Hilton Cologne

“Great stay in a wonderful location!”

The Hilton Cologne welcomed us warmly after a long travel day. The offering of a family connecting room was a welcome benefit for our teen who preferred to sleep. The breakfast was lovely with all of our favorites available along with a welcome smoothie every morning. The location of hotel was a … more

The Hilton Cologne welcomed us warmly after a long travel day. The offering of a family connecting room was a welcome benefit for our teen who preferred to sleep. The breakfast was lovely with all of our favorites available along with a welcome smoothie every morning. The location of hotel was a stand out as it was so easy to access all of the major sites and transportation. We highly recommended this hotel for excellent service and prime location!

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“No email contact ? App to check-in ?? and bad service at the restaurant”

Impossible to reach the hotel ! Needed to check in early as I knew I would arrive in Cologne 2 hours early, but could not find an e-mail on the website. Found one through AI and wrote the day before and same day: NO ANSWER ! I find that so amateur to work this way. And then, I could not call becaus… more

Impossible to reach the hotel ! Needed to check in early as I knew I would arrive in Cologne 2 hours early, but could not find an e-mail on the website. Found one through AI and wrote the day before and same day: NO ANSWER ! I find that so amateur to work this way. And then, I could not call because it is an 800 number and it cannot be used even with a plan , coming from America.. SO, no way to reach the hotel, pretty lousy and ridiculous. I did check the e-mail adress at check-in counter and I had the right adress, and she said, sorry, we had no time to read e-mails ??????? BUT I kept getting email offers for upgrading my room, downloading an app to check-in ??? Seriously ? And would have to ask my boyfriend to also download the app as well? Plus, real annoying to be bothered like this, each time I would rush to open the e-mail thinking there was a problem with the reservation. And what about when we travel with no plans on the phone ? It happens to me often. I would have to pay 16$ a day to go in my room x 2 people x 2 days because the following morning, would go out for breakfast. 64$ to access my room ? Otherwise, room was nice. But we ate at the bar and terrible service. No smile from the waitress, (maybe that is why there is no need to tip in Germany, that type of service does not deserve 10 centimes) and the lady brought me a glass full of ice when I said no ice and when I took my fork to remove it myself because I could not grab a hold of her. I asked to please remove the ice and she grabbed the drink with an attitude and left the remaining ice on the table ?? So, stucked it on my plate after eating. I also asked a burger no mayo, but got mayo anyway. So, the restaurant is one star for the service and for sure, will never go back.

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“Average Hilton at best”

The best part of this hotel is its location. The rooms aren't bad but there were some hiccups with this hotel. For one, the shower floods (room 337) and water gets all over the floor when taking a shower, there is no avoiding the water spillage. Two, the air conditioning does not properyl work no… more

The best part of this hotel is its location. The rooms aren't bad but there were some hiccups with this hotel. For one, the shower floods (room 337) and water gets all over the floor when taking a shower, there is no avoiding the water spillage. Two, the air conditioning does not properyl work no matter what I tried. I understand the AC in Europe is weak (I live in Germany) but this simply did not work. Two, they do not have a lounge like most Hilton properties. They offer drink coupons for Diamond members which unfortunately can only be used for beer and wine, nothing else. Trying to get bottled water with the coupons seemed to be impossible. Having a lounge like they do at so many other Hilton properties would alleviate this situation. The gym is nice but since it is located in the basement, it has a funky smell from the dampness. They have a dehumidifer running, but it does not offset the smell. Not sure I'd return. I will say, the younger bartender I spoke with was very nice and friendly, I did not catch his name but he told me he was an exchange student in the states in Tennessee - he was great at customer service - this property needs more employees like him.

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“Disappointing stay, maintenance and management issues, favoured conference over tourist business in low season”

I stayed at the Hilton Cologne for 4 nights in March. I have had many wonderful stays at the Hilton Cologne in the past but this trip, it seems everything that can go wrong did go wrong, the hotel was showing its age with failure of maintenance issues, the hotel seemed to prioritize its conference… more

