(Splendid) Stay Report: Executive Panoramic Suite Hilton Warsaw Hotel and Convention Centre,Poland I
The Hilton Warsaw Hotel and Convention Centre is of central location to the city among many other high-rise buildings, the construction site next to the building did not disturb me at all during the duration of my stay(floor 26), also based on my observation, there was hardly any large construction machinery operating.
The Uber ride from the airport to this Hilton property took around half an hour, and its cost was jaw-droppingly cheap to me - 18PLN, less than 4.5 Euros.
Key Information:
Room number: 2613
Room Type: Executive Panoramic Suite
Status: Diamond
Upgrade: Yes,from King Guest Room (2 categories up)
Stay Length: One night, late check in, late check out
Booking: Direct on Hilton's app, 2 week in advance
Before Check In:
If you don't know, I have never get upgraded at a Hilton hotel before,(although once with DoubleTree in Barcelona) after my tortuous last stay experience in Lisbon, combined with some hard "study session" on FlyerTalk. I've decided to first rang up the hotel informing them regarding my late arrival and asked the possibility of an upgrade(not suite) which was denied; then an email was sent to the hotel informing that it will be my first time staying with them and requested for the possibility of being upgrade to a suite (if there are inventories available), both attempts were refused with the same explanation that it will be done upon checking in.
So at this point, I didn't had much high hopes of getting a suite any longer.
Check In:
I arrived at the property around 10:30PM, the lobby was rather quiet upon my entry, the check-in agent handled everything gracefully, a welcome gift was presented to me before she handed me a pair of room keys, it was a small bottle of Polish vodka.(Inside me, I was crying tears of joy here, as it was my first time getting this when I've heard so many stories from other people.) She told me my room will be 2613 where at first I didn't know that 26 was the highest floor, so I went on and asked if I could get an upgrade, she replied diligently with confirmative answer that it's already been done.
To My Suite:
The hotel started to surprised me bit by bit from my walk to the room, started with the elevator, it was just spacious, extremely spacious, the wooden patterned walling inside the elevator was a nice touch and gave the place a sense of exclusivity.
I started to have good feelings regarding this stay when I realised that 26th floor was the highest floor level.
I felt like you can put a dozen of people in the elevator without feeling claustrophobic, if not, two dozens, although the celling to floor mirror did help to extend the roominess.
You can see a rather spectacular night view of the surrounding skyscrapers from the 26th floor. 4 chairs were placed in front of the elevator area as it was supposedly for guests who get tired of standing in the elevator.
Again, a spacious hallway to the room, I believe the building is quiet new and everything were purposefully built in large. Alongside the decent patterned floor carpet, there was a collection of art displays in-between the wall space.
Room 2613 is all the way in the end of the hall with a good view of the surrounding complexes. The door for the room is of the same wooden pattern in the elevator and it is huge compared to the ones you normally see in other European countries.
The Sitting Room:
When the first thing I saw was a sitting room layout, I knew that I've got it, it is now official - a suite upgrade from the most basic room category to the one right under the presidential suite. A display shelf covers part of entrance into the sitting room as it wouldn't look too empty, on my right hand, there was a slim door of which when opened, it turns out to be a small jacket hanging closet for visitors. Next to the closet, a small guest bathroom was featured.
With a decent sink and small amenities like soap and toilet paper, the guest toilet is not big but served a important function. What I didn't understand was the purpose for the two pieces of floor towel under the sink, I couldn't think of any suitable scenario that you would need those.
The sitting room has a combination of sofas,one long and two single. The big screen TV placed in front of the sofa were perfectly placed in-between two large windows where you have access of the view of one side of the city, another floor to celling window was installed adjacent to it, also comes with amazing view of what the local are calling the platinum twin towers which is supposedly a luxury apartment complex.
Inside the drawers under the TV, you can find a blowdryer and some kits for shoe polishing.(No pun intended here) The bigger drawer in the bottom have two TV boxes in it, supposedly for the different TV channels they are getting in.
