I have called this Hilton my home for the week, so I have had plenty of time to get familiar with the facilities. Location... if you have a car or you are on a tour, it is fine as it is close to the M4 and about 10 minutes to the center of Swindon. If you need public transport or are walking, it is not so friendly. There are bus stops down the road, but just note that on the return from Swindon Town Centre or the Outlet, the closest bus stop to the hotel is not on the actual timetable... so you'll need to request the stop or you'll end up in Chippenham (no this did not happen to me... shocking, I know).
Conveniently, there is a restaurant across the street, as well as a Subway, Londis Convenience Store, Gregg's, and a drive-thru Costa. The lobby in this hotel is quite nice with Wifi if you are waiting for someone or if you are having some coffee at the Costa in the lobby. There is a restaurant in the hotel, I have not tried it, but Mr. Snarky said it is pretty good. Hotel staff are efficient, but not very personable. The room decor is a bit dated. A lot of oak used to decorate the room. It is not as spacious as our room at the Marriott, but it is still pretty spacious by European standards.
There are tea and coffee making facilities, a hair dryer, and mini fridge. There is also an iron (and ironing board), robe, and slippers. There is Wifi in the room and the connection is pretty good! There are quite a few channels on the t.v., along with radio stations, and the option to order movies. However, our t.v. has subtitles on it with seemingly no way to remove the subtitles using the remote or any controls on the t.v. There is also not battery cover on the back of the remote, so when the remote fell off the bed, we lost one of the batteries. The front desk was able to provide another battery and when I asked about the subtitles, the guy at the desk said that was standard. However, Mr. Snarky said it isn't as the t.v.s in the other rooms he has had has not had subtitles.
Water pressure in the shower is lacking... it isn't the worst I have experienced, but it could certainly be better. The air conditioner works a bit better than the one at the Marriott, but it does take awhile to cool the room down if you have been out all day (the electricity to the room shuts off when you take the room key out of the slot with you). There is a gym with free weights, weight machines, cardio machines (including a rowing machine), a yoga ball, a medicine ball, and a swimming pool. I used the cardio area upstairs and it was quite nice. I saw the swimming pool from a window and while it looks like you could do laps in the pool if no one was in it, it looks quite small when there are a number of people in it. There is also a spa upstairs across from the cardio room, but when I was up there (about 10:30 a.m. on a weekday), there didn't seem to be an staff to inquire about services, cost, or even book a session.
It is pretty quiet... although I think most of the people that come through here are businessmen or elderly travel tours. There is room service available until 10 p.m. at night with a limited number of items available 24-hours a day. They do have a small kiosk with pamphlets for things to see in the area... and by the area, I mean the closest attraction being about 45 minutes away. They do not have bus timetables/route maps, nor do they have maps of Swindon. Obviously with the clientele that they cater to, they probably don't need these things, but I would've thought they might have had an odd one around, just in case.
Not my favourite hotel, but it's not bad! read more