Homewood Suites by Hilton Anaheim-Main Gate Area — Attraction in Garden Grove

The worst Homewood Suites I’ve ever stayed at honestly shouldn’t be holding the Hilton flag. This hotel has clearly spent some money but only in the lobby. Upon first entering we felt very confident our stay would be great - plus who could argue the beautiful pictures on their website? Well, once you pass the front desk that’s where the adventure begins. For starters there is only ONE elevator that will reach all 7 floors. There is another one that’ll reach 1-6 but it’s clear at the end of the hotel. So once you wait about 30 minutes sarcasm the old, metal box arrives and the door opens. You step in and start to see the neglect by management and maintenance. The poster inside is missing so it’s just a empty frame, the elevator has about 25 lights burned out, and the sign illuminating the floor numbers is barely hanging on. We reached our 7th floor praying the experience would get better. We weren’t surprised when we stepped off and you could see the wallpaper peeling, the smell or moisture and/or musky scent in the air. Oh and the missing lights again which made you feel like you were stepping into the Shining. Finally, we made it to our room. Upon entry we quickly realized the hotel has an amazing photographer because the rooms were not as clean and modern as they make you feel. To keep it simple, the room is old and nothing is modern or fresh. The TV’s are old, bedding, towels, curtains are all old and worn out. Look around a little more and you’ll realize the wallpaper (yes, wallpaper) is peeling in places, light switches don’t work, phone doesn’t work and it smells wet. As a Hilton you don’t expect this - even with the oldest hotels. This was by far the worst Hilton (or even hotel) I’ve stayed in during my visit to Anaheim. The pros? There are a few. The mattress is comfortable, the water in the shower stays hot, the couch bed was comfortable. However, it’s hard to enjoy the pros when you’re worried about what you’ll experience next. What really set me off about this hotel is the staff. Reading reviews it seems like others had a completely different experience with the staff and I’m happy that maybe we just had the worst of the staff during our stays. However, on day 2 we asked for a blanket for the couch bed. Only one thin one is provided. The desk said one would be brought up shortly. We never received the blanket that evening. So on day 3 before heading to Disneyland we placed our trash and used towels outside (as directed) and then stopped at the front desk to ask for the blanket again. The lady at the desk asked if we would approve them to go into the room and drop off the blanket. I said of course, I expected them to. She confirmed this with housekeeping to go in and drop off the blanket. We never even thought about reminding them about towels. We ended up leaving and coming back sorta late to the hotel. Went to our room and realized they never brought another blanket NOR replaced our towels. So it’s 10pm and we have no towels. Since the phone didn’t work I went back down to the desk and had to wait for about 5 minutes for someone to come to the desk. When the gentleman came out I stated I was frustrated that we have no towels or extra blanket that we requested twice now. He confirmed my room number which was written on a sheet at the desk and tried to blame “liability” and that housekeepers don’t come into rooms when we’re not there. I said, this is a hotel right? He said well we won’t do it unless we have confirmation from you. I said I have them confirmation and heard the lady earlier today relay that message. He continued to try and make excuses for why the blanket wasn’t delivered. Finally I requested the towels again and left to my room. We did receive our towels and blankets finally. This hotel acts like they don’t know their industry - provide exceptional service. If you’re too worried about liability for your housekeepers sounds like you need new management to change the team. Unfortunately, I’m running out of characters but I’d recommend spending your...

