DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cedar Rapids Convention Complex — Attraction in Cedar Rapids

This is difficult for me to say because this hotel holds a special place in my heart. When I was in management at the hotel when it was known as Stouffers 5 Seasons Hotel, we had a couple of sayings that we lived by. The 1st is promise only what you can deliver, then deliver more than your promise, and the second was, if we don't know about the problem, we can't fix it.

My wife and I decided to enjoy our 30th wedding anniversary at the hotel that we met at. When we arrived to check in we mentioned it was our anniversary and were presented with 2 complimentary drink tickets which was unexpected and very appreciated. So things are going great.

We stayed in the suite and besides the damage to the furniture and the sun light showing the dust that has been taken care of in a while the room was satisfactory. After having dinner we had a nightcap in the lounge as Jessica was a pleasure, so things were still going pretty good.

We get to the room to catch up on some news before watching a movie and the local channel app on the tv only had audio and a green blurred screen. A little annoying but we just watched a movie. It was a major problem in the morning when my wife wanted to watch her factory morning show and couldn't

We decided to order room service for breakfast. This is where it went down hill fast and truly ruined our experience. In order to order room service you have to go to an app on our smart phone. After jumping through all the hoops on the app which took 8 minutes which would have easily been taken care in 2 minutes by a phone call, we paid by credit card.

We ordered breakfast for 2 expecting a tray with real plates and real silverware but what we received was a plastic bag with one container missing half of our food, with the eggs sitting on top of the breakfast potatoes and the bacon sitting on top of that. Half of my order and half of my wife's all put together in one container handed to me by a room service person that almost dropped it as they were walking away from the door.

When I opened the bag as saw the food missing, I called the number on the phone for room service which took me to the front desk. They had to transfer me to the room service department and when I asked them to look at my order because we were missing half, they responded that they would take care of that. Less than a minute later I received a call from the room service attendant stating, the cook stating he remembers putting the eggs in the package and I asked if it was 2 or 4 because I ordered 4. They said they would check again. Why am I getting questioned about 2 eggs that probably cost the hotel $0.10 apiece in bulk but charging $5.00 with a mandatory 18% gratuity on the app which also request a tip on top of that. We paid extra for the suite and to have an experience, not to be in a below average room and get our food handed to us like a Door Dash.

I travel a lot for personal and business and I felt embarrassed with the experience. I realize I'm a relic and people accept this level of service as "normal', but the customer service gets less and less as we allow this substandard service. What was promised to be a pleasant experience was not delivered and I am letting you know that this level of service needs to be fixed so you can do...

About what you’d expect from a Double Tree, which is not bad. It’s a good solid three star hotel. It’s not fancy by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not a country road flea bag hotel with no toilet seat and a broken neon sign. It’s dependable, it’s predictable - it’s a Double Tree. ||We were in town for a one night pass-thru and the Double Tree was our hotel of choice. I’d wanted to roam around downtown Cedar Rapids but the weather during our stay changed our mind. ||Check-in and parking were a breeze. Front desk staff was awesome. They offered freshly baked cookies - a nice treat. Even nicer was that they also had some gluten-free/dairy-free cookies that my allergic wife could enjoy. Thank you! The hotel gift store was reasonable - three bucks each for an ice cream bar and a bag of candy - stuff that would cost four bucks or more and other, more fanciful hotels. ||Lobby was clean, uncluttered, spacious. Elevators were plentiful.||Room was generously sized - furnished as one would expect a Double Tree to be furnished. The bed was very comfortable and provided a good night’s sleep for both my wife and I. Furnishings, while somewhat dated (as noted in other reviews) were clean and functional. Bathroom was motel-style - with the toilet and tub/shower in one room and the sink in the main room. Toilet had to be an original from when the hotel was built - definitely not the higher level bowl we’ve become accustomed to from visits to other hotels that have received renovations. ||Desk in room had a little note along with a pair of disposable earplugs to help folks deal with the noises of the train just east of the building. While my first fear was of the 0500 train from “My Cousin Vinny” - it was nowhere near as bad. If there were passing trains in the middle of the night - we certainly did not hear them. That said - what did wake us up at 0600 was the alarm clock which had been set by a previous guest. Hotel staff - if checking for set alarms isn’t on your list of things to do when prepping a room - it should be. Annoying. And hotel guests - if you set an alarm - please try to remember to remove it when you check out. ||We ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant - 350. It was OK, not a great deal of choices or menu flexibility.||Check-out was as smooth as check-in. ||If you do stay at this hotel and have the time to explore the downtown area - be aware of the devastating 2008 Cedar River floods that caused heavy damage to many downtown buildings. The hotel itself had like eight feet of water in what is now the first floor lobby area. The city and its people suffered tremendously and their cleanup efforts show in the vibrancy of...

Rooms are beautiful, have a great TV, fast free WiFi, and they hooked me up with a fridge since I was there for a week. The location is right in downtown, close to plenty of eateries, breweries, and a few shops. Most of downtown closes early but Need Pizza is open late and has good food and beer. They also have a shuttle that will take you anywhere you need to go. If you use it, talk to the bell staff and tip them well and you will have incredible service. If you ask at the front desk they will make you wait an hour as the two vans sit out front unused.

The rest of the hotel is a big disappointment. The pool is too small for lap swimming and there is no hot tub, it's basically a big empty room with a small pool and minimal seating. The gym was tiny and had but a few free weights and a few treadmills. The 16th floor restaurant's breakfast buffet (which I was comped 4 days due to a running toilet that couldn't be handled in 19 hours) was cold every single day. Eggs were tasteless, bacon was soggy, and the potatoes were mushy ( all of which were cold). One day I ordered a veggie omelet and the veggies were completely raw and uncooked. To be fair, it does have a great view. I recommend going for drinks only.

Upon check in they wanted to hold $400 on my credit card for incidentals ($50 per day) which I found ridiculous. After having to speak to a manager it was changed to $50 total. When I had a room issue I was lied to by the front desk who told me it was resolved only to come back to my room greeted by a maintenance guy that supposedly had already been there (I guess they hoped they could beat me up there) . Worse yet the front desk refused to take any responsibility for the issue, instead choosing to blame maintenance instead of apologizing for telling me it was already handled. Finally after maintenance couldn't fix my toilet they finally moved me to a new room and I was given 5000 Hilton rewards points and a few breakfast and drink vouchers.

But worst of all is the excessive street and train noise. There is a train track within 10 feet of the hotel so if you are on the north side of the hotel don't expect to sleep well. The hotels solution to the poor noise dampening in the building is complementary ear plugs.

Overall a great room and location was ruined by poor service by the front desk, a subpar dining experience, and bad sleep because of all the noise. A free cookie and soggy apple at checking can't polish this turd.

If you are just here for a day and don't plan on using the hotel amenities it could serviceable as long as you are in the south wing. But for a long term stay I would...