Karter

Last weekend I stayed at one of the latest additions to Doubletree's UK portfolio, the Doubletree by Hilton Chester, aka Hoole Hall. As I didn't see any other mention of this property on FT, I thought I'd post my impressions.

ARRIVAL: The hotel is located just under 10 minutes by car from the historic walled city of Chester. It's inside what looks like a grand old country house on large grounds. There is also what looks like converted stables at the rear of the hotel which will probably form part of the new spa that is under construction and due to be completed in autumn 2009.

The lobby is all done in white with a dark wood front desk. My check-in agent was very polite, knowledgable and friendly, if a bit overly formal. As a Diamond, no upgrade was offered (I am not sure there are upgradable rooms apart from suites), but full breakfast was provided. A warm cookie was also offered, but it was a bit on the over-done side.

ROOM: The room was a bit on the small side compared to other UK Hiltons, and very small compared to US Hiltons. However, my room had a proper king size bed with Sweet Dreams pillow (I'm not sure if the bed itself was a Sweet Dreams bed, but it was perfectly comfortable). The room is all in white - walls, linens, white flatscreen TV, and dark wood for the desk and bedside tables. The bathroom was brand new and the shower had good pressure and was very hot (a bit too hot).

BAR/RESTAURANT: The bar and restaurant followed the white / dark brown colour motif with dark wood tables and white leather chairs. On the first morning, a sparse continental breakfast was laid out on a buffet table and warm items, e.g. a full English, was available to order from a menu. Service was a bit on the slow side but staff were apologetic, explaining that a large wedding party had overstretched them. On the second morning, a full hot buffet was provided instead of a menu service. The selection and quality was good but the breakfast is by no means comparable to what you get at a UK Hilton.

DEPARTURE: Quick check-out was available but I opted to see the front desk since I was charged for the breakfast which was supposed to have been my Diamond benefit. The error was quickly corrected and I was asked if I enjoyed my stay otherwise.

By the way, I purchased a tin of 6 Doubletree cookies to take home, but was rather surprised to find that my tin had been filled with hot cookies when I expected to get them in their more "raw" state. By that evening when I got home, the cookies were already very hard from having effectively been cooked twice already. I'm pretty sure that this is not how cookie tins are sold in US Doubletrees.

All in all it was quite a positive experience with just a few glitches that will probably improve in time. From looking around Chester, this is probably the best hotel you will find, unless you're looking to be in walking distance of the walled city.