Hilton Garden Inn Winter Park — Attraction in Winter Park

The front desk manager explained to me that the Hilton garden inn is basically nothing more than a motel dressed up in a hotel’s body, as they don’t offer the same amenities of a typical Hilton hotel (which would be fine if the price and description reflected that).||||In fairness, the rooms are very nice, well cleaned and maintained, moder-ish, and mostly quiet. The cleaning staff was very friendly and worked hard at to not inconvenience you. Some of the front desk staff and management…ehhh, not as well trained. ||||I booked my room several months in advance as I have a diagnosed disability that makes me need an accommodation. In truth, it’s not a difficult ask, more awkward for me to talk about, and the hotel assured me that they could easily accommodate it. If they couldn’t have, I would have simply thanked them for their honesty and booked a room somewhere else. When I initially called I was directed to the property itself to make this accommodation request. About a week before my arrival I followed up with the hotel again to make sure of the accommodation and was basically told, “we got you sir. You have nothing to worry about.” I asked if I was dealing directly with the hotel on that call and was told that I was dealing with their general reservations number, but that they saw in the notes from a few months ago that my accommodation was to be taken care of and that they would make further notes reiterating my request. Then I arrived.||||When I went to check in I was told that no accommodation was made for me and that I could either take what they had or basically leave it. I explained my situation and the first person, dressed like they worked there, said that they don’t make those kind of promises. When I replied, “but ya did.” A second person, not dressed like an employee, stepped behind the counter and reiterated the no promises policy. I kept asking for a solution and I kept getting from the staff the same non helpful response. I was getting frustrated due to their lack of taking any responsibility, their lack of offering any compromise or solution, and mostly their gross apparent lack of empathy. They admitted seeing the request for the accommodation in their notes, yet not once apologized for not acting on it, just that they weren’t going to do anything to accommodate me and that I could take what they had or don’t, my choice. ||||For the record I was in town for a wedding where my sister blocked rooms at this property for dozens of guests (friends and family). I flew across the country to be with everyone. I asked my niece, who was with me when I was checking in, to go up to her room because I could see how upset she was getting by these two agents lack of professionalism towards me. I stepped back from the counter briefly and pulled up my hotels.com app to make other arrangements. I didn’t feel comfortable and therefore didn’t want to spend my time and money at this establishment. I was simultaneously weighing the difficulty I would have assisting with my elderly mother if I were to stay at a different location. I reluctantly accepted the only room that they were offering, went to it and called Hilton’s customer service number to lodge a complaint. That person seemed nice and well trained but there was still no satisfaction as there was nothing that they could do at that late hour and until they spoke with the specific hotel management. I then wrote a review on google, explaining what happened. The next set of events was shocking. ||||I awoke to a number of text messages from my sister pleading with me to remove my review. She said that the manager reached out to her (not me) and stated that their policy is to immediately remove any patron who leaves a “scathing” review. I guess they found an honest and truthful account of what happened to be “scathing”. For the record, I didn’t use any profanity, I didn’t embellish any facts, just told it like happened to me. She also said that the manager alluded to the fact that since I was part of the block of rooms that they may need everyone to leave. She said she asked him to clarify and where he alluded to it, he didn’t quite formalize that threat. She also said that he offered to switch my room for one that they had originally promised to reserve for me, and that my first night would be paid for by them. For her sake I took down the review. Let’s be clear here…they never once said that anything in the review was incorrect. They never once apologized for the mix up or for how it was handled. In fact, the manager said that he reviewed the video footage and that the two women I dealt with were some of his best employees. Wow! Talk about a low bar they must set. He also said to me that he believed the mistake was in my perception that this was in fact like a typical hilton hotel, but that they do not offer the amenities as a typical hotel….hence my earlier comment. Regardless, I declined the room change as I was already inconvenienced and didn’t want to have to repack and unpack again. He backpedaled on the first night free and called later to offer $100 off my $250 rate and life went...

Sometimes, God likes to place people in your lives just to show you and remind you just how much hes 'got this' when your feeling scared, overwhelmed, or lost.

My wife and I visited this hotel while we were staying in Orlando during our Sons stay in the NICU at Advent Children's.. we had just left from seeing him for the first time and obviously we were shaken up pretty bad. Hes going to be ok with the proper care, but no parent is ever ready for this process. Especially with it being our third such experience in the NICU from previous pregnancies.

Heads down, we walked into the hotel as we tried to process everything.. as you can imagine we were pretty sad and broken. That was until we reached the front desk and were greeted with a warm smile and welcome greeting from the front desk clerk R'Jhi'vier.

After we both got to the desk and started going over the particulars of the room with him, he asked if i was a Veteran, to which i responded, "Yes, i am". I served from 2010-2015 in the Army. Without hesitation he reached his hand out to shake mine, thanking me for my service and my deployments as he asks what brings us into town from so far away (we live hours from orlando). After explaining to him our reasons for staying he stopped what he was doing on the computer, looked up to us, and told us that hes going to pray for us, and that he KNOWS that God has 'GOT THIS'

R'Jhi'vier, you didn't know it at the time, but my wife and I needed to hear those words so very desperately. And you taking the time to not only ask why were visiting but to CARE and PRAY for us on our visit was something we will never forget sir! God Bless you and thank you for being the person you are Poppy! (We love your nickname btw) And if we ever need to stay in this area again, we know exactly where were staying, and if your wondering if you should stay here, you should too! Top notch Service, Cleanliness, and Very...

EXTREMELY DISSATISFIED. This is my first time ever leaving a review, but this hotel is poorly run and I’m disappointed with the service. From the moment we walked in the door, there was a lack of hospitality. We had called weeks prior to our reservation to ensure we could have early check-in, to be informed rudely at check-in that it was not possible and we’ve been mistaken. We had a 3 pm wedding to attend with nowhere to get ready. After 30 mins of waiting, a room did became available, which we were overly gracious for. To find out this room’s air conditioning was broken. We called the front desk and house keeping came up to attempt to fix our air. She stated that there was no maintenance available on weekends therefore she couldn’t help us. Meanwhile, I have a child with asthma and had to begin her breathing treatments because the room was unbearable. Also, no sorry, no resolution suggested by the staff. They stated they were completely booked this weekend and we could not have a different room. I asked what is the solution to this issue and the staff just walked away without helping. I am not one to complain but after being completely shocked with this behavior, I called corporate and they were great at relocating us to another nearby hotel. So after having to pack up and get ready at a different hotel further away we were late to the wedding, which was frustrating. Also to my surprise the next day I received a charge from this hotel. When I called the hotel back to dispute the charges for a room that we didn’t stay in and that corporate had cancelled the reservations for, the front desk informed us that we didn’t cancel the room and we will not be receiving a refund. If you stay here hopefully you have a better experience...