DoubleTree by Hilton London - Victoria — Hotel in London

Summary: Knowingly HILTON DOUBLETREE management had us in an unsafe room - water was dripping from a ceiling light over two nights and creating large puddles on the tiles. Management did not take our unacceptable experiences during our 3 day stay seriously. They have some very rude and incompetent staff at VICTORIA ON LONDON that should not be working anywhere near Hilton customers.

Currently claiming for a full refund through EXPEDIA which Hilton are making difficult. Thankfully Expedia listened and immediately arranged a full refund due to the numerous and serious issues.

Details: Our room was not ready on time for checkin We waited two hours in the lobby with our luggage competently exhausted and jet lagged.

Our check-in girl rolled her eyes, sighed and pretended to not remember us on numerous occasions when we repeatedly lined up for her to check if our room was ready over a 2 hour period. She made us keep returning to the check in counter and queue. This became so regular, that she asked we check at 10 min intervals in the last 40 mins. Then she clocked off her shift and we had to start all over again with a new person as she couldn’t be bothered to at least register us in the system. On that note - surely the other staff saw us at the counter enough times over 2 hours and slumped in the foyer to know we needed help! No refreshments nor snacks or anything offered for the delay of our room. Hilton doubters staff did not care for our comfort and nor were they apologetic for not having our room ready on time.

Upon waking after our first night, we found a huge puddle of water on our tiles near bathroom, which was a huge slip hazard. We then saw water dripping out of the light - huge electrical hazard. Reported straight away. Went out for the day, came back and checked if it was okay with reception. They said ok. Second morning, woke to another puddle and water dripping out of the same light. HILTON DOUBLETREE knowingly left us in a dangerous room. We could have slipped on the tiles during a bathroom run in the night. We could have had a fire or electrocution with how they left us. In amongst this, no hand towels nor floor towels on day 2 as the hotel ran out. YES HILTON DOUBLE TREE ran out of hand towels and gave no substitute until I rang at 9pm to request they need to give a substitute at least.

Another woman at checkin berated me for asking for a bottle of water at 11am. I told her that I wouldn’t need to ask her if they had water in their missing urn at reception. It was never in place before midday and this was during the really hot London weather. Staff in restaurant looked at my family of 4 (no one else’s around us) before seating us and asked, “2 people” without a smile, no good morning, just a rude “2 people?” with a blank face expression. I complained to the front desk manager on day 2 about our experience thus far. She offered to move us to a safe room, which we did after sightseeing for the day. She offered me a queen bed instead of 2 twins without explaining there was a size difference so she moved us to a smaller room. Again no hand towels and no floor mat for second day. No substitute offered so they expect customers to go without despite having a sticker on bathroom wall saying use a bathmat to avoid slipping. Knowing we had 4 people in the room, they left one hand soap, one body gel, one shampoo and conditioner.

I sent a very detailed complaint to the GM after I left the hotel. She replied weeks later and likely only because I lodged a complaint with my booking agent EXPEDIA. Despite leaving us in a dangerous room and then relocating us to smaller bedding, the GM responded inappropriately by trying to fob me off with a few HILTON points.

I do not recommend HILTON DOUBLETREE at VICTORIA LONDON. Management also completely failed us during our stay with poor hazard management and with resolving this complaint post...

We arrived at the hotel at 6pm and were not provided with the cookies as promised(not too worried about this but still annoying).

We got in the room at 6 pm but had to leave at 7pm to make a pre booked appointment elsewhere. We were really hungry so we ordered room service, Prosecco and two burgers but expressed that we had to leave the room at 7 so would need the food at the latest 6:45. We were told that usually food takes 45 minutes but we would have it in 30 minutes….and not to worry, Great!

I was still worried we would not have enough time to eat so I called room service straight back 30 seconds later to check the food would definitely be ready in time (6:30-6:45 latest).

This time a very rude lady took the call, I asked if the food would be ready by 6:45 she then started shouting down the phone at me that it would be ready. Taken aback as I had just been shouted at for no reason, I asked(politely)that the food order was cancelled.