With the majority of TV channels in Polish, they have the standard BBC CNN etc, as well as HBOs.(Perks, eihey!) Next to the TV stand, you can see a office desk with basic hotel information catalogs and a telephone line. It seemed to me that it could be a nice place to work at, but not until you see the executive lounge.(Keep reading :))
A lamp illuminates a warm light which soften the strong distinction of the furnitures in the room and the night really started to settling in with the city quieting itself down.
You will found out that Warsaw is still continuing to grow itself, another high rise is just being build right under my eye(window). Inside the sitting room, a counter was designed next to the display shelf, a coffee machine, tea sets, and glassware along with 2 bottle of water free of charge for Hilton members. It's also a nice feature for such counter space to be available for guests, you can almost have a party in here.(Just kidding)
Details of the glassware packed with sugar and cream packages. The water kettle had moulding inside when I opened it, as I can recalled not long ago, the infamous video where a cleaning staff used a toilet brush to wash the water kettle in a Sheraton in China, it's always nice to check and maybe re-rinse it a couple of times before using it.I haded to call the front desk and asking them to bring in a clean one.
Inside the storage space under the black-marbled counter, you will found snacks and the mini bar as well as extra space for storing your own belongings. The snack selection is poorly made, as well as the Durex somehow harmoniously placed next to the small bottle of sparking wine, are you promoting irrational behaviour here, man.
They had 4 choices of small bottled liquors which is decent, as well as sodas and beers, there's not much healthy options for guests here like juices or just sparkling water. I wouldn't take anything from the mini bar during my hotel stays 90% of the time , as the two complimentary bottle of water would be more than enough for me.
The Bedroom:
The bedroom it's the exact same size of the sitting room, which in a normal guest room, the suite's space can be split into two of those. The bed is rather huge with comparison to other hotels in Europe,(maybe that's not an appropriate analogy?) and is commodious.
A pair of red sofa chair was placed next to the bed under the same floor to celling window, it was a good colour contrast however it didn't felt so comfortable to sit on. The sofa chair does not bend or recline in anyway, it almost felt like siting on a sand bag.
Another phone line was installed in the bedroom place upon the nightstand on one side of the bed, where on the other side its the classic Hilton clock which comes with several special functionalities.
A tag suggests the name of the staff who cleaned my room, it's a proactive way to build more trust between guests and the hotel these days.
A luggage stand was placed next to the night stand in the corner of the bedroom, although I felt it was somewhat unsuitable to be placed there.(It works though)
The view outside the window is equally spectacular as the view in the sitting room, I've never managed to get a picture of all different views from different windows in the suite in daytime, it was substantially better.
The bench stool in front of bed was a bit dirty as the leather skin started to fade a bit as well. I never used it anyway, isn't it merely a decoration nowadays?
Opposite to the bed, the wall is covered with two huge closets, whereas a comparatively smaller TV set was placed in-between the doors. Other than the difference in size, the TV had the exact same set up as in the sitting room.
In the right side closet, two set of bathrobes and a pair of flip-flops were placed on top of the shelf. Under it, you can see there's a small safe, quiet small for the room size to be honest.
On the left side closet, an ironer set was hooked on the wall and a dozen hangers alongside those Hilton plastic laundry bags. I saw the packed together blanket on the top and presumably it was for one of those colder days.
The Master Bathroom:
Another door in the bedroom will lead you to the master bathroom, which in my opinion, it's almost as big as some hotel's entire guest room space, it comes with the double sink washing counter with a huge walled mirror.
On the right you will see those gigantic shower space insulated by these transparent glass walls, it looked decent size in the picture, but I can guarantee you that nine people can shower inside together without feeling have to touch each other. One drawback here is that the shower head was not that strong perhaps the floor level was too high to pump water up?
The sink counter was equipped with standard Hilton shower amenities. Since the surface is of black marble, I cannot tell exactly how clean the sink counter really was. All the towels came in sets of three, even though I didn't need it, it's always good to have extra.
