I stayed at the Hilton in Bromsgrove nearly 12 months ago as part of a company related event. I arrived about 6pm in the evening, drank, ate and slept, but we didn't make any use of the conference facilities.

Being a Hilton and having stayed in a large number of premium hotels in the past I had high expectations. On arrival the hotel seemed pleasant, there was some hassle with the car park which involved a ticket and was chargeable unless redeemed at point of checkout.

The lobby seemed nice with a mixture of furniture, some slight strange. Oddly there was a big buffet style counter opposite as you walked in which seemed unnecessary for daily use. The staff were all polite and reasonably helpful.

I went to the room which turned out to be quite small with very dated and poorly maintained decor. The bathroom had a couple of broken tiles and you could see where a quick refurb had taken place. I'd rate the room 5/10 in comparison with other premium hotels.

I then spent some time in the bar which had a warm atmosphere, nice bar and large wall mounted plasma TV. The staff were extremely slow at serving and this became a bit of a pain with the bar being reasonably full.

We all then sat down for dinner. I was expecting an a la carte menu; instead we were faced with a buffet which actually turned out to be ok. One of the options was steak - what a bad choice for a buffet where every piece will be dried to a crisp.

Overnight, the sleep was fine even though the window wasn't double glazed.

Overall the stay wasn't unpleasant, but it definitely wasn't up tot he standard I'd expected or the Hilton Group quoted.