After our incredible stay in the Hilton Prague last year, Hilton became our first choice of hotel to stay in whenever our family planned to have some staycation. In this time, we have chosen to stay in Hilton Berlin.
I would say that it was a “bitter sweet” stay and it could have been a perfect stay for us if we disregard the issue of the toilet in our room.
I would like to highlight the things we love in our stay:
(1) the customer service we have experienced is very commendable from check-in to check-out
— thumbs up to the following people:
Natascha who let us stay in the executive lounge while waiting for our room on check-in and she was also the same person who assisted us in our check-out and again, she let us stay in the executive lounge even after our check-out (we really appreciate this as we have long hours before our night flight);
Christoph who helped us in our actual check-in and who answered our question in the lounge; and of course,
Leonida who assisted us in the breakfast and offered the egg benedict that my wife and I really like
(2) the room is perfect for the family of three with a big extension room which serves as the seating area
(3) the amenities which my family enjoyed (indoor pool for my son and sauna for my wife)
(4) the location of the hotel is perfect and very accessible to everywhere (transportation, mall, shopping, and restaurants)
(5) the access to executive lounge on non-peak hours (at least before happy hour opens)
(6) though we haven’t asked for anything in return, they still give us a discount as a token/compensation for the issues we have encountered on our first night in the hotel — I was surprised about it but I really appreciate this gesture!
Here are the small hiccups we have experienced:
(1) in my opinion, the toilet in the room 7001 is not so 5-star
(1.1) you can see that the toilet door is old and worn out
(1.2) the flush is not eco-friendly and wasting a lot of water. This contradicts the hotels motto of conserve to preserve (one big happy planet). This is for the reason that you have to flush at least 3 times while sticking your hand on the full flush for at least 10-15 seconds in order to make it work. Using the half-flush is out of the question as this will not work. On our first night, this was raised and they have sent someone to fix it, however, we were told that this how it actually was — this shocked me because this is really wasting a lot of water!
(2) our family enjoyed the executive lounge except that it was too crowded on “happy hour” which is from 18:00 - 20:30. On our first night, we dropped by at around 18:30 and it was really crowded and there are no available seats as in every seat is taken and others are already eating on the computer table which you are not supposed to be using as you are not allowed to bring food there. There is no crowd control but shouldn’t there be one at least this peak hours?
Without these hiccups, it could have been a perfect stay for us!
Some Tips:
(1) It is always better to visit the executive lounge anytime before the happy hour as you can really relax
(2) if you could, have your breakfast before 09:00 as people/guests are starting to swarm at 09:00
(3) there is actually a different lift on the 6th floor which stops directly in the Health Spa area
