[ARCHIVE to 2019] Hilton London Bankside {GBR}
Apr 13, 2017, 6:39 am
#271
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 121
Hi all-
I'll be staying at the Bankside this coming weekend with my family. After all of the very positive comments recently about the property, I'm very excited to check it out. When travelling with kids, it can be helpful to have some dining options close to the hotel. I've never stayed in this part of London before, so am unfamiliar with the food options (except for Borough Market). I'd appreciate hearing about favorite eating spots within a reasonable (~15 min) walk of the Bankside. Thanks in advance!
I'll be staying at the Bankside this coming weekend with my family. After all of the very positive comments recently about the property, I'm very excited to check it out. When travelling with kids, it can be helpful to have some dining options close to the hotel. I've never stayed in this part of London before, so am unfamiliar with the food options (except for Borough Market). I'd appreciate hearing about favorite eating spots within a reasonable (~15 min) walk of the Bankside. Thanks in advance!
At Bankside this weekend, after a day at the Pete McKee exhibition at the old Trumans Brewery, followed by Twelfth Night at the National before Adam Kay at the Soho Theatre...busy day. Hope we get a table in the Exec Lounge...
Apr 14, 2017, 5:38 pm
#272
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 40
Exec lounge for HH Gold members?
It seems unlikely for Hilton Honors Gold members to get complimentary access to the executive lounge here. Is that correct? I wonder if some Golds could respond with their experiences here. Are there other central London properties which are more generous with providing lounge access? Thank you.
Apr 15, 2017, 3:58 pm
#273
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: Hhonors Diamond, IHG Platinum, BA Silver
Posts: 260
It seems unlikely for Hilton Honors Gold members to get complimentary access to the executive lounge here. Is that correct? I wonder if some Golds could respond with their experiences here. Are there other central London properties which are more generous with providing lounge access? Thank you.
Not Waldorf
Apr 15, 2017, 6:51 pm
#274
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Cote d'Ivoire
Programs: OW Emerald - HH Diamond
Posts: 3,418
Felt like Kensington allowed Golds into the EL. It was always busy.
Apr 15, 2017, 8:20 pm
#275
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: DCA
Programs: AA Gold, HH Diamond, UA Silver
Posts: 1,366
Back from my tour of various Hiltons in the UK, including three nights at the Bankside, where my family was booked into 2 rooms. My stay there was quite good, though with a few blemishes...
On the good side, I definitely concur that the exec lounge here is excellent. Much better than what I experienced at the Conrad and Waldorf, in terms of variety, quality, and staff. Over the four days I was at the property, I was able to partake of breakfast, afternoon snacks, and evening snacks on various days. Breakfast was outstanding, and the granola is definitely superior to any I've had at a hotel. If you've read my reviews of other hilton properties in London, I've been quite dismayed with their espresso drinks-- the Bankside lounge espresso was a definite step up. The evening food/cheese selection was quite extensive, and the range of alcoholic drinks was quite good (although the quality of the whiskey was a bit lower than at Conrad and Waldorf).
We had two (connecting rooms), one of which was an exec and one of which wasn't. As such, I can definitely attest to the differences in the minibar- the exec room had complimentary offerings of water, several kinds of juice, two chocolate bars, and gummi bears. The non-exec room had water and one bottle of juice. I thought both rooms were well furnished, comfortable, and well kept. The exec room was on a corner of the property, and featured a small "office" nook in the very corner of the property, with a comfy chair and a small writing table.
I liked the location of the property for variety from my usual haunts. We quite enjoyed walking along the river in the evenings, and took advantage of the proximity to borough market to pick up snack foods. I was surprised at the number of lively bars and restaurants in the area, and wished I had more time to try them out.
Staff at the hotel was uniformly friendly, though not completely on top of things. As an example, my wife went to buy tickets from the concierge and was told to come back later to pick them up; when we went back, a different concierge told us the first one had been too busy to deal with our tickets, but also hadn't passed the details along, so we had to repeat the process. A request to housekeeping for foam pillows instead of the feather ones in the room resulted in the delivery of additional feather pillows... No big deal, but just a little unpolished. In contrast, the lounge staff were outstanding. They recognized us after our first visit, and were very attentive to our needs. I've been in a lot of lounges at both Hiltons and Marriotts, and found the staff at Bankside to be some of the very best I've encountered anywhere.
