Doubletree By Hilton Brussels City

“Comfort convenient”

Room was modest size yet very comfortable and quiet. Restaurant was great, great service and nice bar. Fantastic place to socialize for business. Location is great for access to shopping and other dining. Have stayed before but did not review, will stay here again when in Brussels.

“Extremely noisy rooms”

This hotel is quite new, having apparently moved from its previous location on the diagonally opposite corner of the same block. It is less than 10 minutes' walk from Brussel North train station and across the street from a large shopping mall, City 2. Like most Doubletrees, here too you general... lisää

This hotel is quite new, having apparently moved from its previous location on the diagonally opposite corner of the same block. It is less than 10 minutes' walk from Brussel North train station and across the street from a large shopping mall, City 2. Like most Doubletrees, here too you generally get some sugary garbage on checking in. That was the case on the occasion of the first of two recent stays, when, as a Diamond member of Hilton Honors, I also got a voucher for a free drink. I don't eat sugary garbage and I don't drink anything but water, so this was another case of Hilton demonstrating its usual one-size-fits-all disdain for individuality. The second stay was better in this regard. True, for some reason there was no drink voucher offered, which doesn't really matter to me, but I was asked whether I wanted the sugary garbage, and when I said no, I was offered fruit instead, which I gladly accepted. But to be clear, this was a thinking member of staff, not Hilton policy. It seems the hotel has three main elevators, of which only one was working during my first stay (there is one additional elevator down some stairs and at the end of the hall). I find that a bit extreme, especially since there was a very large event taking place at the hotel, and I saw a lot of people relying on the stairs. During my second stay, it was still the case that two of the three main elevators were out of service, so this is obviously a choice on the part of Hilton, and a questionable one, though it mattered less this time as the hotel was almost empty. I have no idea whether my Hilton Diamond status got me an upgrade either time, though I think not, since I saw no particular reason to conclude I had anything but a standard room. During the first stay, the room was good in some respects, less so in others. It was spacious and I liked the fact that it was just a few meters from the fitness room, though hotel staff has no idea that this matters to me and it was just a coincidence. I didn't like the fact that glass wall of the shower stall only extended half the length of the stall, meaning the stall was far from enclosed and water inevitably wound up on the floor. The complete lack of toiletries is also a bit on the cheap side. But I found absolutely appalling the apparently complete lack of soundproofing of the windows; it seemed like vehicles with sirens went by with remarkable regularity, and they couldn't have been much more audible on the street than they were in the room. Horns honking and the general flow of traffic could be just as well heard from my bed as from outside, and I think this affected the quality of my sleep negatively. It was the main downside of this hotel. I find it hard to believe that a new hotel on a major street of a large city would have that little regard for the comfort of its guests. For my second stay, I expressed a strong preference for a quiet room during check-in and got one that was distinctly better in this regard, though still not perfect, which leads me to conclude that there are no perfect rooms here in this respect. Otherwise, as a Diamond member and given the low occupancy on this occasion as well as my stated wishes, I would think I would have been given such a room. It also seems that I was not the first guest to raise the issue, of which management is aware. I didn't care much for the fitness room. Yes, it's new, but I'd rather have an old, well equipped facility than a new, poorly equipped one. Unfortunately, at the Doubletree you get the latter. The options here are very limited (e.g. zero weightlifting machines, dumbbells up to just 20kg), and for that matter so is the space. If you've already got two people working out and neither of them is on one of the three cardio machines, then a third person may find it makes more sense to return later, as there just isn't enough room or even stuff to use. On the plus side, it is apparently open 24/7 and they also have saunas (separate male/female) that are similarly available 24/7. The saunas are not kept on constantly, which I can understand; one simply presses a button and the sauna heats up within 20 minutes; it was 85 degrees when I visited. Of course, the saunas are small. Kudos to the hotel for the round-the-clock possibility of using the sauna (and gym, for what that's worth). Breakfast was quite disappointing during my first stay. There is obviously the idea here to go above and beyond the usual, but for me, the idea suffered a great deal in the execution. There were a lot of (cold) dishes one wouldn't normally encounter at a hotel breakfast buffet, which in principle is great. Most of these were vegetable based, but there was always a catch for me. For example, something labeled "vegetable pasta" that was decidedly not pasta (things seemed to be labeled randomly and in general one was left guessing) was extremely sweet. A salad of cherry tomatoes had little pieces of meat (unrecognizable as such without very close inspection). A salad of artichoke hearts had bits of cheese that had effectively coated the artichoke hearts. And so on, essentially shrinking way down the size of the technically large selection. In any case, they compromised on the hot dishes, with no potatoes, no mushrooms and not even bacon or sausages for those wanting such items. The buffet also didn't include fish of any sort, unless one counts something that was labeled "tuna fish" but which had so much mayonnaise in it that it looked like something else. Breakfast the second day was much better, as they had a dish of grilled vegetables and a dish of olives, both without the addition of animal products, as well as a plate of anchovies. It still wasn't ideal, as there were salads they did ruin, and the hot dishes did not include potatoes or mushrooms.

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“Overpriced for what you get”

Location is great for the underground metro, and the streets to see all the attractions in walking distance, but the area comes with riff-raff. Check in was good, hotel itself is old. To get lights working in the room was confusing, no plastic bottles of water but re-usable glass bottles that yo... lisää

Location is great for the underground metro, and the streets to see all the attractions in walking distance, but the area comes with riff-raff. Check in was good, hotel itself is old. To get lights working in the room was confusing, no plastic bottles of water but re-usable glass bottles that you can refill near the elevator, but who knows if they are cleaned properly? Breakfast was disappointing. TV didn’t work. Bar food was great.

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