SouthOxon

I am currently spending a week at the Vienna Hilton where I am experiencing more service delivery problems than I can ever recall encountering at a hotel before. I will hold fire on that for now to see if matters improve, save for a specific concern that I will make the subject of a new thread.

slaman

Is the Hilton Vienna Plaza close by? What made you choose the current hotel over the Plaza?

Look forward to reading about your experience(s).

SouthOxon

The Vienna Hilton and the Plaza are on opposite sides of the Inner Town. The reason for choosing the Hilton is its location across the road from Mitte station which has direct services to the airport. Tip; avoid the ludicrously overpriced City Airport Train (CAT) that the airport want you to use (they own shares in it) instead use the S7 commuter trains for a fraction of the cost. Both services run over the same rails, just one is six minutes faster than the other. Six very expensive minutes.

I still have a few days time go here so I will wait until commenting on the issues I have encountered. The most serious is a wi-fi service (provided by the awful ibahn) that cannot connect to BlackBerry PlayBooks.

slaman

Thanks for the input... I'll have to justify using 16,000 more points for our 4 night stay to stay at the Hilton then instead of the Plaza...

ozon78

Hi All,

HHonors Gold and booked a stanard King Hilton Guestroom at Hilton Vienna Danube. At the upgrade request page, I was only offered a complimentary upgrade to a 'King Hilton Guestroom Plus' rather than an Executive room (which was priced at 30 Euro per night for an upgrade request).

Is this normal?

In all other European properties we stayed at recently it's the Executive rooms that we get a compliemntary HHonors Gold upgrade to right away even when booking standard rooms in the first place.

Thank you:-)

hugolover

I think you'll get Exec once you go to the hotel.

jonboy73

I have recently booked 2 stays at the Hotel Vienna. Basic room, with free room upgrade option (based on my gold status) that did not look like an executive room. (I am new to HH so not entirely familiar with it yet. Moved from Accor Platinum for their continued refusal to give complimentary Internet access).

Fingers crossed for access to the lounge, decent breakfast, free Internet etc.

I will endeavour to report back on my sucess or lack there of.

StuckinITH

Last year I stayed with my wife at the Hilton Vienna Plaza. As a gold did not get upgraded to an executive floor room. The front desk agent told us that the web form where we checked that we would be upgraded to an executive floor room if available was not giving the correct choices. I put in the reservation that we were celebrating my wife's birthday but obviously that was not enough. To add insult to injury then we were forced to have our breakfast in the executive lounge but had to give a coupon to the attendant. The people staying in the executive floor did not have to give coupons. I would have preferred to have then the real good breakfast downstairs but the front desk agent told us that that was the only breakfast we would get. At the time I thought that the manager of this hotel should learn something from the manager of the Hilton Frankfurt. There as a gold we got upgraded to a corner room on the executive floor and offered the choice to eat the excellent breakfast downstairs. Before staying at the Hilton Vienna Plaza I had read comments that were not that good but unfortunately I had to stay there because it was only 2 blocks from my conference, the rate was about the same rate as the hotels listed for my conference and we needed to use the spouse stays free available to Hilton members as my employment place goes beserk if they see that the room was booked for 2 persons. Apart from that the room was really good (except the bathtub that is too high even for tall people) and it was an easy walk to the center of town, even an easy walk for a night at the Opera.

ozon78

Ta
I emailed the hotel to clarify and they offered a paid upgrade to Plus room from where they would then give us a free upgrade to Exec level room...
I will probably email HHonors helpdesk to get a clarification...I always assumed upgrades were given to the Exec club level rooms to Golds rather than to the 'next level' which makes me think of Intercontinental and their sometimes 'imagined' categories when it came to IC Ambassador upgrades

hugolover

I wouldn't have emailed the hotel, I would have just asked at check-in.

ozon78

I agree but it's my birthday so I wanted to be ceratin...

Zurich

The Hilton Vienna Danube might be a good choice after the refurbishment. A friend of mine stayed there and was very satisfied. Not centrally located by meanwhile connected by underground. The plus is being located at the river Danube. However, there is a train running next to the backside of the hotel. So it seems important to have a room facing the Danube river.
The Hilton Vienna is centrally located. What I find annoying is its concrete structure. When anybody does not hold the closing door this is well heard. (And at times, everybody simply lets the door slam.) Then, bathrooms in regular rooms (and executive rooms are no exception) are small.
It is some years ago that I stayed at the Hilton Vienna Plaza. I liked the size of their regular rooms. I did notice that furniture started to look a little tired. Otherwise I liked the more intimate atmosphere since the hotel is a lot smaller then the Hilton Vienna. Those days I had no status with HHonors so I cannot say anything about the executive lounge there.
If you are first time to Vienna, Hilton Vienna might be right due to its central location. Otherwise the alternative Hilton hotels appear to me as adequate alternatives.

kyushuman

Which hotel has the best treatment for Gold? They all seem a bit bleak--one might give you club lounge or a club room but it's more outdated rooms, etc; the other limits per person drinking (?). Very little mentioned about the Vienna Plaza property; reviews of all 3 are good but not amazing on Trip Advisor:
Hilton Vienna Danube #41
Hilton Vienna #62
Hilton Vienna Plaza #100

None of those are high enough to convince me (especially since the highest one has the most distant location)--or low enough to dissuade me.
Thoughts? Thanks!

mauiUAflyer

I've stayed at all three.

In 2010 I had an award stay at the Hilton Vienna Plaza. Had a *huge* suite. Also liked the EL (this was in October; nice terraces).

In February 2012 & 2013 stayed at the Danube. Cold! The river freezes. The restaurant is nice. Not a lot around there, but it is close to the metro. My business was at the VIC. The EL was nice for breakfast and happy hour. Enjoyed the fitness center (especially sauna and jacuzzi). A little bit harder getting to/from the airport out there. I can see how this location, right on the river with a nice path, would be great in July.

In June 2012 (and coming up again in 2013) I'm at the Stadtpark. Easy to get to from airport, with Metro station very close. Lots of stuff to walk to. And I found some nice places to run along the river.

EL for breakfast and happy hour. They are strict with the hours, and also about not taking things down to one's room.

In both cases I had "nice" rooms, but not upgrades to suites or similar. My stays have been dictated by availability of a corporate rate. It would be better to stay by the Danube in the nicer weather, and be close by the Metro in the bad weather, but that's not how it worked out for me.

kyushuman

Thanks for the detailed reply! It looks like the only hotel with a 3-night availability for Points&Cash awards (16K+EUR48) is the Hilton Vienna on Stadtpark. It looks like a decent enough place; even the best of the reviews about the Danube property seems to include cons about its location, so I think I'll be happy with the Stadtpark property.
How is the lounge breakfast (other than crowded, which I've read in a few places)? Also can Golds only do breakfast in the lounge, or can they eat in the restaurant?
EDIT: I can also switch dates a bit, I will be in Budapest and Vienna as well. Could anyone compare the Hilton Budapest West End vs. the Hilton Vienna? I can't probably stay in both (because of HHonors points limitations, plus I want to use some Club Carlson points as well). Is either an easy choice over the other in terms of Gold treatment/Club Lounge/Breakfast/etc? Thanks again.

Thanks again.