The one blemish on my stay involved the a/c in one of the rooms. London was actually quite warm during our visit (!) and on the first night of our stay, we walked in to find one of our two connecting rooms was significantly hotter than the other, despite both being set at the same temp. A call to the front desk produced an engineer, who first told me that nothing was wrong, then agreed something might be wrong, and eventually (after an hour and 3 visits to the room), said the thermostat was broken. I asked the front desk if we could switch rooms and was told there were none available. The engineer came up with some method of fixing the temp at a specified setting from the "main computer." I though this was a reasonable work-around but was a bit worried that, at some point during our stay, housekeeping or the engineering staff would reset the thermostat and it would stop working again. Both the engineer and front desk assured me that this wouldn't happen. Of course, (you can see this coming)-- during the middle of the night on our last night, someone reset the temp, and the room got extremely hot, waking me up and keeping me from getting back to sleep... I brought it up with the front desk in the morning, and they weren't terribly sympathetic (the only comment was that they'd send someone to fix it after we checked out). I stay in enough properties to know that stuff sometimes breaks and the hotel can't always solve the problem right away-- in retrospect, I should have either insisted they fix it on the second day of our stay or gotten them to give us different rooms (rooms of each category were showing available on the app during our entire stay), rather than trusting to the work-around. In either case, it did detract a bit from the experience, which otherwise would likely have resulted in a very glowing review.
Overall, though, I did like the Bankside better than the Conrad and the Waldorf, even when you take cost out of the equation. Factoring in the price, I think it is the best hilton property in London out of the ones I've tried (which seem to be the most popular ones on flyertalk). I'm very likely to stay here again on my next trip, though I'll be sure to ask in advance that they give me a room with a functioning a/c
On the good side, I definitely concur that the exec lounge here is excellent. Much better than what I experienced at the Conrad and Waldorf, in terms of variety, quality, and staff. Over the four days I was at the property, I was able to partake of breakfast, afternoon snacks, and evening snacks on various days. Breakfast was outstanding, and the granola is definitely superior to any I've had at a hotel. If you've read my reviews of other hilton properties in London, I've been quite dismayed with their espresso drinks-- the Bankside lounge espresso was a definite step up. The evening food/cheese selection was quite extensive, and the range of alcoholic drinks was quite good (although the quality of the whiskey was a bit lower than at Conrad and Waldorf).
We had two (connecting rooms), one of which was an exec and one of which wasn't. As such, I can definitely attest to the differences in the minibar- the exec room had complimentary offerings of water, several kinds of juice, two chocolate bars, and gummi bears. The non-exec room had water and one bottle of juice. I thought both rooms were well furnished, comfortable, and well kept. The exec room was on a corner of the property, and featured a small "office" nook in the very corner of the property, with a comfy chair and a small writing table.
I liked the location of the property for variety from my usual haunts. We quite enjoyed walking along the river in the evenings, and took advantage of the proximity to borough market to pick up snack foods. I was surprised at the number of lively bars and restaurants in the area, and wished I had more time to try them out.
Staff at the hotel was uniformly friendly, though not completely on top of things. As an example, my wife went to buy tickets from the concierge and was told to come back later to pick them up; when we went back, a different concierge told us the first one had been too busy to deal with our tickets, but also hadn't passed the details along, so we had to repeat the process. A request to housekeeping for foam pillows instead of the feather ones in the room resulted in the delivery of additional feather pillows... No big deal, but just a little unpolished. In contrast, the lounge staff were outstanding. They recognized us after our first visit, and were very attentive to our needs. I've been in a lot of lounges at both Hiltons and Marriotts, and found the staff at Bankside to be some of the very best I've encountered anywhere.
