Hampton by Hilton Sheffield — Hotel in Sheffield

Bit of a mixed bag of a stay. Overall a decent stay and the location is incredibly convevient for central Sheffield, Kelham and Hillsborough, but there are some quality issues with this hotel.

On the positive side, the staff at the hotel are excellent. The front desk folks are friendly and welcoming, explained everything we needed to know on arrival and were happy to set us up with a second key. They were similarly helpful when booking taxis and ordering in food as well. They're a real credit to the hotel.

Similarly, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and choice of items in the included buffet breakfast. There's some really nice touches that I wouldn't have expected (Alpro yogurts, dairy free milks, a waffle maker!) and I ended each breakfast sitting sated and feeling perked up for the day. Again, the staff were great in this area. They were polite, attentive and kept the whole area neat and tidy, despite a good turnover of guests.

Generally, the room was nice. The bed was comfortable and clean, the aircon worked and the curtains kept the sun out. I slept well everynight, which isn't often the case for me.

Unfortunately, we now get to some downsides. There were a number of small maintenance gremlins which were letting the place down. The security door on our floor was broken, which was a bit troubling, given it was accessible from the stairwell most of the day (until the front doors lock later on). The bathroom door also wouldn't latch shut anymore, which wasn't ideal when sharing the room. The bathroom had a few scruffy spots (some odd stains on the wall too) on some of the hardware which were letting down an otherwise very nicely fitted out bathroom.

We also had the misfortunte of our room backing onto the main stairwell door, which bangs shut and is pretty disturbing in the room. I suspect that is just an unfortunate feature of the room we had and not a general point.

As a general point, the sliding glass door used for the bathroom is a bit of a nightmare. Firstly, it doesn't damp any sound from the bathroom (I hope you're very comfortable with whoever you're sharing the room with) and the very bright bathroom lights will light up the whole room through said glass door. I believe this set up is common to Hampton Hotels, but it's not at all good design for rooms designed to be shared.

By far the worst part about this hotel is the carpark though. It's got a very low number of spaces and is an absolute toilet to navigate. It's very narrow, with pillars making turning in any part of it a trial. Many of the spaces are fouled by said pillars too. I drive a small car and still found myself having to perform automotive Tetris to safely move around. As a first impression on arrival it's terrible and doesn't feel especially safe coming in at night. Also, the payment situation is kind of strange, as you can pay direct through RingGo for £18 a day or you can walk up into reception and pay £15 a day instead. It really lets down what is an otherwise pleasant and conveniently located hotel.

I would stay again, as the overall experience was decent, but I think I'd look for...

I was there for a week in conference rooms for meetings.

The meeting room should have tea, coffee and water etc.. every day they failed to provide it all, on 2 of the 5 days they didn't bother putting anything in at all.

During 2 days in the middle of the week the coffee machine was empty and not working, when we informed reception they said "it must be faulty, use the one downstairs in dining area." I went to the one downstairs 4 times and that was out of use every time too. I went to a cafe down the road in the end.

On one occasion the manager heard me asking for water and coffee in the room and he apologised and offered us a free breakfast which was very nice. It's just a shame I had to ask at reception for supplies that should be provided every day.

I also had to make AT LEAST 2 trips to reception EVERY DAY we were there for new keycards because the ones they issued us with kept stopping working, my guess is that the timestamp on the handle isn't correct or they don't know how to use the coding machine for the cards, having to visit reception several times a day for different reasons is not ideal to say the least.

Upon arrival you're asked to put your car reg in to a tablet, then they tell you that you still have to pay for parking, I explained to the receptionist that I didn't know what time I would be leaving each day and she said I could pay for what I've used when I leave, the carpark is managed by ringgo, there's signs in the carpark prompting you to download the app and pay on there, so I did when I was leaving as instructed by the receptionist. The car park fees are set in increments of an hour, up to 5 hour duration for £7.50, after the 5 hour the only option is 24hours for £18.50, I was there for 6 hours each day so had to pay the 24hour fee, then when I arrived back the following morning the app would not let me add additional time on because the ticket I bought the day before only started when I left the day before, after explaining this to reception that it would reoccur all week I was told it would be ok, but I had to pay for 24hours parking an hour after my previous 24hour ticket expired because 24hours is the maximum time allowed. It's a ridiculous set up and very expensive.

I...

The room was adequate, it was clean and modern, ironing fasciitis were good, bed comfortable.. the dinning experience was good. Our breakfast was fresh and hot and of good quality and great taste, I complimented the chef..

The bar however.. it was my partners birthday and upon arrival when hearing if this the hotel receptionist (Eloise) promised us 1 complimentary drink in the bar..

We had to hurry changing and get a taxi into town for a restaurant reservation, so after our meal we headed back to the hotel for a few drinks before bed..

I asked for a pint of Guinness.. sorry sir we haven’t any ! I asked them for a pint of Stella.. sorry we haven’t any Stella..

I decided then to have a short and asked have you any Cointreau ? no sir I’m sorry... I asked well have you any Baileys ?? ahh yes the barman said , we have.. so I asked for a vodka and Baileys please.. oh ! Sorry He said, no we don’t have any Baileys.. some what disgruntled I said, I tell you what, I’ll just have a large glass of house red wine.. and a rhubarb gin and lemonade for my partner please.. hers is complimentary I said.. he refused to even ask why I thought that Lisa’s drink was free and proceeded to charge me £15 for drinks that I didn’t really want !!!

One other thing that we both noticed was while we were seated in the morning eating our breakfast there were two members of staff behind reception... one of them kept almost constantly touching the other in a manner that my partner and me considered both in appropriate And unprofessional.. She was stroking and caressing the other woman’s arm or shoulder or twiddling with her hair with her fingers, even brushed her cheek with her hand at one point and she was starring at her colleague in a far too familiar, almost sexual way.. they were leaning in together looking at the computer screen, heads touching and giggling.. it was very off putting to say the least....

Not as pleasant a stay as the last time we...