Hilton Garden Inn Orlando East/UCF Area — Hotel in Alafaya

I reserved, in advance, a standard room with a king-size bed. On Aug 16, 2024 we arrived at the hotel for check-in, everything seemed fine. The lobby area was nice and people were enjoying themselves at the hotel bar. We were promptly greeted and helped when we arrived at the front desk. The process seemed ok, but the desk clerk took a bit longer than expected to hand us our room key. At one time, the clerk called over a colleague, and they quietly agreed that a room in question should be assigned to us. We were quietly given our room number, our key, and directions to the hotel elevator. We found our room on the second floor and were met with a musty and damp smell. Upon turning on the room lights, we saw a couple of roaches scurrying away from being revealed from the room's darkness. It’s Florida, so we are somewhat used to seeing the state bug everywhere and brushed it off. Our room had two queen-sized beds, not the king-size bed we reserved. We were tired and decided we’d just look past that as we needed our rest, and that’s where we went wrong. We should not have dismissed our discoveries. We unpacked and decided to get ready for bed after a long day of moving my daughter into her apartment near UCF campus. We noticed a bedside table had a fresh drink sweat ring with water pooling over. The bed looked as if it might have been recently sat on, and a hand towel in the bathroom had been obviously used. We came to the conclusion that someone must have been booked for that room and changed rooms for some reason. We get into bed and turn off the room lights. Approximately 30 minutes later, I am awakened by my wife’s gasps and screams. I jumped up to turn on the lights, and she had just brushed off a roach from her hair with another on our sheets. With the lights back on, I quickly noticed more crawling on the walls by the bed’s headboard and also the bathroom wall. This is clearly an infestation problem and not just a bug in the room. I called the front desk to complain and requested another room. I was told they were fully booked and that they could do nothing. I was promised to be “comped” over the incident, which was a nice gesture, but it didn’t solve the problem. My wife was distraught and mortified. We seriously contemplated sleeping in our car in the parking lot. Can you imagine that? Booking a room at a Hilton hotel, and the room standards were below a slummy and skeevy motel room?? It was now clear to me that we lost our room with the king-size bed to the guest of the double-bed room and knowingly put into a room that should have been shut down by the health department because they were “fully booked”. By this time, it was well past midnight, and we had to leave early in the morning, so with no other choice or solution from the hotel, we begrudgingly decided to stay. We took many photos and killed as many as we could. We slept with all the lights on so the roaches would keep themselves hidden. That tactic worked, but it was a miserable experience, and between the two of us, we might have gotten two hours of interrupted sleep. We promptly checked out earlier than planned and were feeling very sleep-deprived. I calmly asked the morning clerk if our room would be comped and did not make a big deal over our unpleasant experience. The clerk simply said that in the notes that “there was a bug” and nonchalantly informed me that I would need to take it up directly with Expedia since the booking was made through them. Wow, what amazing service and an incredibly insulting way to end the worst possible hotel experience I’ve ever had. That kind of response suggests to me that this is a regular occurrence. We would have gotten a better night’s rest at a bus station in a sketchy area than at this Hilton. To say we were disappointed would be an understatement. We expect an apology from the hotel, a full refund, and proof that exterminating services were successfully completed before being rented out to another person. What an absolute...

‼️ROACHES, STAINS, AND SMELLS‼️My husband and i have stayed at this hotel on two different occasions, on both we encountered ROACHES in the room. The first time we stayed, I saw a roach in the shower (The picture with the white background), and the room had a faint mildew smell, I tried to chalk it up to bad luck and did not alert staff, but after giving them another chance, we realized that was a HUGE MISTAKE!

This time around, as soon as we walked into the room, we were greeted with not only a more intense mildew smell than before, but a red stain that looked like BLOOD on the bed sheet. My husband Immediately stripped the bed and called down to the front desk to request another sheet, When the cleaning lady who was oddly humming in the halls finally arrived at the room with the new sheet, we had informed her of what we had seen, The response we received was her hinting at the notion that me and my husband had made the stain! She asked us “How did the stain happen”! after we said it wasn’t us. After a couple times of us having to repeat to her that we had just entered the room and saw it, she then finally apologized. We don’t know if it was it was blood or something else, it was disturbing, unsanitary, and shows a complete lack of attention to cleanliness! Along with the rude and weird interaction with staff to start of our stay.

I honestly wish that was the end of it and we left right then and there, or even better, never came back In the first place because of what we had experienced the last time, but alas we still gave it another shot and there was more to come

Now was later in the night, around 12 am, we had stayed in the room for a good amount of time and were winding down for bed, we then see, in the span of 30 minutes, 3 ROACHES, the first one (big one) was on the wall behind the bed and had crawled away before snapping a picture or killing it, the other two (1 extremely tiny and 1 big) we had found on the night stand a couple minutes later, which my husband was able to kill (picture with wooden background). We now were EXTREMELY DISGUSTED AND OVER IT, It felt so disgusting like they were in all in our stuff or there were more we couldn’t see, so we immediately had to shake out all of our bags and items, packed up our things and left the room to go stay somewhere else

My husband then notified the front desk, expecting a refund and a heartfelt apology, but of course had the OPPOSITE, the response was passive at best! The man at the front desk said that unless and issue is brought to staffs attention before midnight, then there can be no refund for that day, we also have to wait till 8 am to talk to any manager about this. ABSOLUTELY INSANELY RIDICULOUS! no urgency! no real apology! and no meaningful attempt to make things right!

If you value basic hygiene, safety, peace of mind when you sleep, and respectful staff at where you stay, DO NOT COME HERE AND STAY FAR AWAY, this was to say the least, A HEALTH HAZARD AND THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER...

I was on the fence if I was going to leave a review because I have already emailed mgmt of my experience and they replied with a thank you for letting them know. But I feel if you're thinking of staying here, you need to have the info to make a fair decision. The desk girl who checked us in was the star of this hotel! Too bad the other service was a 1.||My experience with the rooms are the same as other guests reviews. The rooms and halls have a pungent smell of mold. There are visible signs of water damage in the halls. We changed rooms which was slightly better. They do sell room deodorant, which upon check-in I thought was odd but now understand. If you have any respiratory issues, I would recommend not staying here. ||My experience at the bar was disappointing. My first glass of wine was ordered with the bartender when she first opened at 5pm. I ordered my wine as a Chardonnay (9 oz); no mention of a premium option. I had just changed rooms and didn't know the new room number in order to charge the wine to my room. She said it was okay that she will get the info from the desk girl. I left her a $2 tip in cash and left without knowing the price. Later that night, I went for a second glass. This is when I was given a receipt for the wine. $18?? I was embarrassed to question the amount in front of the other guests so I signed, gave another $2 tip and left. In the morning I asked 3 people for a drink list that shows pricing and all 3 could not present me with one. The guy at the desk, the woman serving breakfast, nor the guy who was represented as a manager. The manager said the price probably includes the automatic 20% that is added to the bill in addition to the extra tip I must have left. I explained to him that I left the tip in cash and was never informed of a 20% gratuity. To spend $18 on 1 glass of wine at a Garden Inn is ridiculous. To not be told about an added gratuity is shifty. ||As far as the restaurant goes, I did not dine there but the breakfast looked the same that is included at other Hiltons. I think the buffet here was $15+, but the rooms are cheaper so it's a wash in my opinion.||I will not return any time soon, but the location is great for UCF visits, if you don't have...