Stay Report: Hilton Madinah (Saudi Arabia - March 2014)

Stay Report: Hilton Madinah
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photo courtesy of Hilton.com

In my previous trip to Madinah, I stayed at a different but spent a lot of time in the Hilton’s restaurant as the hotel is very close to the Mosque.  For this reason, when I was returning to Madinah I decided to book my stay at the Hilton Madinah.  As I said, the hotel is located very close to the Mosque - you walk out of the hotel, turn right, and walk for 30 secs and you are at the mosque. That was about the only good thing about the hotel.

We pulled up to the hotel entrance on the first floor and then took the escalators up to the second floor to the lobby to check in.  The first floor contained the entrance to the street while the second floor contained the check-in desks, the business center, and the restaurant.  The lobby was not very big but looked updated enough; unfortunately this is where the updates ended.  Check-in was extremely slow and inefficient, and the staff were not courteous at all.  I finally was able to check-in, received my key, and proceeded to my room. 

photo courtesy of TripAdvisor.com

The room looked outdated and needed to be overhauled as the rooms looked very good for the late 90's but seemed not to have updated since then.  As you enter the door, on the left hand side was the entrance to the bathroom.  The bathroom contained a sink, toilet, and bathtub which were nice but the bathroom also needed to be updated.  Across from the bathroom was the closet, the fridge, and other such items.  In the main area were 2 double beds with a night stand in between – the beds seemed to be the only thing that had been updated in the room as they were very comfortable and in comparison to the new Hilton standard beds.  Across from the beds was a chest with drawers on the bottom and a TV on top, and next to that was a desk.  In between the bed and the window were some tables but there was also room to put in a roll-away bed.  Instead of a sofa-bed, this Hilton had upgraded to the new Hilton rollaway which are way more comfortable than the sofa-beds; at least you can get a decent nights rest on the roll-away.

photo courtesy of TripAdvisor.com

The hotel had a couple of facilities available for guests.  Breakfast was complimentary and while the selection was good, the seating area was very small and could not accommodate the crowds.  When we went early in the morning, we could easily find a seat but as we left -- and the crowds getting bigger – the seating became limited and it was more of a 'fight for your chair and your life' type of situation!  Another facility in the hotel is the lounge on the second floor.  The best part of the lounge are the windows alongside one part which faces the Mosque and provides nice views of the crowds and of the Mosque itself.  The lounge itself contains comfortable and relaxing chairs, and the lounge serves food but the food is bad, expensive, and the service is EXTREMELY slow.  The last facility is the business center, which is located in the lobby level and contains two computers with fast internet access and a printer.  At the time I went, wifi was not available neither in the hotel nor in the rooms so the only way to access the internet was through the business center.

Overall, the location of the hotel along with the beds and the business center are the positives.  Everything else, from the outdated look, the lack of customer service, and the slow service in the restaurant, are all things that need improvements!  An example regarding the lack of service – we were three people staying in the room so we asked for additional toiletries.  The request was made on the day I arrived into the hotel and two days later, and multiple requests later, still never got the shampoo (nor other items we requested).  One pleasant note on the service:  we did have a medical issue and needed another fridge in the room and that the hotel was responsive to that.  It took multiple tries and explanations but eventually they brought a bigger fridge.