It was billed as a towering 182-room Hilton hotel with state of the art facilities and easy access to and from Heathrow Airport.
But five years after the Hampton by Hilton opened in the leafy west London suburb of Ealing, the only UK ‘arrivals’ now coming through the doors are asylum seekers who say they are loving life inside the modern hotel funded by the British taxpayer.
The four-star hotel, located on the bustling Uxbridge Road, appears to have served largely as accommodation for key workers when it first opened during the pandemic and now as one of Britain’s many migrant hotels.
Last week, it was at the centre of a scandal after an Egyptian migrant staying there was jailed for raping a woman in Hyde Park.
Abdelrahmen Adnan Abouelela, 42, preyed on the vulnerable woman as she was walking home from a night out in November 2024 and lured her to a secluded spot before attacking her.
The married father-of-one, whose address was given as the Hilton hotel in Ealing, was last week jailed for eight and a half years and will be subjected to a deportation order. After his sentencing, the Mail also revealed that Abouelela is a convicted Islamic terrorist who was found guilty in his absence of being part of a bomb-making cell in Egypt in May 2015.
When we visited the Hilton, there was a flurry of activity at the hotel with young male asylum seekers from countries including Afghanistan and Turkey milling around and smoking outside in large groups.
We can reveal that several have made attempts to secure ‘cash and hand’ work at the nearby car wash – despite asylum seekers being banned from working while their claim is being processed.
Most of the migrants we spoke to had been staying at the hotel for around two months after arriving on small boats. But two asylum seekers had been living at the hotel for as long as two years, funded by the taxpayer.
One migrant, who fled Afghanistan and crossed the channel from France on a small boat, told the Mail: ‘It’s good here. I have a nice hotel room. It’s one room with two guys in each room. I will stay here two months. I had a lot of problems in Afghanistan and I couldn’t stay there.’
Another from Turkey said: ‘I’ve been here for two years. I feel safer here.’
The four-star Hampton by Hilton hotel, located on the bustling Uxbridge Road in Ealing, has this week been at the centre of a scandal
Abdelrahmen Adnan Abouelela (pictured), who was staying at the Hilton, was this week jailed for raping a woman in Hyde Park
Pictured is a room inside the four-star Hampton by Hilton in Ealing. There are two asylum seekers per room
The hotel, which is on the corner of a charming west London street where houses are worth £2.5million, was heavily protected by security guards around the front and back.
Like many parts of the country, tension around the asylum seeker hotel in Ealing is high – something that has been exacerbated by the recent rape conviction of a migrant staying there.
There are at least 15 schools within a mile of the hotel, with locals warning they feel ‘unsafe’ in their own community.
As of January, Ealing was home to a combined total of 1,213 asylum seekers, making it the fifth highest borough for housing migrants in London.
Darren Saunders, a father to four girls under the age of seven, told the Mail: ‘It’s a worry, people are not letting their kids out especially around these areas. Why should people feel unsafe?
‘If I was given a choice I wouldn’t put my taxpayer money towards that when there’s kids going hungry, people not having a roof over their heads, people that actually need it.
‘They’d rather help the people that are not from here than the people that are from here.’
Speaking about the recent rape conviction, the 32-year-old added: ‘It’s disgusting to think anyone is capable of that.
‘When we needed help, we were stuck in emergency accommodation infested with mice. Yet they get put in a lovely hotel, everything is paid for and they still moan. It takes the complete p***. They just sit out there smoking.’
Mr Saunders, who felt he had to attend the Tommy Robinson ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally, said: ‘It will get to the point where there will be a civil war. It’s scary to think about. You can see why people are angry, and why so many people turned up to that rally.
‘People don’t want their children and women raped, we treat our women with respect. They don’t care.’
Car wash manager Sam Dixon revealed that the asylum seekers staying at the Hilton across the road have been desperately attempting to get cash in hand work with her – which she had denied as they don’t have legal documents.
The 50-year-old said: ‘We get quite a lot of them coming in asking for employment. But they don’t want employment, they want cash in hand work.
‘You probably get one a week at least. They ask for a job and you ask if they have qualifications because you can’t assume. But they say ‘No I just want to do tyres’ or ‘I just want to wash cars’. I say I can’t legally employ them but they say ‘No wages, just cash.’
Ms Dixon, the only English worker at the car wash, said that she is ‘split’ on immigration, explaining that her business thrives on legal migrants who have ‘done the right thing’.
The Hampton by Hilton opened in 2020 but is an asylum seeker hotel funded by taxpayers
‘They’re all fully integrated, they all have families here, they all work here. They all earn money and pay their taxes legally,’ she said.
‘What I disagree with is all the people coming here via illegal routes that end up benefitting from the fact myself, my family and all these other people that do it correctly, we pay our taxes. Our taxes are supposed to benefit us and our country and it’s not – how much does that hotel cost a day? Let alone a year.
