Stay Report: Hilton Addis Ababa
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comment below and let me know your thoughts :)
Photo Courtesy of Hilton.com |
After you exit customs and enter the arrivals hall, there is a Hilton booth/stall where you can wait for transportation. The hotel does not provide complimentary transportation, rather there are two paid options; either the Hilton shuttle or a private car. The private car costs a little more, and since I had been flying all night and had assumed the private car would be quicker, I had booked that option; I was very wrong. I entered the booth/stall with another couple who had paid for the shuttle; they waited for 2 minutes and went into the shuttle while 15 minutes later I was still waiting for the private car. When the car finally showed up, it was dirty with trash all over the floor, looked run down, was uncomfortable, and the driver was playing a rap song with a lot of cursing and inappropriate language. It was definitely not the way you want to start your trip.
Photo Courtesy of Hilton.com |
The hotel is located near the UN building but
there is not much around it in terms of walking. The hotel does provide maps
for shopping and other amenities if you want to take a cab or private car. The hotel is a big complex with lots of
people and is very busy. From the outside, the hotel looked like it was nicely
built for the 1980's and has not been updated since then. From the entrance, you walk up an outside
walkway to the main lobby. When you
enter the lobby, straight ahead are the check-in desks while to left is the
sitting area and to the right are other services/desks (see below for the
facilities available). Check-in went smoothly,
I was given my key and quickly went to my room.
The first room I went to had an odd smell to it so I asked to be
switched to another room.
Photo Courtesy of TripAdvisor.com |
The room was a decent size but was very outdated
as both the room and the bathroom looked very good for the 1980's. As you entered into the room, on the left was
the bathroom while on the right was closet.
The bathroom had a sink, a tub, and a toilet, all of which looked
outdated and were very low to the ground.
Further into the room, against the left wall was the bed while against
the right wall was the chest with drawers on the bottom and a TV on top and a
desk next to it. I had a room with a king
size bed, so that was against the wall with a nightstand on either side. The bed itself was large and decent but not
extremely comfortable; it was not uncomfortable but not extremely comfortable
either.
We had access to the club lounge and we went
there for breakfast as well as cocktail hour.
The Club is not that big and it is divided into two sections – the first
section on the left contained the food and drinks while in the right section
was the seating area. The seating area
was enough for 15-20 people, which was fine for breakfast as there were not
many people; however, for cocktail hour there were TONS of people so it felt
congested and tight.
As I said earlier, the hotel has a very big
complex and there are lots of facilities for the guests to enjoy including:
Photo Courtesy of TripAdvisor.com |
- a money changer with good rates (note: remember to keep your receipt as we had charged food to the room and needed to pay that but the hotel needed a receipt from the hotel money changer to verify the exchange)
- Airline offices – Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways
- Safari and Tour Group Bookings
- An Olympic size pool (which was very busy in the evening time)
- a promenade with shops
- a restaurant near the pool (with decent food but service was a little slow and hectic)
- a spa and sauna with one of the best, and cheapest, massage I have ever had.
Photo Courtesy of Hilton.com |
While the facilities provided for the guest are a great positive,
a huge negative was the lack of customer service. After the issue with the airport pick-up, I
had asked the hotel to make note of it when I checked in. When I followed up, I had to talk to multiple individuals because nobody spoke to each
other. It was very frustrating repeating
the same information due to lack of communication amongst the staff.
Overall, it was an interesting stay at the Hilton
Addis. The positives were the nice
facilities and amenities available to the guest. The negatives were the poor room quality and
the poor front desk customer service. It
was definitely not the Hilton experience I was expecting, but it was better
than sleeping at the airport.