kyushuman

Looks like an overnight reflagging of the Windsor Atlantica, which actually has/had very good reviews on Trip Advisor.
Looks like no Club Lounge.
Great location, at the edge of Copacabana and Leme districts, facing the ocean, walking distance (thru the tunnel) to Shopping Rio Sul. Reasonably close to Sugar Loaf and Botafogo too. Subway is a bit of a hike, but not terrible-- maybe 12 minutes walk to Cardeal Arcoverde station. Doable without baggage but otherwise a sweaty proposal

isle-hawg

Good news. Rio is one of the places I have not been to, but wanted to visit for quite some time. If I do go, I will give this place my business as it looks nice and is in a good location. It is about time HH finally gets a hotel in Rio where visitors would want to stay.

aztimm

Agree, this is fantastic news and long overdue, although I'm sure that rates will be scary high.

I went to Rio last year before the Olympics, when Brazil was waiving the visa requirement. I stayed at the Hilton in Barra da Tijuca, which without traffic (only happened on Sunday morning) was a good 30 min ride to Copacabana. On Friday afternoon the drive took well over an hour.

To their credit the existing Hilton is a great place with great rates--that's why I chose to stay there. There's a mall almost right across the street. But other than the Olympic aquatic center (I'm not even sure that is open to the public now) there really isn't that much nearby.

______
Correction: the rates don't seem too absurd. For some dates in August, the old Hilton is about $95/night and the new $210. Everything in Copacabana is more expensive.

SkyTeam777

The website shows that there is a club lounge unless things have changed. Also with the overnight reflagging, does anyone know if they had time to make any renovations to bring it up to speed? Any recent visits?

Hotel Points Guy

I have personally never been to the Hilton Copacabana, but I do remember reading a rather detailed rant (complete with pictures and abundant reader comments) posted on Loyalty Lobby. I strongly suggest reading the 30 or so comments following the rant, as some Hilton Diamond members included their own take on the re-branding efforts and level of service provided.


http://loyaltylobby.com/2017/06/21/r...cabana-brazil/

MrLee

I read it, and when I was watching his video I was thinking to myself, I've stayed at plenty of Hilton's in the UK that look like that or worse. Then I read the comments and found I wasn't the only one who thought that!

Msafiritx

Anyone with a recent experience at this property? Lounge? Breakfast? Rooms? Heading to Rio soon and trying to figure out its cost/reward ratio.

mirror74

Just stayed here: there is now executive lounge right next to VIP reception on the ground floor, serving some drinks during the day and some very limited snacks during evenings. Better than nothing though. Breakfast fabulous, plenty of quality choices. Beware, as there appear to be lots of huge conferences in this hotel (there was in my case) and your stay will be ruined by the crowds. Combine this with paper thin walls and you will have a blast ;(

Msafiritx

Msafiritx

Seems to be a Rio thing, stayed at Hilton Barra and there wasn't much to their lounge either, just soft drinks and some fruit. You had to go to the bar near reception for the happy hour (2 drinks and an extremely slim picking of appetizers). Everything else was great.

isle-hawg

The guy who posted the review has a different perspective on HH hotels then me. It seemed like a nice room to me, with great view.

His main beef seemed to be the bathroom, which seemed fine to me. The two sinks were nice, the shower in the whirlpool tub unusual but not enough for a complaint from my perspective. I would not classify it a a suite however as there were only the two rooms including bathroom.

kyushuman

Did a super pleasant 3 night stay there in August.

First -- so many positives about the stay: With wildly varying rates for the 3 night stay, I booked 3 separate reservations and they handled them well. I found staff to be uniformly friendly and excellent. That includes waitstaff in the breakfast room, bellmen, pool bar staff, cleaners, and desk staff. I can't remember but most spoke some decent English; (I also speak Spanish when in Brazil if I can't use English and really have almost no issues, so it's not something I notice if people can't speak English).
Rooftop pool on 39th floor is, absolutely, gorgeous. I spent every day up there around 3-5pm, before the Gold/Diamond Happy Hour, which is in a small lounge off of the lobby area. Happy Hour always had some decent snacks and maybe one or two hot items so isn't a huge spread. Drinks were serve- yourself on some days, and on others a waiter would appear to offer top ups. Maybe just a staffing issue. I prefer breakfast in the restaurant, so it was nice that there isn't a lounge breakfast. The restaurant breakfast is on the 4th floor and is quite a good spread, a typical 4-5* Brazilian offering. Nice staff helping out.
Very easy to get an Uber to SDU airport and also to Ipanema Beach (I like Posto 8-9) :P

