Swiss Tony

So this property opened on October 7th and I stayed there last night (Oct 8th) when needing a quick stop in London.

Just a few years ago the area was a complete dive, but it has really been smartened up. I was very impressed with how clean the whole area felt, with a great selection of places to drop into for a drink or bite to eat in the neighbourhood. The hotel is located just behind the Tate Modern and contractors were still working on the footpath to the North of the building, so I think they may have managed to get the doors open a few days early!

I booked at short notice so when I arrived to a bank of vacant check-in desks in a very quiet lobby, they wanted to upgrade me but the room wasn't ready. I was invited to have a drink in the bar whilst they sorted whatever out (quite possibly still putting the carpet in) so this seemed like a fair deal.

VERY extensive list of gins on offer in the bar (4 pages on the menu) but I would say they didn't quite get the execution right. I want the bar staff to tell me what garnish to have with a gin - I shouldn't be telling them!

Room was ready after 30-40 minutes and I had been given a Junior Suite, but we had problems with the credit card reader at check in. Very polite staff including what I assume were some folk from global HQ and I guess you just accept these glitches with such a new property. My room came with lounge access and the benefit of free soft drinks & snacks from the minibar. There was a decent choice in here and when I got back later in the evening after dinner a plate was on the coffee table with two pieces of very nice chocolate cake.

I nipped down to the bar which was pretty quiet but the staff were on for a chat and they mixed me a few drinks which strayed into the exotic - the two guys on the bar were both Italian. The bill seemed rather reasonable, which is always nice!

Had a great night's sleep. The room was quiet and the shower was good, although surprising that for a Junior Suite it was an over the bath affair. A few niggles in the morning - my newspaper wasn't outside at 6.30am when the alarm call was booked for, and there was no instant coffee available, but again I'll put this down to probably being the first guest to sleep in the room.

Breakfast was included on a three fold basis - the room upgrade, my gold status and the fact I had booked an offer rate that included it. It was an utterly extravagant affair, especially given how few guests seemed to be in the place. It was very good with a top notch omelette cooked to order, nice selection of cold meats etc. I would have spent hours there but I had a meeting to get to

Although I was granted access to the executive lounge by virtue of the room upgrade, I never got time to visit. It's located on the ground floor apparently, serving breakfast 6.30am to 11am, some kind of afternoon tea until 5.30pm then an open bar from 6pm to 8pm.

Anyway a thoroughly pleasant place to stay. Yes there were some glitches but I think you take that with the territory on day 2 and I wish the property the best of luck in the future. If the price is right, I'll certainly stay again.

seacow

excellent - looking forward to staying here soon!

CocktailLounge

Hilton @Play have an 'intermit' Jess Glynn concert at the Hilton Bankside on October 22nd for 80k HH points including drinks, nibbles and a room overnight. Not bad when a room itself is normally 70k HH points. I'll be there with my dancing shoes...

Swiss Tony

Here's a picture of the room (Junior Suite, bed was massive). I took some more snaps but they need to be rotated and I can't figure out how to get FT to do that.

treppenlaeufer

probably best to merge this thread into the below

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...-2015-a-2.html

and then close this one?

nk15

It seems that you can get the Junior suite (sleeps 3) for about 70k points or less for many dates. They used to offer the family room (2 connecting rooms, sleep 4 people) for a standard 70k points reward (retailing at 700 GBP), but I don't see it any longer. Pretty good value for the center of London.

russ1h

Staying here at the moment for 2nights staff very attentive,. Swimming pool not open yet . Bar seems very expensive ( £4 for half a pint of lager).

