How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

[JMFK]

I don't mind the Hilton Sydney, but the rooms are the size of the bathrooms at HSW!

Unless you secure those elusive Relaxation Room upgrades of course!

 

[drross]

Love the lovely Spanish place on the wharf. Bohemian. Excellent food, good selection of Spanish beers, and great staff.

 

[boomy]

I don't mind the Hilton Sydney, but the rooms are the size of the bathrooms at HSW!

I also don't mind HSYD because I usually stay there alone and my status allows me lounge access and free breakfast at the restaurant.
However, if I would not have status and pay $250 for that tiny room, I would be very disappointed.

 

[Clivem]

Hilton status can get you a room in an apparently ' full ' Hotel ....... I have booked three rooms at HSW for May 19th to 23rd and another room from the 21st to the 23rd of May for one staff member who did not need to be there as long.
Things changed and I needed that staff member to be there the night of the 20th also. A quick check of the HSW web site showed the hotel was now apparently 'fully' for the night of the May 20th (it still shows as fully booked). All rooms where booked to me (Diamond) but I was able to change the booking and get the booking extend for the 20th. ...... Happy days.

Heads up form anyone looking for a spot at HSW in mid May especially the 20th or 21th of May .....get in quick there is not much left apparently.........

 

[JessicaTam]

Hilton status can get you a room in an apparently ' full ' Hotel ....... I have booked three rooms at HSW for May 19th to 23rd and another room from the 21st to the 23rd of May for one staff member who did not need to be there as long.
Things changed and I needed that staff member to be there the night of the 20th also. A quick check of the HSW web site showed the hotel was now apparently 'fully' for the night of the May 20th (it still shows as fully booked). All rooms where booked to me (Diamond) but I was able to change the booking and get the booking extend for the 20th. ...... Happy days.

Heads up form anyone looking for a spot at HSW in mid May especially the 20th or 21th of May .....get in quick there is not much left apparently.........

How scary was the price?

 

[Clivem]

How scary was the price?

it was an 'ouch!' for that extra night @ $380... but we need to be there and the HSW is perfect for what we need in terms of convenience / quality / great lounge / and we love the bars / food etc. ... Plus hopefully the week will pay dividends far greater than the room costs down the line. It is a 'plum' week in Melb. 20th to 23rd ish of May- Current web rate for the Crown Metropol is a whooping $515 a night for the 20th for a base room - 2 rooms left.

 

[JessicaTam]

it was an 'ouch!' for that extra night @ $380... but we need to be there and the HSW is perfect for what we need in terms of convenience / quality / great lounge / and we love the bars / food etc. ... Plus hopefully the week will pay dividends far greater than the room costs down the line. It is a 'plum' week in Melb. 20th to 23rd ish of May- Current web rate for the Crown Metropol is a whooping $515 a night for the 20th for a base room - 2 rooms left.

That is not as bad as I was expecting.

 

[jetlagger]

it was an 'ouch!' for that extra night @ $380... but we need to be there and the HSW is perfect for what we need in terms of convenience / quality / great lounge / and we love the bars / food etc. ... Plus hopefully the week will pay dividends far greater than the room costs down the line. It is a 'plum' week in Melb. 20th to 23rd ish of May- Current web rate for the Crown Metropol is a whooping $515 a night for the 20th for a base room - 2 rooms left.

What is the reason for the inflated prices?
High prices for not such a special hotel.

 

[straitman]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton South Wharf
Rate: $249
Dates 7 May - 8 May (one night)
Booked: King Hilton Guestroom
Received: Yarra Suite.

Lounge spread was very good including great scones for afternoon tea. Background singer was also very good.

My only issue is having to train the new staff re my favourite drinks :!:

 

[JessicaTam]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton South Wharf
Rate: $249
Dates 7 May - 8 May (one night)
Booked: King Hilton Guestroom
Received: Yarra Suite.

Lounge spread was very good including great scones for afternoon tea. Background singer was also very good.

My only issue is having to train the new staff re my favourite drinks :!:

You mean the one they get from "out the back"?

 

[coolumbla]

Heads up form anyone looking for a spot at HSW in mid May especially the 20th or 21th of May .....get in quick there is not much left apparently.........

i m already there
That would explain the prices!

 

[Clivem]

What is the reason for the inflated prices?
High prices for not such a special hotel.

Supply and demand - nearly everything in the vicinity of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre of a reasonable standard is sold out or nearly sold out on those dates now

 

[straitman]

i m already there
That would explain the prices!

coolumbia,

Are you at HSW for a few days? We will be back tomorrow night.

