Homewood Suites by Hilton Boston Brookline-Longwood Medical — Attraction in Brookline

Very rarely do I write negative reviews, but this place is definitely an exception. We stayed here as a large group of 8 for my brother's graduation and resided in a room with one king, two queens and one pull out sofa with a kitchen area. In the time we stayed here (4 nights total) we experienced:

-Black hair all over the three blankets we requested and had to return despite the hotel worker visibly noticing it while giving it to us. New ones were eventually given to us but black hair was still embedded on each one.

-We also requested extra hangers, enough for the 8 people to hang maybe one or two outfits. We were given only 3 total.

-We were told we could not request any more towels by the fourth night. The night manager kept track of/brought up how many we were given the first night (12 full towels and hand towels), which were picked up by the maids after use when they came in the room each day. Personally, I was already reusing my own towels with another person, which made the comment that much more outrageous.

-We were also told there was a "toilet paper shortage", insinuating we were going through it too quickly, and that there wasn't any more toilet paper available in the hotel to give. We were later given just two rolls when "some were found." As a result of this, a trip to Target was made to insure there was enough for us just in case.

-When it comes to housekeeping cleaning our rooms, they only fixed our beds, emptied the trash cans and put the dishes in the dishwasher. We know this because bits of loose trash were left throughout the floor every day, and the air vents are literal clumps of dust that haven't been touched for some time. To test this theory, an empty beer can was left out to see if it would eventually be picked up and thrown out - surprise, surprise, it wasn't. I understand if loose clothes or items make it difficult to work around, but there's no excuse to avoid loose trash or dusting.

-The pull out sofa is a lawsuit waiting to happen. The metal at the head of the bed is exposed to where someone could easily injure or cut themselves. We were told we could not change rooms because the hotel was sold out the first night. The next morning we were told that was incorrect and that we had the option to move after already unpacking the night before. As a solution, a king size mattress was placed on top of the roll out to cover the exposed metal. On the positive side, this seemed to remedy the issue of hitting it accidentally.

For the record, I will say the majority of these issues have been from the night manager and staff on duty. We spoke with a very pleasant, accommodating manager the day after our first night and he was appalled with the circumstances and very apologetic. However, it seems when he's not here things go wrong. As I said, I very rarely complain and make exceptions often in hospitality because I've been in the same business for more than 13 years - things happen. But in this case, these problems stem from the culture management has allowed, effecting the mindset of the staff to allow such a poor, rude attitude. Exceptional or even standard service is not a priority here. Maybe I would expect this coming from a less reputable hotel chain or if this were located in a less desirable neighborhood or location, but this is Brookline - an expensive and nice part of town. This hotel should be absolutely embarrassed; it's almost laughable how ridiculous it's been. I'm not sure what they expect from 4 grown women and 4 grown men sharing a room, but we haven't been asking for much besides the basic needs and cleanliness expected of a Hilton hotel.

Long story short, we have loved every minute of our first time stay here in Boston as a family, except our experience at this specific hotel. We made the best of our situation despite it all. But if you're on the fence about staying here, take your money and spend it elsewhere that deserves it. Until they get their act together, expect to be disgusted and...

We are staying at this hotel long term due to medical treatment. This is the only good thing about this hotel as it has a shuttle to the area hospitals and a full breakfast in the mornings. However, we have had problem after problem and last night was the tip of the iceberg when we walked out of our room to find our hallway smelling strongly of marijuana and even one of the staff acknowledged the smell and could tell where it was coming from, but the other staff tried to downplay it and act like there was no one smoking marijuana when it was extremely obvious. He had people spraying disinfectant spray instead of directly dealing with the guests who were smoking across the hall from us. My husband has throat cancer and cannot be exposed to smoke. Not only is this against hotel policy but it is also against state law to smoke marijuana in public buildings like hotels. They did not deal with the guest or call police and instead we spent the whole night smelling marijuana smoke coming into our room. This morning I am waiting for them to make the 5th repair to our tub in a 1.5 month period which I was assured would be made this morning and they have yet to show up. They ordered the wrong size plugs for the tubs in the hotel and only just realized it last week. In the meantime they have been “fixing” it by putting Teflon tape on the plug instead of ordering the correct part. For three weeks we were unable to contact the shuttle because they gave us the wrong number and even when asked to confirm lied and told us it was correct and only after speaking to the shuttle driver directly and reading him the number the front desk had provided did we find out they had failed to give us the correct number or correct it when asked for confirmation. For two weeks the “business center” which is only a printer you can wifi print to had the printer settings in French. We asked 2-3 times for them to correct it and the front desk kept saying they told the manager but it never got fixed. It would have taken less than 20 minutes for one of them who can often be seen sitting doing nothing at the front desk (don’t even try asking for a smile or pleasant demeanor) to walk over and fix it, but they would not. Finally my husband fixed it and it worked for a week before then the wifi on the printer stopped working and you could not print at all. In addition to these issues we had initial issues with reservations and it took them 3 tries the first day to put my husband in a room with working ventilation fans to which one of the front desk people actually tried to lie to him and tell him none of the rooms had ventilation fans only to be corrected by their maintenance staff right then who said yes, all the rooms do but the room they had placed him in was having active repairs. I will be contacting corporate directly regarding the issues because it has been one of the worst hotel stays we have ever had. We literally cannot even get supplies replenished every other day and have had to ask for shampoo, conditioner, trash bags, paper towels, detergent, and for my pillow back. Yes, they took the only decent pillow and replaced it with a cheap dollar...

I have terminal stage four cancer. I am a naval war veteran with a service dog. The hospital has me staying here because I'm not well enought to travel home and back five days a week for treatment. That being said this has been the worst hotel experience I've ever had. Three weeks at the hotel, and I'm still constantly being harassed about my service dog. Last time I was disturbed three separate times while the do not disturb tag was up. The walkie talkies the staff used kept me awake in the mornings as well as them banging carts and hooting and hollering. I told the manager and he was extremely rude saying that nothing I said actually happened. When I asked for corprate number he began harassing me about my service animal. He had three other occasions to ask, but chose the moment I asked to make a complaint to begin with the harassment. He also suddenly accused my dog of growling at a staff member, which he completely fabricated. My dog has never growled in its life. This man was making this up. And i think its sick someone is fabricating stories about dogs growling to cover themselves. Today, I went to breakfast and first thing was harassed about the dog once again. Then the cook, decided he would discuss me and my dog with another patron so as to defend the fact that I asked not to be bothered anymore. I didn't finish the absolutely almost inedible egg substitute, and watered down juices. I was so upset I just left. So now im going to 8 hours of chemo and radiation on an empty stomach. The female staff who was present the last time by the name of Natalia which I now see has other reviews for being rude , please go read other reviews of one star.... wouldn't even say excuse me or acknowledge me so there was a standoff until I moved out of her way so her and her angry and smug facial expression could squeeze by the breakfast line. I just. Walked by her again 20 minutes later and while greeted by the other staff was rudely stared at and no greeting presented by this same person. read the other reviews and it seems these people are allowed to do anything they like with absolutely no repercussions. UPDATE, less than 30 minutes after leaving this review the general manager called the hospital and had me woken out of bed. He yet again fabricated a story of my of barking at an employee. I asked for the incident report and he told me it didn't exist. I asked him to pull the camera footage and he smugly smiled and said there are no cameras and if there are they don't record audio. I do not believe there are no cameras. This man is fabricating these stores to protect the fact he has harassed me constantly. The call to the hospital was in fact more hassasment and like I said I was woken out of bed over it. I've already contacted corprate and am expecting more harrasment as I have several more days this week and more next week booked here by...