The Canary Wharf Hilton opened on the 26th June and I was keen to try this hotel since it was the only Hilton in the Central London Area I have yet to visit. Work commitments meant that I was away from London on the 26th, but I was able to stay on the 27th. Overall I was not impressed my observations follow:-

The first challenge when staying at the new Hilton Canary Wharf is actually locating the property. Since I am only slightly familiar with the Canary Wharf area I did not find the map particularly helpful. In the end after exiting the underground at Canary Wharf, I took a short ride on the DLR from Heron Quays to South Quay and the Hilton Canary Wharf can be found right beside South Quay DLR station. Once you have found the hotel the easiest walking route to Canary Wharf becomes very clear, it is however very hard to describe otherwise (basically cutting directly through Jubilee Place and across the bridge is the most direct route, although if wheeling a case, there are steps to be tackled.

Upon arrival I entered a small bar/lobby area, which is open to the restaurant area on the right hand side and which is also open to a small general check in and concierge area on the left hand side. The public areas seemed small but well designed and with a very different to any other UK Hilton I have visited. The decor is however very modern and quite tasteful.

I noticed that the Executive Lounge Location was indicated on the lift, so I went up to the 14th floor lounge to check in. I was told upon check in that no Executive rooms were available (more on this later) and was allocated a “superior room” on the 9th floor. I then waited in the lounge for my girlfriend to arrive. Somehow or other the Hotel had the wrong Frequent Flyer details listed for my stay.

The lounge area was large and spacious (but utterly soulless in my opinion) and offered the usual range of drinks. The wine selection consisted of the standard cheap French red and white wine. The pleasant Australian sparkling wine (often found at UK Hiltons) was not available at this hotel. The spirit, beer and soft drink selection was fairly standard for UK Hilton lounges but strangely there was no fruit juice offered for self service (the lounge staff offered to get fruit juice if required). The lounge food consisted of small canapés, spring rolls, minced lamb kofta and a small Mediterranean mezze selection.

The lounge was utterly empty and contained no more than 4 other guests during the time I spent there. The hotel staff outnumbered guests for most of the time I spent in the lounge and lounge service was very good and proactive. One nice feature of the lounge is that it is open for 3 hours between 6pm and 9pm, which makes it more useful for those arriving from work somewhat later.

By the time my girlfriend arrived, I had noted the completely empty lounge and had overheard a conversation indicating another guest had been upgraded to an Exec floor room. I had become convinced me that the Exec Floor was not in fact full. I could not be bothered arguing however and we went to our room to get changed. The “standard” room (albeit superior or whatever slight upgrade had been indicated) was pleasant enough and extremely spacious, but seemed to lack furniture. The very large space was filled by a very small double bed (slightly smaller I think than a US Queen) a char and foot stool, a desk a cupboard unit containing a minibar and tea/coffee making facilities and a free standing wardrobe. There was easily enough space for a sofa/sofabed or dining table or other furnishings, instead there was just a very large space which contrived to make the small bed look even smaller. Welcome letters had been left in the room (one standard letter and one relating to the Executive lounge), a rather nice selection of strawberries and dipping icing sugar were also provided. The TV was the (new) standard Hilton LCD screen with integrated alarm clock. It appears that this Hotel (like every other UK Hilton I have stayed at) is unable to supply a high quality TV signal to guest rooms, the resulting picture “noise” is made all the worse by the LCD screen.

The room furnishings were similar to the modern UK Hilton style but in much darker wood with a more angular (rather than curved) headboard and side tables. Carpets were grey rather than beige and the desk chair and accessory cushions were brightly coloured (blue in this room). All the wood had coloured highlights (i.e. blue on this room). The bathroom was bright and modern and reasonably spacious. Contrasting tiles could be found on most of the walls and floors with the use of frosted glass to complement mirrors above the sink. All the bathroom fixtures (bath, loo etc.) appeared to be of high quality. The shower in the standard room was found in the bath (with a glass shower screen to prevent splashing).

