tfjim

For convenience and fairly decent business type hotel I find the Holiday Inn Strasbourg to be both exceedingly convenient and decent accommodation. I'm Hilton Gold also, and from time to time find it worthwhile to stay outside the Hilton family. This would be a good example of one such occasion. There is a nice indoor pool and sauna/jacuzzi. Parking is free also. It is located right on the tram line about 6 stops from the center of town.

DOC 2 BE

It is also right across the street from the Hilton.

For me it depends on the price and bonuses ongoing. With the spouse staying for free, I'm more than willing to spend for the parking for the HHonors points.

LH738

(bump)

Any updates?

hhonorman

I stayed here at the end of April 2003 and I would echo the sentiments posted above. The hotel is quite nice, and although not in a great location, it wasn't terribly inconvenient either. It is a good block and a half or so walk from the nearest tram, but unless you have trouble walking, it shouldn't pose a problem. The hotel has a decent exec. lounge open all day if I recall correctly; for breakfast in a.m., drinks and snacks in the afternoon and evening. As a diamond, I was treated quite well and upgraded to the Winston Churchill Suite. Although if my memory is correct, I had to ask for the upgrade and they were a bit reluctant at first to provide it, however, I found that with a big smile and politey mentioning that "it would really be appreciated it they could find one" seemed to do the trick. The suite was huge and had two bedrooms and at least two bathrooms. I'd recommend this hotel. Strassbourg is a wonderful place to visit; and if you're they're for more than a day or two, I highly recommend taking an afternoon/day trip to Baden Baden, Germany, which is about 30-40 minutes away by train. Baden Baden is a grogeous little town reknowned for having world-class spas. We tried the Caracalla and the Freidrichsbad spas (we enjoyed Baden Baden so much the first day we went back for a second day). ^ ^

YUL

Glad to see that post. We'll be staying 9-14 may, girlfriend is attending a conference downtown. I'll be using an expiring 100k pts GLON award, I hope I'm not underuse it by too much... (a decent 3 * was around $150 in the old town). Afterward, will be driving a diesel WW Golf (or like) for 16 days ($360 total) around Swiszerland, Austria, and hopefully Budapest (if legal for insurance).

USAFAN

I stayed a couple of times in this hotel. I think, you will like it. Some rooms have view toward the city and the cathedral. The staff was very friendly.
The hotel is a little outside the city center, but the location is O.K.
You should definitely tour Alsace. Picturesque small towns ... and Colmar.
A VW Golf diesel is a great car. The TD is very powerful and does consume a lot (about 7 liter/100Km). I don't believe you can drive the car to Budapest. Only a few lousy cars are allowed to the former East-block.

MorganB

Any more recent stays? The hilton website mentions that the rooms have been renovated. How far of a walk is it to the tram? 5 mins?

I have reserved and executive room for 3 nights to visit the christmas market but am debating between this hotel and the Sofitel. The Sofitel is in the city center and within walking distance of the christmas market. However, at the Sofitel I get no free breakfast, no lounge and am in a standard room for a little more than the executive room at the hilton.

bravoecho

MorganB,

I stayed there for 1 night in late October.

Paid for an executive room, which was comfortable. I'm not sure what it was like before but I wouldn't say the rooms look brand new, but then again it doesn't look old either.

I just had a look on their website and can confirm that the picture of the rooms is accurate.

Regarding location, we only used the hotel as a transit from Innsbruck to Reims so cannot help with your other question.

USAFAN

I have been there in September. The rooms are nice and clean. At the executive level you have a "lounge" where you get free breakfast and snacks, drinks. Ask for a room facing the city/cathedral.
To the tram it's less than 5 min. The tram is nice and modern and brings you direct to city center. You buy the tickets at an automated machine .. we purchased a ticket for the whole day, was cheaper.

MorganB

Thanks for the info! Have decided to stay in the hilton. Will report back with my impressions after the stay.

