Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel

My husband and myself stayed in the Brighton Hilton for a weekend away at the begining of December 2005. We found the staff friendly and very willing to help. Our suite was wonderful. Upon reading the reviews on this site, i had to defend the hotel with which we were both so very impressed. The bed was large and comfortable, the bathroom was clean and spacious, with a heated floor, bath and shower. I am a person who is only warm if the room is over 21oC, there was no point during my stay at the Brihton Hilton at which i was cold. Either in the room or in the bar. I would definately go back to this hotel.

Read previous reviews and thought that only unhappy clients would submit a report so unfortunately booked via internet. Arrived from Australia, leaving 36c temps to be given a room with no heating whatsoever outside temp 4c. In total offered 4 rooms. The last while large was extremely run down, tears in wallpaper and unpainted for years, like the whole hotel. Bathroom had cracked tiles and wash basin. Door to shower, coffin size, would not close. The only saving grace for this hotel is the staff - very helpful - obviously used to handling client complaints! Cannot ever recommend this hotel. First time I have written a review.

We had booked for the New Year's Eve Gala, which in itself was excellent. The food, service, music and venue were all superb. Alas, if only the same could be said about the rest of the hotel. The rooms, (which we had paid extra to upgrade to a deluxe sea view room) were small and lacking in basic requirements - like chairs! Our mattress resembled a biscuit it had so few springs in it (we did get a replacement), and when we tried to have a shower there was no hot water. The engineer said "it's because everyone is trying to have a shower at the same time"! If you put on a gala for 650 people, that start’s at 7.30, you would have thought the hotel might have made provisions for this? Our final disappointment was the dreadful leisure facilities. Not only were they sadly lacking, but they were designed to keep male and female apart! As other reviewers have commented, the hotel is in dire need of an upgrade.

I spent only one night at the Hilton Metropole over a weekend. While I could not enjoy all the facilities because of my short stay, I can say that it is definitely overpriced for a hotel which is old and rather uncomfortable. On the positive side, the service is nice and friendly. I also liked the breakfast/restaurant room which is really beautiful (although I thought breakfast at £15 per person was rather expensive as well for what it was). It is obvious that Hilton wants to keep this hotel as a "cash cow" and not invest into its renovation and refurbishment, which would definitely be worth it. They must know that, because of the hotel's great location, they can still charge high prices for something very average. The cheap plastic key you get from reception desk is probably a symbol of what is expecting you later on.... First of all, while my room was relatively large, the king size bed was nothing else than two thin and uncomfortable single mattresses put together by a large sheet. I slept badly and woke up with backaches in the morning. Second, the COLD water did not seem to work when I arrived. Water from the sink and shower was burning hot - while probably better than having no WARM water I can assure you that it was not a nice experience either. Fortunately this was temporary and fixed the next day. By the way, there was also no minibar or complimentary bottle of water in the room (which I think is a must). Third, I felt like in a teenager holiday camp when I came back around 1.30am in the morning and had to show my key through the windows of the closed entry door to a guard as a proof of residence. While I understand this may be a security measure, that's something acceptable for smaller hotels but I have never seen it in a larger hotel like this one where other measures should be taken. All in all, I do think that this hotel has tremendous improvement potential and, depending on the room you get, you may really be luckier than I was. But there are certainly nicer places to stay in Brighton! Ironically, the feedback form that I found in my room had not been replaced by a new one - another guest had started to fill it in, also complaining about the lack of bottled water!

The Hilton Metropole is Brighton turned out to be terrible disappointment. The view from the lobby is stunning and the reception area is impressive. The hotel itself is somewhat of a historic monument in Brighton. It's a shame that the guest rooms (at least the one we stayed in) do not do this hotel justice. Our room had supposedly been recently renovated but the walls were dirty and the wallpaper torn & coming off the walls in the corners & at the seams. The carpeting was tatty and it too was coming away from the floor at the seams & wall and was frayed. The seat was too small for the toilet and therefore was not fitted properly and moved around when in use. Dirty cups from the tea tray were not refreshed. There was no security lock on the door. One day we returned to the room to find that the cleaning staff had fully opened the window - leaving all of our belongings even less secure. We thought our problems with the hotel ended when we checked out but were sadly mistaken. About a week after we returned home we got an invoice saying they had charged our credit card £32 for 2 breakfasts (which we did not have). I had to phone the hotel and after some time they discovered that they were at fault having charged someone elses food to our room...after we checked out! This is a 2/3 star hotel at best and it's only redeeming quality - and the reason why it is one of the pricier hotels in Brighton - is it's fabulous location...seafront, unobstructive views and pretty much next door to the ultra famous Grand/DeVere.

