Homewood Suites by Hilton Hamilton, Ontario, Canada — Attraction in Hamilton

When I arrived at the check-in desk in the front lobby, there was no one at the desk for a minute or so, and no means of notifying staff that I was there (like a bell). Although security cameras may make a bell theoretically unnecessary for staff, it reassures customers by giving them a feeling of agency to be able to alert staff to their presence. When checking in, I explained that I didn't have a cell phone and asked if that would impede me in any way; the desk clerk said 'no'. I then found that in the hotel room there was no printed 'welcome' material to orient you to the facilities and services; instead there was a large ugly scan code painted on the television stand, that required you to scan it with your phone to get all of that basic information about the room. The thermostat had been set to only 20 degrees (C) so I shivered for the first few hours of unpacking and settling in, before I found the thermostat on the wall of the hallway to the washroom. The website had told me that my room came with a "fully equipped kitchen". This kitchen had no electric kettle, no mugs, glasses or plates, no coffee maker that could make an actual pot of coffee (just one that took a single or double coffee 'pod'), no spoon for me to get my honey (that I had brought from home) out into my hot drinks, and indeed no cutlery of any kind except for a small half-washed cutting knife. Over the course of my three-day, two-night stay, I was provided complimentary coffee pods for exactly two cups of coffee, and two disposable cups; my room was not visited by housekeeping except for when they awoke me at 8:30 a.m on the morning of my departure (although check-out time was not until noon), ignoring the 'privacy please' sign that was on my door at that time. The wall outlet on the kitchen counter that the coffee pod machine was plugged into did not work; I had to plug the machine into the other outlet (not being sure whether the coffee machine or the outlet was defective until doing so). The kitchen had ample counter space and loads of cupboards plus a full-size fridge and oven. All the ample cupboards contained was a few pots and pans that didn't seem carefully scrubbed and washed, plus one knife and a can opener. In my online booking of the hotel room I had been told my room came equipped with a television and DVD player; upon arriving with DVDS brought from home, I found a large empty spot below the television where the DVD player used to be installed. The hotel building is basically clean and stylish. It is quiet and you feel calm in it (once you get over the various unpleasant service-related surprises). The design of various things is a bit confusing: the hallway elevator buttons are hard to pick out from an assortment of other button-type wall fixtures clustered around them. The lighting design and lamp stand design in the hotel rooms combine to make it difficult to find the electrical outlets and the on/off switches for the lamps. The 'main' floor of the hotel is one floor up from street entrances, and lacks the front desk; you have to learn the hard way to tell the elevator to go down to the 'lower' ('L') floor just to access the front door or leave the building on foot. There was a pleasant and ample work desk in my room but no hotel stationary or pens. The window had two layers of curtains, one translucent, and one opaque. I found it impossible to fully close the opaque curtains for full privacy, and I only succeeded in fully opening the translucent curtains to take in the view by the second morning (the morning of my departure). A previous resident's sock was under the side table by the couch, and there were multiple white and brown dried-liquid smears on the side of the leatherette footstool/coffee table facing the couch. I had phoned ahead to ask some questions and had been told that local calls from my room would be free of charge. They were, but on the phone itself, the only extension options given for phone calls out of the building were 'international', 'long distance', and...

Editing! Leaving my previous review at the bottom so everyone is aware but I am changing my rating to 5 stars based off of how they responded and dealt with the situation after my stay. When I contacted customer support they were nothing but helpful and understanding and went above and beyond to fix us being dissapointed in part of our stay. So thank you Hilton the customer service shows you truly care about your clients and that we enjoy our next stay! Excited to come back and use all of the facilities. Customer support helped so much and I am completely satisfied with what they offered to me.

