Signia by Hilton Atlanta Georgia World Congress Center — Hotel in Atlanta

PROS: I would have giving this hotel a 5 star however our last day of stay turned into a "NEVER STAY HERE AGAIN". First before going into the last day, let me talk about the good here. The location is fantastic if you are going to a concert or sporting event. Both the Mecedezs and State Farm stadium are right out front. This is one of the best locations in Atlanta. The cleaning staff was awesome. We stayed on the 37th floor and was serviced by Gloria R. She was so wonderful. She asked if we needed any extra water because we had a growing son who needs to grow and be a big strong growing boy. My kids loved her. Her comment made me believe she looked after my kids like a family would do. The room type...If you stay at this hotel, you must purchase the Signia room. They are more expensive but well worth it. With this room, you can drink and eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is included with your room. If you choose another room type, there are 5 or so bars in the hotels. We ate and drank in the Lobby bar. The food and drinks were great. Ashley is the server we had in the Lobby bar. She went out of the way to make you feel special. Now, if you get the Signia room, you will have access to an area called Signia lounge. In the Signia lounge, most staff members are fantastic. Lisa Marie, Nicole, Elizabeth, Kiara, Netsanet and Satchellle are absolutely fantastic. The staff members I mentioned are a combination of the bar and restaurant staff. Nicole is the bartender you want to ask for a drink. I asked her for a chocolate drink. She made me her specialty drink called “Nicole’s chocolate whatchamacallit” well that is what I called it. This drink was the best drink I have ever had. When you go to Club Signia, you have to ask for Nicole’s Chocolate Whatchamacallit. Her old fashions are amazing as well. Anyway, we had a large group of guests but that didn't impact the staff’s ability to ask "do you need anything", "your drink is low, may I refill it", "can I get you something to eat", "how can I make my service better for you". They were absolutely awesome. Mr. Reyes (bartender) was also great in the Club Signia. CONS: The Club Signia isn't all bells and whistles. They have some bad seeds that this hotel needs to speak with. As I stated, we had a large party. Darrius and Matt, the managers tried to make our group feel wanted by telling us what we needed to do so that everyone was comfortable in Club Signia. Two adults per room are permitted in this area. Some of our guest didn't belong to a room, so we added them to our room per the manager's request to make the stay pleasant. Conversely, there were other guests in this lounge but the front desk attendee Jackie, came over to us and asked for our room number only. She asked every 30 minutes like it was going to change. Jackie was the worse of the worse. She was very rude. I wouldn’t have thought anything of this incident if she would have asked everyone in the room for the same information. She only approached our group. It is all about the delivery of your “ask”. Do you need anything from me is what I thought to myself. She had so much aggression in her approach that we left the area and went to the lobby bar. Here is the issue, we paid for 4 extra guests but they no longer wanted to be in the bar near Jackie. We didn’t’ want to spoil a good time so we decided to leave and go to the Lobby Bar. Jackie called the Lobby bar and told them we were bringing drinks to this area. WOW…This lady went out her way to harass us. We paid for the extra guest who I should receive a refund for because we left right away due to Jackie’s aggressive behavior and then they thought we were trying to get over on them at a cash bar “Lobby Bar”. Once we started ordering drinks and food, they "Lobby bar" saw that we weren’t the issue. Club Signia really needs to address her behavior because it was a trickle effect of her misuse of truth. If you go here, watch out for her. ...