I can't give a better score at this time. Went for the first time this past weekend and some parts were okay and some were not. As a travel advisor, I recommend and send many many people here because of the amenities, location, specials and price. I try a new hotel everytime I travel and this time I chose Homewood Suites. At first glance, I was impressed, hotel clerk was very nice, lobby was nice and clean and check in procedure was quick and easy...now to the not so good parts. Hotel needs some renovations which by the way I heard it was happening later this year, yayyyy! When we got to the room, there was a gray plastic dog figurine on the floor, hummm, my thought is, how well was the room cleaned if this was still on the floor! Then to take a shower, she shower handle kept slipping so if you were taking a bath, no issues but if you pulled the tab out so the shower head turns on, then the handle falls down and you get scorched with extremely hot water. If you move the handle back to the right temperature position, it will fall immediately so you literally have to have a colder shower or a scorching hot shower unless you hold the handle with 1 hand and wash with the other hand, this wasn't ideal or fun but had to do what we had to do. The beds were pretty uncomfortable and everytime you got in or out it creaked. The next day after all day at Disneyland, we tried to park but in one of the few open spaces left on the side of the building sitting down in the spot, strung out on drugs was who we called crackhead Willy, oh and he was shirtless, so we drove back to the front of the building, I went into the lobby and told them what's going on, they said would take care of it and acted concern...after all, the kids are young and we didn't feel safe, so they told us to park on the other side of the building where the pool is..ok, so we drove to the order side wasn't sure where to park and anything close was taken so I said, let's drive back to the other side, maybe the staff kicked crackhead willy out already and he was gone bur nope, willy was still there! So back to the pool side we went and now we have another crackhead, whom we refer to as crackhead Mike strung out on that zombie drug in the parking lot...how does my niece and I and 2 young children feel safe? We don't!! We parked where we could, waited in the car and were debating on what to do since the front door wasn't close..then, 2 cars pulled up with families and we got out of the car and walked quickly to the front lobby and as we were walking past lobby to the elevators we said there was now a crackhead in the other lot, ohhh really is the response. My niece was NOT happy. She said they were still trying to find the original guy, I asked how could anyone miss him, he is still there and it's not a good look and definitely not safe amd mentioned maybe they need to do a parking lot sweep every hour, just a head nod is what we got. The next morning before checking out, I went to the front desk and spoke to the morning staff, told them my displeasure and that it didn't seem anyone took anything that was said seriously. Told them I think that this would be a hard place for me to recommend to my clients. On top of this, there was no blow dryer in the room they stated there should be and I told them I will not be charged for a missing blow dryer. All in all, my experience was not ideal or magical, I felt like I was not heard and if anything, I should have been comped at minimum for parking. This is disappointing to say the least that I didn't have a better experience and a better handling of the issues I brought up, Shame on Hilton and Homewood...

Stay elsewhere! This is the WORST Homewood Suites I’ve ever stayed at. I’m a Diamond level Hilton Honors member. For decades I’ve traveled 2-4 times/month staying at Hiltons all over the US and some in Europe. I’ve stayed in Homewood Suites in Orlando, DC, Williamsburg, Boston, Baltimore, Portland, Seattle, Dayton, St. Louis, Dallas/FTW, and countless others. This is the worst.

Here’s a list of things that went wrong. We were on the 7th floor and elevator went out 1/2 way through our stay and the other elevator doesn’t go to the 7th floor. I don’t mind stairs but my wife has a heart condition. No hair dryer, but supplied when requested. No working phone in the suite.

Worse are the design flaws: Insufficient sound insulation between walls. Every morning we’d the neighboring mom shouting at her children (sad). No door separating the bathroom sink/dressing area from the bedroom. (The best designs have two door so someone can be dressing etc and not have light wake someone trying to sleep.) Ineffective exhausting from the bathroom. Actually, insufficient for the entire room. When we go to our son’s suite, it was stuffy from their food. HVAC resets every day (while we’re in Disneyland) to 74 so we have to cool the room down each night. Loud (old) HVAC turning on/off all night (we switched the fan to ON instead of AUTO to stop from being woken up every time it kicked on.) the thermostat was located in the living room, not the bedroom, which meant the bedroom door had to remain open so it didn’t get hot at night. Took us 1/2 first night to discover this problem. (Remember that during the days everything got heated up to 74!) Some carpet is old. Bathroom shows clear water damage. The electrical design is old/wrong. Switches control lamps but the modern lamps have the outlets and USB ports to charge all the personal electronics. Thankfully we realized this before the first night and kept the wall switches on and turned off lights at the lamps. Turning off switches would have prevented phones from charging. Couches were most uncomfortable I’ve encountered.

This hotel is quite old. The exterior clearly had a facelift but don’t be fooled. (It fooled me when I booked it.) This place is old and It is clearly under maintained. I used to manage income property. (I currently travel to Orlando regularly and stay in Hilton properties that service Disney World. Some of those are old too but are clearly better maintained. I know from experience that small children- especially when not properly supervised - are REALLY hard on rentals.) However, this hotel does not keep up with others I’ve stayed in located in family resort areas.

Here’s head scratcher: when we arrived they gave a card with a QR code and discount code to go online and pay for parking. It didn’t work. Tried to charge us over $20/day instead of $8. Went to front desk and they chomp’s the parking but didn’t need any vehicle details so clearly someone other than hotel is collecting on parking but there doesn’t seem to be enforcement. Hmmm…

There were some good, even great things. Water pressure was awesome with plenty of hot water even during peak morning hours (always so important!). The front desk staff was excellent and prompt to every request. The location is good and it’s very clean outside and with only minor exceptions it is very clean inside too so the cleaning staff is clearly doing their job - but there are clearly gaps too. Appliances and stocking of kitchen were good.

Outdated Design and long term maintenance are the problems with this property.

Verdict: I won’t...