Hilton Appleton Paper Valley — Hotel in Appleton

I really wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt

I was at the hotel for 5 nights for a conference. The hotel was under construction and was, frankly, a dusty mess.

To make the situation worse, it was horribly understaffed. Before people say "every hospitality venue has hiring issues," I want to say I own 3 businesses in the hospitality field. All my peeps make a great hourly pay and I never have trouble finding staff.

We received a letter from management apologizing for the mess to all the conventioneers in our group and promised to do all they could to make our stay a good one.

The day before my arrival I called to check on an airport shuttle as they advertise. Oh, they didn't have a shuttle that day (a Tuesday at 3 in the afternoon). So, I needed a $20 Uber to the hotel.

Then we were told, because of staff shortages, they would only service rooms every 3 days! Not because of COVID mind you, but because they didn't have enough help.

While I was there I got sick and stayed in my room for 3 days. On the last day our group was having a banquet and I knew I couldn't attend. I called the front desk and a nice man answered. I asked if there was any way someone could bring me one of the meals from the banquet and leave it outside my room. I hadn't showered in 3 days and the meal would have been nice. He told me he had to check and put me on hold. He came back a few minutes later to say that they would be happy to bring me the meal and I was very grateful.

About 10 minutes later, a woman called my room to say that no, a meal would not be brought to me as they don't do room service. She told me to walk to the kitchen area and get it myself. I explained I was sick and did not want to around people and she said whe was sorry, it was all she could do.

So much for their "We'll do anything we can to take of you" promise.

Simply put, the hotel is under renovation. Rather than shut down and do the job properly, they are trying to make money off of unsuspecting guests as they do the renovations. The entire scenario was bizarre. Stacks of lumber sat in front of the hotel all 5 days. Signs to get to rooms were incomplete. The restrooms at the banquet facility did not work. It was a terrible experience and shame on Hilton for doing such a half baked job. It truly causes me to rethink Hilton as a chain. I think I'll stay with IHG as my preferred frequent...

DO NOT BOOK A WEDDING BLOCK HERE.

My wedding is upcoming in June 2025. I called in May 2024 to set up a room block for our guests that were coming in from out of town, right before I booked our venue that is right down the block. They asked how many rooms I wanted and I said in between 40 and 50. I was told that there is always a possibility to book more if needed, but we could start there. They let me know that this “block” was complimentary and confirmed my wedding block reservation via email and sent the link for my guests to book. I tested the link by having two groups of family members book their stay in advance. Everything worked fine.

Fast forward to January of 2025, I start sending the link to extended family members who were coming to our wedding from out of town. All of a sudden, the link stops working. I contact Dianne (who was “helping” us with the process) and let her know the link was previously working but had stopped. She sent me a new link. When I went to see if it worked, the site said that there were no more rooms available for that day. Weird, since I thought we had agreed to put 40 aside and then add more if needed.

I speak with Dianne on the phone, who then tells me that she can’t see any reservations in the system. How are you supposed to be in charge of room blocks if you can’t even see the damn reservation schedule?! I go in to the hotel to speak with a manager and see what is going on since none of my guests are able to book and no rooms are available.

As it turns out, there was a 330 room reservation that day that was supposedly booked in December 2023. There weren’t even 50 rooms left when I called to check the date in May. They promised me rooms that they had already booked out. I am finding this out in January, and my wedding is in June. They claim they never promised me any rooms, despite setting up a room block for us. They have not done anything to solve this problem and have told us that there is nothing they can do. I called before even booking my venue, over a year in advance. If I would have know that there were no rooms available that weekend, I would have booked it for another weekend.

They do not know the definition of a room block, and those rooms are not guaranteed. DO NOT BOOK A WEDDING BLOCK HERE, AS IT IS NOT REALLY A BLOCK. JUST A...

We currently are here now. Moved rooms because the air vent in the first room was so loud our children would not be able to sleep through the night with the noise. The maintenance guy who came in to try and fix the noise looked annoyed. He "fixed it" yet less than 10 minutes the noise was back. So we had to move my exhausted children to another room after we just unpacked everything! We are here due to a family member in hospice. The guy at the front desk earlier was not pleasant. I got a look when I came in. Excuse me if I looked a mess, I was crying due to a family member currently dying and needed a room urgently for the night for myself and my family. Also no microwave in the room and not even tongs for the ice bucket. No dresser just some small two drawer piece of furniture in the closet.(New room ended up having zero furniture) No information given at check in. I had to ask all the questions and when I did it seemed to be an issue like I was bothering them and or they didn't know and I got a long "aaa I don't know".... How professional. This is not family friendly. Are the rooms nice, sure if you're single and don't need a lot in a room then it's perfect for you. Bedsheets are starchy and unpleasant to sleep on. Mini fridge isn't even cold. Just really disappointed. For $344.19 this is ridiculous. Also parking... What a joke.

Update: our family member passed away during the night. I will be looking to see about the charges because as of now they are charging me 3 full nights now when we've only stayed one. As one who doesn't travel and stay in hotels, it would have been nice to know that breakfast wasn't included in our stay. Didn't find out until this morning. Cali at the front desk had a terrible attitude saying "it was on the website". Maybe your front desk should inform a guest at check in. Not everyone travels. We won't be staying at a Hilton ever again. Appalling. I called corporate and have a case number. This was unacceptable even without our current situation of losing our family member. Whatever happened to hotel...