DoubleTree by Hilton Cape Town - Upper Eastside: Where the Pleasure Ends With the Cookie At Check-in (Review)
One of the world's cheapest Hilton brand hotels awaited us somewhat remotely in Cape Town, we certainly wanted to get an impression of it. However, what awaited us there shocked us, even the low rates could not make our impression any better.
LOCATION
The DoubleTree by Hilton Cape Town - Upper Eastside (external link) is integrated into a mixed-use complex consisting of offices, apartments and a few retail spaces. From the outside, the hotel is therefore hardly recognizable as such; a few logos on the driveway indicate it. The hotel itself consists of only five floors, the top one housing the suites.
The hotel's location is a bit out of the way from downtown in the Salt River district, though a free shuttle is offered several times a day to V&A Waterfront, Cape Town's tourist hotspot.
The Doubletree Cape Town was the first and is still the only hotel of the brand in South Africa.
ARRIVAL, LOBBY & CHECK-IN
We arrived at the building by cab and were greeted by the bellhop still outside, who welcomed us in a friendly manner and took care of our luggage. He then led us across the building, past retail and office spaces and restaurants, until we arrived at the reception desk on the other side of the building.
We encountered an unenthusiastic staff member who began checking us in. Other than the necessary details, we unfortunately didn't get much information, we had to ask for all the additional info ourselves: breakfast times, gym, spa, etc. Also, our room in the app had jumped from a queen room to a twin room, when we anxiously questioned this we were told this was an upgrade because of our Diamond status. Only when we said again that we were nevertheless reluctant to stay in two single beds, the info followed that this had since been changed to a double bed, the room description was simply wrong.
There was a short note about the loadshedding times*, after all, we already knew due to previous stays in the country. We were told that this did not matter for us, because the hotel (like all hotels) compensates the times with a generator.
Somewhat disappointed by our check-in experience, but very happy about the legendary Doubletree cookies that we had received in the end after all, we now made our way to our room. Our luggage was brought after us.
* For those who do not know, in South Africa there are power outages of two to four hours several times a day, because the available energy is not enough for everyone. So individual districts are planned to be taken off the grid for certain periods of time. This is called load shedding.
ROOM
We received a King Deluxe Room as an upgrade from the booked standard room (in the system it remained as Twin Deluxe Room). According to our assessment, this differs by a slightly larger bed (Queen to King), given a little more space (unfortunately, no sizes are given on the website) and a bathtub.
The joy of the upgrade ended immediately upon entering the room, which, by the way, was only on the second and thus first floor with guest rooms of the building: we were met by a strong odor of vinegar. Contrary to what the pictures and description on the website suggested, the room had old carpeting, not wood laminate flooring. The carpet was so old that it was already torn in various places. The whole room was vibrating, this was because the backup generator was located directly below our room. The noise level was accordingly. When we opened the window later at quiet times, the smell of grease and various dishes came towards us, unfortunately, the exhaust air from the kitchen was also under our window. We got the feeling that our "upgrade" was actually the worst room in the whole hotel.
Our king bed unfortunately consisted of two single mattresses, which were indeed covered together, but the gap was clearly noticeable in the bed. The rest of the room consisted of an old desk with a swivel chair and an almost free-standing bathtub.
In the bathroom, there was a shower stall next to the toilet, but unfortunately it did not provide hot water while we were trying to use it. From all other taps in the room came warm water, from the shower came unfortunately only a very cold mild stream. For about twenty minutes we tried and waited to see if this would change. We then decided to shower in the freestanding bathtub (not a good idea) and later contact the hotel. Of course there was hot water when the tech came to our room, but in the meantime there had been a change from generator power to normal power. According to the hotel, this had no effect on the water, but we were sure there was a connection.
WIFI SPEED
The internet speed in the room was reasonable, we were able to stream videos without any problems. We were able to measure an average of 20 Mbps upstream and downstream.
ROOM TEMPERATURE
The temperature in the room was a massive problem. Contrary to what the employee at check-in said, the regular power outage already did have an impact on the guest, because the air conditioning in the rooms was unfortunately configured in such a way that it did not automatically turn on again after the power outage. This led to the fact that every few hours the air conditioning went off and the room temperature began to rise. Especially at night, this of course led to problems, because while we were sleeping, we couldn't turn the air conditioning back on. Only when we woke up due to the heat did we have to get up to turn it on again, only to realize a few moments later that it was off again. We have not experienced this in any other hotel in South Africa and they are all dealing with the aftermath of power outages.
HOUSEKEEPING
The housekeeping team was one of the few positive experiences at the hotel. Our room was really relatively clean for its condition, only the corners in the bathroom area could have used a little more attention. Our evening request for extra pillows and more hangers was met quickly and kindly. The nice lady even offered to run our damp laundry, which we had washed that day and now wanted to hang up, through the hotel's own dryer, which we considered very courteous.
