The HfP chat thread – Friday 1st October

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• Super Secret Stuff says:

  1 Oct1 October 17:53

  So time to review the Conrad St James:

  When we arrived the OH was blown away by the quality of the lobby and communal areas, so was I. It was 8pm so fully lit up. Genuinely a lovely entrance. Checked in and the reception staff weren’t too familiar with the 3 for 2 rate booked via Emyr. Mentioned it and they looked and agreed, no issues. No initial room upgrade though. On the way up to the room, we saw Man City staff in the lift. When we stepped out we saw Newcastle United players! Only know that because the OH asked why they were wearing football kit with the respective logo’s. So hotel was very full which explains the no upgrade.

  When we got into the room we loved it! It was lovely quality and design, plenty of space even for the OH in an electric wheelchair! When we went around to the other side of the bed we noticed one of the stalls in the room had a poo like stain on it. Wen down for dinner, Blue Boar pub does lovely food. Service a bit slow. Blew the £80 credit from the Emyr rate in one go.

  Went to reception to complain about the poo like stain, lack of upgrade and slow service. Hotel offered some drinks to say sorry, wee went for a soft drink and a glass of prosseco. The manager then said would you like a glass or a bottle?! I said if you are offering yes please. He then said Champagne or Prosseco!? I said if you are offering yes please! He organised the lobby man to move our packed bags into a new and upgraded room the next day and confirmed they had 2 football teams staying that night so were very full. The lobby man went up and removed the stool before we had even finished our short conversation in the lobby with the manager.

  Next day we got back at 5 and they were still cleaning our new room but sorted a key card that got us into the Exec lounge. There was a wide selection of wines and prosseco in the Exec lounge. Soft drinks and fairly good canapés. Topped off with spirits to make cocktails with! We had a jolly good time and then went to Steak House at Nova (thank you to the person who recommended, can’t quite remember who!)

  Time to talk about the Breakfast! The 3 for 2 rate includes food from all 3 menu’s, the English Breakfast, the Continental and the A La Carte. The English breakfast is really good although not a massive selection. The Continental was great and the range of really fresh fruit was good. The A La Carte menu is by far the best. Everything cooked exactly how you want it and the Omlets were the best I ever had!

  • AL says:

    1 Oct1 October 17:57

    I’m a regular at the Traf St J – it’s a great little spot and I’ve had some ace stays there. Big fan of it. Glad to hear you had a (mostly) good stay!

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      1 Oct1 October 18:01

      It cut me off, more below. Was genuinely a really good stay and very happy with the comp the manager gave to say sorry. Some small drops in service standards probably due to Covid though

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      1 Oct1 October 19:21

      Different hotel, AL; I’m a fan of TSJ too but this review is the Conrad.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    1 Oct1 October 18:00

    Check out went smoothly, no issues. Had to pay the service charge for the pub though, but I was happy too as the staff are really nice and attentive. Stored some luggage in the luggage room. Came back later and got it before getting straight on the train. Never left my sight other than when with the hotel. Got home and discovered the lock had broken. No signs of fowl play and OHs case wasn’t locked and all good. So potentially negligent with guests cases. Submitted a complaint to Hilton as it was the cases first proper outing other than being in the boot of a taxi. Part of a trio of cases and the others are more used and completely fine. Fuming about it as I had to cut the pull tag to get it open but still usable ish.

    I stayed on a 3 for 2 rate via Emyr for approx £490 and stacked with the Hilton £50 off on Amex. So very pleased with the price. Emyr’s rate came with double points and the Hilton offer at the time gave double base points. So got 22k for that one stay, 50 points per £ after the Amex offer, very pleased with that.

    • The cyclist says:

      1 Oct1 October 18:19

      Fowl play? maybe an errant chicken pecked it open

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        1 Oct1 October 18:22

        Not quite sure what you mean but no marks on case or lock and nothing missing

        • JDB says:

          1 Oct1 October 18:26

          Maybe someone was chicken inside?

        • Super Secret Stuff says:

          1 Oct1 October 18:29

          Still confused…

        • The cyclist says:

          1 Oct1 October 18:30

          JDB you crack me up. All in all it seems like SSS had an eggcellent time in the Conrad.

        • JDB says:

          1 Oct1 October 18:31

          And with a bird.

        • mutley says:

          1 Oct1 October 18:32

          I recently stayed and had a cracking time, I asked if the omlets had any e numbers in them and the waiter was a bit taken aback and asked me if I was Yokeing.

        • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

          1 Oct1 October 18:38

          FFS you lot – lay off it!

        • JDB says:

          1 Oct1 October 18:41

          Sounds like things took a tern for the worse when someone was robin his case.

        • JDB says:

          1 Oct1 October 18:44

          Sorry SSS, we are being mean, teasing you like that, but we needed some levity after the Creation thread. I think the issue was maybe your spelling of “fowl” vs “foul”. I’ll duck the abuse I get for telling you.

        • mutley says:

          1 Oct1 October 18:44

          As you suffered damage to you suitcase what do you think of the chances that the Hilton management will hentertain your claim?

