Sisosig

You must have been given a room in a very poor part of the hotel then. May I ask which part that was? What I do like about the property is that each time they have a different welcome-back present and a personlized loyalty card.

Today, The Daily Telegraph had a story about popular items among tourists. "Fridge magnets most attractive holiday gift - The fridge magnet is the most popular holiday gift bought by British tourists, a poll has found ... Fridge magnets were favoured by 26 percent of tourists, followed by sweets."


Welcome back (no longer a) surprise.

So what is the hotel's current gift? A bottle of locally sourced organic juice plus a "wooden shoe shoppe" fridge magnet.

groovbusta

Our room was facing the back parking lot, near the golf course restaurant. We had another room booked, but at check-in they said the air conditioning was broken and assigned us a different room.

I will say the welcome present of fresh cherry tomatoes and tomato juice was very nice.

khkchan

I ended up staying there during the weekend for 3 nights. Was upgraded to a King superior room (Room #143 ) facing the woods, with separate bathtub, shower stall and toilet in a room by itself.

Other than the old style deco, my stay was actually very good. My wife loves the size of the room. Room is very clean and functional. Got 2 drink chits as Hilton Gold.
Staffs were great. I asked for an iron and ironing board to be brought up at midnight - took less than 5 minutes to appear.

Breakfast was a bit tired at about 10am on Sunday morning - simply there are too many guests. Services and food for breakfast on Monday morning was great. The staffs even bring yogurt for guests to the table.

Got these in the room as gifts, along with 2 bottles of water.



I highly recommend this hotel.

jongesander

The right wing of the hotel now has been refurbished, with the exception of the suites. If you want to be sure of the refurbished room, book a "deluxe" or "golf course view" room. The former is only slightly more expensive.

They start with the other wing in januari, expected to be finished in april.

Sisosig

Concerto

I stayed at this Hilton property last Thursday. It cost €109 when I booked on the same day as arrival. It was quite pleasant with friendly service, although the place was in full renovation making the stairs and first floor in the main entry hall not very nice to walk through. In fact, I would access the upper two floors by just walking down the corridors leading to the ground floor rooms and head up the stairs, Or just use the lifts if you have baggage. I am not sure my room, which overlooked the parking lot, had been refurbished. It looked a bit tired, to be honest, but it was perfectly okay and the beds were good (although I didn't sleep too well, because I drank too much!). Opening the windows brought in some fumes and traffic noise from the N413 nearby.

The outdoor areas were very pleasant, although the downstairs bar was closed for renovation so drinks had to be taken in the restaurant. The swimming pool was a nice area, again in the basement area, with a faux Roman design to it, and the fitness area looked decent enough. The breakfast wasn't particularly good and it was borderline too noisy for me with people milling around all over the place (which I truly hate first thing in the morning, but that's just me). It would have cost €17.50 if booked in advance and €22.50 if you turn up on the day. Not worth more than 7 or 8 Euros in my opinion. Service was very friendly and helpful, though.

Now, these large country park type hotels seem to be a Dutch thing and I have been in a few now, namely the Fletcher Hotel-Restaurant de Buunderkamp near Arnhem and the Van der Valk at Assen. Both of these provided pleasant stays in an area of seemingly unlimited walking and cycling possibilities and both provided excellent gastronomic experiences, which made me wonder why people bother going to France or even talk about France at all. Not so the Hilton Royal Parc Soestduinen, whose restaurant I didn't like the look of, leading me to look elsewhere. Two nearby options were suggested upthread. The first, the Stazione Pazzo, gave me such a poor welcome that I just walked out without even bothering to look at the menu. The second, Soester Duinen, was better but I didn't particularly like it either. Food was borderline pretentious and economical in quantity, although the entrecote I ordered was excellent; but the tiramisu was really dreadful. Far too expensive for the quality received, so I wish I had just taken pot luck at the hotel. I think you would have to drive into nearby Soest to find something decent, which means you can't really drink.

The place is surrounded by walks and military history, and there are some leaflets with walks at reception. In the morning I managed to do the walk to the stone tumuli recommended by Sisosig in post 32 above. I love that sort of thing and being alone in the forest was really great. Just in time, because thunderclouds quickly rolled up and the rest of the day was quite wet. I headed back to Germany, following my plan of driving the full length of the N225 back through National Park 'Hoge Welouve' to Arnhem (having driven the N224 the previous day), quite a scenic route despite the rain (think Game of Thrones tree lined alleyways).

At check in, I received two drinks vouchers for partner and self, as well as a thick bar of really decent chocolate. The other benefit was free breakfast.

Zurich

From what you write it must have been a non-refurbished room. Otherwise it must have corresponded to the pictures SISOSIG had posted in March.

I stayed here in Mid-June. Having booked a standard King I emailed the GM to consider me for assigning a refurbished room. She would do her best and about two or three weeks ahead I found my reservation upgraded to a Deluxe Room.
Odd enough I was downgraded two days ahead of check-in to a Twin room. At check-in I was told that the hotel is completely sold out and that Twin rooms are the only left standard rooms they have. And a standard room was what I had booked. Amen.

