Hampton by Hilton Liverpool City Centre

"Mixed business and sightseeing visit with my wife. I was a little worried by some of the negative reviews, and after staying for a couple of days, I'm having a hard time believing a few of the negative reviews are real. To be clear, this isn't a luxury hotel, it's a solid chain hotel, and expectations should be in line with price and location. This is a well located hotel a few blocks from many of the sightseeing targets in Liverpool. Most tourist places we've wanted to go are within a mile, and it seems very safe, so that's a big positive to start. There is a good sized Tesco Express a few steps from the hotel if you need anything. Pros - - For the UK, the room is quite spacious, and pretty well designed. Decent desk, good power outlet positioning, nice chair, servicable couch, a window that opens - Decent shower, though there are some pressure variations on the 6th floor. Good convenience dispensers for the various soaps, etc. - Clean. Room was very well cleaned on checkin, and daily service was solid. - power - properly wired, so the lighting which requires a room key or other card to activate only impacts the lights. If you have devices charging in other outlets, they keep charging when you pull the card out. - breakfast buffet - Have to be clear here, free hotel breakfast is and should be a convenience, not a luxury option. I saw a number of complaints about the buffet in the reviews, but in my opinion it's absolutely fine. They have waffles, cereals with milk, yoghurt with fruit, hot scrambled eggs, sausages, hash brown patties, croissants, and a solid fresh coffee machine with some fruit juice options. We've gone early and haven't had any issues with quality or queues. The staff are very friendly and polite. To the one guy who complained that they put a "reserved" card on their table just after they started eating, I think it should be pretty obvious that this is how they keep track of the already occupied tables (which they assign) and not a request that they leave. It's the English version of a Hampton in the US. Yes, the food is mass produced not hand prepared by a chef, but that should have been the expectation. - staff and attitudes - They are unusually friendly and seem to go out of their way to be helpful. Really, one of the nicest-staffed hotels I've been to. - WiFi - maybe Hilton has finally listened and gotten rid of their absurd historical "premium" paid WiFi option, becuase it was free and click-through and worked well throughout. Works with VPNs without issues in case you need to access work, etc. Have to redo the click-through once a day, but that's a pretty minor inconvenience. Cons - By US standards the bed is on the extra-firm side. Having said that both my wife and I have slept pretty well, and she usually prefers a much softer bed. I feel this may be a british thing, though, because I don't think any hotel I've stayed at in the UK (6 or 7 different ones) has had what I'd consider a "proper" hotel bed. - Storage. There isn't much. No drawers, no closet, just a hanger area over the luggage bench. - The view isn't spectacular unless you get just the right room. It's one street back from the Dock area, and there is a building that blocks a lot of the potential view. If you get a room on the 5th or 6th floor on the north side, you can get a decent, but not spectacular view. Overall, this is a solid choice if you want to do thinks either in the Royal Albert Dock area or the Liverpool One area. I wouldn't hesitate to book it again."

"Stayed here for 2 nights with work. Hotel was clean, room was comfy and spacious, with usual tea and coffee, iron and board, hairdryer, tv and aircon. Complimentary toiletries in bathroom nice touch. Limited interaction with staff, but they seemed ok. Hotel was very busy and the one thing that let this hotel down was breakfast, not enough tables to accommodate all guests. Quality of hot food not very good, cold buffet ok. Restaurant just couldn’t cope with the volumes of people coming in for breakfast. If I had paid for this breakfast myself, I would not be happy. Only 2 lifts which were always in demand at peak periods with waits up to 5 mins sometimes. Secure underground parking, bit pricey and tight with numerous pillars to avoid. Good location for Albert docks about a 10 min walk. Would I stay here again, NO."

"Very good location Lovely and clean hotel The staff was amazing They are all so lovely and very helpful 💖 We came for our 30th wedding anniversary We was given a card with some free drinks on it that was a lovely touch 💖 We enjoyed our stay so much we decided to stay an extra night We'd like to say a huge thank you to Laura who helped us restart our car The staff really do go above and beyond 💖💖"