On The Road Again

Hey ksotoodeh...sounds like you had a fine time at the Athens Hilton. I have been trying to get an award for two days in October ( I am gold now). Did you happen to get the name and e-mail address of any management folks that I can e-mail? Reservations in the US keep saying "No award rooms available". I would like to try to contact the hotel directly. Thanks!

jabez

I think the General Manager is Peter W. van der Vliet and Front Office Manager is S. Katsandos.
It's listed as the official hotel of the upcoming Olympics. Don't know their email adress.

david55

In the 70's and 80's when I use to go to Greece a lot with my family the Athens Hilton was a joke. Filled with pushy obnoxious tourists and out of the way of any of the Athens "sights" it was a place that visitors went to when they wanted to feel like they were not in the country they were visiting. We stayed away from it preferring more regional hotels with charm and Greek spirit that surrounded Syntagma Square....just curious... after the remodel does the Athens Hilton exude any characteristics of the country in which it resides?

ksotoodeh

LOL! It did really seem out of place, more like out of this world. We had to catch a flight very early the next day so we didn't see much of Athens. The hotel guests were predominantly American but the rooftpop bar/restaurant was all Greek. I suppose that the hotel is now a destination place to see and be seen in. No expense was spared on the interior design. Everything is top quality.

daph

I was there in 1982. Do they still have retiles in the large atrium? I DO NOT like retiles!!

ksotoodeh

I do not recall seeing any reptiles!

monahos

Update: the pool is now open, unlike the gym (listed as opening in September). Hours of operation are supposedly 6am-11pm on weekdays, but the pool didn't open till 10am.

The shuttle bus to Syntagma now runs from mid-morning to 6pm. The front desk mentioned once an hour, the driver twice an hour.

No cranes or construction noise during my stay. One corner of the ground floor (presumably the gym) is still fenced off.

In-room high-speed Internet (Ethernet port) is now available but expensive at €23 per day, IIRC.

The marble floored bathrooms are very stylish, but the shower stall, because of a design defect, leaks water all over the floor. Guests are warned to use it at their risk. I tried it in a room with a stopgap rubber strip at the bottom of the glass door, and it flooded anyway; in another room I saw, there was no rubber fitting. The frosted glass wall between the tub and the room can be blocked by a curtain, BTW.

The lounge is indeed quite nice, with fresh-squeezed OJ for breakfast and good Boutari wines during the day. The mangosteens were a nice touch, but didn't appear to have travelled well from SE Asia.

I found the AC controls very unintuitive (+/- 3 degrees Kelvin from the hotel's, with only 'Esc' and 'mode' keys. Probably another MS product

The CNN feed in my room had the dreaded vertical stretch.

The Hilton is also the only hotel in Athens with its own airport bus stop, very convenient in case of a taxi drivers' strike (ongoing). For those using the (excellent) subway, be warned transfer to the Pireas-Kifissia #1 line at Monastiraki is currently impossible due to construction work (transfer at Syntagma + Omonia instead).

Occupancy rate on the executive floors seemed high, based on the number of papers hanging on doorknobs early in the morning.


All in all, a very nice hotel, more along the lines of recent Asian Hiltons than European ones.

Marq

Looking at staying here next year. One puzzling question: If this hotel is so good, why is it just Cat 3?

I am looking at booking three rooms. As a Diamond, is it possible to get upgraded to Exec Floor for all rooms?

thanks,
marc

JOUY31

I returned to the Athens Hilton after the renovation. There isn't much about the hotel which is Greek, but the renovation has convinced me that I could come back there. Before renovation, it was quite bland and uninspiring.

I was quite dissatisfied with the fact that the pool is only open from 10:00 to 18:00. Definitely not adequate for the business traveller. On the other hand, it is better for swimming than the smallish one at the IC, and I haven't had the opportunity to try the swimming pools at the Grande Bretagne as the construction work was late. They are supposed to be available now ?

My ranking in Athens, after the renovation work done in these four hotels would be :

1/ Grande Bretagne : truly wonderful rooms
2/ IC and Hilton
4/ Marriott

monahos

Award categories usually being based on average room rate over the past year, both the Hilton Athens and the Grande-Bretagne, which were closed for over a year, are currently bargains for award stays. I fully expect both to go up for 2004.

The pool at the G-B was not open as of last month, and scheduled to open early next year IIRC.

More details on the Hilton Athens in this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/006761.html

As for my 'rankings', I feel the Hilton and the Grande-Bretagne cater to different crowds. The Hilton is the best business hotel in Athens, and very American, whereas the G-B a very European luxury hotel. One may find the G-B stuffy and gaudy, others will feel pampered there; the staff at the G-B is more uniformly courteous than at the Hilton.

david55

Lets not forget LOCATION.....The Athens Hilton is out of the way and not within walking distance of many of the tourist attractions... the Grande-Bretagne is right in the heart of the city and you can walk just about anywhere.....

RichardB0777

Just came back last week from a paid stay there. As a Diamond, couldn't get a room on the executive floor because the Front desk said they were booked. One of the employees working on the Executive floor said that it wasn't true and they had plenty of rooms. I complained to the manager who told me that the rooms on the exec floor were the same as the other rooms and he promised that we would still get the free bottled water and newspaper each day. We got neither during our three night stay. To top off my frustration, I went down to the pool at 5:30PM one day only to be told that the pool was closing in 15 minutes. Then later at 6:30 I saw a group of kids and a couple swimming down there. I went back to find out what was going on and they told me, "We can't say no to the [corporate] vice president's family". Needless to say, I'm not going back there again...

thezipper

Just a note... saw in an ebay auction a olympic pin that shows this hotel as the "Athens 2004 Official IOC headquarters Hotel" no wonder they spent the big $$$$ on the renovation.

Baze

I was there last April. Even though only the top 5 floors were open it was a fantastic experience. There is a shuttle bus that gos to town but I found walking very easy to all the attractions in the city. Takes about 30 minutes to walk to the Acropolis. The staff was very friendly and helpful in arranging a 1 day cruise to some islands and helping get a rental car for a couple days to see outside Athens. April is a beautiful time of year to go as is still cool. Most days were in the high 50's to low 60's. None of the pools were open yet but the lounge is great. They knew we were on a cruise and would not get back until about 8 and they kept the food out longer for us. Drinks all evening too and a pretty good breakfast.

kempis

Once again I would like to recommend www.viamichelin.com where you can find email addresses for alot of hotels.

[email protected]

http://www.athens.hilton.com