Other than the shower facility, you will also have a bathtub in your master bathroom, on the left hand side of the sink counter,(do I sound like a flight attendant doing safety instruction here?) it's a sizeable bathtub where the water flows was much better.
Here's a closeup of the amenities in the bathroom, not much comments regarding that, standard Hilton.
In Room Dinning:
Learning from my last unspeakable bitter suffering with ordering outside the hotel in the night at Lisbon, this time, even though the lounge is closed, I decided to order in.
I was very sick on this trip, having a cold and swollen throat, a special request was made to the kitchen staff of asking them bringing up lemon and ginger slices alongside my tea sets. It was well delivered as you can see from the picture below, although I felt the tea was a bit overpriced.(60 PLN(13Euros))
The Black Spaghetti with Prawns was recommended by the kitchen staff and it tasted delicious. One of the few times where in room dinning actually tasted good.
The Executive Lounge:
One of the few conclusion that came about from my own experiences is that, 90% of the time, you should always go the lobby for breakfast as it gives you more options and better seating capabilities. So,I was not disappointed this time with the executive lounge this time, just that the lobby breakfast is always better.
The executive lounge at Warsaw Hilton was empty when I went there, the friendly male staff was attentive and service-mined, with a room key checker, the first word came through my head when I enter was - Tiffany, yes the tiffany blue is well received here. Not only was it fashionably designed, did I mention it has two floors? Yep, the second floor is a more vintage resting floor level where all of the serving were done in the first/ground.Seating pictures above were taken from the ground floor area.The lounge looked clean and neat, and they did serve cold continental breakfast where it looked quiet nice, but I was opt for waffle, so here's the pictures.
The soft drinks and beers were available at all time where alcoholic beverages were only served during scheduled afternoon happy hours.
Apologises, so there was indeed some hot plates in the lounge, as I just realised based the picture above, it was the same old things.(Bacon, potatoes etc.) Wait til I tell you about the service they provide at the lobby breakfast...
Then there's the second floor of the lounge, I felt like I could live there, it was like some country club residence hall and filled with decorations that keep reminding you how great you are.(which you are most likely not.)The stairs was long but magnificent.
Here on the second floor you find the tiffany blue well-mixed together with those dark brown American country alike styled leather benches, the contrast put together to me it's the ideal low-key extravaganza.
The view outside the window leads directly to the aforementioned construction site where somewhat is fairly distant but unpleasant. I have come across two other guests throughout my serval hours' visit of the executive lounge, it was extremely quiet in there and I could really worked in there.
The lounge was also equipped with its own bathroom, although it was cornered, but very well maintained.
The Breakfast:
So,as I've said, the lobby breakfast has more options and more warm food options, and the truth is, it did. Not only they do, but also went on the extra steps of having an exclusive area for diamond members, it was small but not full so I didn't mind being there, and inside they offered A La Carte. So some staff will come to your table and ask what you want and how you like it.
Here's the menu they were putting on the table, you can always go out to the common area to bring or order whatever you felt like, so below was what I was eating for breakfast. The staff were kind and approachable they come around asking for refills or pass around some specially-made desserts.
I also received a small gift when I was checking in for breakfast, it was a pair of Polish chocolate balls, you might be wondering where's the picture of it, well, I ate it right away, besides, you should keep something for yourself when you visit the property, I hope you will get the same balls as mine though. (No polish puns here.)
Bottom Line:
This has to be one of the best Hilton property experience I've ever had, I felt like I've won the Oscars when I found out about the suite upgrade.(It was my first.) I am thinking from now on, I will always send a email to every hotel I am going to stay at, not asking for upgrades necessarily, just polish up relationships maybe.(Oi,boi!)
I would review this property with a score suggested below, there are some minor drawbacks here, but the relatively cheap room price and over the top customer handling, it has added itself up based on my personal stay experience here.
Score: 7.8/10
Also, It seems that I've forgot to visit their spa facilities this time, hopefully I can make it up next time, 'cause boy, I am definitely coming back.
Leave a comment here and as always stay tuned.