MorganB

I am back from my 3 nights stay and here are my impressions:

Location: Not bad. Would be better directly in the city center. The tram was easy. The front desk sells individual tickets or you can buy them at the tram stop from an automatic distributor. Trams come every 5 mins or so up till 8 pm so there is very little wait. After 8 its more like every 18 mins but we were lucky and never had to wait long. Its a little over 5 mins to walk to the tram at a leisurely pace. The ride is short and comfortable into the historic center. Rating B

Appearance: The lobby is very early 1970s. The restaurant looks more 1980s and the bars are 70's and 90s. We were on 5 which is now considered an executive floor. The halls look to be original and are fairly ugly. The carpet is in good shape however. The rooms are a mix of 70s 80s and 2000. The furniture and beds were recent as well as the bath. The doors and closet looked very 1970s as well as the dark wood frame around the window. The carpet was a bit worn but not so much that it needed changing. It appears that they just replace here and there rather than having done a full renovation. Because of this the rooms looked good enough but nothing impressive. The bed was VERY comfortable with nice down pillows. Towels were a bit thin and bath products uninteresting. Rating C+

Housekeeping: This is where I had a bit of a problem. The first night I was about to get in bed and threw back the comforter. I noticed a long black hair on the sheet. I wrote it off to a fluke and removed the hair. I then started looking more closely and there were hairs here and there on the bottom sheet and comforter as well as the pillows. Either the sheets were not changed or someone cut their hair in the laundry room. I have never had that happen before. I called housekeeping but they must not have been at the hotel as it was about 10 pm. The front desk answered and offered a new room to me but there were none on the same floor and as we had two rooms I didnt want to change floors. They then offered to change the sheets which i accepted. I was impressed with the way they handled the situation as they were in the room quickly. The concierge and a person from the front desk changed the sheets. I liked they way they stepped up to the plate to take care of me rather than just saying housekeeping was gone and I would have to change floors. Bravo to the staff. Otherwise housekeeping was good enough but due to the incident i would have to give them a D.

Clubroom: We used the clubroom for breakfast and drinks everyday. The clubroom was the most recent looking area in the entire hotel and was completely renovated. Breakfast offered a wide selection of fruits, meats, cheeses and pastries as well as scrambled eggs and bacon. You could also have juices and mineral water and had the choice between drip coffee or making your own esspresso with easy to use machines that worked with capsules. The clubroom was attended during breakfast and the staff was helpful. In the evening there were chips, nuts, pretzels and olives available as well as a plate of small sandwiches with ham, salmon, or fois gras. Champagne ,wine and beer as well as a wide selection of licquor was available all for free as well as espresso. Often we were alone in the Clubroom and there were never more than 2 or 3 other people. Rating: A+

Staff: The staff was excellent. We were met promptly at the door upon arrival where they took our bags and parked our car. Check in was rapid. The concierge was availabe at all times to answer any questions we may have had and were most helpful. Room service was rapid and good. When we left they came to our room quickly to get our bags and loaded them into our car for us. I think the staff was by far the stongest point of the hotel and really made our stay enjoyable. A++

I would probably stay here again although I prefer hotels that have more completely renovated or new rooms.

USAFAN

MorganB:

Thanks for this long report. I can agree on all points.
May be I had more luck with the rooms...was there at least three times and had always nice clean/renovated rooms.

rwill11

nothing on search

MorganB

I think your having problems because you are making an error in the spelling. It is spelled "Strasbourg".

Here's a good thread :

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=126133

Grog

Back from a stay last week, so I'll freshen up the thread with just a few notes.

As a Gold, received upgrade to the exec floor and access to the lounge. They alternated during the day between serving hors d'oeuvres and fresh chocolate pralines. Nicolas Feuillatte champagne, along with some nice wines and spirits. Olives, peanuts, mixed nuts, etc.

Hotel is 4 tram stops from the city center. About a five minute walk to the stop. (You can cut through the college yard and save 30 seconds if the gate is unlocked, which isn't always the case.)

In the room, we were welcomed with a note from the manager and two bottles of exotic fruit drink. Very nice touch. Housekeeping was great.

The entire staff was indeed excellent. ^ ^