Travelled down early Friday evening in terrible winds and driving rain, turned up at the hotel and immediately walked into a very warm welcome. Found our room which was'nt overly spacious but had a great seaview and had all the necessities for a nice weekend. Got recommended a nearby Indian restaurant for dinner and will recommend this restaurant to anyone, its out of the front door of the hotel and right about three buildings down called The Taste of India. Arrived back at the hotel and decided to have a night cap, walked into the hotel bar to be met by a giant spacious bar fitted out in a period style with very knowledgable staff. Woke up to the sea view and had a great day in the city centre before returning to refresh in the hotel Had a great meal out and then returned to the hotel bar for a nightcap Even though a little pricey it was an excellent stay and a hotel I would recommend and certainly use again

I read the reviews before we booked, but decided to give the hotel a chance. We arrived and our non-smkoing room was not ready and so reception put our party of 3 in a smoking room. When you are a non-smoker this is not a good move. We then moved to our non-smoking room, with a horrible view may i add. Our shower was luke warm and took ages to heat up. The air con in the room was leaking by the one and only mirror that we could use. The room lightening was very minimum and the mirrors were angled wrong. When i booked the hotel in August i was told i had to pay upfront and so i gave my details and was told that money would be taken out of my account that day. On check out i had to pay £177 pounds, i was shocked!! They said that i needed to pay, i explained that i already had and they said i hadn't. I explained that i was told money was taken out in August. I then had to phone my bank infront of reception to check that money had gone out - and it hadn't!! So i had to relay this to reception and was very embrassed and felt humiliated. I paid and said i was disappointed with the service that i had been given. P.S the breakfast costs £15.50 per person.

what a lovely hotel, was a bit worried after reading a few reviews. i paid £119 for a twin room for one night including breakfast. check in time was 3pm but we turned up at 2pm after a long stressful drive, we were greeted by a happy receptionist, our luggage was taken by belboy, our room was ready and we were sent right up, our luggage followed 10 mins after. room was very nice, all newly decorated, clean and nice. very impressed. was rather hot but we were provided with a fan. breakfast in the morning was nice, buffet style help yourself to anything that takes your fancy. check out was easy, pleasant and again nice receptionists. no faults whatsoever, a wonderful hilton, good price, will be staying there again.

I felt compelled to write after scouring the reviews before going to Brighton and finding them so useful. Despite my reservations, we had a fantastic anniversary night away in the Hilton Metropole - yes, one night... it is possible in Brighton. We picked the Hilton finally because we thought being a big chain it was most likely to weaken on the two night minimum weekend rule. After a bit of sweet-talking from my husband they agreed and it was a great rate too. We arrived early - 12pm and popped in to see if we could leave our bags. The room was ready so we were able to go straight up. It was a beautiful seaview room, bigger than average and very comfortably furnished - much more modern looking that the pictures on the website too. You could walk out the french doors and watch the sea lapping and the world go by from the balcony. WIth a lovely sunny October weekend, it couldn't have been better. It is in a great location - very central - for shopping, walking on the seafront or eating out. The staff were very helpful and friendly - letting us know what the better restaurants were and it all worked perfectly. We managed to use the leisure facilities - a swimming pool and sauna which was great with towels provided and changing areas and lockers. Breakfast was also a great selection - albeit very busy - and we waddled up the road to get our train home. Throughly recommend it for a quick trip away.

We found a good deal on this hotel (99 GBP for a triple room). There was a little mold in the tub (no biggie!) and no AC. However, the room was nice, service was good, they have 24 hour room service, the bar was open late and the seaside location is wonderful! We really enjoyed our stay!