Hilton Southampton - Utilita Bowl
We booked a King room with furnished balcony overlooking the cricket pitch including breakfast in the sale for £208.00 which seems over priced especially compared to our recent stay at Metropole London. After booking, I unexpectedly gained a higher status which included complimentary breakfast so I asked at check -in, if I could exchange either the complimentary breakfast or the breakfast I paid for, for HH points but was told it wasn’t possible which seemed quite inflexible.
The room was clean, reasonable size, but not large. The down side was it did not have a fridge and we were unaware that if you require a fridge you should request it on arrival. It would be better for the check in staff to ask the guest if they require a fridge, if the policy is not to provide them in the room. Also, they do not have any ice machines so given there is no fridge, if ice is needed, delivery to the room must be requested. Luckily there was a hairdryer in the room and not request on arrival. The furnished spacious balcony is the best part, we saw a cricket match and training the next morning.
The hotel does not have an executive lounge, we were given two drinks vouchers at check in, not sure if this was because they didn’t have an executive lounge or for Diamond status but either way it wasn’t much of a benefit because they covered house drinks, wines and beer which we don’t drink, we asked for a Tanquery G&T but we were told the voucher would only cover Gordon’s. The lady said they do not cover cocktails but perhaps they could do one cocktail for two vouchers. It gave us the impression of quite stingy, we returned them to front desk as they were of no use to us. Again, very inflexible and not the best customer service. Perhaps the receptionist could have marked the vouchers for something better than a house wine knowing that we had prepaid breakfast which we needn’t have done.
The restaurant Beefys is OK, we had club sandwiches and fries which came with a “savoury treat” which was popcorn, we found a bit of an odd accompaniment, certainly not what we expected, didn’t really go with the meal. We charged the food to our room and noticed they had already added gratuity to the bill. There are probably better places to eat in the area but it was convenient.
Breakfast - good selection as expected for a large hotel.
It is fairly close to Southampton for a pre cruise stay, other hotels are closer, but if you are choosing this Hilton, I would suggest for anyone staying here, to ask at check-in if there is anything they need to request for the room before going to it, otherwise you may find the simple basics such as a fridge are not there.
Based on this experience, we will choose somewhere else in future, they didn’t seem to value the guest at this Hilton.
