Probably the worst hotel experience I've had in about a decade. I booked via their Hilton Honors website for a quick 3 day, 2 night getaway with my family. I was offered an upgrade on their website for an additional $16 per night. Traveling with my family, I called their location to confirm the upgraded suite also would have two beds and a sleeper sofa. They confirmed it did and I requested accordingly.
We arrived on site and check-in was quick. I inquired if we received our upgrade and was told we did. We went up to room 504 and it was a sweltering 80 degrees (on the thermostat) when we entered. Our room was also filthy, animal hair on the floor, several hair elastics on the floor, mirrors and windows not clean. I couldn't get the temperature to turn down so I called the front desk. I was told they have a heat pump system and it's still in winter mode. I was told I could open the "balcony" door and request a box fan. I had no balcony and said this is not acceptable. I was then told I would need to come to the front desk to sort this out. I headed down and the woman who helped me had a terrible attitude about the whole situation. I said we are missing a bed, our room wasn't clean, and we can't stay in that hot of an area. She asked "Teddy" for help and he was very courteous. He switched us rooms. She then asked if all my stuff was out of there and I said no you just told me to come down here. She said Teddy would need to go with me and I didn't have any issue with that. She didn't say anything additional and threw my new keys on the counter and stared at me. I asked if Teddy needed to come with and he said that was not necessary. Pretty obvious her peers are aware of her attitude.
I went back upstairs and moved my family and luggage to room 502. It was only 78 degrees by comparison and was relatively clean. A big exception was both cups had lipstick stains and fingerprints on them (weren't even washed) and the mirrors were dirty. I also found a set of room keys for 204 in our room? We did have a "balcony" which was about a foot long and our broken sliding glass door opened about 6"s is all. I requested the box fan and an extension cord (no outlets near the door) and they said they could only give me a fan. It was delivered and was clearly broken and clicked loudly every time it was turned on. We attempted to go to the pool to cool down, but their chlorine levels were off the charts. Our eyes only allowed us to stay under an hour and several families were in the same boat and complaining (the pool was closed for 5 hours the next day for maintenance and this seemed to resolve the issue with the exception of the water being murky and trash all over the place).
We propped our door open to the atrium almost all day due to it actually being cool (not sure where that cold air comes from), which was not ideal to have your main hotel door open with your family in the room. I tried to leave the balcony door open, but we were right next to the light rail tracks and the airport, so that only lasted a few minutes.
Breakfast was not comparable to other Embassy Suites (stayed at one just last month) and the only one in our party to eat the omelets ended up sick within hours.
We checked out and when I received my receipt I was still billed for my "upgrade". I had to call accounting to get this adjusted.
I understand it's unseasonably warm in MN, however if you make a business decision to have an antiquated HVAC system you need to communicate that to people so they can make the choice BEFORE they book, not after they are surprised entering the room. I'd also seriously review the cleaning staff. I had two rooms and both were beyond disgusting and were clearly not cleaned. Anyone doing a walkthrough could have caught this if...
Read moreWe have stayed at Hilton properties for as long as I can remember through work and personal. I made a mistake on a reservation, which was the first time I’ve ever done that, as I had booked my trip a week earlier than I was supposed to. Thankfully, I caught it before I departed. I caught this two or three days before we left. In that time, I was able to change my destination hotel, as well as my airfare and car rental with simplicity and one phone call each,. However, after four phone calls with advanced booking, and the hotel property, there is no way that they would switch my reservation seven days later. I was trying to explain I’m going to spend money with them, regardless, because I still wanted to stay at the property and not totally cancel the reservation, just simply modify it.
The hotel told me to call the advance reservation number. The advanced reservation number said to call the hotel, then hotel then said call reservations who will then call the hotel back and then I was able to get in in a conference call on that., And after all that I wasn’t able to get any customer service to accommodate me spending any money at the hotel due to me booking a room through the app that isn’t modifiable. I always book directly to avoid the situations with third parties, such as Expedia. But I have to say I’ve had better customer service through those third parties in several instances.
As somebody that works in Customer Service as a business owner , I always work to try to find an exception for my customer because I hope they will do business with me next time. I guess that’s not the case here.
Again, I was not trying to take my money away from the hotel with this reservation just simply move a date. The decision was up to the hotel director, who said they would not make an exception for me.
I’ve been a credit card holder as well and every time I have the option I pick a hotel that is a Hilton property.
I will not choose to stay at Hilton anymore unless I absolutely have to. I’m also going to take this time and cancel my HHonors AMEX.
Hopefully, they change some policies in the future, but I have to say I’m disappointed in how this hotel handles a customer error. I have been a loyal Hilton user, and have stayed at this hotel a few times as well. I have chosen them out of loyalty in Scotland, San Fran, Chicagoland, Alaska, South Dakota, MSP Airport area and many more. And you are telling me I cannot get an assist to change a future date for me?
I have 5 more trips through MSP with an unusually busy travel year for me, but I will not be spending any money with Hilton properties. I also will now need to make a new reservation for next week, and it will be at a different property as well. I may have lost $150 on this mistake, but that will be the last money I will...
Read moreIt seems every time we stay here there are issues. In 2020 we stayed and booked a ride the rails room, it was supposed to come with a free pass for a day on the tram (we were going to a concert at Target Center). We went out to use the tram and the card we were given with the free ride didn't work. We went back to front desk and they couldn't get it to work, so we ended up paying for Tram ride at the kiosk at the pickup site. In other words we didn't get what we paid for in our booking and no offer was made to make it right. This time we arrived to checkin at 4pm and the room we had selected and digitally checked into (922) was not yet ready. Keep in mind checkin is 4pm and we digitally checked in the day prior to arrival to the specific room 922, there is no excuse for the room not to have been ready!. Then the front desk had no copies of the pet policy to fill out, so I waited at the front desk for 20+ minutes waiting for them to try and print one...finally they gave up and told me to come back later to fill it out. The second day we left for the day to come back and open the door to our corner suite in room 822, to the overwhelmed smell of Marijuana smoke. We contacted the front desk and they were good about moving us to another room but only after coming in and checking, but it was very disruptive to our stay and we had to move everything by hand. We got put on the other end of the hotel which is not what we reserved. We got to the other room (831) and the door latch is broken and loose. Not very secure. They only had a half roll of TP in the bathroom and we ran out in the middle of the night. Ridiculous there is not a spare roll in the room. Also the handle fell off the sink faucet. There were severel shelves missing from the fridge, we ended up taking them from the room we were moved from. We also purposefully book a room on the north side of this hotel (far end from entrance) because there are 3 elevators. The 2 elevators near the front desk are so busy you end up waiting a lot. During our stay one of the two elevators was out of commission more than it worked, which made matters worse. We ended up having to walk to the other end of the building every time we needed to use the elevator. Again, disruptive to our stay.
The hotel contacted us and offered free parking for our stay ($48 value). When they texted me on day 2 and asked how it was going I explained our issues. Then they offered a free night stay. The caveat it would have to be used at a different stay and not one of the 4 nights we were staying this visit. In other words its not really a free night its a way for them to get you back again to spend more money! Even with repeated issues at this hotel we like the location and breakfast (which is great). But we will likely look...
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