I stayed at the Hilton JFK Airport a couple of times in recent weeks and it is another JFK hotel to avoid for some.

ARRIVAL
As with all JFK hotels you have to get yourself to Federal Circle to get the shuttle bus and the Hilton bus took over 30 minutes to arrive, at 11pm, after a call to the hotel. No apology of course. We got to the hotel in about 15 minutes.

My second arrival was not much better, but the wait was only 15 minutes at 8pm.

CHECK-IN
Both check-in’s failed to provide an upgrade to an Executive Room. The standard policy here appears to be that Gold and Diamond HHonors member get a standard room with their key being coded to access the lounge. I don’t know that this is huge deal, but it is not supposed to happen. A word with the check-in agent results in an explanation that the Executive Floors are sold out! (Easily checked on the internet, and of course untrue.)

The agents were friendly enough, just checking the last four digits of the card and producing my keys fairly quickly.

ROOM
The rooms are larger than those at the Garden Inn. I had the experience of rooms with one King, or two Queen beds:

The rooms are comfortable, and the WiFi was fine. You can login with your HHonors account in order to get free access if you are a Gold or Diamond member. Desk are from King Room.

AIR CONDITIONING
I have to spend a moment talking about this – the living nightmare of this property.

Let me get out that I am a fairly light sleeper and that as both stays were in preparation for early flights, ear plugs were not an option. The air conditioning sounds like an aircraft taking off when it starts. It does this all night unless you find a temperature where it never kicks in. In my first room I could not turn it off and so asked to switch. They found a room where the AirCon did not work and so I slept well. I did move to another room, but Reception forgot to move my alarm call. Jet lag saved me.

My second stay had the same noise problem but would it at least turned off so I spent a warm night sleeping through.

If you are a light sleeper avoid this property unless you can sleep in a warm room.

BATHROOM
The King rooms have showers and the Twin rooms have bath tubs:

Both bathrooms were clean with standard Hilton toiletries.

THE REST OF THE HOTEL?
Honestly I got to see the bus, reception, my room and the lifts! Nothing else due to short stays, but whilst not as bad as the Radisson JFK stay, is not a property that I will be looking to return to soon. I seem to be running out of acceptable properties at JFK. Gulp.