Hilton Garden Inn Riga Old Town — Hotel in Riga

Great and terrible staff. If you want to gamble on your luck, stay there!

Short review -

Great location, Limited/no parking, Good and terrible staff (based on who it is), faulty room, below average pricey breakfast!

If you want to know more about each items in details. Check my detailed review below

Detailed review-

Location - The location of Hilton Garden Inn fabulous, it is right behind Riga town hall square. After being in Riga several times, we (me and my friends) we wanted to stay in the old town. Problem with that? Finding good places which also has onsite parking (we were checking through booking.com) We found lots of good Hotels but they didn't have onsite parking. Luckily we saw this newly opened Hilton which also had onsite basement parking. We went ahead and booked the place which brings to my next point-

Parking- We contacted the hotel and asked that we need a parking and they said, its fine and we need to pay €20/day for parking which is pretty steep but for onsite parking we were okay. When we arrived at the hotel, we were informed that the basement parking wasn't working and the outdoor parking is full. We were pretty annoyed by this because we choose Hilton over other hotel chains solely on the onsite parking space. Being cooperative travelers we understood that unprecedented events can happen. We were shown a nearby parking place where we parked our car for €20/day.

Staff and Check-in - The guy who checked us in was super nice and friendly.

Terrible Room and terrible staff -

The room is spacious and looks great from an initial glance. However, I got a room where the door sometimes got mechanically locked from inside. To top that off during hot summer days the AC wasn't working. A technician came and fixed it after 18 hours. I asked the hotel staff named "Olga Abdulina" to change the room several times. All she was doing was dilly dally to kill to time so that her shift is over and the next person deals with the problem. I asked her to change my room. Olga's excuses were -

i. I need to see if rooms are available. Of course she would need but as it was not a stay during normal time I clearly saw lots of room where "CLEAN STAY" tags by Hilton were intact which meant those were empty

ii. I need to talk to my manager to change room. I told her go ahead talk to her. iii. She said she can't contact her at this time because she doesn't have contact info. Really? such petty excuses! I calmly said, first of all you don't need to call your manager for a room change. I have stayed in several hotels and hotel chains and I know how things work. Second of all, if you can't contact your manager, you yourself have the authority to do things like room change. All she was trying to do was kill time till her shift was over. Having learned and understood that I told her to stop wasting my time and to find a solution.

Half and hour later and few minutes before her shift is over, she comes and says

a. I can't really help you and change your room as I don't have the authority and we are fully booked.

b. I can however change your room from tomorrow. Seriously? You can change my room when I am already checking out? awesome!

Breakfast- It is expensive (€14) for Riga for the things that they provide. I was told that one could have the breakfast just for the waffles, unfortunately that was out of order!

CHECK-OUT- The guy who checked me in was also present during my check out and I told him that apart from my check-in, my experience has been terrible and I wouldn't really consider coming back or advise/recommend people to go there.

He asked me what happened? I told him about my room experience and my experience with Olga. He told me that, "THERE WAS PLENTY OF ROOM AVAILABLE. I WONDER WHY SHE DIDN'T SHIFT YOU TO A DIFFERENT ROOM?"

I wonder the same. His statement annoyed me to the core. I thanked him for his service but I said I wouldn't really consider coming back or advise/recommend people to go there if staff service in a hospitality industry is...

This is, by far, one of my worst experiences with any hotel worldwide. And that is saying a lot, having travelled for over fifty years.

It touts itself as 4 stars, but in reality its staff and amenities are only worthy of a 2 star. Oh wait, sorry, i have stayed at some two stars even better than this.

Reception ~ We were greeted perfunctory twice with different front desk staff. Both showed neither genuine warmth nor hospitality.

The first one took our details. When we asked for directions to a nearby (and famous) restaurant, she actually asked me to use Google maps to search for it. When I appeared shocked at her answer, she then gave me verbal instructions to the location. She neither offered me a map or offered to show me directions on it.

Since our room was not ready, we asked to leave our rooms with the hotel. She neither offered to help us with our large and numerous bags or offered porter service until we asked for the bags to be put in their luggage room.

The real kicker came when I observed she did not offer us the complimentary wine, which I noticed was offered to the check-in guest & another man just before us. Whilst I am not certain whether this is for all check-in guests, our impression is that this act was racist or discriminatory as that particular guest and man were caucasian. She did offer us the free ice cream, though, which we declined.