BREAKFAST
Already at check-in we had received the information (of course upon asking) that the status benefit for breakfast would only include a continental breakfast. Should we want to use the whole buffet we would have to pay 270 ZAR extra, which in our case was more than the room rate. So we were curious to see how this would be implemented.
In fact, no one spoke to us about it at breakfast, but a large sign at the entrance pointed out that for Gold & Diamond members only the cold part of the buffet was included, all hot dishes would have to be paid separately. An interesting variation, so there wasn't even a physical separation. We joked several times at the buffet about where the line would be drawn. Was a cold toast included, a hot one no longer? What about hot drinks?
Interestingly, no one was actually interested in the arrangement, of course we tried what was possible and could easily order and get all the food at the Egg Station, no one questioned this and we did not receive an additional bill.
So, since the hotel obviously didn't care, we understood even less why they disappointed status guests at first instead of giving them a surprise right away and granting the full buffet.
Basically, the breakfast buffet unfortunately did not convince us anyway. The quality of the food was fortunately quite high, the made to order egg dishes were varied and were prepared with a lot of effort. There were even Eggs Benedict offered. Unfortunately, however, the overall presentation of the buffet was not nice, the food quickly looked bad and the buffet was not nicely maintained. The room as a whole was very dark and cramped, the atmosphere was more reminiscent of a train station concourse.
Waiters were hard to find and definitely didn't push themselves, we started ordering our coffee directly from the barista after a while.
LOUNGE
The hotel does not have a lounge.
RESTAURANTS & BARS
The Main Restaurant, which served the breakfast buffet, also had a lunch and dinner menu, there was a small bar on the side.
GYM
There was a small windowless room, about the size of a standard room, with some fitness equipment in it.
POOL
There is no pool.
SPA
In fact, there is a spa in the hotel, but only for treatments. You can find more details on the website of the operator: https://www.originwellness.co.za (external link)
OVERALL SERVICE
Besides the worn-out hardware of the house, the spirit in the team was the biggest problem of the house. No one appeared to us with confidence and enthusiasm, all employees seemed reserved and spiritless.
When I wanted to shorten our booking shortly after arrival at the reception, the employee had to ask her manager in the back office for permission. It now began an almost funny communication between me and the manager, but it was handled through the employee, because the manager showed no effort to leave her office place. So the employee had to run back and forth several times to deliver the info that we wanted to shorten because we were not satisfied with the hotel and even the change to another room the next day could not change our minds. At the latest after these facts were exchanged, I would have expected that a manager would now want to speak personally with the customer. This was not the case.
On the morning of our departure, we brought our suitcases to the reception before breakfast and asked to store them. Immediately, the on-site employee now began with the check-out, without asking us anything. I told her immediately that I did not want to check out yet, but we would have breakfast first. This did not matter to her, she just said that we could still have breakfast and continued her check-out procedure. There was no query whatsoever as to how we felt about the stay, apparently they preferred no feedback. No notes were in the system so now I had to explain why there was a positive balance on our account since we had shortened a night.
Due to the overeagerness of the employee, we now had no internet access at the internet since we had already checked out. We were extremely annoyed, once again the hotel was only concerned with its own benefit and not the customer. You could get the impression in this hotel, the employees would prefer if the customers did not come.
STAY DETAILS
We had booked three nights at the hotel in mid-April 2023, but shortened it to two nights on the first day because we didn't feel comfortable. The nightly rates at that time were around 35-60€ per room per night, depending on the period.
STATUS RECOGNITION
The status recognition was conceivably bad. We did get an upgrade, but felt that this was rather a worse room than before (location in the building, smell from inside and outside, carpet instead of laminate, noises, no hot water). Breakfast benefit was officially given in the lowest possible form, only cold buffet food was included.
Our request for a late check-out at 2pm on the day of departure was simply refused without explanation, saying it was not possible.
There was also no Welcome Gift or at least a letter.
Premium wifi was not offered to us either, in fact, after logging in, the system even indicated that we only had basic internet access because we were not yet (!) registered for Hilton Honors. I assume that this was an error that every guest experienced, but definitely we did not get a faster network as a Diamond guest.
Whether the second guest could stay free of charge we did not check, because the prices for two guests were the same as the single booking.
RATING 30VIEWS
BELOW EXPECTATIONS
Please read about how we rate.
We really give this rating very rarely, but during this stay there were just too many things that simply should not go wrong: no hot water in the room, no stable air conditioning, worn out rooms, demotivated and poorly trained staff and above all no one who wanted to make it right. We can't recommend anyone to stay here at this point and therefore can't give any other rating.
SUMMARY
The first and to date only Doubletree Hotel in South Africa unfortunately does not live up to its name. Guests can expect a worn-out and aging hotel with various challenges, a non-customer-oriented team and few status benefits. The low room rates can't make up for all the shortcomings, and we don't recommend anyone to stay there.
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