I stayed at the Hilton Cologne for 4 nights in March. I have had many wonderful stays at the Hilton Cologne in the past but this trip, it seems everything that can go wrong did go wrong, the hotel was showing its age with failure of maintenance issues, the hotel seemed to prioritize its conference business over its tourist business at a low season period, and management did not seem in control of the situation resulting in a very disappointing stay experience. Some of the issues I experienced were: When I arrived at the hotel from Cologne Hbf late afternoon with two rolling suitcases and one roll on board, the entrance to the hotel was blocked by 20 or 30 smokers. It was difficult to manoeuvre around the crowd with my luggage and it was very unpleasant to have to walk through the cigarette smoke all around the entrance. The hotel has no doorman or bell staff and no one at reception did anything to keep the entrance clear of crowds and smoke. The entrance has an automatic spinning door. However my luggage seems to catch on the floor carpeting which caused me not to be able to move forward in sync with the spinning door and I almost tripped and would have fallen through the glass door. There is misleading signage in the room indicating one can adjust the room temperature down to cool the room. The room was 22C when I arrived so I set the fan on maximum and the temperature on cool only to find many hours later the room had gone up to 24.5C. I called front desk to complain and was advised that air conditioning is not operative in the Winter/Spring so when I turned on the air conditioning, it just blew hotter and hotter air into the room. Front desk advised the solution is to turn off the air conditioning system and open the windows. That instruction should have been on the wall next to the controller along with the other instructions to turn on the air conditioner and set the dial to cool. I was on a high floor so opening the window was probably not a serious security risk but for someone staying on a lower floor, I would think it would be a safety issue to leave the window open overnight or while out of the room. I suggested to the hotel that it could turn on the air conditioning system when the weather was warm rather than simply stick to seasonal guidelines. Pigeon Post, the very good casual restaurant at the Hilton Cologne, was serving only pizza on the night I arrived as restaurant staff told me that there was a major event going on that evening and so there was no staff for the Pigeon Post to offer more food choices. The next day when I checked with Pigeon Post again, I was then told staff were sick and that Pigeon Post would be serving only pizza for the next two weeks. Similarly room service would be restricted to only the same 5 pizza choices. Apparently the restaurant staff was not aware of this the night before and the front office reception staff on both the night shift when I arrived and the day shift the next morning also had not been informed of this. While I can certainly understand unexpected sickness, I did note the hotel did have lunch and dinner functions for its conference groups both at Pigeon Post and at the large Konrad Restaurant for all the days of my stay so it appears there was kitchen staff available, just not being used for general guests rather than conference guests. I mentioned that the expectation is that a 4 star hotel like the Hilton Cologne should have a restaurant and it should serve more than just pizza and while staff agreed with it, apparently management had no ability to make this happen. Related to the food service shortcoming, I had to point out to the hotel that numerous video sign boards around the hotel were advertising the Pigeon Post normal menu and inviting guests to book for dinner and that there was a sign right on the check in counter with a QR code for guests to scan to make a reservation for dinner at Pigeon Post which reservation system reference ordering from the main menu. Similarly the hotel website continued to advertise the regular menu for Pigeon Post so any guest who made reservations to dine would have been sorely disappointed. The rooms also have a sign with a QR code for ordering room service but when scanned, the menu options are only 5 piazzas. I used the gym and the wellness area and pointed out to the hotel several issues including rubber flooring that had deformed and made little hills with open gaps that was a tripping hazard, a water dispenser machine with buttons so worn that you cannot tell which button is hot, cold, still or fizzy water, a wifi sign with an outdated password from many years ago, and locker locks that had been vandalized (they require a one Euro coin to use which is returned when the locker is opened again). I stayed at the Hilton Cologne twice in the last couple of years and most of these issues had been there at least a couple of years so there was obviously no attention paid to maintenance. In the shower in my room, housekeeping had installed one bottle of shampoo and two bottles of shower gel, rather than one bottle each of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. The shower door was designed with a significant gap between the bottom of the shower door and the base of the shower so obviously, water puddles would gather outside the shower after each use. On my last night at the hotel, I discovered there was no hot water in the shower or the sink. Apparently the hotel boiler broke down and the next day until I checked out, the problem remained unresolved. As a special concession to me, front office staff arranged for me to be able to order a pasta from Pigeon Post one night and to order food other than pizza a second time on my last night at the hotel. However in order to order food for that last evening, I had to check with the front desk at around 5 pm when the evening kitchen staff is in and they can check with the kitchen what it can offer me. The offer ended up being an option to eat at the buffet that the hotel was operating for a conference group that night at the main restaurant Konrad Restaurant, or to order a main from one of the mains on offer at the buffet for room service. While I very much appreciated all the effort the front office staff went to in order to accommodate my wish to have some food at the hotel other than pizza, I did tell the hotel that I thought it was inappropriate for them to offer me the option of eating at the buffet that it was operating for the conference group as it was presumably some kind of business group and the hotel and the conference group would have no idea whether I might be involved with a competing business or otherwise have a conflicting interest with the conference group. In addition, it would seem to me that it would have been very awkward for the conference group and for me to have a stranger line up with the conference attendees at the buffet line even if I was able to be seated in a remote part of the restaurant or even took the food up to my room. The whole situation seemed to lack proper management oversight, just like the pizza only situation without consideration for guest confusion and disappointed expectations. I do want to give credit though to the very patient and considerate front office staff, especially Hanae the front office supervisor and Sylvia the day shift front office lead who both went to great efforts to wrestle special concessions from the kitchen to allow me to order two non-pizza meals during my stay, Hanae for additionally insisting on sending a gift to my room (though even that was fumbled by food and beverages as I do not drink alcohol so Hanae arranged for plate of fruit but food and beverages ignored her and sent wine anyway) and Sylvia for immediately offering some additional Hilton points on hearing of my issues. Similarly Alexander the night shift front office lead helpfully suggested that I check with the day shift the next day for an upgrade as he was not able to upgrade me on arrival the first night as the hotel was fully booked (and the day shift did upgrade me to a lovely dome view King bed room). In fact the front desk staff went so above and beyond that for my dinner order on the last evening, a very considerate gentleman from the front office ended up bringing my food to my room for me and including some spaetzle noddle and vegetables to accompany the ordered beef stroganoff - something that I expect should be well outside the scope of his front office duties. My take aways from this stay at the Hilton Cologne are: (a) avoid the low season as the hotel will be busy with its conference bookings and the non-conference guests will be a low priority; (b) do not count on the Hilton brand for reliable service and standards here; (c) take control yourself if an issue arises as there appears to be confusion, lack of coordination and insufficient management oversight at the Hilton Cologne. It is not a good thing for a hotel when a guest ends up taking an hour or so to e -mail the managers about issues during a stay. While I have had numerous discussions with the front office staff, I have not yet had a reply or acknowledgement from the general manager and the front office manager that I sent my very detailed e-mail to so at this point, I remain on the fence as to whether I would risk another stay at the Hilton Cologne or whether I would opt for another Hilton group or non-Hilton option in Cologne next time.

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