Hilton Albany — Hotel in City of Albany

This was my first time in Albany. I had heard about some issues with the hotel, but as my company had booked our stay, I had no choice in the matter of staying at this property. I will; however, not be coming back. I checked in, and upon getting to my room, the key did not work for the door. When I got downstairs they had made a key for a completely different room. When I asked why I couldn’t get the key for my original room they did not have an answer. And for added insult, they claimed the new room I was getting was “better”. It was not. It was the exact same room type, minus the adjoining doors.

Seeing as I was up super early for work, I was already exhausted and the trip downstairs for the new keys only ate into my rest time. I got to this new room and fell asleep immediately. When I woke up, I decided I wanted to order room service. Upon speaking to the lady that answered the phone, after I tried to order food, I was told I couldn’t charge anything to the room unless I added my card. I told her that I’d go downstairs to add my card and she told me to call her back once that was done. When I got downstairs and finished adding my card to the room, the front desk lady recommended I go to the bar and order food because my company got a discount and she was not sure if we got discounts via room service. I went to the bar, ordered my food and waited the 20 minutes for it to come out.

After taking my food back upstairs, I walked into my room and heard a knock. Weird, because no one knows my new room number. It was the room service lady with the food I tried to order. I was confused because she told me to call her back and I never did (I had just gotten back to the room). She had never said she’d put the order in, again, she told me to call back once the card was added to my account. She then said, she tried to call my room several times but it kept ringing and going to voicemail. By her own fault, she did not follow her own instructions. I told her I had gotten food downstairs and she seemed to have been a little annoyed and then after making me feel a bit bad, which I shouldn’t have, she then was like “oh are you sure you want it”? Ma’am you basically rolled your eyes at me and went back and forth about me not answering your calls. Okay, whatever. I didn’t even eat the second set of food. I paid for the convenience of the staff’s mistake.

After eating SOME, of the food I decided to go put up my meals for work and take a shower. When I went into the bathroom, I noticed a dirty wash cloth hanging over the shower and it made me sick. I open the shower curtain to realize that two of the bottles that were supposed to be mounted on the wall were off and simply put on the shower wall mount in the corner. The rooms should have been put out of service for maintenance to glue it back on. It did not require hard manual labor. There was also little specs of hair on the tub floor and a weird yellow substance, which I assume was hardened drippings from the remaining bottle on the wall and specs of hair/dirt around it. I called the front desk and there was no answer. I had to put on my sandals to take a shower.

The next morning at checkout, I go downstairs to kindly let the front desk know the issues I encountered, and I was dismissed without care by Dee, one of the agents who was at the desk that morning. I asked her if she wanted to see the pictures and she replied with “what’s your room number again”? That’s it. Didn’t want any evidence, no I am so sorry this happened, nothing. Truly the worst kind of people you want to encounter in customer service. My husband is a Gold member and the fact that she saw my profile and was still okay with the was she treated me was appalling. Not only that, when I went back to the desk to ask for a copy of my bill, I could audibly hear her scoff right in front of me. For that reason and the many others, I will not be back to this Hilton location. I will continue to use my Marriott status where appropriate to avoid this kind of below...