The one blemish on my stay involved the a/c in one of the rooms. London was actually quite warm during our visit (!) and on the first night of our stay, we walked in to find one of our two connecting rooms was significantly hotter than the other, despite both being set at the same temp. A call to the front desk produced an engineer, who first told me that nothing was wrong, then agreed something might be wrong, and eventually (after an hour and 3 visits to the room), said the thermostat was broken. I asked the front desk if we could switch rooms and was told there were none available. The engineer came up with some method of fixing the temp at a specified setting from the "main computer." I though this was a reasonable work-around but was a bit worried that, at some point during our stay, housekeeping or the engineering staff would reset the thermostat and it would stop working again. Both the engineer and front desk assured me that this wouldn't happen. Of course, (you can see this coming)-- during the middle of the night on our last night, someone reset the temp, and the room got extremely hot, waking me up and keeping me from getting back to sleep... I brought it up with the front desk in the morning, and they weren't terribly sympathetic (the only comment was that they'd send someone to fix it after we checked out). I stay in enough properties to know that stuff sometimes breaks and the hotel can't always solve the problem right away-- in retrospect, I should have either insisted they fix it on the second day of our stay or gotten them to give us different rooms (rooms of each category were showing available on the app during our entire stay), rather than trusting to the work-around. In either case, it did detract a bit from the experience, which otherwise would likely have resulted in a very glowing review.
Overall, though, I did like the Bankside better than the Conrad and the Waldorf, even when you take cost out of the equation. Factoring in the price, I think it is the best hilton property in London out of the ones I've tried (which seem to be the most popular ones on flyertalk). I'm very likely to stay here again on my next trip, though I'll be sure to ask in advance that they give me a room with a functioning a/c
Apr 16, 2017, 2:27 am
#276
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 121
Just idling around deciding when to head off to the Ropewalks after our latest one nighter at Bankside. No Diamond status upgrade, so no gummi bears and the rate has no restaurant breakfast so Exec lounge it is.
Due to timing on a busy schedule we were first into the Exec lounge last evening and for about 10 minutes had the place to ourselves. Hot snacks were chicken pieces and bhaji (the latter was great) and the staff were attentive. When we left 90 minutes later at 7 to make our way to Soho the place was almost completely full.
Due to timing on a busy schedule we were first into the Exec lounge last evening and for about 10 minutes had the place to ourselves. Hot snacks were chicken pieces and bhaji (the latter was great) and the staff were attentive. When we left 90 minutes later at 7 to make our way to Soho the place was almost completely full.
Apr 16, 2017, 3:13 am
#277
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: UK - BHD
Programs: BMI Diamond Club refugee: BA-Br; HH-D
Posts: 912
I've never had any trouble taking breakfast in the restaurant on a room-only rate here. My last visit was a few months ago, but staff were happy then to let diamonds have breakfast in either venue... not that it matters, since they'll fetch anything you'd like in the lounge from the kitchen/restaurant next door!
Apr 16, 2017, 4:25 am
#278
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 469
My wife and I stayed here this weekend. While I enjoyed the stay I do feel that it is possibly overhyped on FT.
We had booked a king Guestroom and received an upgrade to Delux. Nice but honestly what are the differences between rooms apart from a couple of small soft drinks in the fridge?
As a Gold we didn't get access to the EL which was fine as we were out most of the day and then at the theatre in the evening. The Distillery had a nice atmosphere when we returned and could easily see that a visit to the EL and then sampling the selection of G&T's at the bar could be a fun night out.
Breakfast was nice but not outstanding. The Granola did get rave reviews from MrsS.
For no apparent reason I had possibly my worst night's sleep here for months. This was then not helped when housekeeping let themselves into the room at 8.30 and woke me up! On this note why do they do this? I didn't have a DND sign on the door but even so I was checking out that day and they could easily find out if I was still resident. Even if we'd been at breakfast they'd still have needed to come back later..
So overall a nice stay but nothing exceptional. I really like the Southbank/ Bankside area so I'll definitely be back but maybe I was expecting more after reading the rave reviews here!