Literally the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed at. Never once felt like a five star experience. I’ve been guests at luxury hotels for twenty years for anime conventions. In that time, I’ve never been charged an incidental fee since I meticulously clean the room before leaving. We had four guests for 4 nights. We declined room service and got a tag for the door. At no point were we told procedures for trash. Everything was bagged up by the door and I got charged $300 for “damage”. The front desk had never heard of such a thing happened when I inquired about the sudden charge. They had also charged me an additional time for a significant amount on “accident”. The accident got removed but the manager told me, paraphrasing, that I just didn’t understand luxury hotels and I had excessive trash. When I inquired about the policy or contract I signed that told me how much trash was excessive or the rate charged for it, she told no such policy existed. So they can and will charge you for policies that don’t exist. They charged $300 for a policy they don’t have. They didn’t have a gauge for how much trash is “excessive” for four people for four days. They acknowledged I did help housekeeping out by the other things I did such as pulling linens and having the towels all in one place. All of our trash was bagged and by the front door. They said we had something like 12 bags of trash. I have no clue what metric they were measuring in, because at most there were three kitchen bags worth of trash. I’ve done this at other luxury hotels and haven’t been charged a dime. Our stay was on December and we even did this EXACT same thing earlier in the year (May) for a similar stay with the same people. The fact that they didn’t charge us in May but did in December is straight up criminal. When I brought this up to the convention group, a lot of people had similar charges and experiences. This hotel loves to overcharge and will do so even if they have to make up an asinine reason. I’ve never felt so unwelcome and berated at a hotel before. The manager was very insulting and rude and seemed to imply I was too poor to know how to act right in a luxury hotels. They said it’s because the cleaners would have to take longer in the room but that doesn’t make sense. They acknowledged I saved time with linens and the trash was there and bagged, so there’s no way that was $300 of inconvenience. Not to mention, I’d bet my savings that the cleaning crew didn’t see a dime. $300 is what they charge if you smoke in the room, so it seems super excessive and wild to charge $300 for bagged trash. Not to mention, there are no microwaves. Anywhere. The shower is nice but there’s no bathtub and the door doesn’t lock in the bathroom. Half the outlets in the room don’t work, the switches for things are in bizarre places. The AC is mediocre at best. My sister in a different room said they heard awful pipe rattling at various intervals and the walls were so thin they could hear the neighboring room clear as day. If you’re going to insist you’re a 5 star hotel, this is not the luxury I would expect, especially given how poorly I was talked to. Not to mention, with how new this hotel is, hearing rattling pipes and having faulty outlets isn’t what I’d expect. Also mentioned upon check in that someone with an unattended kid with a pen had marked all over the bedframe at some point. There were no pens in the room but this is a new hotel so the whole thing was tacky. I almost wonder if they were trying to charge me for that. Now I am seeing reports that they’ve grossly overbooked for the upcoming May convention, so it seems that they’re just always subpar in some way. All this to say, just stay at the Omni nearby where you will be treated with respect and taken care of. I will never stay at another Hilton...

This review is part 2 of my previous review (checkout process):

I was scheduled to check out at noon today; however, I was battling a case of food poisoning from the Mexican food that I consumed the night before. The housekeeping supervisor stated that I could stay for another 45 minutes, as it was only 11: 50 a.m.. I proceed to valet and the girl tells me that I need to go to the front desk and get a late check out validation sticker from the front desk, otherwise I would be charged an additional $60 valet fee for today (even though I was only 30 minutes past check out). I go to the front desk at 12: 32 p.m. and explained this situation to the front desk supervisor Milki Gemechu. He looked up my reservation, by my Hilton Honors Silver Status number, and went to get his manager, Tabitha Taylor. When I tell you that Tabitha Taylor needs a refresher course in customer service or she needs to be replaced. She was very stern, curt and dismissive. I explained to her that I was ill, which caused the slight delay in checking out. She said that "there was nothing {she} could do." I responded that she could help me if she just gave me the late check out sticker. She repeated that she was unable to help me and turned around and walked away. Unacceptable! So, I call the Hilton Corporate Office, as I have been staying at Hiltons for YEARS all over the world and I have NEVER been this disappointed in a Hilton Staff member. So, fast forward 40 MINUTES (YES, 40 MINUTES...being on hold and being rerouted from a customer service agent to his supervisor Omar...IT WAS THE PRINCIPLE AT THIS POINT). And, yes, Tabitha came back out front, walked past me standing at the desk and went to do something else behind the counter) Omar finally answers the phone and just as I am about to lodge my complaint, Concierge Extraordinaire Benjamin Turner comes to the rescue. Within 3 minutes, Benjamin Turner resolved my issue. He asked for my valet ticket, after hearing my predicament, walked behind a wall and returned immediately with my valet ticket with a late check out sticker! 3 minutes! Milk Gemechu should be reassigned to a non customer related position, as he showed NO care or concern for my needs, but was happy to announce that he was the front desk supervisor. Tabitha Taylor should be replaced with Benjamin Turner. There is no reality where an international hotel chain should be unwilling to accommodate a guest experiencing health challenges that caused them to check out a half an hour late and expect them to pay an additional $60 for less than one hour of parking. Absolutely ridiculous lack of compassion or consideration for a hotel guest and from the midlevel AND upper level leadership, no less...(and for the record, I paid $60 to park my car for the entirety of my 4 day extended weekend stay.) Do better Signia.

FYI: I intentionally omitted the ethnicities of the parties in this review, because I am hopeful that race was not a factor here and that just basic incompetence presented itself today. Otherwise, a deeper dive needs to be conducted.

Silver Lining: When I did finally retrieve my car from valet, the valet manager was SUPER polite, helpful, professional and exhibited great energy...I forget his name (Hakeem? ), but he was a great hire by the valet company.

Additionally, the tall gentleman who manages the front area of the hotel was ALWAYS smiling, directing staff and assisting guests. So, please be clear that out of my entire stay, the only 2 bad apples in your Signia bunch was Milki and Tabitha. Darn shame...part 1 of my review was 5 stars...I need...