The negatives are pretty obvious in that this property is quite old and showing its age. For the prices that Hilton is asking, it REALLY helps that the service was excellent. Actually everything in my room (37th floor, top floor for rooms) was in proper working order even if it was old-- so it's not terrible, just not new.
My main issue is with HHonors pricing: look for even ONE NIGHT at a standard award. Nope. Not in September, October, Nov..... all the way to June 2019-- zero award nights at a standard rate. Premium Rates? EVERY NIGHT is available. Could be a glitch, but unlikely. There are some possibilities I can think of-- the hotel has several airlines and soccer teams staying there- I wonder if they "sell out" their standard rooms on contracts like that?
Yet also interestingly-- while rates are very high (many nights are US$200-300/night or more), on a couple days before travel, every night had rooms available for around US$119 but only on 3rd party Travel Agents like SnapTravel. Nearly impossible to do a Best Rate Guarantee-- why? Because they aren't selling their "standard" rooms on Hilton.com.

So while I totally recommend this hotel, I wish HHonors would look into this practice, OR reprice the hotel to the Award Level that it has become.



View toward Copacabana Beach from the 39th floor


On the 39th floor pool deck with Leme Beach (end of Copacabana) and also Sugar Loaf mountain behind.

JMorgana

[OT]
Her name was Lola...she was a showgirl...
[/OT]

BostonTravel

I just did my second stay in two years at this property. As a diamond both times and talking with other diamonds in the "exec lounge" I would say skip it at all costs. The exec lounge is a little area off the lobby with waters in the daytime (no sodas or snacks), at night you have a half dozen cookies from a tin, some very light appetizers and some soda and wines put out. The staff claim to be helpful until you need something and then roll their eyes. No spare toiletry items (no toothbrush, shaving cream etc) at the front desk. The room AC is either on and cold as heck or off (thermostat is locked). The lobby looks so worn it may as well be a motel 6 with old chairs that the cushions are flat. If you have guests staying with you be prepared for a real nightmare. You can sign them in and go through the hassle only to get stopped and have to do it at each change of shift by the security and front desk. If you ask for the GM they literally ignore you and say "No too busy" and walk away. It was by far the worst experience. Last year they had L'Occitane products but they removed those and have very cheap brazilian nut bar soaps now. Roof pool is closed for renovations currently. If you want to swim on the other pool people in the restaurant watch you while they are eating (a bit weird) as its right outside the restaurant. The only good thing is the breakfast buffet which is honestly amazing. The towels are old and thin and definitely need replacing. Lots of noise from the doors and windows. If you fill out the survey and give them a bad review (first time I've ever done that) you get a snitty response back and then they don't reply after. I asked for a nights points returned due to the issues and they ignored my request (I stayed 8 nights). This should only be a Hilton Garden Inn with the small rooms and poor service. The hotel is actually in Lemme (it's a block in but still a bit of a walk to the nice areas like Leblon and Ipanema). The next week I was there I instead did an AirBnB for $90 a night and had a really nice 2 bedroom condo in a high rise. The hotel is NOT worth the rates. Hilton needs to get in and fire the staff and start over with a complete gut renovation.

Restaurant looking at pool and Copacabana beach

hfly

For what its worth................that is the state of almost all hotels in RJ, they have always been antiquated, with bad service and with eye watering rates...........This was a junk property when it was a Meridien, a terrible property as a Windsor, and junk property again. Being in Leme by a few meters is a plus to anyone who knows anything about Rio as Copacabana has always been seen as a terrible place to stay. Then again if you want to stay in Copa, what are your better options? The Copa Palace, better rooms and service, but often 2-3x the price. You could stay at the Fasano on the edge of Ipanema (far preferable location) but again multiples of the price. It is what it is, ever see the state of the Sheraton (Leblon but really Vidigal? The IC?) any of the "beautiful" Othon properties?