Hilton Boston Back Bay — Hotel in Boston

This was quite a roller-coaster ride!

TL;DR: The hotel, the location, the rooms were actually ok value. However, the service and room-access - bottom rank. Worst Hilton experience in almost 20 years of Int’l travel. Will NEVER use their Hilton App electronic room key, ever: After 2 days we got randomly locked out of our room, security had to escort us to fetch a credit card for authorization (after having stayed already in a pre-paid(!)) room for 2(!) days). And the staff added insult to injury, being extremely unfriendly, the General Manager never bothered to respond, just horrible experience… I had better staff interaction at budget hotels.

Detailed version: After having used an electronic phone-based room key in MGM-properties in Las Vegas (it just worked!) we dared to try Hilton’s “It’s time to let me go” online Hilton app. Check in worked well, so far so good. After arriving, we could go straight to the room and: voila’ the app opened the room. Nice Then: one time my app didn’t work, but my wife’s did. The next day the opposite. Then, one night, neither app worked. You stay in the hallway, turn on wifi, turn off wifi, deactivate VPN, etc etc. gave up and off to the lobby and get a “real” key. Disaster struck on 2nd day: my wife was at the gym and I returned from jogging - the room key didn’t work. Off to the lobby: your credit card was declined for incidentals. Wait, what? I am checked in! For 2 days! Why are you running this now? What card did you use? Empty stare and a shoulder shrug. No apologies, just being suspiciously eyed as if I’m a vagrant trying to sneak into the Hotel. But I had the physical room key. I had to wait almost 10 minutes for a security guy to trundle by, give me the “walk of shame” through the lobby to escort to my room.. to fetch my wallet. Then the staff ran the incidental charge (180$) and I was finally “allowed” to proceed to my room. We were in a 1,500$ pre-paid(!) room. Again: one thousand five hundred dollar room, pre-paid! And they locked my out of my room after 2 day stay for a $180 incidental charge. The staff was unprecedented unfriendly. No apologies, no attempt to make this up: stone faced “…it’s your fault that your credit card got declined..”. I asked for a staff manager: same poker-faced stone-cold attitude. On the last day: a long line of ~10 cars waiting to exit the garage: the credit card reader was apparently broke and we all had to wait until a hotel employee slumbered by and opened the gate one by one manually. I called the Hilton’s general manager, left message asking to discuss the matter: to this day no call back.

In closing:

1. Clearly the Hilton Bay Back is run by staff/management who do NOT see the need to make things right for the customer. Customers appear a necessary evil for revenue, best avoided.
2. The backend process is horrible (the Hilton App lets you check in, access your room… until ransoming a credit card (which?) is run by an automated system or random don’t-care employee … and you’re locked out. No call, no email, no popup message on App. Just wait until you get to your door.
3. The infrastructure not maintained well: credit card reader at the main...

SUBOPTIMAL, NO STAFF, NOT SAFE, NOT SANITARY.

Not sure where to begin. I booked a 4-night stay with 2 rooms for my family in June/2024. I left after the first night and found another hotel for the rest of the trip.

1. this hotel is not safe. A water leak in the roof tripped the fire alarms at midnight, and a loud automated voice thundered on, telling us to wait in our rooms until further notice. Some of the other guests panicked and ran down the stairs, the rest of us looked out the windows, or waited for smoke, or congregated in hallways. No one from the hotel alerted us or gave us an all clear. After my kids were terrified for what felt like hours, one of the guests on our floor got through to the operator and was told “false alarm” - stay in your room. The next morning, as we were in the lobby, someone from the fire dept states that all occupants were supposed to exit the hotel, and this was supposed to be guided by hotel staff.

2. the bathroom/toilet areas are old, cramped, and clearly in need of updates. Luckily, the shower and toilet worked in our room, but not my kids. Their bath-tub drain would not stay open, and required frequent adjusting to drain.

3). Multiple guests during my stay indicated that the gyms hvac unit is not working. Similar experience when I checked it out. The gym area was hotter than it was outdoors and it was 96 degrees outside that day. The one staff member said he would call an engineer…. The next morning I went to the gym and it was somewhat cooler. So I thought, ok, maybe they actually fixed something. Then I went to one piece of equipment to the other only to find that of the 3 treadmills and 2 bikes in the gym, one bike worked and one treadmill worked. And they were occupied. So I just went for a walk in downtown Boston instead.

4. they are short staffed. No one answers the phone when you call. And the poor sap at the front desk is stuck trying to field everyone’s grievances at the front that no one is answering the phone. No one answers the phone, when I called about the bathroom, or the fire alarm, or for sheets.

5. the next morning, after one night here, I called around, lucked out with another booking in another hotel, and decided to check out. But alas, this place has me and my family physically trapped, because none of the 3 elevators are working and I am on the 21st floor.

6). When I check out at the front desk, I am told I will be penalized for one night and have to pay for nights I am not staying. When I ask to speak with someone, I am told to contact Hilton Honors. When I contact Hilton honors, both through the app and phone, I am told they are “having technical difficulties”

7. when I finally pack up and leave this place, my daughter says “dad, can you kill this spider?”

Will never stay in a Hilton again. I would be happy to speak with Hilton management, and in fact would have not posted this publicly if I had someone to speak directly with.

This is not how you conduct a business guys.

Location is great, but there are other choices. I will say that the staff are friendly, but placed in an unsafe and poorly managed...

The Front Office Manager Brian MacFarlane is the worst ever i met in my life he is far away from being a hotelier or being a part of hospitality he treated us like we are not human beings I'm wondering how he is treating his colleagues he has micromanagement way, I don't know where is the CEO Christopher J. Nassetta from that. With all my respect to David who deserves to be the manager of that hotel, he was a wonderful person from the first day I arrived to the day he was on his day off when the issues started to happen. I asked for the late check-out and David helped to make it happen at 3 pm. I reached the hotel at 3 pm and I did the check-out and closed my Bills at the same time I asked to give me access to collect my bags from the room I went up after 5 minutes the housekeeper Knock on the door and asked me why I'm still here you should go by 3 pm she was so rude, I told her I'm packing my stuff, she left, after 3 minutes later the security opened the door without knocking the door and he starts asking why I'm still here I was shocked how you entered the room who allowed you to come inside he says I don't have keys the housekeeping opened the door for me, and I thought there is no one inside the room I told him are kidding me I got so angry from what he did, what happened is not acceptable Mr General Manager I hope you are aware of what is going on the hotel you leade. I went down and asked to meet with the hotel manager or anyone to explain what happened to me. Brian MacFarlane appeared with a sour face without even looking at my face I started explaining to him what happened to me, and he was not giving attention to what I told him he was only typing at the computer the incidents without showing me respect. After I left the hotel I received an SMS that 309 USD was charged, so I went back to find out what happened l. I found that Brian charged for late check-out without even letting me know what he did before I went I could change my mind and stay one more night. I was really upset with his way of handling the situation ، I swear to God, he does not deserve to be a leader in this hotel. I came back after some time I met with Suan the supervisor and he was trying to help me but unfortunately, when he called Brian he said he would not return the extra charges for late check-out. Sune apologies and handoverBrian'sn business card, I did call him and he answered that we were working by the book and as per the policy should charge for the half-hour late check-out. this is the worst answer ever. However, this is my story with Hilton Back Bay Boston, they don't know that affects the atmosphere of the most beautiful city in the world and shows that customer service is not applicable. I'm sure there is a shortage of hotel rooms thats why this kind of hotel behaves...