Hotel Pilar

We were disappointed. We found the staff friendly and willing to help but were very unhappy with certain aspects of both the layout of the rooms and the standard of maintenance. In this connection, we were first taken to a room with one, rather dilapidated, cold water tap in the washhand basin (no hot water), a badly fitted toilet seat and a lack of space for clothes. To be fair, following our complaints, we were given a much better room. Even here though, the toilet seat was unaffixed on one side, so slid around, the main ceiling light was not working, the slot for inserting the room key card, and thus activating the lights, was broken so that on one occasion the card slipped out and extinguished all the lights, and the door into the room, like other doors in the hotel, was difficult to close. As to layout, a lot of space was taken up by a frankly superfluous bath, there was far too little space around the washhand basin for essential toiletries, the sink’s outflow system was either inefficient or blocked and the design was such that water from the tap tended to spurt onto the person concerned, and there was a general lack of storage space, typified by totally inadequate bedside tables. There are a number of other criticisms I could level but I hope the point is made. This is largely a management rather than a staff problem. A potentially very nice (and otherwise comfortable) hotel is spoilt by a number of defects, some of which require changes to the rooms’ layout but others simply call for regular maintenance checks to prevent defects before they occur.

Amazing food! Kind staff. We had lunch there with our team and everyone loved it. Very lively, great food and atmosphere. Definitely coming back!!!!! We sat inside,but can't wait for summer. Seems an amazing terrace with lots of plants. So will be back.

The hotel was in a great area with lots of options for bars (cafe hopper, patine) and dinning (den artiste brasserie was good). It is around a 20 min walk from the main square (grote market/de kathedraal) and theatreplein (where there is a good market and you can get fresh fruit/vegetables, fresh waffles, croquettes/cava amongst other things). Hotel wasn’t the cleanest (sheets and towels were found stained), bugs in room, safety deposit box and room phone didn’t work - when asked for working ones hotel staff said they would switch them right away and then never came to do so (safety deposit box is important when you are a tourist carrying money and passports). Hotel staff we dealt with wasn’t the most helpful, although nice but when asked for restaurant/bar recommendations and sites to see (we found everything through our own research). If these easy fixes can be taken care of this would be a great hotel recommendation.

The hotel has a good concept, equivalent to Mama Shelter (well thought out for about the same price point as the Hotel Pilar in Antwerp) in Paris, or Hotel Credible in Nijmegen (much less expensive than Hotel Pilar). Yet, unlike either of these, it does not carry out this concept in a way that really offers even some of the basics that it promises. First, the staff is really, really nice, cool, helpful, but the problems are out of their control. No parking: The hotel listing on Trip Advisor says, and even starts with 'parking' (see photo), but when we got there, there was no parking that was part of the hotel services. In fact, the closest parking is 1/2 a kilometer away and if you are not from the BeNeLux chances are you do not have the app you need to get into the parking, which means downloading a new app. Not to mention if you are alone, and for any reason you are are differently abled, you must walk 1/2 a kilometer. And in all cases, given the complexity of driving around a beautiful city in full construction, your navigation will not know how to get you to the parking lot, since the maps are not updated. When we finally parked and got the hotel, it was an hour later... , the very nice employee told us the listing meant that there was parking 'around the hotel'... but unless the hotel is in a purely pedestrian area, then I, as a person booking a hotel, I would assume that all hotels have parking 'around the hotel'. Cleanliness and Upkeep: The sheets and bed were clean, and the hotel has no carpeting, so it felt good enough to sleep there, but the furniture is I guess 'shabby chic' if one can consider used early 2000's Ikea as vintage, and the enormous bathtub, had handles that fell off and were rusted. The blanket on top of the comforter had not been cleaned and their were hairs of all hair color stuck to it. Again, the comforter cover, sheets, and towel was very clean. Very nice, but overworked staff: The staff handles both the check-in/out and the restaurant, which was very happening, which again if fine, but if one compares in price and concept Hotel Pilar to an equivalent in Paris, then this might be a superb Mama Shelter, which carries it all through much better. Mama Shelter and JAM Hotel are bigger, so I get that Hotel Pilar can't afford that... but then I would then say, this hotel is more of the order of also superb Hotel Credible in Nijmegen, whose price point is significantly lower than Hotel Pilar and much more consistently clean with better upkeep of furniture and in our case, in our room at Hotel Pilar, of the bathtub, where knobs were rusted and fell off. Breakfast: The breakfast was very expensive for something exciting promised, and was again rather disappointing. Awful coffee... the pain perdu was a piece of brioche toasted... with yummy fruit on top, compared again to Mama Shelter or Hotel Credible... again Mama Shelter, same price bigger hotel, so I get that Hotel Pilar can't do this, but then Hotel Credible ha

Overall, a really pleasant stay. The room was really nice and the restaurant was quite good. However, the room felt a bit unfinished (missing towel hooks, no hand towels, no slippers).