With its Hampton Inn brand now a late entrant in the Bed Wars, Hilton has opened a new front in the global lodging wars: Coffee.

Hilton rooms will soon feature Cuisinart dual-cup single-brew coffeemakers, stocked with Lavazza coffee (Grand Filtro roast, for those keeping score). Sounds better than the single-use packets of Superior Coffee, a company that seems to have the corner on the in-room coffee business.

Begun, the Coffee Wars have.

Who will escalate? I demand in-room espresso! Or the option of a “triple Venti, no fat, no foam, extra hot, with pink sugar” like Katherine Harris orders.

But seriously, better coffee is a nice touch.

Nonetheless, I’m still hoping for a lodging chain to take up my saber-rattling calls for Door Wars.

Categorized in: Coffee and travel, Hilton, hotels, travel

1 Comment

One Response to “Hilton upgrades in-room coffee”

1. 
   Paul McCluskey Says:
   October 13th, 2008 at 10:13 am

   I just don’t believe this qualifies as an upgrade in the coffee availble in the room. The problem with these machines is you can’t brew your own. As someone who spends around 150 nights a year on the road, I always travel with a little tub of basket filters, a pound of my “favorite of the moment” grounds and a baggie full of creamer (which does raise a few eyebrows at the security checkpoint, but is surprisingly easily explained). Therefore, as far as I am concerned I always have the BEST in-room coffee as long as the hotel has a “proper” coffee maker.

   I used to be a Hampton Inn devotee until they got those abysmal “CCV” single serve machines which just produce the most awful excuse for coffee I’ve ever seen. Now I only stay with them in Braintree, MA where they have a location near my corp HQ. I store a proper machine in the office and use it while I stay in my Hampton. The maids think it’s pretty funny, but they are used to it.

   The bad news for Hilton is that this change in coffee machines will be my sole reason for NOT staying with them any longer. Despite Starwood’s decaying Sheraton brand and Hyatt’s ludrous overpricing for mostly old hotels, most of their hotels still have real machines in the rooms, as do virtually all the IHG (Holiday Inn) brands.

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