LHR: Hilton Metropole Notes

The Hilton Metropole Hotel

Hilton.com
225 Edgware Road
Paddington, London, W2 2QL, United Kingdom
Phone: 020 7402 4141

There are three wings of rooms at the Metropole, The West Wing, Tower Wing and East Wing. The West wing was built the most recent and has the better rooms. They are quite a bit larger giving you a more space to sprawl out. The East wing is the next nicest, but the room size depends on the floor and the layout. The Tower wing seem to be the oldest rooms. They are pretty small - typical Euro size. I think they've just upgraded some of the beds in the rooms. The beds used to be pretty bad as I recall, but that hasn't been a problem lately. So, if you can get West Wing rooms, that's your best bet. The West Wing also has ice machines on every floor in the elevator lobbies, if you need something cooled down.

The concierge desk is extremely helpful and can set up any tour that you'd like in London.

Amenities

The pool and the fitness center share the same facility on the second floor. If you like to swim laps, there is a small 15meter pool that is barely long enough for a workout. It would probably be frustratingly short for an accomplished swimmer. They put out a dedicated lane for lap swimming. I haven't broken the code on when kids go to the pool, but if there are a lot of people swimming, I usually don't bother.

The fitness center is very cramped but has everything that you need for a good workout. There are 3 treadmills and a couple of stairmasters. On upright bike that doesn't seem to be used that often. If there are more than 4 people working out with the non-cardio stuff, it can start to get pretty tight.

The Bar has a very good happy hour from 5-7pm. Charge it to your room and you'll get an additional 30% taken off. Say hi to the fine bartenders passing out the beer. They are a great crew and have a good time at work.

The UAL computer room is located on the ground floor on the left side of the hallway that takes you to the West Wing. Get the code from the hotel when you check in. The computers are pathetically slow and seem to have a lot of trouble with the high tech sites that are common today. Unimatic usually works OK though. If you really need faster computer access, you can try to use the executive center located on the 2nd floor of the East Wing. I don't know if they have any restrictions on who can use it, but last time no one asked me any questions.

There are minibar fridges in every room that have sensors to flag you if you've taken something. There usually is no room for your own stuff unless you remove some minibar items. Just put the items back where you got 'em before you leave and you'll be OK. The clerk will ask you when you check out if you had anything from the mini-bar, but just say 'no', of course.

0800 Phone calls are free (but not the 1800 numbers). They will remove the charges upon check out. I learned this recently when I got a calling card. The card 0800 access numbers and that makes the calls back to the states very cheap.

The internet is a digustingly high price of £15 ($30). If anyone has good tips on the free or inexpensive hot spots around the Hotel, please post them.

If you'd like to book a room there for pleasure, you can get a great discount by going to www.hilton.com/travelagentoffer. I was able to get a room for my mom for £97 which was quite a discount from the best rate that they could give me at £147. The hotel clerks cannot give you this price. You gotta go to the website, get the confirmation number, and then show your airline ID when you check in. It's still not the cheapest, but we're talking about a Hilton in a good location in London, so you're gonna spend a bit of cash regardless...

Don't buy an 'Underground' T-shirt from the Hotel Shoppette. They are £8, when you can go right across Praed Street to a store called "Under a Tenner." where they sell the exact same T-shirts in a more variety of sizes for £6.