 

[Moopere]

Status: Gold
Property: Hilton Surfers Paradise
Nights: 6
Rate: AP $159/night
Booked: King Guest
Received: King Executive, 13th Floor (of 15 for the hotel rooms)
Date: 30APR-6MAY

Nice room upgrade which I was more then happy with. I'd formed an opinion after reading AFF over time that HSP rarely gave worthwhile upgrades. The hotel was basically empty though so perhaps that explains it (?). 3 beers and a welcome card awaiting me, turn down and chocolates every night. View from the 13th floor looking out over the beach was fabulous, Mrs Moopere very impressed.

Location is fantastic, literally walk everywhere or short taxi to some activities or the casino. Staff unobtrusive but really helpful.


There were some mentionables though:

- Great location also meant being in the middle of 'party town' apparently. I didn't realise until I got there that HSP is surrounded by at least a half dozen disco's which pound 'doof doof' music until at least 4am in the morning pretty much every day of the week. Even on the 13th floor it kept me awake. Not a hotel problem, strictly speaking, but a heads up for light sleepers. Next stay here I'll go up some floors, book a 'residence'. I have the same noise related problem at Hilton SYD, but after my first couple of stays and mild mannered comments, I now get pushed up the hotel and its not a problem. I think probably HSP would be the same ... 30 floors up or more and the disco noise probably wouldn't be a big issue (residences go up to floor 55 I think)

- Airconditioning seemed only able to cool the room, not heat it. Weird though it may seem, at this time of year Surfers can get pretty cold, nights were under 10 degrees. Anyway, our aircon seemed stuck on 23, and any amount of effort from maintenance didn't seem able to resolve the issue. We ended up with a small portable fan heater in the room You gotta laugh. Maintenance things happen, its not a biggie really, but someone else mentioned in another thread relating to hotel wish lists that they wished aircon was routinely checked between guests and I agree. Hot water working? Check, Toilet flushes? Check, Aircon working? Check .... this sort of thing would be nice.

- Executive Lounge, 15th floor. Well, my goodness. Staff were lovely, really helpful, cheerful and happy to have a chat. That being said, it was deserted all the time and for good reason - there is essentially no reason to go there. M&M's and jelly beans were the only consistently available snack - usually not even a cookie to go with your coffee. In the evening there was a red and white, some basic spirits, no champagne or bubbly of any type, 1 meaty dish (usually a dumpling of some sort) and 1 veg dish, usually a spring roll, cheese board, soup and the basic cold cuts/salad that one finds in the VA or QF lounge. Yikes! Even by Australian standards it was pretty bare. By Asian standards it was just laughable.

Not a plus or a minus, but something I pondered ... was the Hilton SP actually built as a hotel? I'm thinking it was designed as a residential apartment tower. Small frontage, almost no front-of-hotel parking. Weird small entrance that partly or almost completely hides the reception desk. The whole entrance/lobby just really felt like a residential complex. Inside the hallways are unusually narrow and because of this are all scored and scarred with trolley marks - its also really dark inside.

Also... whats with the bathrooms? In the exec room at least its massive, really, but full of nothing. No bath, a massively oversized shower area which is not really all that usable or useful. Toilet just sort of sitting there, near the vanity but despite there being acres of space everywhere, it has no screen or any other attempt at privacy. I mean, its all good, I've hit the no bath, weird toilet placement and other oddities in other hotels, but usually the bathrooms are broom closet sized so one understands. HSP Exec bathroom would have to be getting close to the whole size of a std room at Hilton SYD ... what were the designers thinking?

I'm always pretty wordy in my grumbles, but only for clarity really - I'd stay here again without hesitation (just higher up to avoid the noise). Location is fab, staff are fab, rooms and views are fab.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Property: Hilton Surfers Paradise

Was this your first stay? I thought you'd been before.

Now to address some of your points:

Discos? Now how old are you ......nightclubs I believe is the term. (Do I assume you and Mrs Moopere didn't get out and "shake your booties" until the wee hours?). Highest floor I've stayed on is 49th and I can confirm you don't hear the "partaying my man" from up there although I sleep through anything, so that does not bother me in the least.

