Hilton Garden Inn Bakersfield — Hotel in Bakersfield

Update— I gave this hotel five stars initially based on the experience of my initial overnight stay. However, staying at a hotel longer than a few days affords a more thorough perspective. As I aim to provide fair and honest reviews to the readers/followers at Google Maps, it is only prudent that I provide an update. So, I woke up the first morning to find some red-orange stains on my bathtub. Needless to say, as an experienced traveler I usually have a couple of sandals/flip-flops on hand for such an occassion. It is, however, unfortunate that such an experience could be had at a Hilton hotel that still charges regular rates during covid times. (I usually have my shower shoes handy if I need to stay at a 2-star hotel, yet this hotel is rated and charges at the 3-star level.) Just saying, it wouldn't be unfair to expect more. Also, the refrigerator of that room didn't work at all and I had to buy new food (there aren't many hotels that offer any services at the moment due to the pamdemic so I had to buy my own food and store it in the fridge). The room in question is 323. Not saying to avoid it, yet be alert if you do choose that room so you know what to potentially look for (which was a rookie mistake on my end to not completely review a room before I sleep in it, yet can I be blamed for being exhausted after a long day driving? 😝 ) The AC units at this hotel are unreasonably noisy and clanky, as I and others in my traveling team at the time complained about being woken up at night by the clanking upstart of the AC. It's a good tip to cool the room an hour before sleeping and then shut it off to reap the benefits of the cool room while avoiding being woken up at night (I also wore earmuffs once to bypass the noise and sleep in a cool room). Once I also had a grasshopper invite itself into my new room on the fourth floor (which can get very hot as heat rises, so try to stay lower during the hotter climates. like, not even the AC at night could cool it well at times.), so that was an interesting experience. apparently it can happen from time to time if someone leaves the backroom door open. which leads to my next point— try not to park your vehicle in the rear parking lot, as I had my vehicle broken into and others in my traveling team experienced a similar occurrence. also, the security at the hotel can be pretty lax (which I can understand due to minimal staffing due to the pandemic), as one of my teammates had someone sneak into her room and left a beer can and cigarette there. i had seen suspicious characters wandering the hallways at multiple floors, yet after a while my team and I just got used to all the issues and were on guard all the time. this is sad to say, yet I don't know i can completely blame the hotel per se since the homelessness in Bakersfield seems to be peaking around the region where the hotel is situated. for this reason I am docking two stars and giving the hotel a three star review. this is sad given that the hotel gives the impression it would provide a much more different experience if it was up and running with all its services available. blame covid. 🤣🤷🏽‍♂️ i thought about being lenient due to the lower standard other hotels are functioning at due to covid, yet other hotels have lowered their rates accordingly. for the same rates, i kind of expected the hilton garden inn to step up to the occassion and adapt like i have seen other smaller businesses do. be creative. take initiative. oh, and i was only traveling for business, as I was considered an essential worker. i definitely will give the hotel koodos for trying to maintain sanitation and social distancing standards. that really earned my respect. unfortunately, for the rates my company paid for, I think the three stars are merited. i would suggest staying in this hotel if it's only for a night or two (and would dissuade anyone from parking in the rear), yet if you have other options i would honestly encourage you take...

