Hilton Croydon, London

...am a member of the Hilton Honors scheme - it is free to join and well worth it if you use hotels often as they do have regular special offers and you can earn Hilton points and frequent flyer miles at the same time. See website: http://hhonors.hilton.com - so I thought I would take a look to see what deals there might be.

I was pleasantly surprised to get an offer on the Croydon Hilton for £43.50 a night (Fri/Sat) including breakfast ...
...Express in Croydon. The Hilton Honors website is simple to use and my booking was confirmed, with a print-out in my hand in less than a couple of minutes.

Anyway... the first and probably most important thing to say ahout the Croydon Hilton is that it is most definitely NOT in Croydon. THIS IS VERY MISLEADING!!! It is actually in Waddon, a nearby town. The Hilton website does not mention this at all and suggests that the nearest train ... more

Just over a week ago I was visiting London. As usual, I tend to look for hotel deals a little out of the centre of town as it usually works out much cheaper even when you've factored in the public transport costs (I don't drive.) I am a member of the Hilton Honors scheme - it is free to join and well worth it if you use hotels often as they do have regular special offers and you can earn Hilton points and frequent flyer miles at the same time. See website: http://hhonors.hilton.com - so I thought I would take a look to see what deals there might be.

I was pleasantly surprised to get an offer on the Croydon Hilton for £43.50 a night (Fri/Sat) including breakfast and dinner the first night. This worked out more than £20 cheaper than my usual choice of the Holiday Inn Express in Croydon. The Hilton Honors website is simple to use and my booking was confirmed, with a print-out in my hand in less than a couple of minutes.

Anyway... the first and probably most important thing to say ahout the Croydon Hilton is that it is most definitely NOT in Croydon. THIS IS VERY MISLEADING!!! It is actually in Waddon, a nearby town. The Hilton website does not mention this at all and suggests that the nearest train station is East Croydon on the Victoria/Gatwick./Brighton line, when in fact, if you are relying on public transport you might be better off getting a train from Victoria in the direction of West Croydon/Sutton and getting off at Waddon which is the station after West Croydon. That way you'll save on an £8/10 taxi fare from East Croydon. I also later learned that the hotel is happy to arrrange for a taxi to meet you at Waddon, if you phone them to give your arrival time...

Details of visit - Friday:
The hotel does not look anything like how it does on the website, which has obviously made copious use of artistic special lighting effects. It is a fairly utilitarian concrete/glass block but the entrance area is well lit and though I am not a car driver, I noticed there were a good number of open-air car parking spaces available which are very near to the main entrance. The entrance to the foyer also appeared to be wheelchair friendly with no steps.

First impressions of the foyer area were good: clean, tidy, well lit and airy with adequate seating area and information stands with details on events happening in the hotel, local area details. free newspapers and general Hilton info etc. Reception was right by the entrance and check-in was quick and painless, though it would have been even quicker if the other person behind the desk had seen there was someone waiting and offered to help. I was asked which newspaper I wanted in the morning and given details of what time breakfast was etc.

My room was on the 3rd floor and fairly easy to find though quite a walk from the lift. The card key worked first time (always good!) and my first impression of the room was that it was a very reasonable size. However, I usually ask for a King size or double bed and the Croydon Hilton's way of satisfying this request is to push two singles (separately made up) together. OK, it's not a big thing if you are on your own, but I do like to stretch out in bed. The room was quite warm and felt musty and stuffy, didn't get the impression it had been aired that morning, so I opened the window which fortunately you can do. Heating and a/c controls were easy to find and worked.

Carpet and furnishings are in neutral brown/beigeish tones with some anodyne contemporary art prints on the walls, dark wood furniture including desk, coffee table, very comfortable armchair and lots of storage space for belongings, adequate number of hangers in wardrobe, iron/ironing board, hairdryer, kettle with selection of tea, coffee (incl. decaf.) and herbal tea etc. TV with remote control but only appeared to give 6 channels, no CNN, but it did have all the pay to view stuff which I don't use. Bathroom - with bathtub/combined shower unit appeared very clean with lots of towels, and much appreciated La Source goodies of shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, soap.

