How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

[straitman]

That sucks, no upgrade and no vouchers?
Guess that's one to skip in future then.

Agreed. There is also a Hampton Inn (which I normally avoid) that I would try on another occasion.

 

[Sabot]

Agreed. There is also a Hampton Inn (which I normally avoid) that I would try on another occasion.

Looks like you've had a bit of a bum run with upgrades and service, holiday or business?
Might be worth calling the diamond line for a whinge, see what they come up with.

 

[straitman]

Looks like you've had a bit of a bum run with upgrades and service, holiday or business?
Might be worth calling the diamond line for a whinge, see what they come up with.

Yeah maybe I should. Thanks.

This trip is all holiday with 18 of 65 days remaining. We are currently in San Miguel de Allende Mexico and maybe have one night at the HH MEX on our way out.

 

[kermatu]

Is there another Hilton anywhere that requires drink purchases in the Exec Lounge?

In North America I thought it was the norm. I’ve certainly had to purchase anything alcoholic in at least a few that I can recall - Miami, Boston Logan, Clear Lake (TX), and Vancouver. Either purchase or at best an honour bar. Going back a few years though.

 

[kermatu]

Property: Hilton Auckland
Date: December one night. AAA rate
Status: Diamond
Booked: King Room
Received: Bow Suite, floor 5
Elite treatment: Superb upgrade, turndown service with two waters, two drink vouchers, full breakfast in restaurant,

Upgrade showed up on morning of stay so checked-in on the app.

Staff everywhere great and most remembered me from previous stays. The doormen, concierge staff, bar staff and breakfast team (though there are more changes to the latter soon unfortunately).

Full buffet breakfast in the restaurant. Coffee tax waived and given full access to menu as well as buffet.

Service in the bar significantly better than before (much more proactive).

Very glad I stayed here for old time’s sake.

 

[VPS]

Does anyone have an email address for Hilton - when I rang the guy was so hard to understand I know it had guest experience and Hilton in there somewhere

Also - has anyone had any luck extending a Hilton rewards night before expiry

 

[boomy]

Was meaning to post reviews from all Hilton properties visited during recent Portugal/Spain trip but seems like I only posted from Algarve so here is the rest:

Property: DoubleTree Lisbon
Booked: King Guest Room
Received: King Superior Room

We stayed in Lisbon 3 nights and the hotel was fully booked due to a convention in the city so best upgrade was one level up, better then nothing I suppose.

Before checking in I came prepared after reading reviews saying many of the rooms are too dark and requested a room facing the park. As I was checking in I’ve noticed another couple asking to change their room as it was too dark so it’s a real issue with this hotel. Luckily our room got enough sunlight and didn’t feel dark but the decor was very odd. The colour choices of black and green don’t make any sense to me, it made the room feel smaller.

Breakfast was ok, very busy due to the hotel being full. Seems to be popular with Americans, make sense as it’s the only Hilton hotel in the city.

The hotel is in CBD, nothing there for tourists but very close to metro and Uber is very cheap in Lisbon (€2-3 to get almost anywhere) which is interesting considering petrol in Portugal is most expensive in the EU.

Overall not the best DT and I wouldn’t stay there again unless the price was significantly cheaper than other 4* hotels in the area.

Some photos of the hotel, dark hallway and room:
(Note how room numbers are written on the floor)

 

[boomy]

Property: Garden Inn Seville
Booked: King Room
Received: One Bedroom Suite with Living Room

We had two separate one night stays at this hotel and both times got exactly the same suite. Very generous of GI to upgrade from base to top category room. The suite is basically two connected rooms, one with standard bedroom and the other was converted to living room. Both rooms have identical bathrooms and showers.

Breakfast was very good with chef making eggs to order and assortment of local products like the famous Jamon.

Location is somewhat between the airport and city. Free shuttle is offered to old town, Uber cost ~€10 to either city or airport.

Photo of the suite living room:

 

[boomy]

Property: Garden Inn Malaga
Booked: King Room
Received: King Room

This property seem to have only three types of rooms: King, Twin and Suite. We stayed just one night and received top floor corner room with the odd number 444. The room was nice and modern, recently refurbished maybe(?).

While GI Seville has the classic European shower over bath this property had proper stand alone shower and also full range of amenities (toothbrush, shaving kit, sawing kit etc). The room was large and felt specious.

We received two welcome drink vouchers (was not offered in Seville). The breakfast was good, decent selection of local products plus a la carte egg menu.

The hotel is located close to airport. We used it as our base for one night and since we had car the location didn’t matter.

Some photos of the room:

 

[boomy]

Property: Curio Malaga
Booked: King Guest Room
Received: King Deluxe with Sea View

Newly refurbished and rebranded hotel, opened in August. It used to be DT and now an adults only Curio.

First I must address the misleading name, this hotel is NOT in Malaga. It’s actually a resort locates about 25 minutes drive from the city and is closer to Mijas which is a beautiful white village. If anyone plans to visit Malaga and stay at Curio they better rent a car. We had one so the location didn’t bother us. It does offer nice ocean views being up the hill.

I’m trying to find the right words to describe the room, the layout was very odd. It’s one big open plan room where the bathroom was in the living room, shower by the bed and toilet just behind it with only thin glass doors to separate. One can imagine everything can be heard and smelled... This layout may sound cool and stylish but in reality it was impractical and felt like a cheap mock of W hotels. It felt so uncomfortable that we cut short our stay and moved to another hotel.

There is a beautiful infinity pool on the roof but it’s not heated so no one used it. Breakfast was mediocre, we had better spread at GI.

