seacow

this is one of my favourite london hotels - just back from a points stay where we had the city view suite which was great! love the skylounge even if its a bit dear!! I stay with work and we have a £160 pn London limit and what I will say is that the prices vary madly - sometimes I can get a room other times the room is over £300 in exceptional circumstances so I think they vary their rates as all properties do to match demand

fb175091

Just returned from a 10-night vacation stay at the DT Tower of London over NYE. I read the original review by BotB (which was also a stay over New Year a year earlier) and think that his experiences match mine pretty much.

I have now been in three former Mint hotels: this one, the DT Amsterdam Centraal and the DT Westminster

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...amsterdam.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...int-hotel.html

and find it interesting to note the striking similarities and differences. The design is very similar; the restaurant is called City Cafe; the SkyLounge concept is identical; the iMac as TV and computer in the room; the Executive Lounge is similar in design and offers. The latter is particularly surprising since the EL in Amsterdam wasn't opened until long after it stopped being a Mint hotel, so I am wondering whether there is some remaining link between the former Mint hotels. Almost spooky: the muesli cereal mix is exactly the same in Amsterdam and here. Small differences: in Amsterdam, the staff still wear a uniform with a small mint-coloured stripe (I suppose this is the old Mint uniform?), not here.

Check-in. The check-in was performed by a new member of staff (a supervisor came over to help him). His Spanish accent was so heavy that I found it difficult to understand him. He mentioned my Diamond status, gave us free breakfast and lounge access, but apparently no upgrade.

Room. The non-upgraded room was rather small for two people. It was exactly the type of room that can be seen in the pictures posted by BotB at the beginning of the thread. We had three suitcases and with that, all empty floor space in the room was gone. The shower door was damaged which we reported to housekeeping and it was eventually repaired (after five nights). Complimentary water was replenished every day.

Service. Was rather slow. It took our luggage over half an hour to arrive in the room. We requested two extra luggage racks which didn't show up the entire evening, despite several phone calls. On the second day, we repeated the request and one luggage rack appeared. Another phone call then got the second rack.

Lounge. Evening food offerings are not very interesting and the lounge can get rather unpleasant when the hotel is full.

Gym. OK in size and equipment.

Breakfast. As mentioned, some components of the breakfast are literally identical to the DT Amsterdam (the muesli cereal mixture), but in general, I think the breakfast is inferior to the one in Amsterdam. DT Amsterdam has better fruit offers, has Japanese offers, high quality cheese, special yogurt. We noticed that the breakfast in the lounge has higher quality yogurt. Full breakfast was included as Diamond perk: no attempt was made to restrict us to breakfast in the lounge.

Concierge service. As in the DT Amsterdam, you can borrow umbrellas from them, but small foldable ones as opposed to the big ones with DT logo that you get in Amsterdam. As a matter of personal preference, I like the bigger ones better.

Location. Very nice: as it is in a very quiet street right behind Tower Hill station.

Natural Kitchen. As mentioned, there is a Natural Kitchen restaurant on the hotel premises, accessible from the hotel. You can charge the costs of the meal to the hotel room. Food is very good:

http://www.thenaturalkitchen.com/

Sky Lounge. The weather was pretty bad during our entire stay in London, so the Sky Lounge was not as attractive as it could have been. We were there only once, and I found it much less congenial than the one in Amsterdam where I like to stay entire afternoons. There was a NYE evening in the Sky Lounge of which we were informed by e-mail in mid December, but we had other plans.

Summary. The standard rooms are rather small. Overall, it was a fine stay with a number of service issues that were all resolved (but slower than they should have been). Since we booked early, we got a good rate (between 110 and 120 pounds a night for a stay over NYE). For this rate, I would consider booking the hotel again.

joetro

Stayed here for 2 nights in November. Got a good rate (GBP 113 per night on weekend) and a basic room (small but very functional) that was modern and pretty nice. Have heard great things about the Kitchen. Absolutely adored the rooftop bar. Very easy to get to/from on the Tube. Recommend this place!

seacow

Well just back from my first trip as a gold member. Didn't get an upgrade which doesn't really bother me in this hotel but did get the free breakfast which was great as not in my room rate. Also got the gold amenity package which is macaroons, bottle of red wine and a voucher for a round of drinks in either of the bars! Quite pleased with that - not sure if I will get the wine every stay - could get messy if I do!!

