DoubleTree by Hilton London - West End — Hotel in London

THERE IS NO WAY THIS HOTEL IS A 4 STAR HOTEL AND THIS HOTEL SHOULD NOT HAVE THE HILTON NAME ASSOCIATED WITH IT! Do not book here. As a Hilton honors member I was disgusted with this hotel and the accommodations provided! After Spending almost £1,000 on this hotel it was truly a huge waste I am urging who ever reads this review please read it all I am honestly thinking of switching to Marriott after this trip.

It first started off with my app showing me an upgrade to a room! Fantastic as a Hilton Honors member I was very pleased to see it I know they are not automatic but I was very happy. Until I noticed my invoice changed, it showed me I was going to get charged the rate of the room we were upgraded to. I tried to call the number for the hotel and reach out to the hotel but every form of communication did not work their phone lines were dead. It wasn’t until I arrived at 7pm and told the front desk “hey I think your phones are broken” for them to realize.

The room I originally booked was on the 4th floor. I specifically went into the app to pick our exact room. They “upgraded” us to the basement of the hotel. I specifically selected the room I booked originally because of the view. I opened our window and it was bricks!! TELL ME HOW THAT MAKES SENSE. When I realized this I went to the front desk and said “I am so sorry to be a bother but you put us in the basement I would rather have the room I specifically booked back or a room on a higher floor that was of the same quality and price of the room we were either upgrading to or what I originally booked” The first person I encountered immediately said “oh well you checked in late, you checked in late” Please note I could not check in online like how I normally do due to the fact that your system tried to charge me for a complimentary upgrade!! And when I tried to call for assistance your phones were not working! I knew I had a later check in that is why I normally check in on my app! I was offered a room that was less than what I originally booked and I ended up staying in the room given to me. THAT IS WHERE MY BIGGEST MISTAKE WAS !

The noise was unbearable we could not sleep I complained to the front desk about it! Because in a hotel you should be able to sleep! It was like clock work from 5 am to 8 am with these horrible noises! there was no way to drown out the noise we even tried turning up the TV. When I was asking the front desk hey what is going on outside of our room?! I literally cannot sleep Their response“oh it’s the contractors that bring our linens sorry” HOW CAN SOMEONE SLEEP IN A HOTEL WHEN THERE IS SO MUCH NOISE! I WOULD EXPECT THIS FROM A CHEAP HOTEL IF I PAID THE PRICE FOR ONE!! However I paid the price for a comfortable stay and it was far from it.

Every morning the bathroom smelled of sewage again something that was brought up but fell on deaf ears. “Sorry” is the only answer I got !

Lately the most annoying thing we ran into was the fact that the cards provided to get around the hotel would not work after a couple of hours of getting a new one made. This is not my first time using a hotel room key and we kept it away from anything that could demagnetize it. For example the key card would either work for the door entering into the side of the hotel we were staying in, our room but not the elevator. For some reason one key could not open all 3 like how it was supposed to work and how it did work when we first checked in. We ended up with like 5 room keys and I still had to use my phone to get to the elevator or room when none of the keys worked and we had to hope someone would be entering or exiting the door on the side of the building we were staying in. That is an extreme inconvenience!

If you got to the end of this review please take everything I said into account if you still want to book this hotel.

This is not a quality hotel by any means. Please don’t make the same mistake...

From the beginning my experience with this hotel was dreadful. One star is what they get because I can’t give zero. I booked two months in advance and requested a family room with accessible bathroom as my mum is a wheelchair user. As a Hilton Honors member I tried to check in online via the app but Hilton tried to charge me the price of the room again, despite paying in advance. So I had to wait until arriving. The week we were due to arrive (and while we were already on holidays), the reservations team emailed me saying they didn’t have accessible family rooms and requested I make a choice between twin accessible (two beds only with no stretcher possible), or a family suite not accessible (three beds). This meant we’d either have to get a second room to accommodate everyone or accept a non accessible room. As I was travelling I wasn’t able to blame this communication so I accept some error on my behalf but if I had’ve known this was the case when I booked then I would have booked another hotel months ago. It was an unnecessary stress. My mother spent 1.5 hours on the first day and another 2 hours on the second day trying to discuss and communicate her needs to the hotel staff. They kept offering her rooms that were clearly not wheelchair accessible. They offered ‘upgrades’ and tried to justify this when we requested a partial refund given we were not provided a family room. All we have been offered is a partial refund on the first night.

