DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel St. Louis - Chesterfield — Hotel in Chesterfield

This is the place that taught me that the Hilton Honors program is most likely just marketing. Melody is the Hilton worker I have to thank for this valuable lesson.

TLDR: I didn't know how the Hilton Honors perk space available upgrade worked. A worker (Melody) said she was limited by Hilton but if I wanted I could call Hilton Honors. I did, Hilton honors wanted to give me a better room but informed me they can't force a hotel to give an upgrade higher than a single room type jump. So Melody had me waste my time calling Hilton, even though she was the hold up, not the Hilton brand. Why would she ask me to call if she was the one saying no, Hilton wanted to! The high floor upgrade (one floor higher) was a facade as well as the 10$/day discount I would get if I wanted to pay for the suite upgrade. Don't go to this hotel to try leverage your Hilton gold status. I included a picture of the "view" from the 8th floor. I checked daily and the suite I wanted was never booked during my stay.

After choosing to stay at Hiltons all year last year, I earned gold status. It was a whole thing as well as my teammates I travel with all stay at Marriots. I was excited when I earned Gold status at the end of the year to try and leverage it this year.

When I checked into this hotel, I told Melody this was my first time trying to use my Gold status and I was curious how it would work especially the space available upgrade. I get my food and drink paid for when I travel, so the space available upgrade is all I'd really take advantage of.

She said Hilton limits the upgrades she can give. I reserved a king room with sofa. I was hoping to get upgraded to a suite. But she said Hilton only allowed her make a single room level upgrade, so she said the best she could give me was a king room high floor(8th floor). My original room was on the 7th floor, so this meant I got moved a single floor up. Mind you this is not some area with a great view. Nor is it a highly urban area, so moving up a floor doesn't provide insulation from sound either. She said if I did not like that I was free to call Hilton honors to see if they would do anything. She did say I could pay for the suite and they would give me a discount since I'm gold status. The discount from someone without status... a measly TEN DOLLARS A DAY! So I called Hilton.

Hilton Honors said that she was mistaken, there is no limit to the upgrade, so they put me on hold to call the hotel themselves. I was excited that it seemed like I was going to get an actual upgrade. After the hold, Hilton Honors got back on the phone with me and said that while Hilton does not limit the upgrade, the hotel's themselves are only REQUIRED to upgrade you a minimum of one room class. So they could not force the hotel to do any more than they did, which was the fake upgrade a floor up.

This was infuriating to me as I would have never called into Hilton had I known it was the hotel worker themselves making this choice, not the Hilton brand. I even approached two different workers to ask advice on getting an actual upgrade as I continue traveling and they both said they don't know what was Melody's deal. She could have done the suite, she was just making that choice. There's no actual limit.

This really soured my stay. I will say I always look for a gym at the hotels I go to and this hotel has one of the best gyms I've seen at a Hilton!

Why should you stay at this hotel? If you're someone that's going to be close to Chesterfield and you like a hotel with a good gym.

Why should you not stay at this hotel? Don't go stay at this hotel if you're looking to cash in on your status. Or at the least, try to avoid Melody. The other workers I talked to said they would have handled the situation differently. But Melody just choose to be difficult. Also, don't pay extra for a king room high floor. There is no value there. The view isn't something to behold and it's not a loud urban environment creating a need for a high floor.

I've included a picture of the view from...

I'll start with the good things since there are fewer. The amenities are great. They have a wonderful outdoor pool, indoor pool, fitness center, tennis courts, indoor basketball courts, racquetball among other things. However, that's where the good ends. My party had 2 rooms which were adjoining. Check in is at 3pm Central time. Our rooms were not ready and they couldn't tell us how long it was going to be. We had plans to see a Cardinals game so we had to check in after the game, which was inconvenient, but not the end of the world.

Once we checked in, the rooms left much to be desired. They were disgusting. None of the surfaces had been wiped. The coffee bar area still had spilled coffee and spilled sugar all over it. They sent someone up to wipe the surfaces and they didn't even move the coffee pot to clean the counter, just barely wiped around it and the cups. The bedding looked like it was either stained or not washed. The pillows were terrible and out of the 16 pillows from both rooms, only 2 were synthetic. Our party has allergies and cannot use down pillows so I walked down to the front desk to request that they switch out the down pillows with synthetic and was told they only had 4 pillows, for our party of 8. They said they'd bring some up to us the next day and never did. I ended up buying a few pillows for our stay. The showers in both rooms were filthy. There was mold and mildew all over all the grout lines. The floor in one of the bathrooms hadn't been cleaned in what seemed a very long time, I cleaned the floor with Clorox wipes and they were black after wiping the floor. Our party never felt comfortable enough to walk barefoot in the room and our socks always ended up black on the bottoms from walking around in there. It was GROSS! The toilet paper holder wouldn't stay on the wall, finally I quit trying to put it back and just left it on the floor. The towel rack had been ripped off the wall and they hadn't bothered to replace it. The AC unit had trouble keeping up, we had to keep it set on 65 just to have it cooled to 72. The vents didn't move or adjust, so at night they blew right at the beds in our faces. They had taken a car air freshener and stuck it on the AC vent to hide the mildew smell in the room.

We were there for a baseball tournament so when we were looking at hotels we made sure the room had a refrigerator in it. We were told there was going to be a refrigerator in both rooms. Neither room had a refrigerator.

I highly recommend you finding a different hotel. The amenities were great but I'd much rather have a clean room and actually have a...

Weekend stay July 11th-13th, 2014 for Inside Edge Athletic Academy tournaments My wife called prior to our journey there & did NOT feel any concern from the staff & was not happy. However, when she checked in, she found the staff very pleasant. Our initial reaction to the overall decor was very appealing. Arriving at room 400 the view was hideous (tops of buildings & should have a discount for enduring such a view!) there was no refrigerator or microwave & later we found no accommodations for laundry & on a baseball trip, YOU HAVE TO HAVE PROVISIONS FOR LAUNDRY (we were representing Inside Edge Athletic Academy from Kansas City & had to wear dirty uniforms the whole time)!!! Fridge helps freeze cold packs and store leftovers from $$$ meals & microwave allows you to eat what you want & when you want at your convenience neither present at such a Hilton. Positives-fantastic facility (CAC-what a gem!!!) staff, staff, staff & breakfast! I can not stress how much I enjoyed these 2 days of breakfast here! I took my time & even now as I am writing this, how I wish I was there right now enjoying your breakfast. (07 12 14) Our attendant/waitress did a great job & the cook made a phenomenal omelette for us. Then the lifeguards & the one manning the bar at the outdoor pool were fantastic & very pleasant. The man was very good dealing with customers! Make sure all these are being paid enough to keep! When we returned home I told many people what a great place this Double Tree was AND MADE NO MENTION OF THE NEGATIVES TO ANYONE! Unfortunately, posting a mixed review is only necessary for achieving better service to your customers. Nothing is accomplished if only saying positives! Not stating the shortcomings only will result in others having the same experience & leaving with many negatives as well. Thanks for the weekend! Looking forward to some results & coming...