This entire experience was awful. We were very disappointed with this “hotel”, to use the term loosely. First, there was a disgusting smell in the hallways. It was a mixture of must and burnt rubber which wasn’t pleasant, and induced a headache from whatever chemical was used. The second major problem was the inability to properly secure the door of our room. The latch at the top kept falling off, and the bottom bolt stopped shy of entering the wall and just kept clicking back to its unlocked position. When we notified the front desk, they seemed unwilling to do anything about it, saying, “Well, we can’t do anything about that at this hour.” When we pointed out that it would be wrong for them to force us to stay in a room we couldn’t secure for our safety, only then did they offer to switch our room. However, we were given a room that was substandard to the original room we had. We had reserved one with a queen bed and were given a room with two full beds. As a married couple, we kind of wanted to sleep together comfortably in the same bed!!! Of course if we just wanted any bed and T.V. it may have been doable, however the toilet ran incessantly 24/7 and we had to remove the cover and fiddle with the handle mechanism every time we flushed to get it to stop. The shower was a challenge as well as there were only 2 settings that provided enough water and/or pressure. One where you had to run around to fully get wet, or the other which blasted your face with a hard jet of water. Lastly was the pool. We do not exaggerate when we say it was a HEALTH HAZARD. We saw literal clumps of matted hair floating in the water and other unidentifiable things beneath as well. When I called the front desk to ask when the pool was last cleaned, they couldn’t tell me….they said they didn’t know!!! When I informed them there was biological matter floating in the water, they said maintenance handles cleaning the pool, but there wasn’t anyone there to address it. Next we went to the front desk to speak with the manager, but she herself could NOT provide the information of when the pool was last cleaned or any information about the pool’s cleaning schedule- she said she didn’t know either! I would think management would have the cleaning schedule! We informed her of the major health hazard currently in their pool, but she seemed uninterested in doing anything about it, other than saying she would “make a note” about the matter. This hotel manager didn’t even BOTHER to close the pool to protect the guests at the hotel from the potential health hazard in the pool. One of the main reasons we even booked this hotel was to be able to spend A LOT of our time in the pool, as the weather this weekend is 105 and 108. We will NEVER stay at this “hotel” again and are now wary of any HILTON hotel. You would think, after having to meet heath and safety restrictions due to Covid-19, hotel management would continue to care about those standards but it’s obvious they do not care about the health or safety of their patrons. WE ARE ALSO GOING TO FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE BOARD OF HEALTH AND THE HILTON CORPORATION. Our suggestions for anyone deciding to stay here would be lower your standards to Motel 6, and make sure your shots and vaccinations are up to...

I love Hiton Gardens inns. My favorite amongst Hilton properties. However, they usually meet a certain level of expectation and this one dropped the category on most of its so call Amenities. 1.... problem with digital keys which does happen now and then 2... the reason I book Hilton Garden Inns the on-site restaurant/bar. This one is NOT OPEN ON THE WEEKENDS. Which is not advertised ANYWHERE. Thankfully there was a steakhouse within walking distance or I would have had to Uber somewhere. 3..... the other reason I booked this hotel is because I travel constantly and use laundry facilities when I can, which was my main goal of this stay. Eat at the restaurant while laundry was going But, since the restaurant was closed I went out and didn't get back till 9pm so I decided to do laundry the following morning Wow.....simple washer and dryer couldn't be more of a pain. There is a stupid app to download and then I had to rub back upstairs to put a credit card into the app. The lowest denomination it excepts is $10 which I was going to only use $5. Now $5 is sitting in internet land that I doubt I will ever need. What a scam. After figuring all this out I got the machine to start through Bluetooth. So I came back 30 min later and the washer had stopped at the beginning of the cycle. And now said 33 min. Went to app to restart and it wanted more money. This is where I did end up meeting the ASSISTANT GM. who was trying to be sympathetic however just blamed EVERYTHING on "corporate" the same corporation I give hundred to daily to maintain my diamond membership. He was able to figure it out get washer going. Came back 30 min later (which it's now check out time and had issues with app getting dryer started. The AGM again helped me and we got it started. Oh the kicker is I had gotten a stack of quarters before arriving and since it was an app, I tried using the quarter to purchase dryer sheets and find out....THIS HOTEL IS CASH FREE. now I'm stuck with a pile of quarters in my pocket. Now, after this story, you can't make up the ending. When I retrieved my clothes from the dryer they were still soaking wet. Not damp. As I checked out with wet clothes in my suitcase, the AGM asked if he could put them in an industrial dryer for me but I told him I just wanted to f bomb leave and typical Hilton manager threatened to kick me off the property. Which, I understand the training and the reasoning behind it but it no way did he ever understand my frustration and the inconvenience I was going through. He just kept blaming "corporate" at every step of this process. So I left. Now, does management need to reach out to me. In most cases I would hope they would. However, this is on the NEVER STAY AT THIS HOTEL AGAIN list which is quite small. What management can do is read this to all its employees and learn from how they completely dropped the ball on customer service, fix the problems, and learn from their mistakes.

Update: I did arrive at my next Hilton Garden in, chose a room next to the laundry facilities, used my quarters in the dryer and my wet clothes dried in the 40 min as stated. Proving that most Hilton Garden Inns can accommodate...