She continued to shout down the phone that as the food had been ordered we could not cancel it and therefore we would still be charged either way. Still shouting she said it would be ready at 6:45 latest. I said okay, as we had no choice and ended the call.

Whilst waiting for the food we thought we would have a shower before going out…. Both showers were freezing cold and there was not hot water working in the room.

The food and drinks had still not arrived after the cold showers and did not arrive until 3 minutes before we had to leave 6:57. We had a few bites (food was good) but like I said could only have a few bites due to it being late. After promises it would be on time and having no option to cancel.

————— After we returned back to the hotel we spoke to a manager to let him know that we had no hot water in our room, he said there was an issue with the water which should now have been sorted.

We asked if there was anything that could be done for us(we thought paying £200+ for a room we would have a hot or at least warm running water) we were then told we would be discounted 10% of the room cost. FANTASTIC!

After getting back to the room we were obviously hungry still, as we had only had time for a quick bite of the food from earlier on, so we ordered a pizza and a brownie.

The food arrived great! However the guy bringing the room service to the door then asked if we had a pen,(I think he had forgotten his) as we didn’t have one… he then said “for F**k sake” to my partner and walked off, not sure what that was about but not very professional.

The pizza was okay but the Brownie was horrible and it came with chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla which was what a as stated on the menu.

The next day I had a warm shower, however I went to dry my hair and there was no hair dryer in the room, there was meant to be one but it was missing(just a minor added inconvenience).

We left the room to check out.

When checking out, there was no note confirming our 10% discount for the cold showers as promised by the night shift manager and we were told discounts would not be possible. They did take off the cost of the pizza though instead.

These are all very minor things but added together made the stay not very enjoyable… I never complain and would have accepted the issues, but the way that the staff swore, shouted and lied to us just made me never want to stay here again.

Very disappointing...

This was by far the worst experience I had from staying in a hotel. There was so many things that went wrong, and I really hope this was an exception and not the rule. First thing, I had a queen room booked, but when I came to the hotel and tried to check in, I was informed that there are no queen rooms available at the moment. They set me up in a twin room and then I was asked to vacate it the next morning and move to a queen room - they said I will get 10% discount for my troubles. Did not happen, instead they gave me an ''upgrade'' to queen deluxe, which was far from an upgrade since the room was atrocious. There was mould and damage from the water all over the washroom and part of the hallway - the pictures cannot really capture it but I tried. There was visible damage from the water to baseboards and the doorway to the washroom. Also, to room was not really clean, especially the bathroom.

What kind of a 4-star hotel does not provide slippers and/or hand-soap, toilette brush? The housekeeping did not change towels at all, and at one point I even 'lost' one towel.

The breakfast was very poor quality and some of the fruit was spoiled and when I told them this the staff just grunted and took it away.

The third day I was notified by my bank that the hotel tried to take a certain amount of money (around £600), and it was not even the day of the checkout but my second night (out of 4). Also, since this was a business trip, the checkout was covered by a company card and not by my personal card (my personal card was only used for the deposit); so there was no reason to charge my personal card. When I approached a member of staff at the reception she had no idea what I was talking about until I showed her the almost transaction on the app on my phone. She did not apologies, she only said that it must have been a system error. The only reason why my card was not charged was that there was not enough money in the account (thankfully). So this was the silver lining to the whole fiasco.

There were also a couple of incidents where the staff at the reception (and i guess the whole hotel staff) was not informed about the room switch for an instance, and had to explain the whole thing all over again even though at the check out the day before I was assured the staff in the morning will know about it. I also had to leave an item of clothing at the reception for a friend, and they managed to misplace it even though I had to write down all of our information and I was assured that my friend will be able to collect it. The item in question was retrieved, but after half an hour. During the checkout, I was asked by the staff at the reception to rate my stay from 5 to 10 - a bit odd to start from the 5, and it was really hard for me to refrain myself from answering with a 0. At that point I was not in the mood to list all of the things that went wrong, because during my stay I pointed all of this out and nothing was done.

I cannot think of one positive experience during my 4-night stay at DoubleTree Hilton, and I am sure I will...