The Botree London, Curio Collection By Hilton

“It was a memorable experience but I probably would not return.”

Please note that I am writing this review while on my way to the airport in the efforts of being as fair and as accurate as possible. A 5-night stay at a 5-star hotel in London was intended as a luxurious, post-cancer treatment & remission getaway for myself. Unfortunately, I'm left with enough d… more

Please note that I am writing this review while on my way to the airport in the efforts of being as fair and as accurate as possible. A 5-night stay at a 5-star hotel in London was intended as a luxurious, post-cancer treatment & remission getaway for myself. Unfortunately, I'm left with enough disappointment that I would decline to refer anyone looking for a similar experience. Staff was overwhelmingly kind throughout my stay, but with a small percentage if outliers, of course. Though kind, I found there to be a 60/40 chance my requests would be met throughout the week. On one evening, I suspect the presence of trendy celebrity took precedent so my request stayed unfufilled. I noted that the beverage chiller was not working on my first full day. Maintenance attempted a reset that was expected to work within "30 mins max." I notified staff several hours later to relay that the reset had failed. Though unnecessary, I was reminded that a beverage chiller is not the same as a refrigerator. I confirmed my understanding and relayed that the items in the chiller had been room temperature since my arrival. Per my request, a bucket of ice was provided for the evening. I would go on to have the same exchange for two additional days- one day receiving the ice and the other without. One does not expect to make such repetitive requests at a 5-star hotel, but, here I was and eventually one just gets tired of asking. While breakfast offerings were delicious, there was no variation throughout my stay. Lunch/dinner was delicious, as well and I found the restaurant staff to always provide top-notch service with a smile. The gym was closed for maintenance for half of the week, so I am unable to comment on this amenity. Save for the inoperable beverage chiller, my suite met all other expectations Overall, I had an enjoyable getaway but I expect that had more to do with my overall frame of mind. It was not until the end of my stay that I became more irritated with the chiller situation. The weather had been unseasonably hot all week and I wanted nothing more than to enjoy the complimentary refreshments upon my return. This never happened because room temperature beverages are just not palatable! As previously stated, I had a nice time overall but this was definitely not a 5-star stay, nor did I receive 5-star service.

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“Style over function”

I have just stayed at this hotel for one night. I was really looking forward to staying here but have been left quite disappointed. Although everything looked lovely in the room (king superior) just didn’t work as well as it should. The furniture and the design items were lovely, but the actual fu… more

I have just stayed at this hotel for one night. I was really looking forward to staying here but have been left quite disappointed. Although everything looked lovely in the room (king superior) just didn’t work as well as it should. The furniture and the design items were lovely, but the actual functionality of the room was a real let down. - strangely when I opened the door to the room it was straight into the marble bathroom. I have never seen this before and I just didn’t love it. - double sinks in the bathroom were very stylish but have really a high central tap so you can’t bend your head over the basin without whacking it on the tap. The taps are also so high that when you run the water it splashes everywhere when it hits the basin. - the toilet is in a glass fronted cubicle and oddly has a small sink over it which made it difficult to use the toilet without hitting the sink. 3 sinks for a very small room feels like overkill. - the shower was also in a glass fronted cubicle and, like the toilet has a tiny handle on the inside to pull it closed, but it is difficult to grip so closing the doors from the inside was challenging. - there are lots of panels with electronic switches on them but no instructions on what controls what. It was like a disco when trying to find out how to turn lights on or off. - the room had a tiny window overlooking an atrium so had no natural light. Not what I expected at this price point. A bit of daylight would have been nice. - because of the lack of light we had to sleep with a light on so we could find our way to the toilet cubicle in the night. Unfortunately the doors between the bathroom foyer and the bedroom section were frosted glass so there was no escaping the light. It would be nice if an eye mask was an in-room amenity :-) - a steamer was provided instead of an iron but there were no instructions on how to put water in it so I ended up using it a bit like an iron. - the chaise wasn’t actually in front of the tv (and the tv didn’t swivel) - it felt a bit like it had been put into the awkward corner to tick a box rather than be genuinely useful. There was also a small coffee table but again it couldn’t go in front of the chaise as there was no room and it was just kind of stuck at the end of the bed, again it felt like ticking the box to say that the room had a coffee table. - none of the usb c sockets worked and there were no plugs next to the bed. Even a Travelodge gets this right. - room service breakfast menu left on the bed but I just couldn’t work out how you could have breakfast in this room - literally no where to put a tray. - electronic curtains but they didn’t actually close properly. - the mini bar fridge was effectively a drawer as there was no cooling of anything in there. As an aside our general feeling about this particular room is that every effort has been made to turn, what was probably a cupboard, into a bedroom. Therefore if coming here for more than a night you might want to consider paying for a higher room category as I would hope they are a bit bigger and have natural light rather than a view of other rooms across a small dark atrium. So in summary, I wanted to love this hotel but I can’t love a hotel where the room doesn’t function well..

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