I really wanted to just write a fully positive review but unfortunately I can't. Decided last minute to try to have some New Years fun with my kids so I booked a night at Homewood we only live 15 minutes away. We got excited at the idea of swimming and enjoying a night out between swimming and back to our room. Well I got so excited I even changed my booking to include the Saturday night too...how exciting to get to swim all day on Sunday before ringing in the new year. When I checked in I asked the pool hours and was told oh the heater is broken but your kids might still like it. It's literally the only reason I booked this hotel because of the pool and room sizes. If I had known we couldn't swim(the only reason we came) I would have booked somewhere else close to home. We did still attempt the pool but it was like an ice bath and kind of ruined the excitement of our stay. The room was very big and nice I found it to be mostly clean. What upsets me the most is I'm sitting here reading other reviews and this pool heater has been broken for months I assume from other people's poor reviews. Why wouldn't you fix the issue or take the amenity away completely if not ready to financially fix it. I spent $800 to spend 2 days having fun swimming and instead had to hang in our room watching Netflix. If the heater is broken it needs to be posted when you are booking and again fix it! From what I read this is not a new issue The Sunday morning we had major issues with being woken up because the door lock was not functional so my morning of rest did not happen because every time my spouse left the room he had to knock to get back in. When I did take the keys down to have them fixed they only had one staff which I get it's New years eve but I had to wait 15 minutes until she found someone else to assist me because she was busy. The gentleman who assited me mentioned maybe it was the actual locks gave me new keys. When I got back upstairs the keys did not work again in the one door I didn't even have the energy to go back just was grateful to have the secondary door to access the unit with. This was a huge inconvenience again because this was where I slept so again zero sleep in the next day on my "staycation". Overall I found the hotel to be nice and quite clean just the pool thing and door locks made me wish I had stayed home. Just over $800 to listen to my kids fight somewhere else.....should have stayed home and swam in my own ice...

We came down to the air museum, which was amazing. This hotel is a really a 3 star experience, but could be close to a 5 if staff were trained properly and small details were fixed. Right away when we trying to find out where to check in, there was construction signs that made us circle the block. An easy fix would be to have a sidewalk sign that said "Check in" with an arrow. They could also have signage against the building in the pay to park lot with an arrow, so mall but it would save so many first time visitors from circling the block. When we came in to check in we got the usual "How can I help you". It would of cost nothing more for a big smile and a "Welcome to Homewood Suites, I'm __. Is this your first visit to our property? So we went through the check-in process and I had to ask about dining, the wifi, where the pool was, and so on. She could of easily explained that to me without asking or just have pointed to my room card sleeve where everything was listed. Then we were handed a notice of power interruption, apparently the power was going to be out between 12 midnight and 3pm. No big deal, but this was not noted when I booked the room, I would of probably booked somewhere else as there were several hotels close together. So once we got up to the room the temp was around 78, little warm for us but it adjusted down in about an hour. Little things like the clocks not having the correct time displayed, the toilet paper folded in a triangle and the toilet flushed (cleaning cems were there, no bodily fluids). The blinds have black out curtains but do not close fully. We could not figure out where cutlery or glasses were, they are in the dishwasher - lol. Logical I guess but a heads up would of been great. So we decided to go to the pool and there was an incredible odor, is smelled like some sort of air freshener and rotting garbage/sulfur. My youngest stepped into the pool and said it was freezing so we just went back to the room. When we got in the elevator to go back to the room, a staff member got on the elevator with beer/glasses on a trolley cart, no "Good evening" or recognition. Same thing the next morning when we went to get the elevator downstairs, there was a housekeeper with her cart on the elevator, when the doors opened the cart was sideways, we could of easily fit in if she turned the cart, but it was obvious that she did not want anyone to get on. Long and short of it, this property could be a real gem if they could just get up to Hilton staff standards. I would not be surprised if they were in between managers, a good in house manager usually pulls up on these sort of small details. They should take a group of the staff/managers to the Ritz Downtown Toronto and get them inspired. Every staff is looking for an opportunity to make the difference in the guests stay. Where at this property, it seemed every staff member was happy to do the bare minimum or less. Hopefully things change around, this property could be a real gem if they had someone in charge...