Will report back in more detail upon checkout

fabulousflygirl

TA has some very good reviews so far. Have enjoyed reading about everyone's experience there so far. My first stay here is not until January.

seacow

Just back from 2 nights here on points and can't speak highly enough of the visit.

arrived late Monday night and all the staff were friendly, proud of their hotel and going out of their way to show off the new hotel. Was upgraded to a deluxe king - superb room love the decor. Came with free soft drinks and snacks from fridge - fresh milk for tea and coffee which was nice. Visited the lounge for afternoon tea and pre dinner drinks - both were served at table with spirits, wine, beer and proseco on offer. Breakfast was great selection (even prawn cocktail!) the only downside was pancakes not quite cooked but otherwise great. We were greated by name every time we came in by the doorman and Kiana who checked us in. Location was great - only 5 minutes from southwark tube and 10 minutes over the wobbly bridge to st pauls. I am back next week with work - hope to make this my regular but suspect rates won't be low enough!

ThatT1Feeling

Am staying at the Bankside this evening. As it's still new, it's beautiful and clean but there are some glitches which need sorting out.

I'm in an Exec king room on the first floor (an apparent "upgrade" as a Diamond member from a deluxe king - but I would have Exec lounge access anyway) The room is really big for a London hotel room but doesn't have a "view" like all Exec rooms are meant to have - unless you count an enclosed view of a roof as a "city view". I'd booked a 4th floor room on the Hilton app before my upgrade left me on floor 1... so beware.

The top floors aren't open yet and therefore some of the "great views" on offer, well.. aren't on offer in reality.

The bar closes at 11pm, even for residents, while they sort out licensing with the local council, so I haven't actually been able to see the bar on this visit. And the pool isn't open yet - but expectations for this are managed on the Hilton site and on the app. so no complaints there.

So - it has huge potential but isn't 100% complete yet - and if you book a room with a view, make sure the view is of something better than a roof!

The staff appear to be very proud of their new hotel and I hope that they don't get too much of a bad press from the reality not quite matching the marketing. However, I am sure that it will be wonderful - when it's finished!!

Matthew_22

This sounds to be like an issue I'm encountering more and more, especially at new builds and seems to be a bit of a frustrating gray area, where the standard (deluxe) room and the 'Executive' room are actually identical to one another. Although usually the rooms deemed to be Exec are on a slightly higher floor. Broadly though, They are exactly the same thing and the only thing that makes it Exec is the lounge access. And so you can wind up in situations like the above; allocated in any old crummy room that they wish, yet it has been made into an 'Executive room' by virtue of them saying so, along with provision of lounge access, which Diamonds are already entitled to, and thus basically cheated out of an upgrade.

seacow

I've stayed here twice now and have another 2 stays booked this year. Agree with comments that not quite fully open yet but as said staff are very proud and seem to be going out of their way to help. Both times I have been upgraded to a delux room which has free drinks and nibbles in the fridge.

chrism20

The Deluxe is 30m-sq and the Exec is 37m-sq according to the app so in theory they have upgraded you to a better room, however at the same time they have downgraded you to no view.

Given that the difference between a regular king and a deluxe is complimentary soft drinks, snacks and a view is £45 the staff really should be realising that the customer has effectively paid for a view as at a guess the complementaries can purchased from the nearest Sainsbury's for approximately £4.

It therefore sounds completely bizarre that they have bumped you down three floors to a room with a lesser view even though it is bigger.

A King Deluxe with lounge access is £20 more than the exec with lounge access so in effect they are selling a smaller room for more money? Given that you have lounge access anyway looking at that you have theoretically been downgraded.

It may be worth saying that you felt that you had been downgraded to see what they say.

Interestingly if you go to book the King Deluxe actually says 'With view' in the room title whereas with exec it is only in the room description so again this only goes to enforce that this room is being pushed as the main room with a view IMO.

TTL

For views in London I would choose Shangri-La, Hilton at Park Lane, or perhaps by the Edgware road...

DCADavis

I stayed last week (2 nights) on points (jr. suite award). The hotel is beautiful and an easy walk from the Southwark tube station. I had two bags and easily made it to the hotel. The bar closing super early was a drag, but there is a great spot -- The Refinery -- a block a way.

I did do canapes and drinks in Lounge one afternoon. Lounge is spacious and wasn't overrun. But again, in looking around, not a lot of tourist.

This property and Conrad St. James are my favorites in London and will be book this property again for the summer. As other have said, once they are fully operational, I expect the reviews to get better.