I have been a return customer to the Brussels Conrad since 1996 and have spent many nights there both for business events and personal travel.

My wife and I made use of a free night voucher at this hotel from 11 to 12 February, which was offered to us by our Centurion card (black American Express). Overall, our stay was enjoyable, and we appreciated also getting the Hilton Diamond-level benefits that we are entitled to.

However, as can happen with any organization as large and complex as such a hotel, there were a number of things we noticed that would have shifted our experience from good to excellent.

1. The garage. The hotel’s parking garage entrance was dirty and uninviting. It has been like that consistently for as long as I can remember. Adding some carpet there, improved lighting and perhaps some eye-catchers – large vase with fake floral arrangement, piece of art anchored to the ground etc. - would be a big improvement. It’s all about that 1st impression, and my wife actually picked-up on that right away when we arrived


2. The room, #519. What was missing was an ironing board and trouser press. I am sure the concierge would have provided either if requested, but we have become accustomed to just having these items directly available.

Also, the area right in front of the windows was littered with cigarette butts, a piece of someone’s glasses and other debris…hardly inviting or reflecting well on your hotel and its housekeeping.

Finally, the bath-room in that room clearly needed upgrading and showed heavy signs of wear and calcification (see attached pictures)


3. The bar: We enjoyed several cocktails the evening of 11 Feb at the bar. The cocktails were very good, but the service was also very slow. Staff made hardly any eye-contact with us, and we often had to wait too long, 10 minutes or more, before we were given attention to either order our 1st round of drinks or rounds after that.

We sat on the sofa in the far right corner where there is an illuminated Cognac/Brandy bottle. The ornamental champagne bottle in that corner, as well as the other ornamental items sitting on the respective shelves around there showed a thick layer of dust. Overall, the bar made a bit of a dingy impression and could use a good and thorough cleaning


4. The Sunday brunch. We had really looked forward to this and were the 1st guests to be let in at 12:29. The buffet clearly is lavish and well done, but when it came time to go to the carvery for some fresh slices of entrecote and fish, this was at 13:00, there was nobody there to cut the meats. After standing there plate in in hand for 3 minutes without any help we called the maître d’ who promised to rectify this immediately. Only another 3 minutes later, so 6 minutes of waiting in total for us, did the responsible person come out to man his station. This was really annoying.

Furthermore, the meats at the carvery had been sitting out already well before the brunch was opened, we could see this from 12:15 on when waiting at the main door, but the heating lamps had not been plugged in at any time before 13:00. As a direct consequence both the entrecote and the fish were cold. This is utterly unacceptable at the quality and service level the Conrad hotel is trying to project here.

It was also clear from the body-language and French-language comments between the maître d’ and the ‘carvery’ operator that there was some friction there. We did not at all appreciate seeing and feeling that. On that note, much of the staff seemed to also have a rushed and tense look rather than one of quiet and efficient elegance and pleasure of serving the customers.

Finally, the cheese arrangement would clearly benefit from a visual lay-out from mild to strong taste or, at least, some written indication to that effect. Also, some of the cheeses were very runny, which made it very challenging to put these on our plates. Although normal knives and forks were provided, there were no spoons or dedicated cheese knives, but which would have clearly helped to portion and serve the cheeses on offer

On another note, I also felt it was unacceptable for the hotel not to offer its own fitness facilities and to instead charge 25€ / day for us of the on-site Aspiria fitness club...what a rip-off.