Continuing on my solo adventures, I was off, next to Strasbourg, a lovely French city near the border with germany. I have always been intrigued by this place and the mix of influences between French and German! It is certainly one of the most interesting place to visit. Strasbourg is also one of the capital city of the EU! Located in the Alsace region. Besides it is also an interesting fact that I have been to all EU Capitals, together with Brussels, Frankfurt and Luxembourg City! I will leave Strasbourg itself for a separate post all together. I spend quite a bit of time in Strasbourg, staying there for 4 nights in total. I have been on the road for quite a bit and moving around by this time. Hopping to take it down a notch and rest. I will also do a day trip to the nearby town of Colmar! Hilton Strasbourg is a solid 4 star hotel that is located just out the other fringe of the city centre. It is a easy tram ride away of 2 to 3 stops or just a 15 mins stroll. I do think that the location is not too bad. It is kind of quiet around the hotel though! Although a local friend tell me that it is a rather safe place!
For my stay of 4 nights, my rate 182.50 SGD per night. I will say the price is alright in Europe. It was easy to get from the train station, I was arriving rather late and just took the tram to get there. I will also like to share a little on the Hilton App. I find the app to be rather useful and there is even a app check in feature. You can even choose your room. It makes it super fussless and easy when you arrive at the hotel! You are still able to get upgraded and if you are automatically, it will be updated on the app. So usually I will see if I am upgraded before doing it online, if not I will just check in at the hotel. I find that checking on the morning of your stay is the best time to see if you are upgraded.
The hotel is located in a modest building of perhaps 7 or 8 floor. It is rather grand and the lobby looks nice as well. You can certainly tell that it is a property with age but it has been refurbished. Overall the decor is not too bad. There is no bell man. Given the timing that I arrived, it is rather quiet as well, there is only 2 staff at the reception. Check In was smooth and I was upgraded to an Executive Room. The lady also explain everything to me including the breakfast and the lounge timing.
I grab a couple of drinks from the lounge before heading up to the room which was on the executive floor. Surprisingly, the lounge is on the ground floor, I will come back to this later on. The room was of a good size. The first good impression that I had was the bed, an actual king bed and not the adjoining kind which is so common in Europe. the bed is comfy and lush, I love that it is on the firm side. I had a good rest every night. You can also find multiple outlets around the bed which is something that I value a lot. It felt rather dark in the room though!
The TV was a good size and I love how the whole set up is. With the placement of the TV, the setup, there are also some additional space for you to place any small items or charge your phone and devices.
There was also a personalised welcome note signed by the GM placed on the desk, along with 4 bottles of water as well as a mini welcome amenity of cookies. I love the little touches and show that they are not stingy at all, unlike some hotels. Very nice and exclusive. The desk is also located along the side of the window, although it does seem that there is nothing much to be seen.
I have heard that the room either have a view of the Cathedral or the European Parliament. Perhaps it is my luck.
Immediately after entering the wardrobe is on the left and it is rather huge. Weirdly enough and for the first time, I saw that the Nespresso set is placed here and above the safe. It felt like they only put it in for executive room only and couldn’t fit into the usual space. Lousy thinking. They provide non nespresso pods as well which is cookie cutter in my opinion. Bathrobe and slippers are provided as well and I love that they are wrapped.
A fridge is provided along the usual kettle set up. I love that they do not packed up the whole of the fridge and it’s spacious for u to put your own stuff. At the far end of the room is a proper working desk and a lazing chair with a side table as well. It is rather comfortable. Overall, I love how spacious the room is.
The toilet came with a bathtub cum shower setup which so many hilton like to use. Kind of the legacy ones. Thankfully the water pressure is good and the shower head can be brought down as well. It comes with only a half glass panel with may make the area wet after showering. Excellent temperature control as well. Toiletries were the usual Crabtree and Evelyn.
The executive lounge is located on the ground floor, just next to the restaurant. Breakfast is served from 6.30am to 10am and evening reception from 6 to 8pm. This place is certainly in need of a decor as soon as possible. It just look dark and gloomy, absolutely depressing at all times.
I went to check it out in the morning and found that there is no offer at all. Only some pastries on the table and drinks in the fridge. This is their offering for Breakfast. It is the worst over. Perhaps they offer all executive guest with breakfast offering? It is also completely empty. Guess everyone knows.
Evening reception starts at 6pm. In contrast to the breakfast offering, this one, most of the guests seems to turn up for it. You can find beer, liquor and a couple of wine on offer. I love that bottle of local Alsace white wine. The lounge is not a huge place so it does get crowded and run out of seats after a while.
They had a soup and 2 hot dishes on offer. The dishes also changes daily so kudos for that. I love the variety and the food taste pretty awesome. Including this addictive drumlets that they had on two of the days that I was here. A small little dinner substitute if you are not a big eater.
I went to the restaurant for breakfast, another great hilton perks is that all elite members get free breakfast which is so generous! The staff was polite as well. It is constantly a busy affair, packed every morning. It does seem that a lot of tourists groups are staying here. However the selection was nothing amazing. It was delicious but just normal and the usual breakfast stuff. You can find overly crowded coffee machine, juices.
You can find some continental selection of ham, cheese. I love how you can find the german influences here with some pretzels on offer as well. Hot selection includes hash brown sausages scrambled eggs…..Not very impressive and in fact quite limited. I had better breakfast at cheaper hiltons in Europe! There is also no changes to the breakfast selection!
Before I end of the post I will also like to share about the Housekeeping at Hilton Strasbourg which was ridiculous and absolutely bad. I found out that they actually left a whole packet of rubbish on my clothes in the room. Like a whole bag of rubbish. I know what probably goes around in the dark, but when it comes right in my face, it is something I cannot take it. I spoke to the GM about it which came down promptly to the reception. It is so unprofessional of their staff. Well, at least he try to recover and offer me drinks or anything. Although I only took up on his offer for my laundry to be made. Housekeeping staff came to collect it moments later and they really do have an attitude! Perhaps it is the same guy that place on my clothes.
Overall, I had a comfortable stay here and the price was alright. However I do feel that there are still a lot of stuff for the hotel to improve on. Perhaps it is time for this new hired GM to do. The attitude of the stuff and more renovation. It did not felt as refurbished as they advertised and also most importantly, key card access to lifts. This is an important security function.
Seeing The World In Steps 