We had booked a king Guestroom and received an upgrade to Delux. Nice but honestly what are the differences between rooms apart from a couple of small soft drinks in the fridge?
As a Gold we didn't get access to the EL which was fine as we were out most of the day and then at the theatre in the evening. The Distillery had a nice atmosphere when we returned and could easily see that a visit to the EL and then sampling the selection of G&T's at the bar could be a fun night out.
Breakfast was nice but not outstanding. The Granola did get rave reviews from MrsS.
For no apparent reason I had possibly my worst night's sleep here for months. This was then not helped when housekeeping let themselves into the room at 8.30 and woke me up! On this note why do they do this? I didn't have a DND sign on the door but even so I was checking out that day and they could easily find out if I was still resident. Even if we'd been at breakfast they'd still have needed to come back later..
So overall a nice stay but nothing exceptional. I really like the Southbank/ Bankside area so I'll definitely be back but maybe I was expecting more after reading the rave reviews here!
Apr 16, 2017, 6:38 am
#279
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: DCA
Programs: AA Gold, HH Diamond, UA Silver
Posts: 1,366
I've never had any trouble taking breakfast in the restaurant on a room-only rate here. My last visit was a few months ago, but staff were happy then to let diamonds have breakfast in either venue... not that it matters, since they'll fetch anything you'd like in the lounge from the kitchen/restaurant next door!
For what it is worth, when I checked in last week, I asked if we could eat in the restaurant rather than in the lounge. The staffer who checked me in told me that they would deduct 750 hhonors points if I ate in the restaurant rather than the lounge. This made no sense to me (I thought she might have confused diamond benefits with gold benefits), but we went over to the lounge and the family liked the lounge breakfast enough that we didn't bother asking about it again.
Apr 16, 2017, 8:22 am
#280
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 121
I've never had any trouble taking breakfast in the restaurant on a room-only rate here. My last visit was a few months ago, but staff were happy then to let diamonds have breakfast in either venue... not that it matters, since they'll fetch anything you'd like in the lounge from the kitchen/restaurant next door!
On the upside they have, glory be, a proper toaster and not one of those stupid conveyor jobs that warm the bread on one pass and burn it at two...
For no apparent reason I had possibly my worst night's sleep here for months. This was then not helped when housekeeping let themselves into the room at 8.30 and woke me up! On this note why do they do this? I didn't have a DND sign on the door but even so I was checking out that day and they could easily find out if I was still resident. Even if we'd been at breakfast they'd still have needed to come back later..
!
!
I forgot to mention the half shell chocolate egg with some rather pleasant mini eggs and chocolate biscuit crumb that was in the room when we arrived.
Apr 16, 2017, 11:56 am
#281
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 1,736
As a diamond we eat breakfast either in the lounge or the restaurant or more often don't both with either. Never had a problem or been charged. 70 odd stays.
Apr 16, 2017, 4:42 pm
#282
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 5
It seems unlikely for Hilton Honors Gold members to get complimentary access to the executive lounge here. Is that correct? I wonder if some Golds could respond with their experiences here. Are there other central London properties which are more generous with providing lounge access? Thank you.
However, we did get pretty good rates (average 150 GBP per night), so I can't complain. Free breakfast, and as everyone else has stated - excellent service.
Bottom line - highly recommended!
Apr 24, 2017, 4:54 am
#283
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 119
The service in the restaurant for breakfast was mostly slow, slow tea refils, missing milk etc etc (this is nothing new, I've read similar complaints on Tripadvisor at least a year ago).
Overall the hotel is not too bad, although some of the furnishings/renovation style isn't great.
May 6, 2017, 1:29 am
#284
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Sydney, Australia
Programs: points traveller
Posts: 329
is the comp breakfast for gold only continental, or do they allow access to the buffet (free or an add on charge)? staying this week
May 6, 2017, 2:57 am
#285
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: UK - BHD
Programs: BMI Diamond Club refugee: BA-Br; HH-D
Posts: 912
Can't give you a definitive answer as only ever stayed here while diamond, but given the restaurant layout I would be surprised if they bothered to try to implement a continental-only offering.