Some photos of the room and rooftop infinity pool:

 

[boomy]

Property: DoubleTree Madrid Prado
Booked: Queen Guest Room
Received: Queen Guest Room

Booked 7 nights on very good rate, no upgrade available as the hotel was fully booked on some days of our stay but it was ok because even the base room was really nice.

Nothing about this hotel resembles a typical DT. The room and public areas were very stylish. Our room decor reminded us of Conrad London.

The location is absolutely perfect in the heart of the city waking distance to most attractions.

Breakfast was a la carte table service plus buffet with sparkling and white wines on offer. The food quality was superb, again nothing that resembles any DT I’ve stayed at.

During our stay we got some goodrecommendations from the concierge. Not the usual touristy / commission based stuff but true local gems (info was crossed-checked with a local friend).

In conclusion, great hotel and by far the best DT.

Some photos of the hotel and room:

 

[serfty]

Is there another Hilton anywhere that requires drink purchases in the Exec Lounge?

In North America I thought it was the norm.

It certainly is the norm in the USA, most appear to work on an honor system.

One exception I found having complimentary Beer and Wine was the Hilton BWI a few years ago - it also had a reasonable (decent for the USA) buffet during happy hour as well as at breakfast.

 

[DC3]

Property: Hilton LAX ....

Is there another Hilton anywhere that requires drink purchases in the Exec Lounge?

The ELs in the USA usually operate on an “honor bar” (or sometimes a cash bar, but that’s an exception) in my experience. Not usually anything special, but different. LAX EL is certainly no better/worse than many others in the USA. I still do not understand why USA (the home of Hilton) can have such mediocre EL offerings compared to Asia, and even Oz and Europe.

Certainly the LAX Hilton was very ordinary when I was there some years ago, although there are some great runway-view rooms. Sounds like the same guy in the lounge. . And they did Hertz rentals from their garage which was useful to get to Santa Monica and Malibu for the day.

 

[Fifa]

Property: Hilton Perth
Date: Dec 2019
Status: Diamond
Booked: Twin Hilton guest room
Received: Twin Hilton guest room
Rate: $141

Before check in my room was changed to a King Deluxe room but as I was travelling with my son, I had to accept the room as booked as there were no upgrades available.

I really dislike being handed two bottles of water in a brown paper bag at check in. It's so tacky.

The usual voucher for one free drink and tapas plate each given at checkin. We were shown to seats in the bar and the waiter told us he would come back to take our order. After a 15 min wait, I gave up and decided to order at the bar. A further 15 mins and no tapas so back I went to be told I didn't specifically ask for them!

Breakfast has definitely gone downhill since I was last there and as there is a coffee tax we waited until we got to the VA lounge.

Hopefully the upcoming refurbishment will improve things.

 

[SponsorSFC]

Property: Hilton Parmelia Perth
Date: Dec 2019
Status: Diamond
Booked: King Guest Room
Received: King Deluxe Plus
Rate: $136 pre paid sale rate

Had a one night stay after the cricket at Optus. The room was large and comfortable, more like a junior suite.

The 4 drink vouchers and 2 tapas vouchers at check in plus the free breakfast made this a better choice for the price than a cab/uber home. A pretty decent stay but there was significant noise from the rennovations during the day, it didn't affect us much as we were out for most of their operating hours.

Staff great as always.

While the renovations are ongoing I will probably move to the Doubletree in Northbrige or the new one on the river when it opens

 

[dairyfloss]

Does anyone have an email address for Hilton - when I rang the guy was so hard to understand I know it had guest experience and Hilton in there somewhere

Also - has anyone had any luck extending a Hilton rewards night before expiry

Hi VPS - if still needed, you could try one of these two... which I've had mixed success with over the years:

1) guest.correspondence [at] hilton.com
2) diamond [at] hilton.com

There is also hiltonhonors [at] hilton.com, but I find I get mostly copied & pasted answers from there... almost like it's run in part by a 'bot'.

Good luck!
Matt.

 

[VPS]

Hi VPS - if still needed, you could try one of these two... which I've had mixed success with over the years:

1) guest.correspondence [at] hilton.com
2) diamond [at] hilton.com

There is also hiltonhonors [at] hilton.com, but I find I get mostly copied & pasted answers from there... almost like it's run in part by a 'bot'.

Good luck!
Matt.

Thanks Matt - I've actually decided to give the free night away to my nephew for his honeymoon - what a great aunt I am

 

[JessicaTam]

Property: HH AUH Capital Grand
Rate: points
Booked: Standard King
Received: Exec King

This hotel ceased to be a Hilton on the 18th December. It will become a locally branded hotel - i.e. not part of a chain.

It was a nice breakfast downstairs but nothing special. I didn't see what the exec lounge breakfast was like.

I asked for a late checkout, and was offered 4pm. My flight was not until 11pm so was able to head to the lounge for a couple of hours. They had a good selection of food and drink which I was able to sample.

The most annoying thing about the room was the light switch:


Try getting that right when first arriving at night. Grrr.

 

[Sabot]

It's a shame when a nice lounge is ruined by hoardes of families using the happy hour as free dinner for kiddies time.

I am in the Hilton Vienna Danube and the lounge was pure savagery, children touching food and dropping bottles of juice putting glass everywhere.

Lounges should be child free.

 

[straitman]

It's a shame when a nice lounge is ruined by hoardes of families using the happy hour as free dinner for kiddies time.

I am in the Hilton Vienna Danube and the lounge was pure savagery, children touching food and dropping bottles of juice putting glass everywhere.

Lounges should be child free.

I'm not sure they should be child free however I do agree that the children should have proper parental supervision and/or specific areas set aside for them.