What I Liked

• City Centre Location
  
• Clean rooms
  
• One of the few chain hotels in the city
  
• Surprisingly good breakfast
  

What can be improved

• Not a luxury property
  
• Refused a late check out
  

The Location

The Hampton by Hilton in Sheffield is located right in the city centre. Given that you can walk around the centre in 20 minutes, this is pretty good.

It’s a 10-minute walk from the Crucible Theater. If you’re British, there’s a good chance that you’ll know about this place. If you’re not British, then I doubt it. The theatre is known, as they hold the World Snooker Championship here.

An oddity of being in the UK, is that every April, the BBC shows wall to wall coverage of snooker. As such, snooker stars are household names in the UK…

The hotel is very well located for the Peak District National Park. Sheffield isn’t in the national park, but is just outside. It’s the oldest national park in the UK, having been designated in 1951. Very popular for hiking, biking and other outdoor pursuits.

The Hotel

The Hampton by Hilton in Sheffield is one of the few international hotel brands in the city. Neither Marriott nor Radisson have a hotel here. Hyatt have barely any hotels in the UK, and certainly none in Sheffield.

The only other international hotel in Sheffield is the Holiday Inn Express. In general, IHG have the widest coverage of hotels in the UK, followed by Hilton.

Hampton is one of Hilton’s limited service brands. The other main one is the Hilton Garden Inn. This hotel certainly isn’t upscale. There’s no fitness centre or business centre.

In terms of facilities, there’s a bar/restaurant on the ground floor. Breakfast is free for all guests. Beyond that, the hotel is very much a bed factory.

In terms of decoration, the hotel was perfectly acceptable. Nothing more, nothing less. The décor was functional. Definitely not luxury. That being said, everything was clean and in good condition.

The Elite Benefits

I have gold status with Hilton. However my request for a late check out was refused. Even though the property was 30% full. The lady behind reception was quite young. She may not have come across too many elite members.

I basically got nothing for my gold status. I wasn’t given an upgrade either.

I find that elite benefits at regional UK hotels are hit and miss. I’ve had some great treatment in some places, but zero recognition in others.

Lack of recognition is usually down to lack of knowledge from the people at reception. If you have a 19 year working the night shift, they probably don’t care what upgrade you get.

This is different to the US. In the US there are so many elite members, that hotel staff have been trained on this. However, because there are so many elite members, it’s difficult for hotels to provide all of them with an elite service.

I find that the best hotels for elite recognition, are large hotels outside of the US. In these hotels, the staff have been trained on the importance of elite members. However, they’re not overrun with Gold and Diamond members from the US.

At the St Regis Mumbai, I was upgraded to a massive suite on 32nd floor.

The Room

I had room 504. On the 5th floor, out of 7. I appreciate being on a higher floor, although the view from the room was atrocious! There’s a photo in the above slideshow.

The room had the following features:

• Large double bed
  
• Bathroom with shower
  
• Basic tea and coffee facilities
  
• Small desk
  
• Small TV
  
• No wardrobe
  

I found the lack of wardrobe to be annoying. There was nowhere for me to hang up my coat. Holiday Inn Express is IHG’s limited service brand, and they always have a small cupboard.

I’ve stayed at Holiday Inn Express’s a few times now. I’ve been impressed each time. When it comes to limited service chain hotels, I find that Holiday Inn Express are superior to the Marriot and Hilton hotels.

The bathroom had a shower, rather than a bath. I prefer to have a bath, but I was ok for one night. This was no surprise. Most modern 3* hotels have a shower. They can save space, and fit more rooms at the hotel. This enables them to keep costs down.

These days, even 5* hotels save space with showers. I stayed at the Kimpton Edinburgh. They also had a shower, rather than a bath. It’s meant to be one of the best hotels in the city!

For hot drinks, the room had instant coffee and a couple of tea bags. No herbal tea or hot chocolate was provided.

The Breakfast

The breakfast was surprisingly good. I have pretty low expectations when it comes to hotel breakfasts. On this occasion, I was pleasantly surprised.

The breakfast was served in the restaurant on the ground floor. The buffet consisted of the following options:

• Hot Sausage sandwich. Meat and vegetarian
  
• Pastries. Croissant and packeted waffles
  
• Cereals
  
• Coffee from a machine
  
• Twinings Tea
  
• Apples
  

The quality of the food was decent. I had a vegetarian sausage sandwich. The bread roll was fresh, and I enjoyed the sandwich. I also had a packeted waffle.

I had an English breakfast tea to accompany my breakfast. The hot water was taken from the machine.

There’s loads of breakfast photos in the slideshow.

Conclusion

The Hampton By Hilton in Sheffield is a simple and clean hotel, that does its job. It’s in the heart of city. It’s a good choice for stays in Sheffield.

Leeds is close to Sheffield, in Yorkshire. I’ve reviewed the Met Hotel, Leeds. The hotel is iconic, right in the middle of city. My breakfast was terrific too. However, the building was dated and there was no AC in my room.

The Marriott Breadshall Priory & Country Club is located near Derby. It’s a country club, about 1 hour from Sheffield. I stayed at the hotel during a holiday to the Peak District. The hotel has large grounds, a golf course, tennis courts and a swimming pool. The hotel condition was certainly dated however.

Liverpool is another city that I’ve visited frequently. One hotel I’ve stayed at, is the Aloft. Review here. The hotel is in a listed building, right in the centre. I was given an upgrade to the 6th floor, and had a room overlooking the city. Now that’s a result!