Hotel with a history and good location

This property is the latest Hilton family group hotel in the Netherlands.  The opening of this hotel was pushed back and delayed a few times and it finally opened in the last week fo December just in time for the Christmas/New Year season.  

This is quite a unique location to open such an international chain hotel, and although the hotel claims to be the first Hilton hotel outside of the "Randstad" area, I disagree as for me the Doubletree in Soest is located outside of this area.  I have passed often either via car or train through the city of Sittard but never ever though of visiting it, but with the arrival of this property I thought why not.  The hotel itself was a former school/college built in 1907.  Therefore in my books, the location itself is worth a visit as they have maintained the historical architecture of the building very well (it was compulsory as it's also a monumental building - so not much could be modified from architecture point of view)

After visiting this city, which actually turned out to be quite an interesting city with history and culture,  I maybe understand why the hotel was opened in this location.  Close to this city there were at least 2 multinational company in the area which I can imagine when in current situation is over, will pick up lots of business from the incoming business travellers.  

The property is in my books located in the (historical) city centre - just a few steps from the hotel is the city centre - there are depending on interest a few historical sites which are all within walking distance from the property.

The main train station is about 10-15 mins from the hotel and should be doable even with luggage.  As it is in the city centre, there's lots of different shopping and food/beverage options close by.   

As for parking, the hotel does offer parking at a nearby parking garage for a reasonable charge - street parking is also available (for a charge).  Free parking is available which requires about 10 mins walk from the hotel in the nearby residential area.

As usual, after checking the Hilton app, I saw that I was upgraded from the basic room level to a Deluxe room.  I did not bother to use the check-in function as the I was quite sure in current times the digital key would not work and since it was a DT, you would need to drop by the front desk to get the cookie.  

I arrived rather late to the property and there was no one and I was helped immediately.  Mask is still a requirement around the property.  I received a friendly welcome and was informed as an elite member, was upgraded to a Deluxe room.  I did enquire about suites availability, but was told that none was available that evening.  (I did check later and saw that the Duplex room was still available, so not sure why I was not upgraded to that room).  I was also initially given a room on the ground floor - which lead me to enquire if they had rooms on the higher floor, and they found one on the 3rd floor - which turned out to be a room in the attic.  However this also gave me the impression that they don't really look into the preferences of guests profiles - as it is indicated my preference for high floor rooms.  

I was also informed about the breakfast situation - which was surprising to me as it was only room service - since I had during my previous stay when the all restaurants were closed, at another Hilton property where breakfast was still served in the restaurant (but only limited to hotel guest).  By default, all guest will get a continental breakfast and I only had to select the hot items.  Since I was staying for 2 nights, I was informed if I am ok with the same choices, I do not need to fill in the form for the 2nd night.  The offerings were quite good in my opinion.

This was also the first hotel (in the world) for me that I noticed they were using sustainable keycards - made from wood - which was very interesting.  Before leaving, I was given a run down of the open facilities at the hotel, instruction to my room and the cookies.

The lobby area seemed to have been done up nicely to reflect the history of the building and yet still being modernized and contemporary.  However in general, I did find that in some areas, they could have done more - as it did look too basic.

To get to the room,  I had to go through both the lift and stairs - found out that not all rooms are accesible with the lift - and than also through a number of doors.  So my advise would be for those with heavy large luggage, to try and get an accesible one.  

For me luckily I remembered well the instruction provided, as my room was "hidden" behind another door which needed key access - two rooms were in this area, 301 and 302.  If it had not been for the instructions provided, it would have been a nightmre to find these 2 rooms as the siganage was nowehere indicating these 2 rooms behind that door.  

The room was actually rather spacious with high ceilings.  The entryhall was quite spacious in itself with space for I believe luggage and the cupboard was located at the.  This is also where the tea/coffee making facility was located (except the coffee system) - inside the cupboard - together with the ironing board and iron.  Other than that, although a deluxe room, there was no bathrobe provided.  Also found that one of the spots at the hallway was not ok, as it started to flicker off and on after being switched on for sometime.

My first impression of the rooms from the website of the hotel itself already was not that good - and in reality this was also the case.  In my opinion, the room was just too simple - boring and I felt it was half heartedly done - if they had gone for the Scandinavian look, this too felt too simple.  It was not really inviting and quite cold in my opinion - and made worst if you are there during a grey day outside.  For me a extending the colour pallette would have made the room more cosy.   

in the main room, they did have a single sitting chair and a small side table.  There was a desk area - where the coffee system was located including the cups.  The coffee system is the one from Segafredo - which was in my opinion the same as the Nespresso quality.  Housekeeping did replace this daily.  Also at this desk area, the minibard was located - and they had 2 complimentary bottles of water - one still and one sparkling - which seems to be the default for Deluxe room.  No additional bottles nor other items offereed for elite members.  I am not sure if the bottles are replenished if used - as I did not use it.  

Internet login was standard - with stable speed and connectivity.  The TV in the room was of decent size.  For the first time, I noticed that the program options were more or less what the usual consumer of cable TV in the Netherlands will have - so not like most other hotels where you have the usual hotel type of mix of local/international channels.  Also the TV seems to be equipped with streaming to TV option, but did not seem to be setup.  (I did try to set it up, but it did not work due to Internet login).  Hopefully this will be something the hotel will look into as an improvement point. 

Temperature control in room was ok - although even putting it at higher temperature, the room still felt slighly on the cold side.  The good thing was that the fan noise was minimal.  Other than that noise disturbance from both outside and interior was minimal - did not hear too much traffic noise even though the room was facing the main road parallel to the hotel.  This could be due to the double sealed off windows.  There was only the window on the roof which could be opened.  

The bed comfort was ok - although for me I think it could have been improved with maybe a thicker bed protecter or a top mattress.  In general sleep quality was ok.  

The bathroom space was very big - with a separate area for a walk-in shower and toilet.  Again in this area, I felt that there was just too much space left over and they did not know what to do with the space - again very basic.  Also there was not too place to hang the towels and in the shower area, there was no place for bottles to be placed, so every thing had to be placed on the floor.  Water temperature as good, but the pressure was on the low side.  The good side was that the toilet (and room) was well lit.  

All in all - an ok room, only really felt that the design could have been more cosy - and this seems to be the problem for all the rooms (based on what I noticed from the photos on the website), which is a pity - although if this was the intention of the architect to make the room also feel like a boarding school dorm, than the goal is well achieved.

The breakfast offering was good - and brought within 10 mins of the requested time.  The quality (and quantity) of the breakfast was good.  Only too bad that it was not served in their usual restaurant which from what I noticed seems to be a nice place to enjoy breakfast.   I guess the only way to find out would be to return again.

Although I did not use it, the fitness centre of the hotel is located in the basemet of the property.  It seemed to be well equip with both cardio and weight training equipments.  

In general I found the service to be on par with the rest of other Hilton's I've stayed in the Netherlands.  I found that the other associates during the day shift to be slightly better than the one who checked me in.  

On the other hand, the elite recognition at this property was OK - the same as the DT Soest, but below that of both DT property in Amsterdam.  

All in all, an ok property in my opinion.  I would for sure return if the price is right and looking at some of the photos from their 1 day opening of their restaurant, it seems like the level of quality and food would be something to return to try.  

Based on my stay, I still see some minor improvement aspects that they need to work out from both customer service and hard product - mainly the room facilities and environment.