooms, washing machine and dryer, a reasonable size kitchen and lounge, two TVs, dining table and a small but good ocean view balcony. We (family of four) enjoyed our stay very much.
We were also given access to Executive Lounge for breakfast and afternoon and evening drinks etc..
Except the different setup as residence/apartment,they operate this like a normal Hilton hotel - with housekeeping every day, normal check-in and out (we did request late check-out), free newspaper, 24 hour front desk and concierge, they even have the evening turn down service and left some chocolate mint on the beds.
For me, it is a very good Hilton hotel.

 

[marks]

Did they let Kids in the lounge?
I had a stay in the Bangkok Conrad Residences and was offered executive lounge but the kids had to be over 13!.

 

[Ewing]

Did they let Kids in the lounge?

I took my 6 year old nephew in there briefly a few weeks back, with no problems. This was in the morning though.

Personally having stayed in both the hotel and the residences, I'll be choosing the residences from now on (depending on price). They are apartments but with access to full hotel facilities.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Kids are welcome in the exec lounge. In fact if you visit in the school holidays (like I did) it's over-run with families both morning and evening.

EDIT: Agree with Ewing that the apartments are pretty good if a tad starkly furnished

 

[sparoz]

I have stayed in both and I would only stay at the residences now if I am with family. You get daily house keeping and turn down, an empty fridge but can request it to be stocked, full access to the hotel facilities including lounge, and our 11 months old now is welcomed, and a bath where most the hotel room doesn't have unless you are in a suite. I must say it is not the nicest or in the best spots, and the furnishing is on the lower end of the scale (same as the hotel). However, I must say the service in HSP is as good as HSW and Brisbane, and they are more relaxed about taking your sparkling water with you out of the lounge.

You basically get a larger room with very little down side. To me it is the inconvenience of carrying the two keys, one for room and one for lounge, and that you have to get down to the public area before you can get to the lounge.

If you know your way there are two exceptional but cheap Japanese Restaurants in the area, and Salt was very good the first time, but our last visit wasn't the best (dinner). HSP has taken over from the Sheraton Mirage and the Versace as our preferred place to stay on the GC.