Hampton By Hilton
2nd October 2015
Alongside event planning I do love to travel to different cities and locations so that I can experience different things and places. One of my latest conquest was a weekend away in Birmingham and I stayed at Hampton by Hilton (200 Broad St, Birmingham, B15 1SU). I chose this hotel because its a chain of the Hilton Hotel I had high expectations that it was going to be a nice hotel. It also helped that it was conveniently situated on the main road that has bars, restaurants and cinemas up and down the street and about a 5-10 min walk to the high street city centre/bull ring. If you've been to birmingham before you will know Broad St very well.
I found the hotel via Booking.com (that's where I mostly book my hotel deals). It was a really good deal, for £73 for one night it included free hot/continental breakfast, free wifi and gym/fitness centre use. I usually go for hotels that have breakfast included in the price because it just makes things that little bit easier instead of getting up and walking around for ages trying to find somewhere to eat.
Hampton by Hilton is a massive building so it can hardly be missed by walking or by car. As I was driving I didn't go through the front entrance, I drove round the back of the hotel and up the the car park which was on level 2 and the hotel reception was on Level 3. After you walk out the life you are greeted by the front desk who checked us in very quickly and gave us all the information that we would need about the hotel for our stay. To get to your room on which ever level you were on you had to swipe your room key card and press the level number. This is good as its a higher level of security, so unless you work or are staying at the hotel you won't be able to get very far.
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When you first walk into the hotel room I was greeted by a lovely fresh smell, very welcoming. On one side there is a large full length mirror (perfect for full length selfies) and on the other side you have the bathroom and the wardrobe which share a sliding door. Very clever and good use of space, you just slide the door depending on what side you need to use.
Moving on into the bathroom, it was lovely, spacious and clean. The neutral colours made the room appear big and bright. There was a walk in shower on the left hand side and on the wall was their own shampoo, conditoner and body wash specially formulated for Hampton by Hilton. I only used the body wash which did the job, I rarely use the shampoo and conditioner in hotel rooms as I don't feel they are suited for my hair (not to say they aren't for anyone else, try it for yourself to find out). In the middle wall was the sink followed by the toilet in the corner ans as you turn to come back out the room the towels are placed in their own holders safely out the way - once again using good use of the space available. Definitely gave me some great ideas for my own bathroom one day.
When you walk further into the room you have the flat screen tv ontop of the tea and coffee facilities, there is also a desk and chair next to this which got utlitilised with my hair and makeup. This then leads to the other end of the room with the window which was just a view of the car park and partially of broad street. The only downfall of the window is that it only took up half of the wall it was on, I think if it had taken up the other half aswell it would have made the room seem bigger and brighter, but over everything else this was something very minor. On the other wall was the queen sized bed dressed in just a duvet and 4 pillows. Some hotels do go over the top with pillows and cushions and runners but this was classic and simple. The bed was comfortable and had soft pillows which I prefer, hard pillows always give me a stiff neck. Above the bed was a nice art piece of photography of different parts of Birmingham which was highlighted bu the lamps at the sides of the bed. There was also a plug socket at each side of the bed near the bedside table which is a simple pleasure for me as it means I can have my phone charging next to me and I don't have to get out of my bed when the alarm goes off in the morning.
Next to the bed was also an arm chair with a foot rest which was comfortable and perfectly aligned to face the TV at the right angle! But I always watch TV in the bed but useful if you had a guest or two around for them to sit down.
*Note: the bottle of sparking wine in the picture did not come with the room, it was something that I took with me to enjoy in the room :)*
The next morning I went to Level 3 where the reception is located for breakfast and is it around the corner from there. There was quite a large range of food available for breakfast, for a hot meal there was mini hash browns, beans, scrambled egg, sausages and bacon and you could also make your own toast and waffles if needed. For a cold meal, there were a variety of mini cereals, fresh fruit, yoghurt and pastries. There was two different types of machines available aswell, a cold one for your juices (orange, apple and grapefruit) and the hot machine your different varieties of hot drinks (hot water for tea, hot chocolate, mocha, coffee etc). I had orange juice, apple juice and hot chocolate and tried to make good use of the food aswell as I love it so :)
Overall, I had a lovely weekend stay at the Hampton by Hilton - it did live up to my expectations of a Hilton spring off. The only downfall of the stay that I incurred was as I had brought my own bottle of sparkling wine to enjoy in the room, we did request for a bucket of ice so that we could keep it cool before we drank it. However, when we asked they said that they had no more ice buckets available...and that was it, offered no alternative or offered to give us a call when they had one available. Which I thought was quite bad, I would have happily accepted a bowl of ice - ANYTHING to keep the drink midly cold but no we had to opt of drinking the sparkling wine at room temprature. I didn't let this dampen my mood however as the positives outweighed the negatives and I would recommend this hotel and even stay there again myself.
Enjoy!
SXFRANKSON xo
*All pictures were taken on my new Samsung Galaxy S6 mobile phone*
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