‘You have the people that want to do it correctly, they are as interested in our culture as we are in them and their culture.
‘It’s too easy and it’s not just the fact of all they have to do is step foot on our soil. They get accommodation, they get fed. I don’t know how a single one of them walks around with an iPhone in their hand.’
Ms Dixon said there is ‘100 per cent concern’ over the rape conviction of a migrant staying at the Hilton, adding: ‘There are so many schools in this area, you see families twice a day backwards and forwards with the kids.
‘There are so many families, they come past the hotel. Knowing that there is no control over them yet because none of them have been processed yet they can walk out and leave that building, you don’t know what’s going on.’
Ms Dixon revealed that some of her customers have been asking if she knew of any planned protests outside the hotel following a rise in demonstrations around the country in recent weeks.
‘There is obviously bad feeling and tension brewing in the community,’ she said.
Joey Taylor, who works in the same building as the Hilton, told the Mail that they recently received an email asking staff to use the back entrance to the hotel amid fears of a planned protest.
Men are seen milling around outside the Hampton by Hilton when the Mail visited
Speaking about the recent conviction – as well as revelations that the rapist was also convicted of terror offences, Mr Taylor said: ‘They are obviously not doing their safety checks and background checks. I don’t care who comes here but let’s check them before they come here.
‘Now we are housing them or hotelling them, surely look into them and do proper background checks straight away.
The 37-year-old added: ‘Why wouldn’t you be concerned? It will be a safety thing now you’ve got groups of young men and one has now been convicted of rape – how many others are like minded?
‘You can see there’s quite a lot of families here, there are a lot of families and young kids around. No doubt there could be more protests and marches when word gets out about him.’
And Frank, 73, said: ‘It’s an abuse of hospitality to a degree. If you’re going to come here, then f***ing behave yourself.
‘In my head, I’m thinking given the attitude to women wherever they come from, I imagine they think they are easy prey and they can do what they like to British women.’
Ealing Council is not revealing how many migrants are staying at the Hilton but with 182 rooms – and two to a room – there could be as many as 364 staying there if at full capacity.
When it was built in 2020, developers billed it as the ‘first of the new generation of the Hampton by Hilton brand in the UK and Europe’.
They said it ‘boasts 182 spacious and bright rooms, state of the art meeting space, restaurant, bar and fitness suite’.
A description of the hotel, which formerly charged up to around £200 a night for a double room, on Hilton’s website adds: ‘With its fantastic entertainment facilities, the hotel ensures guests have an enjoyable stay. With cosy seating and modern amenities, it’s the perfect place to relax and socialise.’
But the brand new hotel was quickly acquired by the Home Office and private contractors to house asylum seekers.
Home Office figures released earlier this year showed that £2.1billion was spent on asylum seeker hotels between April 2024 and March 2025 – around £5.77million per day.
Tension is being felt across the country, with many Brits unhappy by how much of their hard-earned cash is being ‘prioritised’ on migrants.
Last month, the Home Office declared that migrants’ rights are more important than the concerns of Brits – as it sought to overturn the closure of the controversial Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex.
The hotel has been at the epicentre of this summer’s migrant crisis after an Ethiopian asylum seeker staying there sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl. Protests blew up when the allegations surfaced and he was found guilty earlier this month.
The Home Office won their appeal against the closure of The Bell Hotel, sparking a fresh wave of anger on the streets that has been felt around the country.
On Saturday, the build-up of tension across communities exploded on the streets of central London as hundreds of thousands of protesters joined the unprecedented ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march led by Tommy Robinson.
In what is believed to be the largest right-wing demonstration in British history, police say there were between 110,000 and 150,000 protesters – although Robinson and his followers estimate it was millions.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the sheer number of protesters who took to the streets showed free speech was ‘alive and well’ in the UK.
While the rally began largely peacefully as demonstrators voiced their anger over free speech and Britain’s small boats crisis, it exploded into violence when protesters and counter-protesters closed in on each other along Whitehall.
Met Police chiefs blasted anti-migrant protesters for displaying a ‘wholly unacceptable’ level of violence – with at least 25 people arrested and 26 police officers injured, including four who were seriously hurt.
The force said it faced ‘significant aggression’ from protesters as officers attempted to police the event, with many assaulted and peppered with missiles.
It brought to an end a summer of discontent in Britain, but locals in Ealing – and around the country – believe it’s only set to continue.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘This government is doing everything its power to deport foreign national offenders, having returned almost 5,200 foreign national offenders in its first year in office, a 14 per cent increase on the previous year.
‘While we do not comment on individual cases or security matters, we will never compromise on public safety.
‘That’s why biometric data is collected from all asylum claimants arrivals, which is cross checked with immigration, security and criminality databases, and we take the firmest possible action against any individuals who may be considered a national security interest.’
Hilton did not respond to requests for comment.