The lounge offering you describe is the new improved version. The old version was really something to whine about and I'm a bit put out that you got at least M&Ms....I've never had them (that I can recall....admittedly M&Ms don't rate highly amongst my most memorable lounge food) :shock:

To the best of my knowledge, Hilton was always going to be a Hilton, but only partly. I'm guessing that the Hotel building (Orchid Tower) was always to be the Hilton Hotel and residences, but the shorter (Boulevard Tower) was to be permanent accommodation. The project started out as a joint venture with the sites owners (Villa World) a developer with a history of ridiculously small lot, budget developments and the other partner a respected developer (Raptis) who, as it emerged, was over exposed. Raptis bought out the Villa World shareholding and shortly after, collapsed and it was taken over by the mortgagee (IIRC) who brought in another interested party (Multiplex) to complete the project and Hilton agreed (were coerced?) into taking it all on. That does explain many of the shortcomings (many that you possibly didn't experience in the hotel section). Most agree the hotel itself lacks just about everything that sets a quality hotel apart from the masses and the financial strife that plagued the project possibly contributed to that in a big way. I have no idea what the designers were thinking, but something tells me the designers possibly never actually finished the design. Blind Freddie can see many changes that, if made early on in the project, could have made the HSP one of the best Hiltons in Australasia..........but one has to ask if that was really what Hilton wanted. They seem to have excelled in creating possibly the most ordinary Hilton in Australasia.

Glad you enjoyed your stay!

 

[Flashback]

Was this your first stay? I thought you'd been before.

Now to address some of your points:

Discos? Now how old are you ......nightclubs I believe is the term. (Do I assume you and Mrs Moopere didn't get out and "shake your booties" until the wee hours?). Highest floor I've stayed on is 49th and I can confirm you don't hear the "partaying my man" from up there although I sleep through anything, so that does not bother me in the least.

The lounge offering you describe is the new improved version. The old version was really something to whine about and I'm a bit put out that you got at least M&Ms....I've never had them (that I can recall....admittedly M&Ms don't rate highly amongst my most memorable lounge food) :shock:

To the best of my knowledge, Hilton was always going to be a Hilton, but only partly. I'm guessing that the Hotel building (Orchid Tower) was always to be the Hilton Hotel and residences, but the shorter (Boulevard Tower) was to be permanent accommodation. The project started out as a joint venture with the sites owners (Villa World) a developer with a history of ridiculously small lot, budget developments and the other partner a respected developer (Raptis) who, as it emerged, was over exposed. Raptis bought out the Villa World shareholding and shortly after, collapsed and it was taken over by the mortgagee (IIRC) who brought in another interested party (Multiplex) to complete the project and Hilton agreed (were coerced?) into taking it all on. That does explain many of the shortcomings (many that you possibly didn't experience in the hotel section). Most agree the hotel itself lacks just about everything that sets a quality hotel apart from the masses and the financial strife that plagued the project possibly contributed to that in a big way. I have no idea what the designers were thinking, but something tells me the designers possibly never actually finished the design. Blind Freddie can see many changes that, if made early on in the project, could have made the HSP one of the best Hiltons in Australasia..........but one has to ask if that was really what Hilton wanted. They seem to have excelled in creating possibly the most ordinary Hilton in Australasia.

Glad you enjoyed your stay!

Could be British .. they call them discos over here (and most of Europe)

 

[straitman]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton South Wharf
Rate: $230
Dates 9 May - 10 May (one night)
Booked: King Hilton Guestroom
Received: Yarra Suite.

Lounge spread very good. Missed afternoon tea as it took 90 min to complete the last 10km on the freeway.

My only issue is having to train the new staff re my favourite drinks :!:

 

[DC3]

Any Wine Bars?

 

[Flashback]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton South Wharf
Rate: $230
Dates 9 May - 10 May (one night)
Booked: King Hilton Guestroom
Received: Yarra Suite.

Lounge spread very good. Missed afternoon tea as it took 90 min to complete the last 10km on the freeway.

My only issue is having to train the new staff re my favourite drinks :!:

Sounds like my drive home on the M25 every day :evil:

 

[JessicaTam]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton South Wharf
Rate: $230
Dates 8 May
Booked: King Hilton Guestroom
Received: Two bedroom suite.

My first ever suite upgrade at HSW. And it was super cool. Top floor as well.

It almost made up for the coffee with breakfast: I was offered coffee, which I accepted as there was no mention of cost. Coffee was served, and there was no mention of cost. Eventually received the chit to sign which I did, although commenting that it was poor form to offer something with no cost mentioned, and then charge for it. I also pointed this out when checking out and the charge was reversed.

Eggs florentine were good, though.