What an unpleasant surprise it was to arrive at the hotel to find that the Standard Double Room shown on their website bore no resemblance to the room we received. The 360 degree photo on the Palmer House website under “Preview Room” shows a spacious room with two windows, a desk and an arm chair. What we received was an extremely cramped room with a single window and no place to sit other than a desk chair. This was a big deal as I was in the city for an event that had me spending a lot of time in my room while my child was in rehearsals, and having a comfortable place to sit was essential. I had called earlier in the week to look into upgrading my room, but after looking at the various marketing photos for the rooms on the Palmer House’s site decided that the Standard Double would be spacious enough and furnished in a way that would suit my needs. The small room we received wasn’t an oddity or outlier — our friends received an identical one.

When I spoke with the manager, his response was that the hotel is only obligated to provide a room with two double beds and avoided answering the question about why their website promises one thing when they are clearly providing something extremely different. I asked several times, and he suggested I wasn’t looking at official photos, even though I told him I was looking at the 360 photo on the Palmer House Hilton website. He went on to say that the hotel was sold out and stated that any larger rooms that had been available earlier that day had been “given to people who were happy to pay for upgrades.” After a long circular argument in which I refused to accept that I paid for a spacious room but would be staying in a cramped one, they found a new room for us that looked like what they advertised online. There was zero remorse for or acknowledgment of the misleading marketing of the rooms on their site and the room change was treated like a favor, rather than making right on something that was clearly wrong. No apology whatsoever.

I am sharing photos I took of the original room we received and the one we were moved to. Go to the website yourself to see how they market the Standard Double Room and don’t be surprised when you get the smaller of these two options upon your arrival. Know that you will be paying the same, regardless of which room they opt to give you.

I’ll also add that our original cramped room was in extremely poor condition, including broken tiles in the bathroom and the type of grime that only a renovation can address. The room we were moved to had a toilet that ran every 1-2 minutes. Other downsides were the “room service” which was packaged in takeout boxes and delivered like an UberEats order. Had we not been moved, we would have been eating in our beds in the previous room. I also had to wake up early to order our meal, as there was no option to schedule a delivery the evening before.

I will say I appreciated the attentive member of the housekeeping staff that worked in our hallway each day. She was lovely. And the front desk staff who accommodated my request for a late checkout on a very busy weekend was also appreciated.

The lobby, ballrooms and meeting rooms are stunning, but it appears the hotel is investing nothing in the upkeep of its guest rooms and the service feels in line with a budget hotel. The false advertising on the website, however, is the Palmer House’s greatest offense by far, and photos should be updated to reflect what guests are actually receiving. The large and small versions of the Standard Double Room should be labeled with different names and billed at different rates. They are not even remotely comparable.