They added insult to injury by offering me an extra room for the remainder of my stay at normal price, given they could not accommodate all of us together. I ultimately stayed in alternative accommodation while leaving the rest of my family in this hotel. I was not willing to give this hotel another dollar of my money after the stress they have put our family through.

Multiple attempts to resolve this with staff were usually found with argument or attitude - there were one or two staff who were helpful but I found that most of the staff don’t really have visitors at the heart of what we do.

Our family also dined at the hotel restaurant one night. We were advised there was a 35 minute wait for food. 50 minutes later the entrees arrived - a soup and a ‘soufflé’. 40 mins after that the mains arrived. The food was very bland. We saw other people send food back because it was cold. Service was very poor. No offers of dessert, coffee or even the bill. We went to leave after being sick of waiting and finally we got some attention - chased down for a signature to bill to the room.

Finally upon checking my credit card I’ve found multiple authorisations from Hilton on my credit card without my awareness. On querying this I was told that they “top up” an amount every time we spend money at the hotel to ensure our charges are covered. The only expense we incurred was the dreadful dinner, so at most there should have been two charges (one for the original deposit and another for the dinner), yet I found three. Hopefully these are released soon. I’ve never heard of a hotel doing this; I may be wrong, but this was not communicated. I was told by staff that this was on a document I signed. I said I didn’t sign such a document, they then said I signed it when I checked in online - which is impossible because I didn’t check in online due to the above mentioned issue with trying to charge me again.

Ultimately this hotel put a dampener on the last leg of a five week European...

This was truly the worst hotel I have ever stayed at and the worst experience I’ve had with a hotel. I don’t know how it was rated as a 4-star hotel when it is at most a 3-star, if not a 2-star. Shoebox room and never-ending moves: We originally booked a triple room and were told at check-in that no triple rooms were available. The queen bed was considered a “double,” and due to the hotel’s ridiculous policies, we couldn’t get a refund and were forced to share a bed for the entire 8 days. It was awful. The first room was tiny—we couldn’t even fully open our luggage. It connected to another tight room via a narrow hallway where the vanity and cupboard took up most of the space. Broken AC during a heatwave: As if the room size and sleeping arrangement weren’t bad enough, the AC didn’t work and kept shutting off through the night. We requested to be moved and were given a slightly bigger room—only to discover the AC in that one was broken too. We struggled through the heat and called the “care line” for help, but it was anything but caring. Unhelpful staff: The care line claimed they could fix the AC from their “system” (whatever that means), but it made no difference—it felt like an oven. We called multiple times, and they promised to send maintenance, who never came. After a sleepless night, we spoke to the front desk. They said it had been fixed, but it wasn’t. Then, AC water leaked onto the sofa bed. We called again—no answer—and asked reception to send someone to clean the room. No one came. Housekeeping eventually changed the sheets but didn’t clean the room, despite our request. We asked to be moved again to a room with a functioning ac Third room, more issues: The door’s battery was dead, so our key card didn’t work and the door wouldn’t lock. Maintenance had already left for the day, so we had to sleep in a room that didn’t lock. On top of that, the fridge didn’t work and our drinks went bad. Poor communication and understaffed: We called the “care line” to request laundry pickup. They said someone would come, but after 2 hours no one showed up. I brought the laundry to reception myself. Staff claimed I hadn’t called, even though I had. Charged for water: We were charged £2 per bottle. I’ve never stayed at a hotel that charges guests for water—it’s usually complimentary. No basic amenities: The hotel lacked essential items—no vanity kits, no hairdryer, no slippers, not even a luggage scale, which is standard at most hotels. Terrible breakfast: We paid extra for breakfast and were shocked at the quality. Food looked unappetizing, and there was a jug of milk with an insect floating in it on our table. That was the first and last time we attempted breakfast there. We ate out the rest of our stay. At checkout, we asked for a refund for the unused breakfasts—they refused. Ruining the Hilton name: Every time we voiced concerns, we got the same hollow “sorry,” and nothing changed. One staff member even entered our room without permission using an access card after knocking and waiting only briefly. This is not the experience I expect from the Hilton brand. This branch should be ashamed to carry that name. Until it addresses the many internal issues, it has no business operating as a 4-star hotel. I will never stay at a...