This hotel is operated by Hilton under the Hampton branding, it is accredited as a "three-star hotel", however, I found the hotel to be much worse than that mainly down to two reasons: breakfast and overall sleep quality, issues also arisen with the service mainly at breakfast and the lifts.
The hotel is in a good location and is opposite the Railway Station, and it is within 5-10 minutes walk of the city centre if you just go down Grainger Street and pass the hotel towards Savers, in the same direction of passing Starbucks to your left and the hotel to your right. It also has decent access and black cabs and buses due to the railway station being located across the way,
The best thing about this hotel was the location but for me this was also one of the worst factors as the amount of noise in my hotel room was incredible, this got to a stage where I spent the night sleepless, I didn't sleep at all, this was down to corridor noises, and noises coming from outside which included sirens, I did ring the hotel sleepily at 2-3am, they took a while to answer but told me there was nothing they could do, they also failed to apologize for this and me getting no sleep for it, when I mentioned it at the front-desk upon checking out which also shown really bad customer service, something which is normally uncommon for the Hilton brand in past experience. My lack of sleep was so bad, it also influenced my decision to return home early, hence having to buy new train tickets costing £40.
I paid for the hotel in Hilton honors points, this hotel overall was quite cheap and came to 10,000 points and on average can go for £50-£70 per night, overall it is much cheaper and even in a better location compared to the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead, where I actually stayed during my trip to Newcastle in the summer, as I recall my stay which cost 10,000 HH points here would have cost either 17,000 or 22,000 having stayed there.
The breakfast was complimentary but also another bad thing about the experience for me, I came down at 6 am having had no sleep the night before and the area was silent, there was no staff or anyone to help me, such as get advice for gluten-free or order extras, I ended up having to go to reception and wait for a member of staff to come down, I understand breakfast is "complimentary to all guests" but still the quality should be so much better, and there should always be at least one member of staff on to greet customers. My main issue with the breakfast here was the choice, for example, it was limited and didn't include extras such as omelettes or either poached or fried eggs. The food I did have was quite poor quality, it was like second-class food due to the Hampton branding, which is a shame considering Hilton breakfasts, in general, are normally very good.
To talk about some positives, the room was satisfactory, it was a little basic but did have all the facilities needed such as a bathroom, a wardrobe (which was hidden in the back of the bedroom), a desk and chair and of course a bed and television, one thing I liked is that they printed something to tell you what channel was what number on the TV, and also the inclusion of green in the decor and the painting of a Newcastle landmark, the Tyne bridge in the room.
My third issue with the hotel was the size of the lifts, they were far too small and narrow to the point you'd struggle to fit even more than three people in, even wheelchairs are a struggle to get in the lift or prams which is annoying and poor, and of course it can be hard and inconvenient to use the key swipe to activate the lift, of course, this is understandable for security reasons and sadly unlike many other Hilton hotels, such as the Newcastle Gateshead which is the nearest other Hilton (just under 2 miles from here.)
If it wasn't for Raheem Sterling bagging a winner for Manchester City to defeat Newcastle United 1-0, my whole trip here would have been a disaster, with this, of course, being the main reason of my short trip to Newcastle, which was my second visit to the city in 2017.
I did end up ordering food at the hotel, they do not do room-service I was told, instead I had to go down to the bar on the second floor which is also where reception is and where Breakfast is served, I ended up ordering a Gluten-Free Ham and Cheese toastie, the overall quality of this wasn't great because it was slightly overloaded with cheese and the ham tasted rubbery, it came with mediocre hash brown bites.
When I first entered this hotel, despite some minor things I disliked such as the reception being on the second floor, and the size of the lifts, I was overall quite pleased, the hotel also has free wi-fi to anyone who stays here but as my stay got longer, especially from the evening onwards the horrors in my nights sleep, breakfast and service really shown which aren't the Hilton standard, so with regret I feel this hotel deserves a single one-star in another 5000 character review by myself read more