Hilton Charlotte Uptown — Hotel in Charlotte

After being upgraded to Diamond-Membership and gathering points throughout the year, my wife and I wanted to end 2022 in a special place which happened to be the Hilton Uptown in Charlotte. 💫

What a disappointment! Arrival was chaotic, valet told us they are “full” and we should self-park. After 30 mins of unsuccessfully searching for a free spot, we stopped at the front entrance and learned that we can use one of the available monthly parking spots. 🙄

Room was OK and clean but of course no complimentary upgrade (which wasn’t really a surprise on New Year’s Eve).

We picked this hotel because it was advertised to offer executive lounge access and we eagerly wanted to make use of the new Diamond Member status. 🥂 I’ve been to many executive lounges (Hiltons & Marriotts) and this was by far the most disappointing one. All they offer is soft drinks and some nuts & chocolate. The “fresh” fruit is bananas and apples. Other hotels we’ve stayed at during New Year’s Eve served complimentary sparkling wine or at least did something interesting to host people in their lounge and enjoy the start in the New Year. The Hilton Uptown in Charlotte decided to offer a dead and empty room. The next morning it looked exactly the same. Nothing special that would make you stay in this room for longer than 5 minutes.

To make up for the lack of features, you get a food&bev credit to buy your dinner & breakfast at the regular restaurant. Of course, the amount is not even close to get you covered. The breakfast buffet alone is already more expensive ($18+tax+tip) than the credit value ($15) and you cannot order a la carte. 💸

The frontdesk was not interested to offer solutions and did not see a reason to apologize for the overall underwhelming experience. He explained that they were short staffed and their executive lounge was not comparable to the “larger” ones.

Had I not paid with points, the stay would have been ~$400! Their usual standard rates of $160-180 are too high for what you get. Especially since you have to add another ~$50-100 for parking, food & bev.

After this stay, I’m not sure what benefits I really enjoy as a diamond member at Hilton and there is ZERO incentive to keep this status current. 🤷‍♂️ First goal for 2023: find out if Marriott does a better job in valuing their guests. 🎯

Edit: The owner's reply makes things even worse. First, nobody was interested in finding a solution when I expressed my disappointments at the front desk. Now, the feedback to my review is that I should please reach out to the Hilton support to get things clarified? How about some pro-active solution solving? My name is public... track my reservation down and get in touch with me. I will certainly NOT run after you. What a pathetic...

First let me say this the room price jump was ridiculous… We paid 889.96 for two nights… Of course it was a game but still a straight rip off.. Our room was a two queens bed and smell like it was freshly mop with a mildew mop…. The bed was hard and the room was extremely cold. The icebreaker was the rip off that occurred while we were there.. my husband went to get a drink sat night around 10 something.. The bartender Daniel made the drink and charge my husband card 37 dollars for 9 dollar drink… My husband tip before knowing the scam had occurred 3 dollars bringing his total 12.37 or34 cents.. He walks away look at his account and went back to the bartender he act like the computer did it and told my husband he would have to wait until Monday when the manager in… I was sleep but the next morning I call the front desk and spoke to someone and they directed me to the food and beverage manager only after I said I will be calling the police because this is stealing… Yes it was only a 25 dollar overcharged but it’s about fairness… We paid 889.96 for two nights without trying to get over.. I expected to be treated fair especially how expensive our stay was… But back to the matter at hand.. I talk to the manager he proceeded to tell me he has to do an investigation without asking for my husband bank statement just receipt number and then said we will have your money back 3-5 days after our investigation done.. I then said we’ll let me call the police because sound like Daniel the bartender wasn’t going to get nothing done because he blame it on the computer,… Like really? I was then told no need to do that just give me an hour.. The manager calls back in an hour and offer breakfast coupons and said we still have to wait for our money… I said I wasn’t satisfied and the first thing he said well we can’t give you any money insinuating I wanted a discount because their wrong doing no I wanted my money back on my card because it was stealing to me…. My husband was frustrated so I took the offer because he was over it… I still feel we was wrongfully done and it made our stay uncomfortable… I feel Hilton should do better with customer far as making them feel better not like they was wrong for mentioning it….. I gave it a 2 because the overall staff...

The check in process was fine, however despite paying for the breakfast when booking I was only given a voucher for one day (I had a two night stay), which seems kind of ridiculous considering the price point. It also felt uncomfortable and unnecessary to have workers at the breakfast buffet.. just let me eat and get what I want however much I want in peace. Having to wait to be seated was so strange as I stood waiting for about 5-7 minutes despite there being clearly empty seats around. I felt hounded and watched and it was honestly worse than a crappy breakfast bar at a 2 stay hotel - hence why I did not care to ask for another voucher for my second day, it was absolutely not worth it. Also it was slightly cheaper to just pay at the restaurant area in-person rather than book it with the room, so idk the point of doing anything beforehand for places in this city.

Alongside this, for upwards of $800 for 2 nights, my room was just barely satisfactory. I could constantly hear noise from my neighboring room, as their door was a mere 3 inches from mine! And then the noise from upstairs!! Was I in an apartment building again? Because that’s what it reminded me of. This should not be happening at all. The view was okay.. but the whole room was shoved into an awkwardly angled corner with the bed at the perfect slant to hear my neighbors every move :-)

The bathroom in the room was… interesting. It was such a tight space with an incredibly low toilet (with a rather small sized toilet seat), and one you could barely avoid touching when going into the shower or using the sink. I also got the pleasure of seeing a rather large spider in my sink during a midnight bathroom visit so that was a really fun experience (sarcasm, it was not fun).

I just think for the amount of money being charged it should have been a whole lot better.

• I have already left a review detailing my experience with the Hilton website, so I would appreciate not being told to “share my experience” with the Hilton help desk or to call a number. I’m not putting in any more work for something not...