All King rooms have been refurbished so far. I was not pleased at all and when saying this clearly the front desk agent was not happy. 'Pissed of' would reflect her mimic and gestures perfectly well. Nevertheless she asked me to redeem the two drink vouchers while waiting for her solving this.
After about half an hour waiting by in the lobby she came up with an upgrade to a Suite for the first night but then to move to a Deluxe room for the second night. She said that she cannot do anything else or we have to chose the Twin standard room. I accepted. While the suite has not been vacated on time we had to continue waiting until 16:15 until housekeeping finished cleaning. In the meantime we heard her another couple upgrading them in mid-stay to a Deluxe room.

The suite was nice, however, showing to the front and that envolved overhearing people talking outside. The next day at 12:00 hrs the front desk agent asked if we liked the suite and then were made waiting for 15:00 on-time check-in into the Deluxe room. That showed to the back which I prefer over the front sideBreakfast was chaotic. Of course, there is this great lady doing her very best and being in good contact to customers. But she was surrounded by students and some of them seemingly did not know what to do, how to clear and set tables and so on.

I gave a feed-back about my stay to the GM who responded that she regretted my changing rooms and that she would give me a nice upgrade on my next visit. No mention about the inadequate behaviour of the front desk agent. To make it clear: her colleagues were friendly and forthcoming. She stopped dealing with me on day 2, by the way. Hm, from my first stay in April 2013 on I have the impression, that this hotel is very stingy with upgrades.

I re-visited Stazione Pazzo and Soester Duinen because I liked both restaurants from my previous visits last year. This time, Stazione Pazzo lacked of that snooty waiter and we had a good time there. Soester Duinen had a reception but kept individual guests separately. Neither kitchen nor service were impacted. So I was happy with both places and would chose them again if I would come back to Soestduinen. The thing is that I inititially wanted to visit the Hampton in Utrecht. They had to cancel my reservation because construction work is behind. So I made this compromise returning to Hilton Royal Parc with all their construction work in mind plus one night in Utrecht in another hotel.

Sisosig

Not the time to start rubbing salt into a wound, but on a second stay reserved an advanced pay Twin Guest Room and got upgraded to a Golf View King.
(Booked it only to complete a fourth round of the Q1/2019 promo.)

Concerto

Frankly, I wouldn't go back there. It was ok, the non refurbished room was perfectly acceptable, but the place was faded and on my other trips to the Netherland to hotels in similar country locations I have had an infinitely better experience. I think Van der Valk takes a lot of beating, in my limited experience with them so far. Look, I would go back if I need Hilton nights and I can get it right down to 60 or 70 Euros, off season. Otherwise, no way.

mickeyjaw

Stayed here on Sunday night with a friend.

As Gold, was upgraded from a twin to a Deluxe King which was slightly annoying due to lack of a second bed, but they sent housekeeping to re-make the bed with two single duvets. They told me that they didn't have any Deluxe Twin rooms and advised strongly against taking a standard twin since they are not renovated.

NB: Suffering a Twin->King 'upgrade' seems to be becoming a repeat experience with Hiltons in general as lots of hotels seem to only have basic twins with the majority of the nicer rooms being Kings/Queens.

Was given 2x drink vouchers and a large block of good quality chocolate as a welcome gift. There weren't any complimentary water bottles in the room, although this was quickly fixed.

Was granted 2pm checkout and use of the gym/spa for the remainder of Monday.

Rented 2 bikes, they are €8 for a half-day. They only have Dutch-style city bikes and don't have any mountain bikes which is a shame because the area is full of woodland and sandy heathland which would be fun for off-road riding. The woods do have paved cycle paths through them but this somewhat spoils any feeling that you are 'away in nature'.

The bar is currently closed for renovation and you have to go to the restaurant / terrace if you want a drink. There are some nice pubs and bars in nearby Amersfoort though and a taxi is about €28 each way if you want to go into town for a night out after the restaurant shuts.

Sisosig

It just reopened this week.


Renewed bar at Soestduinen. Hotel still hands out the 'any drink you prefer' vouchers to Hilton Honors' most frequent travelers.


You can still play the six pocket pool table, but darts has gone.

Pre-upgraded from a standard twin to a golf view king.

nkob

many times i read negative comments but a few positive
i would like to make a positiv comment on a hilton
since a shorttime i freguent Hilton in combi with Accor
reason amex plat and hotels on a place we like/need
Our first reservation was with hilton soestduinen
nice chat and good price
a mistake was made with a authorization and prepaid
It was resolved quick on a pleasant way and confirmed too by email
greetings
cornelis donker

Sisosig

Around January 14, 2020, the hotel will rebrand into DoubleTree (by Hilton Royal Parc Soestduinen?). The exact new name has not been announced yet.

nkob

first impression
fast check inn
2 vouchers because no executive lounge
we had the one bedroom suite
great room
dinner was good
breakfast was good to ,enough variation of everything
staff friendly .
greetings
cornelis

nkob

this so called socializing aerea is for all guests ?
greetings cornelis