I sincerely hope i am wrong on this as this would be so wrong on so many levels. Of course, I could be mistaken, and if so, I do apologise for this.

I'm trying to understand whether there was any plausible reason for this, but the fact remains that we were made to feel unworthy or looked down upon. And that is neither kind nor hospitable.

The second front desk staff was not any better. She also did the offer us the complimentary wine as nor the ice cream & when we finally checked in, she asked rather off putingly that we needed to pay a deposit of 100 Euros. She did not explain nor gave details about why until we asked for details.

Room ~ The room was horrifying, and so many items were missing or malfunctioned.

Kettle was leaking, and the water boiled over to the table, leaking to the fridge beneath it, sparking a possible lectrical fire hazard.

No pen or note pad, no hotel information booklet or services card offered. No emergency numbers are listed.

No bedroom slippers, no laundry bag. No shoe kits with cleaner, brush, or shoehorn. No sewing kits with spare buttons, no vanity kits, or shower caps.

Toilet has no glas cups either.

The room felt so basic. It's embarrassing to call this even a hotel.

On the third day, we noticed a note on the water bottles saying that there would be a change of 3.50 Euros (complimentary for Hilton members). When we clarified with the Front Desk, we were told that our first two nights of water bottles would be as charged. When we replied that we had never seen this before, she said that it "your words against the house keeping" We replied again it does not make sense for us to raise this issue until now and that we had, in fact, asked for a replacement kettle to boil water in the first place.

The charges were eventually waived.

This is worrisome. It would seem that guests are held hostage to whatever the hotel deems chargeable or can claim items are missing in the room when there is obviously no room inventory displayed.

I can not emphasise enough. Do NOT stay here. Highly NOT recommended.

PS ~ I have confirmed that every check-in is offered the wine. In the interest of full disclosure, we are Singaporean Chinese.

Extra note : The only saving grace was our check out front staff Reinus. He was very friendly and helpful and asked us about our stay etc. What a welcome change ! If only we were served by him in the first place. ...

I’ll preface this by I stay at numerous hotels for work and pleasure. My favorite reviews to write highlight the incredible work of the staff and show my sincerest gratitude towards them. If the experience was subpar - I chalk it up to hiccups of travel and move on with my life. Unfortunately, this is the rare occurrence where I have to bring the insolent and demeaning behavior of numerous staff members to the public forum. I’ll highlight the most egregious first:

My friend and I were traveling on holiday to explore Riga. When we got to the hotel room, we chuckled that they obviously forgot to equip us with a hairdryer. We laughed knowing it isn’t a priority for two males. Following checkout - I received a personal call from a Riga number. When I picked up - the hotel called to inform me that I stole the hairdryer. I explained this was missing when I arrived. I have short hair and don’t require a hairdryer. I have North American plugs at home, so this hairdryer would not work. Additionally, this call from the hotel is also costing international roaming fees. I was extremely firm we did not take it. Moments later - I received the attached invoice for a hairdryer. 50 Euro? Absolutely absurd and an insult to my character. What grown adult (with diamond Hilton status) would steal from a hotel? Don’t insult, accuse, and charge your most loyal customers. Breakfast was identified as complimentary for diamond status members, but the employee operating the front desk made the experience so unpleasant that we walked away. After checking out, we showed up with our bags to have a quiet bite prior to heading to the airport. The employee asked us to leave our bags in the lobby. After we dropped them in the location she identified - we came back.. she looked at us.. and then walked it. Figured it wasn’t worth the breakfast and left. Perhaps the hotel already identified as the notorious 50 euro hair dryer thieves, but… The check-in process two days earlier was so unpleasant it left us wondering about the temperament of the people in the city. Fortunately, we learned most Latvians were kind, but a little courtesy and transparency from the front desk towards tired travelers would have been nice - especially those who are fiercely loyal to the brand. We both walked away wondering why the employee had such an unpleasant demeanor. Many North Americans rely on Hilton brands for consistency and comfort while abroad. Unfortunately for Hilton, the staff at the Hilton Garden Inn Riga truly let your brand down. My hope is other travelers don’t incur the same scam missing hair dryer fees or ridiculously curt staff, but this was our experience. Riga is a beautiful city - but this hotel stay marred the experience, and I wouldn’t go out of my way to promote the...