Dart to the shops. (Hilton Dartford Bridge)

Member Name: Cat19

Product:	Hilton Dartford Bridge
Date:	26/07/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ideally located for Bluewater shopping centre

Disadvantages: Tired, expensive especially for food and drinks, uncomfortable bed.

The Hilton Hotel Dartford is in a particularly insalubrious part of Kent, literally a few moments from the Dartford crossing toll booths. However it is ideally situated for the Bluewater shopping centre and as my husband and I were having an afternoon of shopping and then a late evening at the Bluewater cinema, we decided to book the hotel rather than face a tiring drive home to north Hertfordshire.

As we approached the hotel over the Dartford Bridge we were quite concerned about the proximity to the main roads but in fact as we got closer we decided it was probably set back far enough for traffic noise to be a non issue. The hotel has a reasonable appearance close up as you can see from the dooyoo picture, but it really is in an awful area. Still I doubt there are many people who will go on holiday to the Hilton Dartford Bridge, rather this is a hotel for a convenient stop over and as such I don't think the surroundings are too important.

As we pulled in, we were quite surprised to find that we needed to take a ticket to get into the car park. The fees were quite substantial, other than for residents for whom they are limited to £3 per stay. We could not see why anyone would come here if they were not a guest and we thought the fee to park for guests and non-guests was quite ridiculous for a hotel in this location.

The hotel lobby is quite large, there is a bar off to one side and there is plenty of comfortable seating around, most of it vacant when we arrived. It was 3.30pm by this time, nevertheless the receptionist told us she would have to check whether the room was ready as it was apparently still showing as "dirty" on her system. I thought she could have said "not ready" as opposed to "dirty" to be honest and in view of the time I wondered if they are quite so forgiving to guests that might be late checking out.

Fortunately the room was ready and we were directed to the lifts to make our own way up. We did not have high expectations, when I was younger Hilton was a by-word for hotel luxury in but I think those days are long gone and so my low expectations were more than satisfied with the light coloured decor as we made our way along the corridors to our room.

First impressions of the room were not too bad either. The decor was also mainly in light colours and gave a feeling of a bright and modern room, it was only after a proper look around that I noticed paper peeling from the walls and other slightly tatty effects. On the other hand, we did notice that the TV was a modern flat screen, but we neglected to try it out so I could not say if there was a good channel selection unfortunately.

The room otherwise contained a bed, sofa, dressing table and tea and coffee making facilities. The bed was not great, the headboard was a piece of wood attached to the wall but the rest of the bed was not actually attached to it and being a rather flimsy bed on wheels we found it parted company with the wall during the night and pillows ended up on the floor in-between. I also found the bed far too soft and lumpy for my liking. We found the room a bit too warm and there is no air-conditioning. The bathroom was small to medium in size and functional but rather dated. The floors and walls were covered in cheap looking white ceramic tiles and the grout was discoloured which made the room particularly the floor look dirty, although I don't think it really was.

After dumping our bags, we headed over to Bluewater for some shopping and the cinema. Upon returning to the hotel we decided to have a nightcap in the lobby bar. There were a few other people doing the same by this time, although generally the hotel felt very quiet. The wine was quite nice but £10 a glass was silly money in this type of establishment.

We had a peaceful night's sleep and left quite early the next morning after deciding to skip the £13 breakfast. The room cost £88 with another £3 for the privilege of parking there. I could have sworn I booked at £78 but unfortunately the email confirming the reservation does not include the rate. It was a very so-so kind of stay and I would say a hotel of a similar standard to the Premier Inn. Nothing to rave about and nothing in particular to moan about either.

Summary: A functional hotel, good if you have a lot of shopping to do.