REVIEW: The new Hampton by Hilton London City hotel from £114

Trying to find a central London hotel of a decent standard under £200 can be tricky at the moment. If I am going to London for something like a concert or when I will just be using my room to sleep, I don’t see the point in paying a lot for a 5* hotel. On this occasion, I was heading out to see the amazing Teddy Swims in concert. In these situations, hotels like this Hampton are my usual choice. Something modern, comfortable and with good transport links is what I am looking for. TripAdvisor rates this hotel as 5/5 which is always a good sign.

Hilton hotels offered TLFL the room in return for this review. They have not approved or edited the article.

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The hotel is located near Whitechapel in a very up-and-coming area for new hotels. This is probably due to the good transport links from here. The hotel is a five-minute walk to Aldgate East tube, which is on both the Hammersmith & City line and the District Line. That’s just one stop from the Elizabeth Line, or you could walk to Whitechapel in 10 minutes to get on the Elizabeth Line.

It’s also a half-mile walk from Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane, and the Jack the Ripper Museum, and the Tower of London is less than 10 minutes away.

The hotel does not have a restaurant, but the Hyatt Place London City East is just round the corner, which has a great roof terrace for cocktails and also a good Sicilian restaurant. Also close by is Som Saa, one of my favourite Thai restaurants.

I also liked that the hotel was on a quiet side street, which meant very little outside noise, unusual for central London.

I found all the staff very friendly and helpful, and this seems to be normal, looking at other reviews. The reception area is large and modern. It definitely felt a cut above what Hamptons used to be. If you haven’t stayed in one recently, many of the newer ones, such as here and the Heathrow T2 hotel, feel more like a Hilton, just minus a restaurant.

I was told about the various facilities and what time breakfast was before being directed to my room.

If you want a snack or a drink, you can buy them from reception, which is handy.

I had a Queen Room with a sofa bed. I would definitely recommend this category, as it felt spacious. I also had a decent view of the city with the Gherkin in the distance.

A reasonable size desk was situated underneath the TV, which would be fine if you needed to do some work and there were two sockets.

It was good to see everything I would expect in a hotel provided such as bottled water, proper glasses and tea and coffee.

My only real complaint about the room was if you were staying more than one night with two of you there was no wardrobe, just some hanging space. However, for most people, this would probably be fine as there were also cupboards to put things in. There were plenty of mirrors with a nice personal message welcoming me.

I liked that there was a drawer safe at a decent height. It is a minor thing but some of them are very hidden away and it is easy to lose stuff when you can’t see, plus many hotel safes are too small for a 13″ laptop.

I found the bedding good quality and soft with great pillows. The bed could have been a touch softer, but that’s my personal preference. It was certainly comfortable enough to get a good night’s sleep. Both sides of the bed had a double socket with two USB sockets as well.

I thought the bathroom was impressive, with a large walk-in shower with a rain shower head as well as a hand-held smaller shower head. It was also well-lit with a heated mirror, which is often a problem with hotel bathrooms.

The vanity unit had plenty of space for your own toiletries and dispensers with hand cream and hand wash. It is nice to see hand wash as soap always strikes me as rather wasteful, and I find hand wash much nicer to use.

The shower also had large dispensers of toiletries. I thought that these were decent quality and had a nice fresh fragrance to them.

The lower categories of rooms have a chair instead of a sofa. The entry-level room is the queen room, but they also have King, twin rooms and family rooms as well as the one I had.

Breakfast is free for everyone, which I always find funny that at more fancy hotels, you often have to pay, but it is free with these great value room rates. I wasn’t expecting much, but actually, it was pretty good, with plenty of choice. It does get busy towards the end, but there were plenty of places to sit.

The buffet had a cold section with meat, cheese, salad, yoghurt and pretty decent fruit salad with melon and pineapple.

The cooked option had a lot more than expected with hash browns, mushrooms, scrambled egg, beans and bacon. For something sweeter, there were two types of croissants, muffins, a waffle maker with toppings and cereals. There were even marshmallows and smarties to put on top for the (big) kids!

There is an open-concept communal lounge in the lobby with a small bar. In this area is also a workspace with high benches with power points. This could be handy for working when you are waiting to check out or after you have had to vacate your room.

The fully equipped fitness centre provides strength training, core and cardio equipment, including treadmills, elliptical fitness training, recumbent cycles and a state-of-the-art Peloton Bike.

Hotels range from £114 to £250 on average or 41,000 to 71,000 Hilton Honors points. When cash prices are this cheap, I would say it is not worth using points here.

You can check prices and availability here.

I was pleasantly surprised by this modern, stylish Hampton. The room was very comfortable and had everything I needed for a short stay. A free breakfast and good transport connections make this an ideal base for an active break in London.

I would also recommend HbyH in Leeds for the same reasons: functional but new, clean and good value; helpful staff. Pick upper floors at that one as they’ll be quieter (fewer rooms higher up).

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