Hilton Paris La Defense

The hotel's location would have been ideal for my last business trip to Paris, but was not so ideal for this weekend break. La Défense is in zone 3, so be sure to buy a zones 1-3 ticket to use the fast RER, otherwise you will have to use the much slower Métro, which has no zones.||I e-mailed the hotel before arrival to ask for the room temperature to be set at no less than 24°C in order to avoid a cold room. When we arrived, the temperature was set to only 22.5°C, and consequently the room had been cooled to this temperature. This was a failure. Although we increased it to 25°C, the temperature in the room was unchanged at 22.5°C several hours later. The front desk arranged for an electric radiator to be put in the room. I understand that the heating function is disabled in October. I question why the cooling function is not similarly disabled in October.||Despite having gold status and although I had told the hotel several days in advance that we were staying for my girlfriend's birthday, they gave us no welcome gift at all. Another failure. This is in contrast to two other Paris hotels who did give welcome gifts last year and the year before. When we stay at other 4* Hiltons, even when it's not a special occasion, we receive a welcome gift.||We were given an upgraded room in view of our gold status. The bed was very comfortable and gave a good night's sleep. There are power sockets on both sides of the bed, including USB-A and USB-C. It's the first time I've found working USB-C sockets in a hotel room, and although they didn't support USB-PD 9V fast charging, their 5V output is ideal for an Apple Watch.||There is no soap provided in the bathrooms, only shower gel. I tried it and it left a greasy film on my skin. Fortunately I found some soap in my baggage, which washed off the greasy shower gel. I should not have had to do this. The hotel should provide soap, particularly on request, but it doesn't. Another failure. On the positive side, the hotel does provide flannels as standard.||The internet speed was around 100Mbps downstream and 60Mbps upstream. Television channels included BBC1&2 Northern Ireland.||When we arrived back late at night, both our physical room keys and the digital key in my iPhone had been disabled. No explanation was provided for this by the front desk. Another failure.||Breakfast was quite impressive, which was free with our gold status. We found everything we wanted and the service was very good. For example, although there was no tomato juice, a waiter kindly fetched some from the bar for me. There was a choice of pork and chicken sausages.||With my gold status, late checkout was offered only until 14:00. I persuaded reception to extend this to 15:00, but our desired 16:00 time was refused because housekeeping go home early.||Although I had prepaid the room in full and the hotel told me that there was nothing further to pay when we checked out, there was subsequently an additional charge for city tax on the card that I had given as a guarantee, which incurs additional charges and an FX conversion, instead of the card that I use for payment. The hotel promptly rectified this error when I reported it by e-mail.||This is the first time that I have given a rating of less than 5 to a Hilton, because there were too many failures. Having gold status, our experience is usually much better with Hilton.||I would return here only on business because of the location, and only with an assurance that all the above failures would not be repeated.