Contents
Hilton Manila - A good choice for Manila airport hotels, but not the best
Rooms and facilities
My room was nice enough, with a separate lounge area including a desk and a mini kitchen thingy. The bathroom was spacious and done out in a marble that was probably very expensive but not to my taste.
Between the bedroom and the bathroom is an open wardrobe area. You can see it in the picture above.
That works really well. It’s a simple thing but makes it feel like a dressing room, quite classy.
The public areas in the hotel are very classy. There’s a pool and a gym and a nice looking restaurant, but I wasn’t there long enough to try any of them.
Dining, perks, and loyalty
I didn’t receive any special treatment as a diamond. The only perk is the executive lounge. The food was very good, with plenty of hot options and some really nice salads. I was quite hungry and obviously enjoyed it because I forgot to take any photos.
I do remember that there was a good range of booze available, and let’s face facts: free booze quality grub in the executive lounge is what it’s all about. Plenty of space too.
If you’re just spending a night before a flight, then this is exactly what you want.
Prices and points
Rooms here start cheaper than the Conrad. A standard king room is around 9000PHP on advance purchase. That’s about £135.
If you don’t have Diamond status and want lounge access it will be an extra 3000PHP or so, about £45.
It’s about £20-25 more for the refundable rates.
On points, a standard reward is 40,000, 10,000 less than the Conrad, rising to 76,000 for an executive room.
Comparing to refundable room rates (because points bookings are refundable), this gives a value of 0.4p per point, which is pretty much standard.
That value drops to 0.27p per point on the executive room, which isn’t good.
These values are almost identical to the Conrad Manila.
If you have Diamond, and so have free access to the lounge, my choice is the Conrad Manila every time. If you were paying for a room with executive lounge access then paying around £180 at the Hilton Manila looks better than the £230-ish you’d be paying at the Conrad Manila.
Of course, it all depends on the prices for your dates, but if you’re considering the Hilton Manila, compare it to prices for the Conrad Manila, and if the difference isn’t very big then I’d pick the Conrad.
Airport transfers
I booked a hotel car to meet me at the airport. After a flight, especially when your’e somewhere hot, having a private car waiting to whisk you straight to the hotel in air-conditioned comfort is a relatively cheap little luxury that makes an absolutely massive difference to your arrival experience.
I love it. I look forward to it. I really enjoy it!
But not this time. I looked around for my driver and couldn’t find him. I asked around some other drivers. I tried calling the hotel and got no answer. I went to the hotel shuttle bus company and asked for their help. They called the hotel. “The driver is there”. No, he isn’t.
This went on for a while.
Eventually, the driver appeared. It turned out that he’d been there all along, smoking cigarettes with his mates and forgetting that he was meant to be picking someone up. At this time, the free shuttle bus arrived, so I hopped on that instead.
It takes forever. It’s only about a mile to the hotel, but the traffic was insane. You spend a lot of time inching forwards, while people cycle the wrong way through 4 lanes of traffic.
At one point the shuttle bus driver reversed around a roundabout, slowly nudging everyone else out of the way, to reach the exit road leading to the hotel. By doing a quarter of the roundabout backwards instead of three-quarters forwards, he knocked a good 20 minutes off our travel time.
But then you have to pass by all the other hotels, dropping people off. The Hilton is the last one on the route.
If you do want to book a car, and in theory not wait for the shuttle bus and not have to deal with taxi fares, then the Hilton offers cars at these prices (Book via the emails given below):
Toyota Camry – 2100PHP
Toyota Grandia – 2500PHP
You can book a private taxi, including having a driver waiting for you at the meeting point, for around half that via taxi2airport.com.
The shuttle bus is operated by Resorts World Manila, and runs 35 minutes past the hour, every hour, for terminals 1 and 3, and 45 minutes past at terminal 2. First come, first served, and it goes to several other hotels.
Hilton provides maps and details of the transfer options for all terminals, including the Sky Bridge, here.
Best books and guides
Available at Amazon:
Or buy direct from the Lonely Planet Shop.
Location
Telephone: +63917 825 7873
Address: Hilton Manila, 1 Newport Boulevard, Newport City, Pasay City, 1309 Metro Manila, Philippines
Email: MNLPH_Hotel@hilton.com or MNLPH_Concierge@hilton.com
Opinion
Nice big rooms. The executive lounge was very well supplied with food and drink, and very quiet. I had service issues with the car I’d booked to collect me at the airport, but staff at the hotel handled it decently. Getting from the airport if you’re not at terminal 3 takes a lot longer than you might expect from the map.
There’s nothing much wrong with it, it’s just the Conrad Manila is better, doesn’t take longer to get to, and can be had for the same price.
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