Hilton, Maidstone

Reasons for choosing this hotel:

We've stayed here before and the position is good for us when visiting friends and family, being just off the M20 Motorway at Junction 7, approximately 4 miles from Maidstone town centre.

I could have used a cheaper hotel (there is an Innkeepers Lodge and a few Premier Travel Inns locally) but as a member of the Hilton loyalty scheme which allows you to "double dip" and not ...
...Airline rewards programme at the same time, it is a good option for me, so I checked online on Boxing Day for a 1 night stay on 27th December.

Booking:

The Hilton website, whilst not the most exciting in the world, is easy to navigate - if you know which hotel you want to stay at , you can use the option on the left hand side of the home page or, if not, the locate a hotel button allows you to search by country, region, ... more

Reasons for choosing this hotel:

We've stayed here before and the position is good for us when visiting friends and family, being just off the M20 Motorway at Junction 7, approximately 4 miles from Maidstone town centre.

I could have used a cheaper hotel (there is an Innkeepers Lodge and a few Premier Travel Inns locally) but as a member of the Hilton loyalty scheme which allows you to "double dip" and not only earn Hilton points, but also points for your chosen Airline rewards programme at the same time, it is a good option for me, so I checked online on Boxing Day for a 1 night stay on 27th December.

Booking:

The Hilton website, whilst not the most exciting in the world, is easy to navigate - if you know which hotel you want to stay at , you can use the option on the left hand side of the home page or, if not, the locate a hotel button allows you to search by country, region, city and specify other facilities such as meeting room, pool etc that you wish the hotel to have.

I requested a Double smoking room which was not available but there was a King guest room available at a cost of £83.50 including breakfast - so far so good.

Arrival:

You can check in from 3pm but we didn't arriving until approximately 10pm and, despite the car park being busy, there were still spaces to be had. The building itself is modern and you enter from the Car Park at the same level into a large lobby area with comfy sofas and a small café. The reception desk is on your right and the breakfast room is on the left. Check-in was quick and painless and our room was on the same level, on a corridor just off reception.

Room:

We were very hungry on arrival, so the first thing we did was locate the room service menu on the desk and sit down on the sofa to peruse. Fairly standard room service fare available - I ordered a club sandwich and my husband a burger. Whilst the menu said that the club sandwich came with chips, it didn't say anything about the burger so we ordered some chips too - oops, good job we were hungry as the burger had chips with it! The food and a couple of soft drinks came to a total cost of around £20 - it was very tasty and arrived hot which anyone who uses room service regularly will know is always a bonus!

Once the food was ordered, I decided to check out the rest of the room - the King sized bed was fairly soft and had a duvet, in front of the sofa was a coffee table and there was a wardrobe with plenty of hanging space and the desk has tea and coffee making facilities. TV has standard channels plus Pay Movies and there is a Sony Play station and high speed internet access (chargeable) - apart from the TV we didn't use anything else so I can't comment on them.

The bathroom was large with the usual freebies (soap, shower gel and shampoo) next to the sink and the bath had a shower over. The bath was dirty so I called reception and was advised that someone would be sent to sort it out. However, when the member of staff arrived, he had a key for another room and was ready to move us. After I explained we had already ordered room service, he said he'd get it cleaned instead and actually came back himself and did a good job of cleaning it for us. On his first visit I had asked for an ashtray which I didn't think was unreasonable in a smoking room and the same guy brought this a few minutes after he'd cleaned the bath.

Breakfast and Check Out:

At every Hilton I've ever stayed at, you have to queue for breakfast and are shown to a table when one becomes available. This one was no different, however we were shown to a table that hadn't been set and the server for that area was not happy with the person seating us - but we didn't need to know that!

Check out in the morning is by 12 noon, although it late check out is sometimes available. There was only one person on reception in morning and a bit of a queue - luckily I wasn't in a hurry, although you can choose to use the Express Check Out service if you're going to use the same debit/credit card that you used to book and you have no queries on your bill.

Things to do in the area:

Leeds Castle - J8 M20
Whitbread Hop Farm
Rochester Castle/Cathedral
Chatham Historic Dockyard including the new Dickens World attraction
Easy access to Channel Tunnel, Ashford International (for Eurostar) and Dover Docks within about 40 mins

The hotel does have a Living Well Health Club with an approx 20m pool and gym but I haven't used it on my last couple of visits so don't feel qualified to comment further.

Overall opinion:

I like this hotel and you normally get excellent service. The problems I had this time were dealt with quickly and efficiently and I think I'd put them down to the fact that it was the Christmas/New Year period and it won't put me off staying again.

Hilton Maidstone Hotel
Bearsted Road
Weavering
Maidstone
Kent
ME14 5AA

Tel: 01622 734322
www.hilton.co.uk/maidstone 

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