Rebelyell

Okay, a little bit off thread, but we liked this hotel. They had some great Greek Salad Skewers in the executive lounge, and I decided to recreate these at home. The have become one of our must-have items for our tailgate at the Grove before Ole Miss football games. So if you spy the skewers, try them out. They are good.

I hope it's okay to include a blog post I wrote about this. If not, shoot me.
http://colrebsez.blogspot.com/2013/1...won-party.html

chalf

I stayed at this property in March. While the price (my corporate rate) was a bit steep, it was convenient and comfortable. My only complaint was that, on checking out, the hotel applied dynamic currency conversion (DCC, where a credit card is charged in its currency of issuer, rather than the hotel currency, with a commission baked in) to my bill, without asking, and refused to undo this on the basis that I had 'voluntarily' elected DCC at check in (I had not, and the question had never been raised). I protested extensively, and after about two weeks of e-mails back and forth managed to get the charges reversed. Of course, the DCC processing company applied another commission on the credit, so I/my employer was now doubly out of pocket on the commission. I protested again, and a credit to my account for the difference was made--less yet another DCC commission, so I was still out of pocket. At this point I gave up, deciding that my time was worth more than that (on a six night stay, the difference was however still substantial). At no time was there any offer of compensation or appreciation for my hassle.

I am staying there again this week, and will be quite attuned to the DCC issues. I was promised that after my complaints they had instituted a new training program, to ensure that employees knew how it worked.

wizla

Stayed here last weekend , here is my "tripavisor" review for anyone whos interested-


Arrived sat 14th june late lunchtime......pulled up to car park and pressed buzzer.....was told to drive back to hotel front and get pass off concierge ( inconvenience)....I see concierge to be told that car park is full ( why not inform me via the buzzer at car park????)......however he was helpful in directing me to a free parking area ( at weekends) around the side of hotel...fair play.
I checked in and was upgraded to a exec room on the 10th floor (room 1010) as this is due to Hilton honors status (diamond member).....this was appreciated and room was spotless and bed comfy...mini bar was empty but that's fine by me and room was on the small side but this was just a one night stay so again no problem......we went for a wander around st katharines dock nearby, nice views!, and on our return to hotel we went to the exec lounge.....no afternoon tea here like full service Hiltons ......we returned to lounge in the eve and it was busy....nice atmosphere but it is a small lounge.......canapés - smoked sausage and spicy shrimps (no vegetarian option?).......we went out for dinner and returned around 1 am.......hotel was quiet and we slept very well due to the very comfy beds....I went to the hotel gym before breakfast for a run and it was clean and looked new....breakfast was good too, the granola is the best ive ever had!!! and the service was good too.......check out was swift as I used the express check out option.
CONCLUSION - I liked it here, I would probably stick with Hilton tower bridge in future as I like to take afternoon tea, however we did enjoy our stay here and would be happy to recommend.

TheMiz

How did you make out on your recent stay at the DT Tower of London ?

I have an up coming stay in July and am a bit confused on this.

irishguy28

Isn't that a rather personal question?

wizla

Hahahahahaha......I like that!

Oregonflyer

I have stayed in the DT Tower of London a few times now. It is convenient and rooms that face the atrium can be quiet if there isn't too much noise from the Sky Lounge.

Now for my question. I had two rooms booked again for this month (Sep 2014) for £157 the first night and £131 for the second. I wanted to add an earlier night and a very nice gentleman at the front desk said he would see if he could get the lowest rate for all three. The minute it got to a manager, however, the best they would do was £269 for the additional night. This has been pretty much my experience with this particular hotel - the people at the front desk are very friendly and helpful but there must be pressure from somewhere to drive as much revenue as possible because the reservation managers won't budge.

I am considering the Westminster, which seems similar. Can anyone tell me how quiet it is? Constant city noise bothers me a lot at night, and so I prefer rooms that are blocked off from the city, e.g. the inner courtyard rooms at the Paddington Hilton, inner rooms at Heathrow T4, etc. Advice welcomed, since I may need to find a different London Hilton property with more consistent rates and good Diamond amenities.

stc

Strange. We recently stayed on a higher floor facing the train station and had no problems with noise.

Oregonflyer

Noise in the outside rooms at the DT Tower of London is not terrible. I just prefer the atrium rooms, which are even better. However, I am looking for alternatives because of the inconsistency with rates at the DTTL.