I had to eat before going into London for my meeting and concert so went down to the Lounge/Bar area. Immediate, friendly service - I ordered toasted cheese sandwiches. When they arrived I was surprised to find they were served with a large portion of french fries! However, the sandwiches were just pieces of dry toast with these horrid individual processed cheese slices in it, which had obviously just been put between the toast and not actually toasted/melted - not what you'd call a toasted cheese sandwich?! So the french fries turned out to be the best bit of the meal! It wasn't that expensive though at £5 and I was in a hurry so no big complaints but definitely not Hilton quality. Didn't drink in bar but prices seemed normal and not excessive.

Saturday:
Day didn't start well as my newspaper was not delivered to the room as promised and I also discovered that the electric socket by the make up mirror was not working so I had to dry my hair away from a mirror (all the ladies will understand what a pain that can be...!)

Went down to breakfast in the main Latitudes Restaurant area at about 10.10am (it's available til 10.30 on weekends.) I discover a scene of total chaos. A boiler had burst sending water everywhere in the kitchen area. Staff were frantically trying to mop up a lot of water from the floor of the restaurant and did not really have any interest in us guests who were hungry for breakfast. It is a self service system and we were told to take our food into the lounge bar area. However, other members of staff were stopping us from getting near the cereals/orange juice etc and then they put down a huge pile of towels on the floor to soak up the water which one had to climb over. I just wanted something to eat - as I'd paid for! - so I begged someone to fetch me a full English breakfast (one of my treats when I am staying in hotels) and waited and waited, but the guy never returned. By this time I was getting pretty upset, OK it was an emergency but that doesn't mean the guests just "disappear". Fortunately a very helpful young Polish member of staff saw me and she was kind enough to fetch my bacon, egg and all the trimmings. But it was not really satisfactory. Yes, it was an emergency, but guests still need to be catered for!

I had work to do in my room during the day so asked not to be disturbed by having room freshened up. I did take a look at the leisure facilities (once I found them after asking several members of staff where they were and getting conflicting/confusing answers,) and the pool/sauna/spa area looked excellent. However, it was mentioned on the website that the spa was currently closed for renovation, which it isn't, it is open - the detail has still not been updated as of today. It would also be a good service to guests if a price list of beauty/spa treatments on offer could be placed in each room.

Later in evening I phoned down to reception to order a taxi to East Croydon station. The phone rang and rang, no reply. Tried again - still no reply, and again - STILL no reply, then tried the "action line" button on my phone - no reply to that either. Fifteen minutes of trying/waiting later and worrying about the time, I tried the reception AGAIN and finally a rather sullen member of staff picked up and agreed to book a taxi. As I left, I asked the receptionist if she could get someone to freshen up my room before I returned. On return later that evening, my room had NOT been freshened up - bed unmade, no clean towels, or toiletries replenished etc. Not the kind of service you expect at the Hilton.

Sunday morning:
Went down to breakfast at 10.00am, found that guests were being asked to give their room numbers and wait in Lounge as "not enough space for them at this moment." However, there were plenty of spare seats and tables, the problem was that staff were not clearing away the dirty crockery quickly enough. So with other guests I took a seat, having picked up a free newspaper to read... and waited, and waited, and waited... for at least 25 minutes before my room number was called and I could finally get some breakfast! I do have to say that the breakfast is excellent, great choice of items, cooked stuff was excellent quality and basically you can eat all you want. However it was frustrating to find staff starting to put away the food items, just as I was settling down to eat - particularly as we had all had to wait so long to be seated!

Check-out.
Painless til I discovered I had been charged for a bar bill which I didn't incur. I was told that I had signed for the items and they produced a receipt - but it was pretty obvious it was not my name at all from the signature so they apologised profusely and took that item off the bill. However, they didn't let me use the sandwiches that I bought on the Fri evening as my "dinner" which was included in the rate which was a bit of a swindle I thought. I wasn't able to eat in the evening as I was busy in London.

Additional items - I didn't have my laptop on this short trip so couldn't try out the promised "Hi-speed internet" connections in the rooms. However, I did notice a couple of guys using computers in the foyer area so it seemed the wi-fi was working. Also, there were a lot of kids around including for a birthday party so it seemed to be regarded as family friendly.

Postscript:
I filled in a customer satisfaction form with my experiences and was quite impressed to receive a letter back from the Hotel Manager 2 days ago. He apologised for the problems I had experienced, but there was no offer of extra Hilton Honors points or a discount for my next Hilton stay - things which I know I would have received had it been an American Hilton hotel... I might write to the main customer services contact, but I doubt I will be going back to stay in this hotel again. It really is a "Hilton Lite" rather than the top level Hilton brand a customer would expect to experience. 

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