Bits: Hilton’s Boat Race event, Hilton SLH UK changes, unbranded London hotel struggle
News in brief:
Some pictures from Hilton’s Boat Race event
As we covered on HfP, Hilton auctioned VIP tickets to last Saturday’s Boat Race for Hilton Honors points. These were amazing value because they came with a voucher for a free night at ANY Hilton Honors hotel in the world. You didn’t even need award availability to use it.
Hilton also invited a few media people along, including myself.
We were based in the Thames Rowing Club which is the main hospitality space. Channel 4, led by Clare Balding, was broadcasting from the same room – I popped up in the background of a few pundit shots!
The Thames Rowing Club is directly above the area where the crews enter the river, so it’s a good spot pre-race:
The organisers had arranged for some rowers from previous years to give an introductory talk before the race, and there were additional post-race presentations.
The actual start is about 200m further up the river towards Putney Bridge:
…. and then the rowers shoot past you and disappear out of sight behind Fulham’s football stadium:
Once they’ve gone, you dash back inside to watch on TV. The men’s race is around 17 minutes in total, the women’s around 19 minutes.
Fortnum & Mason provided the catering (the photo below is only a fraction of it) and Chapel Down provided the English sparkling wine. The alcohol kept on coming – I spent three hours constantly stopping waiters from refilling my glass again and again. The drinks continued for two hours after the racing had finished, albeit we were long gone by then!
For something different, I recommend it if Hilton repeat the offer next year. For a start, the hotel free night voucher is, to a certain level, worth more than the auction price for the tickets!
My only criticism – which happens a lot at these events, whoever organises them – is that you couldn’t tell which of the 250 or so people in the room were Hilton guests.
I knew the Hilton PR person on duty so I could chat to her, but other Hilton invitees wouldn’t have known anyone. I think giving Hilton guests a second badge with a Hilton logo on it would have allowed members to meet each other and the Hilton team to identify them.
Two UK Small Luxury Hotels of the World changes
Speaking of Hilton, there have been two changes to the Small Luxury Hotels of the World portfolio in the UK this month.
DUKES London in Mayfair has been removed from the Hilton website. The hotel is currently closed for refurbishment for a few months, so it is possible that it will reappear later in the year.
Pine Trees Hotel has been added – website here.
This is in Pitlochry in Scotland. Described as:
blends Victorian character with comfortable, well‑designed rooms made for unwinding
…. it looks like exactly the sort of non-cookie cutter high end hotel you’d expect from Small Luxury Hotels of the World.
Details of the elite benefits you get as a Hilton Honors member at SLH hotels are here. You can earn and redeem Hilton Honors points at Pine Trees as long as you book via this page of hilton.com.
Hotel Saint taken over less than two years after opening
It is VERY hard to succeed as an unbranded high end hotel in London these days. It may be easier at the ultra high-end level, where reputations spread more easily, but at the ‘lower five star’ end of the market it’s tough.
You may remember that The BoTree in Marylebone joined Hilton’s Curio Collection earlier this year. This hotel had well publicised financial issues, to the extent that the suites and rooftop were never finished. The owners managed to refinance, but signing up with a brand like Hilton – it was with Preferred Hotels – may have been a condition of getting the money.
Similarly, we have covered Hotel Saint, in the City by Aldgate. Also part of Preferred Hotels, I stayed here last year on a mattress run. This article explains why. It was previously the site of the Dorsett City London hotel.
I was pretty shocked to find that I could stay at a virtually new upscale London hotel for £144 on a Friday night. Despite having zero status in Preferred Hotels at the time, I was upgraded to a high floor corner room with good views, see image above, probably because every other guest looked like they were part of a tour group.
And now it’s gone.
Just over 18 months after opening, the hotel has been sold to Leonardo Hotels. Effective immediately, it is the Leonardo Hotel London Aldgate. For clarity, it has not publicly said that it was in financial difficulties but a sale and full rebranding so soon after a high profile launch is never a great sign.
Whatever your views on ‘big brand’ hotels, it is hard to raise bank debt for a hotel project these days without a well known name above the door and seemingly even harder to attract non-tour group guests.