Although the room was pleasant enough, it was nothing special by any means and I was quite annoyed by the size of the bed. I thus went back to the lounge to enquire whether there was any King bedded rooms available and whether in fact the Exec Floors (I noted at least 3 Exec floors, from 12 floors of bedrooms) were all in fact full (given the emptiness of the lounge). I was finally offered an Executive room on the 12th floor with a King bed. This room had similar furnishings to the regular room on the 9th floor, the dark wood and furnishings this time being highlighted in red. The Exec room was quite a bit smaller than the standard room but apart from an integrated wardrobe (and a thicker plusher throw on the bed) had exactly the same furnishings. The Exec room bathroom had a separate shower and was slightly larger as a result but was otherwise identical to the normal room.

The air-conditioning to all rooms was extremely fierce and AC lovers like myself will really like this aspect of the rooms here. Whilst the Exec lounge had good (and interesting) views across London, the views from the rooms I experienced were extremely dull. The Exec room we moved to did not contain the strawberries, and we regretted not collecting them from our previous room before moving.

We then went to dinner. We examined the menu for the onsite Cinnamon restaurant (which appeared to be standard UK Hilton fare with a slight twist). We thus decided to go for dinner in nearby Jubilee Place. After a pleasant dinner we returned to our room and things started to slide markedly. We ordered some strawberries from room service (since we did not get any complimentary ones in this room) and whilst waiting my girlfriend attempted to shower.
The shower had only one temperature (around 100C). The sink and bath also appeared to run only scalding hot water. We called for assistance with this issue and also chased up room service after half an hour of waiting. Someone arrived to look at the problem and called for management support (this I took as a bad sign, since managers rarely arrive with a bag of spanners or wrenches). I was told (by a lady I assume was the Executive floor manager since I had seen her in the lounge previously) that the problem with the sink and bath was that the taps were incorrectly marked (hot was in fact cold and vice versa on the mixer tap). The Operations Manager then arrived to tell me that the shower could not be repaired (the bath shower was handheld and in any event there was no shower curtain or screen even if I could have used that).

I explained my dissatisfaction and my views of an organisation which opens a new property without conducting simple tests to verify that rooms are fully functional, before releasing them to guests. I was offered (upon my insistence) an additional room on the same floor with a functional shower (which we used for the shower only). The Operations Manager seemed keen to change my room entirely, but by now it was almost 11pm and I really did not want to repack and get dressed (we were both wearing bathrobes by this stage). Our room service order arrived after being chased twice more and thus took almost an hour to deliver some cold strawberries and cream which were not as nice as the complimentary fruit in our first room and were £10 more expensive.

It clearly struck me as strange that a hotel which had all its Exec rooms “fully booked” could ultimately provide me with 2 simultaneous rooms on the Exec floor with no apparent difficulty.

Breakfast could be taken in either the lounge or main restaurant (or I believe in the room upon payment of the £6 supplement). We opted for Breakfast in the restaurant (so I cannot comment on the lounge breakfast). The restaurant offered the standard Hilton Breakfast buffet with a slight twist. More appealing fruits etc. were available for continental breakfast and rice and condiments were available (presumably for Asian guests). There was no sign of any Porridge or Bircher Muesli being available. The whole breakfast experience was quite similar to that in a UK Holiday Inn, it certainly did not come up to the standard of the Waldorf Hilton, London Conrad or even the Trafalgar.

So how would I sum up my experience? I would say that my stay was both disappointing and frustrating. The Canary Wharf Hilton is quite an expensive property (although I secured a very reasonable rate for my stay). When I was looking to make bookings for July and August it seems almost impossible to book a room at this property for <£200 a night. Clearly the location is very convenient for those working at Canary Wharf and I am sure this property will have lots of regular customers. I personally would not stay here again. The location is relatively convenient for me but no better than The Waldorf which is an infinitely better hotel at similar cost.