I was here for a week, for a business trip - the Hilton was hosting a conference I was attending. Although my stay had a rough start, it was ultimately a pretty nice stay in a pretty nice hotel.
Check-in and Check-out - For me, this went smoothly - the staff speak English, French and Arabic well. They had my reservation and there were no problems.
Lobby - This was always crowded, but there was always a place to sit down and wait for people. There is security and metal detector in the lobby. By the concierge there was a variety of newspapers - Algierien in French and English, and then American, French, and other newspapers that were mimeographed.
Room - I had the deluxe room with sea view. I wanted the bare bones single but they were out of them, this was the next one up. I had a really nice private balcony with views of the city and the "beach". (It's not much of a view. There's sand and water, but there's not really much going on and it's not a beach for sunning. There is some construction happening, too.) But the balcony was really nice. The room was nicely decorated and had everything I needed, including TV with some English, French and I think German channels. The bed was really comfortable, the desk was totally fine for my purposes, there were enough plugs for my devices and the wifi was fine. There was plenty of closet space and the bathroom was fine. I had some problems with my safe and with the wifi in the beginning - they couldn't fix either one, and they sent me to another room, and then it was fine. I did have problems throughout the week, though, with my room key not working. They'd make me new ones over and over again, but still the same problems. I didn't have anything magnetic, the concierge said that there were problems with the locks, that they were old and the hotel was in the process of replacing them but had only completed up to the third floor. Some of my colleagues had similar issues as the week progressed.
Service - As I mentioned, the concierge and I got pretty friendly over the week as I was supposed to tell him each time when I needed a new key. He was always good natured about it though, and was a nice guy. The bellmen were fine and the shuttle to the airport (which we needed to take in the middle of the night) was on time and well done.
Room Service - I tried this once, but it didn't thrill me. It was nothing compared to the quality in the restaurants.
Restaurants - I dined in two of these and then also had the experience of the conference receptions, lunches, dinners, etc. The food was outstanding. We ate at the Middle Eastern/Algerian/Mediterranean restaurant and there was a super music ensemble playing - it was a really nice atmosphere. Later we ate at the French restaurant - which did serve wine - and it was also outstanding. The food was great. There's a little coffee area that's pretty expensive - come to think of it a lot was very expensive in this hotel - but it was nice to have coffee in the morning because there was no breakfast provided. The coffee area was open past midnight so that we had it in the evening too. They also have lemon mint, although each time I ordered it, it came out different!
Fitness Center - This is in the basement and they provide towels and water. I went every morning and there's personal TVs on all the apparatus - I just used the treadmill and the elliptical. There is a track/path out the back of the fitness center and I saw lots of people jogging and walking on it - it's basically walking on the beach (I got this view from my room). But when I tried to do that, the fitness center manager said that I shouldn't do that, that it wasn't safe. It was okay for the men, but women shouldn't do it. There's a pool but it was too cold to swim.
Business Center - I needed to print out and amalgamate a mass of documents off of my email. They didn't charge me for internet access, and they were able to provide me with what I needed - mostly black and white, but a couple of color docs. They weren't cheap, though.
Shops - Here lies my biggest disappointment. One of the shops - an interesting one - wasn't owned by the Hilton and the proprietor only apparently came in when he felt like it. There was a sign with hours but it was all lies. There was also a phone no, and when I called it he said he would come in and be there in about 20 minutes. An hour later - nothing. The other shop was full of little trinkets but it's Hilton-owned - the copy center person will open it for you. The trinkets and clothes and artwork - it's all incredibly expensive. If you are in my situation and don't have an opportunity to get souvenirs somewhere else - well, good luck.
Conference Facilities - The conference rooms were a bit off of the lobby, but not far to get to. The rooms were the right size, acoustics were fine, the set up was fine, and the coffee and tea breaks were done nicely.
Overall - a pleasure, and a nice stay. The people in the hotel were extremely warm and welcoming.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
