DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Charlotte Airport — Hotel in Charlotte

Plain and simple, the people who work at the hotel are the key asset that differentiates this hotel from others.

When i am flying in/out of CLT and need to stay overnight, there is no other hotel i will consider. In fact, given my experience, i will be more inclined to look at DoubleTree in other locations i travel to/from.

Perhaps a bit pretentious, but I have pretty much come to expect cheerful, warm and inviting folks at Hilton properties who work the front desk. Hilton hires the "right people" in this respect and seems exceptionally rare to encounter an unhappy person at the front desk, but... my expectations for the airport shuttle driver is typically pretty low in terms of that same warm/welcoming feeling - they are shovelings loads of luggage and the road-wear travelers. Typically, they are just trying to get the job done.

However, I was blessed to encounter Charles - the DoubleTree airport shuttle driver. He completely flipped my perception upside-down.

I initially encountered him driving the van just seconds after he had picked up folks. I waved him down and he pulled towards me all the while the traffic attendant was whistling and hollering for him to move. He explained he would hurry back but could not pick me up because it was not in the sanctioned area for pick-up, and he was not allowed to stop. Words are cheap and i expected to see him on the next half-hour swing through. Did i mention this was late at night and i was worn-out and exhausted.

To my surprise, Charles quickly unloaded his van and was back at the airport looking for me at the pick-up spot within 15 minutes. Not sure how he accomplished that, but he did. The scheduled timing for the pick-ups is every half-hour so he cut that in half and further explained how bad he felt leaving me there 15 minutes before and tried to hurry as quick as he could because he could tell i was worn out and desperate.

HOLY COW! talk about compassion and empathy, especially in these days!! he quickly loaded me and my bags and i was in the hotel lobby checking in before he should have been on the original next 1/2hr run! Amazing! it is truly the little things. Not only was this unbelievable, but we sat for the brief moment and talked on the way. He apologized repeatedly for not being able to pick me up on the initial run. What an amazing person Charles is!!!! I can't put into words how much of an impact a simple little gesture like this meant to me in my frazzled travel-weary condition. After the hell of 24 hrs of travel (flights canceled and the chaos of rescheduling multiple connections) this man...

This place is close to several restaurants and the Charlotte airport. My room was very spacious and had a single king-size bed. The bed was your typical firm hard mattress that most hotels seem to use. I slept okay but did toss & turn a bit as I usually do when sleeping on hard beds. The bathroom was tiny and had the sink, toilet, and shower all within. The shower was a tub-type with curtain, and the shower head was lower than normal (about 5 ft 5 inches high) so me being 5ft 11 I had to crouch while washing my hair. The water pressure was good and the water temp was consistent (didn't fluctuate while in use). There was a decent size TV in the room and a microwave and mini-fridge. The air conditioner was controlled by a wall-mount device, and surprisingly the AC unit wasn't loud and obnoxious like many hotels I've stayed at. Our room was on the first floor at the end of the hall and we didn't have any noisy neighbors thankfully.

We tried the breakfast buffet in the morning and found it very disappointing. Most of the cooked food was just slightly warm and didn't taste very good at all. With a price of $20 per person (meal + drink) I would have rather gone to an actual breakfast restaurant and gotten good food. I'm someone who loves to eat at Waffle House, and this hotel's breakfast food was well below the food quality and taste you'd find at a Waffle House. It was like food an elementary school cafeteria would serve. I highly recommend not wasting your money on the breakfast buffet and just eat out somewhere.

Before we got there, my wife read something about a free warm cookie at check-in. There was even an airport shuttle van out front with a big sign on it about Hilton being the home of the warm cookie. No one offered us a warm cookie though. There was a display of cookies at the check-in counter with individually wrapped gluten-free cookies. My wife took one and it was like eating cardboard. One bite and she threw the rest in the trash.

Overall it's your typical hotel. I wouldn't go out of my way to stay here again, but I wouldn't be upset if I had to stay...

My BIL, who is a diamond member, booked a room for me here for the night. Perhaps I expected too much given the name, but this hotel not only fell short of the name, but of the very basic standard I would expect from any hotel.

We were in room 110. It was extraordinarily basic with 2 beds, a small desk, and a long dresser which housed a small fridge and a microwave. I was surprised to find there was no where to set luggage. Not a huge deal, but a detail that stood out to me.

I went to adjust the curtains and found several red stains which truly looked like dried blood splatter. This was on the outer thin curtains and the blackout curtains.

The bathroom had no exhaust fan. This resulted in a mold stained ceiling that was peeling very badly. Knowing how detrimental mold is to one's health, I was shocked the hotel let the bathroom get to this state. Even being an older hotel, I would have expected rooms to be updated with a fan to prevent that situation in the first place.

The beds were hard. Even my 15 and 17 year old sons who are able to sleep anywhere, were not able to sleep well in the beds and both mentioned being sore the next morning. As with most hotels it seems these days, the sheets were paper thin, and there was no weight to the comforter on top.

There were only 2 towels provided in the bathroom - could be hotel policy and not a huge deal - but I am use to having 4 towels to a hotel bathroom and there were 3 of us in the room. There was half a roll of toilet paper and we ran dangerously low with no back up roll. The toilet was unusually low to the ground as was the shower head. Again, not a huge deal, but all the little details did add up to an overall unpleasant experience.

Upon leaving, we were unable to find a complimentary laundry bag for dirty clothes. Perhaps I wrongly assumed those are standard. I checked the closet and then the drawers where instead I found a live bug.

The best part of the room was the water pressure and hot water. Beyond that, I would never stay here again nor reccomend this hotel to...