        • Super Secret Stuff says:

          1 Oct1 October 19:00

          Oooooh I get it now 🤣🤣

        • Cats are best says:

          1 Oct1 October 19:10

          glad you plucked up the courage to join in

      • BJ says:

        1 Oct1 October 19:10

        Oh no, not the birds again! I thought we sorted that out the other night 😀

    • IanM says:

      1 Oct1 October 18:46

      Hope you left a large tip for the staff

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        1 Oct1 October 19:02

        Resturant staff I paid the service charge happily (which is rare when it’s my money). Other staff nah, will write a review soon and mention a couple of the stand out staff, they’ll probably get a bonus from it

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    1 Oct1 October 18:04

    Also whoever suggested Timmy Greens at Nova, thank you! It was so so good

    • TGLoyalty says:

      1 Oct1 October 19:09

      No worries. Glad you enjoyed it.

  • Brighton Belle says:

    1 Oct1 October 22:06

    The rolled up price with Hilton points value and Amex cash back is £119 per night. Breakfast as fizz included is a great deal. Lucky boy

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      1 Oct1 October 22:21

      Hehehe I know! Great little extras

  • BP says:

    1 Oct1 October 23:05

    Glad you enjoyed it. We visited when it was the Intercontinental and I still remember my wife saying “Is this even five star?” upon seeing the lobby! I thought it was a very nice hotel back then.

• cabal of rabid baboons says:

  1 Oct1 October 18:48

  Ignore them pal, they’re having a yoke at your expense, thanks for the review, we recently returned from The Conrad having stayed at Hilton Bankside in the same break, The Conrad was superior in every respect.

  • Paul says:

    1 Oct1 October 19:03

    Any issues with the Hilton Bankside?

    • Cabal of rabid baboons says:

      1 Oct1 October 19:24

      Breakfast Buffet is completely self service, get your own brew from a machine like in Wetherspoons, the bedroom doors close incredibly noisily, couldn’t drink the Red Wine in the Exec lounge, poorer spirit choice.
      Not a disaster but not a patch on the Conrad.

      • Brighton Belle says:

        1 Oct1 October 22:13

        I was at Bankside a few weekends ago.
        The Exec lounge had dreadful quality wine and the appetiser was bean stew amongst other dross. Compared to pre lockdown it was a big step down in quality and I told them that.

        However last weekend was at Hilton Tower of London and the room was more like Holiday Inn. So must try Conrad. Others here haven’t been positive.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    1 Oct1 October 19:05

    Yeh I get it now hahaha, been a long day!

    Glad you liked the mini review. Conrad is excellent but lost some form over Covid from what I can tell

    • BJ says:

      1 Oct1 October 19:15

      I didn’t realise you didn’t get it the other night when I mentioned the birds and butler 🙂

  • Barnaby100 says:

    2 Oct2 October 01:03

    Under the same management. We defected to Hilton bankside from Conrad a few years ago and haven’t regretted it, amazing upgrades usually. Have just booked the Conrad for the rugby though

• Will says:

  1 Oct1 October 18:54

  any tips for Corfu – going to the Domes Miramare for a couple of nights next week, Just found out that sadly the hotel’s own motorboat taxi service to Corfu Town was removed due to covid risk.

  • Anuj says:

    1 Oct1 October 22:20

    Don’t just stick to the hotel for food. If you cross the street from the hotel reception entrance you can then walk along for a few minutes to the town where there’s some lovely restaurants and there’s also quite a large convenience store if you need any toiletries etc.

    • Will says:

      2 Oct2 October 07:13

      Thanks. Any specific restaurant in mind? Could say most Greek hotels have excellent restaurants a few minutes away!

• Reney says:

  1 Oct1 October 19:16

  airtime promo code: PAYME
  spend £30 get £3 this weekend

• BJ says:

  1 Oct1 October 19:27

  Jury’s Inn currently have a 72h flash sale on if that’s of use to anybody. Stays from mid October right through next September.

  • Amy C says:

    1 Oct1 October 20:37

    It’s a joke. One I had my eye on has been £342 all week for my dates. Now it’s £358!

    • BJ says:

      1 Oct1 October 21:08

      Not surprised, this seems to be par for the course with most hotel sales. Still the odd genuine one though.

• Graham says:

  1 Oct1 October 19:41

  What’s the best number to call BA to try booking an open jaw 241 AVIOS trip

  • Simon says:

    1 Oct1 October 20:08

    Try the numbers on the following link. Presuming you are an executive club member.

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/04/01/what-is-the-british-airways-executive-club-blue-telephone-number-2/

• Definitas says:

  1 Oct1 October 22:22

  Mrs Definitas and I had drive through Collinson PCR tests at Luton yesterday. I booked both on same booking. My results came back a couple of hours ago but no sign of hers. Is it normal for them to come back separately?

  • Definitas says:

    1 Oct1 October 23:22

    Contact on chat and Twitter produced no response

    • Ikaz says:

      1 Oct1 October 23:36

      I used them for my day 5 TTR and they lost one of the 2 tests, we contacted them on the chat, and they just made up a negative result… (Time of swab is on the paperwork, so we knew that it wasn’t real)

• Thomas says:

  1 Oct1 October 22:47

  I have applied for M Plus account (to get 15000 points) but application got deferred. Anyone else had same experience? And what happened in the end?

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