Hilton Berlin

Lovely hotel in great location and fab breakfast buffet. BUT spoiled by the terrible construction work taking place on the sixth floor. When we checked in, we were offered a room on the third or fifth floor. No mention was made of construction works. We chose the fifth floor, and on the Monday morning the drilling started immediately above our heads - it was terrifyingly loud. My daughter woke up screaming and we thought we were under attack. I called the concierge and was told that yes, there was construction work and it was mentioned on the website. I couldn't find anything on the website and it certainly wasn't mentioned when I booked or when we checked in. On the second morning, banging started at 8am but it was at least not the drilling again. But it continued throughout the day, so we couldn't really go back to the room to relax. A real shame that this wasn't;t communicated better as it really impacted on our stay.

DO NOT STAY HERE IN SUMMER. Every night, predictably, the air conditioning stopped working in my room juist after midnight. The first night I called the front desk. They sent a technician who argued with me and said it was working fine....until I asked him to show with his laser thermometer....and it was clearly blowing warm air. He brought back a fan 45 minutes later (at 2AM, when international travelers need to be sleeping) and said that someone would come fix it at 10 the next morning. Of courwse, it was exactly the same the next night. I am convinced that this is some sort of "energy saving" nonsense...and they are lying to their customers about it.

This was the first visit to Berlin and very happy with the central location of the hotel to the main tourist sites. Although using points I was upgraded to a huge corner suite with my Lifetime Diamond status. Checked in around 3.30pm. Lovely bottle of Red wine in the room as a welcome amenity. Went to the temporary Executive Lounge for a soft drink after unpacking. Posters advertising the new lounge facility scattered across the hotel. It will be lovely when complete but I was unaware of the temporary lounge until arrival. Cold and one hot item canapes and drinks 6pm to 8pm. Breakfast in the lounge or restaurant for Diamond guests. Egg chef does lovely omelettes! I did like the new pop up outdoor restaurant on the square opposite the hotel front. Lovely cold drinks in the summer sunshine. Very reasonable hotel prices. 5 euro for a beer and packages including snacks good value. 3 oysters and glass of champagne 24 euro as an example. Looking forward to the new Executive lounge opening.

This was a most disappointing experience. My husband and I have regularly visited this hotel over the past 20 years and enjoyed high standards worthy of a 5 Star hotel in the heart of Berlin and reflecting positively on the Hilton brand. We have sung its praises to many in the past. Our four night stay with breakfast was marked by one disappointment after another. On Check-in we were informed that for our stay and for the foreseeable future, breakfast was being served in the bar area rather than the usual Beletage breakfast room on the First floor. This was due to refurbishment. This was concerning as the bar area is a relatively cramped area on the ground floor which was unlikely to offer the full range of breakfast products formerly offered, and this sadly proved to be the case. We were given a room on the fifth floor but were not made aware that further renovation was taking place above us on the sixth. Realisation of this fact began just after 8am next morning when the vibration and drilling immediately above us began. This was complemented by hammering and banging. We were away from our room after breakfast so are unable to say if the noises persisted throughout the day but they were present when we came back to our room in the late afternoon. We reported our concerns to the Front Desk where Staff apologised and stated that they were unable to move us to another room as the hotel was full. We asked why we had not been contacted prior to our stay and/or no notice was on the hotel website regarding the refurbishment and potential disturbances to guests, but were informed that Hilton Hotels had forbidden this! Staff and Management were apologetic and offered a discounted stay. This was not the point. The breakfast layout was cramped with guest tables in very close proximity to each other. The breakfast spread was a shadow of its former glory that had tempted us each time to return to the Hilton. Staff in the breakfast area were under pressure and many poorly trained - for example reaching across guests to clear plates and cutlery - on one occasion a young waitress dropped dirty cutlery into my husband's lap due to her stretching across to clear the table. No one had shown the waitress/server how to clear a table or if they had, no further guidance and support in helping staff to maintain standards had been given. The noise in our room persisted across all four nights -though as we were out from 3pm until late on night three of four we assume it will still have been as bad. My husband had to go down on our final night as the noise was so unbearable when we had returned from a long day in the City and wanted to relax in our room. Any sense of relaxation was impossible and the workmen had access to the sixth floor for renovations to take place from 8am until 6.00pm. Apologies accompanied all these conversations but they led nowhere. The room and service in the hotel was disappointing on so many other other levels - at times when we used the shower in the morning it was merely a trickle. At other times the flow was good. The quality of towels provided was highly variable - one big fluffy bath sheet towel accompanied by a very thin pile towel that was much smaller - my husband volunteered to use. Why did we receive different sized shower towels of such varying quality? We did not follow this up as it is very time concerning and in the end you feel bad for seeing the front desk to complain -yet again, and the shower, towel and breakfast problems paled into insignificance when matched against the renovation noise. Finally - a Hilton notice in the bathroom said bed sheets would be changed after three nights unless otherwise requested. As we were staying for four nights we requested the sheet change after night two. We did this by leaving the notice as directed on the pillow on the bed. This notice was disregarded or ignored and our sheets were not changed at all during our stay. The lack of sheet change was of no consequence but indicated once again that hotel policy was not being followed and staff training was wanting or even that policy had changed but guests were not aware of this as statements to the contrary were still being displayed in guest rooms. Whatever the case, our overall stay was overwhelmingly disappointing. Shame on you Hilton Hotels - you have let loyal guests down - bigtime!

As a Lifetime Diamond member, I’ve stayed in MANY Hilton properties all over the world and without a doubt, this was one of the worst experiences I’ve had with the brand. The management won’t do their job in communicating the truth so please allow me to do it. The hotel is under construction. But you won’t find that noted anywhere on their website. The sixth floor, for example, is basically a construction zone. The “executive lounge” does not exist — it’s now for all practical purposes a hallway with no controls on who comes in and out. The air conditioning does not function. This is a problem throughout the entire hotel. When we complained about the how hot our rooms were, the gentleman at the front desk told us we should open a window and they would give us a fan. This problem is endemic throughout the hotel and their engineers seemingly cannot find a solution. The wait time to check in and out is inexplicably long and annoying. “Happy Hour” for people with lounge access is 6 - 8 pm. Weird. Isn’t that dinner time for many people? The staff is friendly and will tell you they can’t do much to change things because the “higher ups” push back on them. That said, we were given discounts after a good deal of complaining — and after requesting three times to speak with the front desk manager, she asked us “to give them another chance.” Nah. The Hilton Berlin lost my trust because of the management’s terrible communication. There are plenty of luxury hotels in Berlin in great locations like the Adlon and the Hotel de Rome. I’m loyal to the Hilton brand but won’t revisit this one.