Booked this hotel for abit of a getaway and found it to be a real mixture.

Upon booking this hotel through booking.com I requested that a copy of the bar menu was emailed to me so I could order champagne to the room ready for arrival. This was ignored and so I emailed again directly to the hotel a week prior with the same request. This too was ignored. I received an automated hilton email where I could choose to upgrade my room which I did and this was acknowledge!

Upon check in we were kept waiting whilst the receptionist was dealing with another couple. We were waiting around 5mins which was fine as we were early (1:30pm) and were in no rush. No eye contact was made to acknowledge us though. After the other couple had left the phone rang and without acknowledging us at all the receptionist answered the call which I felt was very rude. She then spent a further few minutes on the line in which she proceeded to get very abrupt with the caller and started arguing over a price discrepancy between websites. Rather than offer to escalate the issue she was having over a room rate, she continued arguing before huffing and hanging up the call.

We were finally dealt with and told in a rather tense manner that the room was not ready but she would speak to housekeeping and asked if she could store our luggage. This was a nice gesture considering we were planing on having lunch anyway so we agreed. As she was heavily pregnant we took our luggage and placed it round the side of the reception desk where she told us to leave it and she told us she would let us know when our room was ready.

We went to order food and drinks at the bar but there were no members of staff anywhere to be found. After waiting 10mins in the hope of someone appearing we gave up and spoke to someone in the business centre who managed to find someone. Ordered placed we then discovered that the bar staff member was incapable of making a long island iced tea and didn't know the ingrediants (it was on their menu!) Food arrived 35mins later and we were given forks with food stil stuck on them and dirty glasses. One member of staff's uniforms was stained, un-ironed and with marks up the white sleeves. Fantastic start.

During the next 90mins I sat watching our luggage which had yet to be removed from the reception area despite there being 3 bags which were clearly unattended. Despite it making my blood pressure rise as my luggage (with a laptop inside!) was left for anyone to take; my partner decided to make it a game as to see how many staff would walk past and ignore them: the final total was 11!! We were sat a very short distance away so he was adament that they were fine but I felt this was completely and utterly unacceptable. No luggage tags were given to us so there was no way of telling whose it was other than the fact we were watching it like hawks. I wonder what would have happened had we not been there!!

At 3:15pm we were finally told we could access our room. Strange as the hotel was practically deserted as it was mid-January and housekeeping were supposely told of our arrivel over 90mins previously. I understand that early check in's cannot be guaranteed but it was dead so not sure what the hold up was.

Our room was lovely though; spacious and warm. Lacking in any real character but of a very good size and with the most amazing shower I have ever had in my life. Just a simple bath with a shower attachment on the wall above but it was so powerful I'm suprised it didn't fly off the wall. Very very good! We did request a bucket of ice and 2 wine glasses to the room and were initially given 1 tumbler style glass with a few cubes of ice in. When reminded of what we had actually asked for we were finally given a bucket; this took 45mins.

The pool was tiny and there was no jacuzzi but as I'm not the buggest fan of water it did the job perfectly well. It was very cold though and the chlorine must have been very high because our skin and eyes became very sore and my partners eyes in particular were extremely red, irritated and painful for days afterwards. You could smell chlorine in the lift and corridors though so the levels must have been out. Originally we just presumed that people had used it and walked around but this couldn't have been the case.

Breakfast the next day was nice and we had the whole restaurant to ourselves; not bad considering we went down 30mins before the end. The breakfast manager was lovely, helpful and friendly. He brought me extra tea and milk and was so polite; it made a real change. One of the waitresses though walked past us with her trousers so low it was definately inappropriate!! She went to have breakfast (staff food I presume) and came out chatting to another waiter where she then proceeded to pull her top up exposing her stomach as she rubbed it and said how full and fat she felt. Unacceptable behaviour.

I used the business centre to prepare for an interview I had and had to pay to use the internet which turned out to be slower than dial up and it kept freezing meaning it took over 35mins to load and print 4 pages from an email!

Upon checkout I was charged £15 for my upgrade but the receptionist was much nicer. Still no offer for any luggage assistance or an offer to call us a cab (despite us arriving in one and ordering 2 the night prior!) Considering the hotel was still very very quiet I was a little disappointed that the upgrade charge wasn't waived. There was no way the hotel was remotely full so considering it was a special occasion this would have been a nice touch.

I just feel that the level of staffing and customer service was appauling here which is such a shame as the hotel was lovely; the rooms spacious and the setting lovely too. I did write a letter of complaint to the manager but have still not heard a word in response.

This hotel is ok, if your going on a cruise, but if like me, you just wanted a room whilst we explored the area, find another one
The cost of drinks in the bar is taking the biscuit, I thought Dick Turpin was long gone.

We booked a Royal Caribbean cruise sailing from Southampton and our agent recommended staying the night before the trip in a hotel to save unnecessary stress of travel on the day of departure and we got a really good deal at the Hilton, bed and breakfast, which was absolutely fabulous, and 14 nights car park for our car, all for one good price. The hotel took care of our suitcases and transferred us to and from the port on a coach. The hotel is great, superb staff, the rooms are spotless and comfy beds, even went for a dip in the pool etc. Can't wait to try it again.

We use lastminute.com, Secret Hotels for a regular requirement to stay near Southampton, 80% of the time we stay here. For a very good price we stay at this 4* and have never had a bad experience.
Why? because the Staff are brilliant. If you want to experience good hotel comfort and service - stay here.
We've had room upgrades and other benefits even on the cheapest of deals. This time we swapped twin beds for a double. Smile when you walk in, smile when you leave and chat to the staff. They are tremendous - a credit to the Management here has to be part of this standard. They missed delivering our breakfast newspapers by mistake, someone went out and bought these and they became complimentry. The inclusive breakfast buffet is excellent, and agin great service with a smile. Keep it up Hilton, you are on my global list for sure.