Also, the staff turnover seems rather much. I make a point of getting to know helpful staff by name so that I can write a note to their manager and ask for them next time I call, but so far every time I have done so at this property, the next time I call they have transferred somewhere else. Probably just random, but still curious.

BotB

The hotel seems to get quite mixed reviews and I hadn't stayed here in some time so thought we would give it a go recently just after Christmas...

A few notes along with some new pictures from stay in suite at DT Tower of London.

Stayed just before New Years eve for two nights on cash rate. Booked the suite as the rate was reasonable. No upgrade possible.

Won’t say too much as plenty already on this hotel.

The only comments are: Nice room, quiet, massive suite. Never had that many Nespresso capsules available in a hotel room (40 or so!) along with complimentary mini bar, kettle for tea!

Found the ground floor exec lounge okay, at least a room with windows to the outside, quite popular and problematic as many people don’t close the door properly so many people just try it on and walk in. Nothing much to ‘take’ though as only basic water, soft drinks and such out during the day. We did check it out one evening and found the wine empty and not replaced although staff member still in lounge and pretty meager snack offering. Not on par with best lounges in London.

Check in was quick and friendly and given 4 cookies (maybe I looked like I needed them?)

Hotel was quite busy but still decent service and quality throughout.

Breakfast is a mixed bag, Very, very dependant on the time you arrive. If you get there at a non peak time then you can get great service and food is available. If you arrive when the queue is out the door of the restaurant, well, the experience is poor to be honest. long wait to get seated, poor service for coffee and juice and any ordered items take an age to show up. The staff try to help out and are all very busy but seem to lack a supervisor to oversee the chaos during peak times. Plenty of times that some of the hot items were not available, so what you did get would be cold by the time the remaining items came out. Staff did try their best but need someone to oversee the operation and direct as appropriate. Food quality was decent but nothing to get too excited about.

Overall, a decent stay, great room, decent location and price for the time of year, we would stay again but the lounge is better in some other locations and the breakfast is still very subjective to loads. Didn't notice some of the issues that others have had but maybe we were just lucky...

HTH, to the pics:

Floor plan: (second floor)

Suite location by BA_pics, on Flickr

General Foyer and Skylight:

hotel foyer by BA_pics, on Flickr

The hotel foyer skylight:

skylight foyer area of hotel by BA_pics, on Flickr

The Suite:

The hallway as seen from entrance (looking left to living area, straight ahead to bedroom, here to the right, guest wc just to the right in pic)

Hallway entrance towards living area by BA_pics, on Flickr

The Bedroom:

The King Bed:

King Bed by BA_pics, on Flickr

Wardrobe:

Wardrobe bedroom by BA_pics, on Flickr

TV/computer table:

bedroom desk by BA_pics, on Flickr

Bathroom: off the bedroom with a separate guest loo off the main hallway)

Full size bathtub in suite: (not usual in London DT’s)

full size tub by BA_pics, on Flickr

Separate Shower:

separate shower by BA_pics, on Flickr

Large Sink:

large sink by BA_pics, on Flickr

Loo and Amenities:

loo and emenities by BA_pics, on Flickr

Views:

Towards the nearby Novotel: (from the living room)

view to nearby Novotel by BA_pics, on Flickr

Towards the opposite residential flats (from the living room)

view out window by BA_pics, on Flickr

Towards the tube station and Thames: (from the living room)

view out living room window by BA_pics, on Flickr

Living Room:

Entrance to living area (here dining table)

dining table by BA_pics, on Flickr

view from dining table to living room:

view to living room by BA_pics, on Flickr

Seating Area:

living room sofas by BA_pics, on Flickr

More space and work desk area:

further space around corner by BA_pics, on Flickr

Drinks area: (and more Nespresso than even my wife and I can use in a day!))

drinks area by BA_pics, on Flickr

Free mini bar (at least in the suite):

mini bar free of charge by BA_pics, on Flickr

Cabinet with tea service:

kettle and tea by BA_pics, on Flickr

Oregonflyer

Just completed a stay. Ended up in suite which was great. But be warned ... they have gone from high speed internet access to .5MB complimentary access and 3MB paid access. Hotel staff is not happy about that so may change. Charge for premium access was taken off bill as Diamond.

BTW...staff turnover seems higher here than usual except in restaurant. Still a good property if the rate is reasonable,