The Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik property in Croatia is stunning. Although the front desk area gets easily crowded and noisy, the moment you climb a few steps and see the spacious, open, beautifully decorated bar area with an incredible view of the fort running all along the front side of the hotel, you’ll be excited for what the hotel has in store.
Note: The Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik is closed from November 15, 2019 until March 1, 2020 for refurbishment.
If you’ve ever been let down by TripAdvisor reviews, you’re not alone. While we do our best to provide accurate reviews on TripAdvisor, we go into more depth on Vicariously Here to help travelers make informed decisions on their stays.
This post will give details on the following aspects of the Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik hotel based on our 5-night stay there in late June of 2019:
Room
We stayed in room 250, which had a gorgeous view of the City Wall and Old Town. The room seemed to have been recently renovated with calming light grey and dusky blue tones. However, the bathroom was clearly overlooked during the renovation. New lighting and a stylish mirror were perhaps updated, but the rest of the bathroom seemed tired. Deep scratches in both the sink and toilet made it feel a bit dingy – certainly not a 5-star bathroom. Hopefully this will be updated in the current refurbishment. We’ll get in touch with the hotel for details and update this post with what we find out.
Executive Lounge
The Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik’s executive lounge is on the “0th” floor just down the hall from the lobby, past the stairs that take you down to the breakfast area and restaurant, and past a small gift shop selling ties, scarves, and…honestly, we didn’t go in, and that’s all that jumped out at us.
Our first impression of the executive lounge was, “Wow! It’s so beautiful!” Unfortunately, that’s where the awe ends.
The seating is very odd. You choose between a large table that seats 4 or a small table that seats two… while staring at the table of 4. Awkward!
The outdoor balcony misses its opportunity to be functional as there is no seating, and during our 5 night stay, we were the only ones I saw who even opened the door for a peek of the view.
The food and beverage offering of the lounge is incredibly underwhelming… especially for a 5 star establishment. T hit it on the head when she said, “It’s just enough that you can’t complain.”
While there is a large assortment of liquor, two types of beer, and red and white wine, the food choices are extremely limited compared to other executive lounges we have been to, which include a significant number worldwide.
Cold food options Desserts Alcohol
Nearly every executive lounge we’ve visited has served enough for at least a light dinner if not a full-blown impressive dinner spread. Here, the overall feeling was stingy with less than generous portions and options.
The hot item was literally 3 pieces of penne pasta one night and 3 pieces of dried out gnocchi another night. We saw a teenage guest literally take 15-20 little dishes of penne and dump them on a large plate to create a meal… twice! This left other guests with nothing for close to an hour because the lounge is not staffed and items are not refreshed very often. Everything was either served in small dishes or on a spoon, you know, the artistically bent type that balances on itself. Nice, but not enough.
Breakfast
Breakfast is quite nice. If you opt for the lounge, expect to be underwhelmed. Instead, head down to the restaurant, which has both indoor and outdoor seating (as long as you don’t mind the birds looking for scraps). The spread at the restaurant is much more impressive, and you can request pancakes, waffles, eggs cooked to order, etc. Unfortunately, none of this was explained to us, which brings us to our next point: service.
Service
We found the service at the Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik to be lacking and completely impersonal.
In other 4 or 5 star hotels we’ve stayed in, there is an effort on the part of the staff to use your name, ask something about your day, or do something that shows they remember you. That was missing here. For example, there appeared to be no one on duty in the lounge. It’s entirely possible to be in the lounge for 3-4 hours and never see an employee. When one does appear, it’s to quickly clear a table, maybe refresh something, and promptly leave. The lack of warmth, hospitality, or personal touch lets the whole experience down. Considering we were there for 5 nights, we expected a bit more.
Location
In terms of location, we give this hotel five stars. It takes less than five minutes to walk to Pile Gate (270m according to Google maps). It is also a five-minute walk to Fort Lovrijenac, which offers excellent views of the historic Old Town and the stunning Adriatic Sea. If you decide to walk the Old Town walls, Fort Lovrijenac is included in the price of that ticket. For more on Fort Lovrijenac, check out the Fort Lovrijenac Trip Advisor reviews. You can find various walks in our post Dubrovnik, Croatia: Walking the Old Town. It includes directions to little-known view points.
In Sum
Is the Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik a beautiful hotel? Absolutely. Would I pay over $500/night to stay? Absolutely not. We stayed there on points, and at 70,000 Hilton points per night, we felt even that was a little steep. If you’ve always wondered how to use credit card points to travel for free, check out our introduction to using credit card points for free travel.
Vicariously yours,
E