Where to begin. I had rented a room at The Best Western back in April for my daughter's second birthday, soley on the purpose of using the pool because she LOVES to swim. I spent hours comparing places and when we got there she was beyond excited but it was FREEZING. Weekend ruined, I ended up spending more money to keep her entertained but decided not to complain but pick a place with a hot tub in the future. Fast forward to me wanting her to have a better experience at a pool. I again spend FOREVER selecting a place. I figured this time I'll go for a Marriott or Hilton. I wish I would have chosen any other place than Hilton Albany. They say they have a hottub... which I selected this location because of the HOT TUB.. so if the pool was cold it wouldn't matter bc we could at least use that. Parking garage is right there so that was good. We check in and the carpets look dirty. The elevators were cool riding up but they have this odd glass stripe pattern so you have to duck down a little and put your eye close to the glass to look out and see the city as you're riding the elevator. Why they didn't just leave it clear is beyond me. I picked a deluxe room ($20ish more) over a standard room and the only difference I could tell was that it was supposed to include breakfast. Room looked like surfaces were dirty and had water damage. Small bathroom but the beds looked clean and were the only good thing about this experience. I get my daughter all ready to go swimming and head down. We go in and there's kids out of the pool on the side, no one in it. My daughter is absolutely extatic, she runs over and touches it and I can tell it's cold. I go over and sure enough it's colder than the pool at Best Western. She goes in fully turns around and is SHIVERING and gets out immediately. I look around and there's no hot tub...a man going by says they floored over it 😡 WTH! FALSE ADVERTISING. It takes 2mins to update that there is no hot tub but they keep the other photo bc it'll trick more people. Of course I got a room I couldn't get out of to go across the street at the Marriott (the only good experience we've had swimming at a hotel) so my husband went to the front desk and they called the pool engineer to turn it up (HA, engineer, I grew up with a heated pool and was running it fully by 13) so we call it a loss and go to the room knowing it won't be warm until the morning. 7am rolls around and the alarm starts going off..YAY what nursing mother who still wakes multiple times during the night doesn't enjoy a random alarm waking them up. We go to get breakfast and have to explain that the room said it came with continental breakfast before she finally agreed to give us the vochure after going back and forth. The breakfast sucked (My 2yr old liked her French toast and my husband will eat anything) the silverware wasn't polished and the plates were smudged with fingers. Everything needs a deep clean there. I use to be a housekeeper and this place was like a motel but $80 to a few hundred more. I bring my daughter down to check the pool temp and IT'S STILL FREEZING. I grew up with a pool, if they actually turned it up it would of been bearable by the next day. I asked the 2 men who took a quick dip what they thought and they said it was too cold. We head back to the room and I start to get a tub going for my girl so she can enjoy something.. the thing to turn the shower facet off and on to a tub was broken! At this point I decide to look at the reviews for the property and see someone say PARKING ISN'T FREE...UMMMM NO that was my final straw. I called Expedia and I knew once they said they were calling the front desk that nothing would be done, they just don't care... they offered us free parking..come to find out as we leave the garage, it's free for everyone today 😅 We took a walk to eat last night and it was drug addict and homeless central. Not a safe place. I will never spend another dime at a Hilton Hotel, it's...

Where do I begin... First of all, I must say Hilton Brands have always treated us well. This is my first time ever in Albany, NY.

My wife and I booked the Executive Suite on the 13th Floor. We called from the airport about 12:15 AM. The complimentary shuttle picked us up from the airport and brought us to the hotel and we went straight to our room with our digital key... about 2 AM. No big deal because our son was graduating with his MBA at 1pm and we were planning on having a wonderful brunch with family about 10-11 am.

Everything was going well until we were awakened by water dripping through the ceiling on the headboard and splashing on my wife's head. I was hearing the constant ticking sound...see the photos... We both woke up and called the front desk about 7 AM.

The maintenance person, Floyd, came up with his bucket and towels expecting something easily fixable. It wasn't as expected! He called from our room to see if we could get another room. We were really appreciative, but they had no more available rooms. By this time, the dripping and splashing was making the bed and pillows wetter. I get frustrated, but I don't get mad or angry. I'm quite sure this isn't totally uncommon to Hilton. I was patient... Someone checked out, and in 15 minutes I was called back by the front desk. They let me know that some one just checked out and to give them about 30 minutes for the room to be ready. We just watched TV and visited with family in our room. A little over an hour later, I called back because no one called us.

Apparently, they were really swamped with a lot of people. No worries. The lady said, just come downstairs and I will receive keys to my new room on the 5th Floor. So I did. She gave me our two keys, full breakfast coupons for 2, and a coupon for one order of small bites for two people at the Hilton Albany restaurant. We leave at 3:30 AM in the morning, so breakfast is a mute point.

The 5th Floor room they put us in still had some unclean issues, but we just wanted to get a good nap before leaving for graduation. There was some food of some sort on the floor... see photos...

I must say, they tried, but service came up short. Really short.

I really want to give a B for effort, but the bottom line is that we went from an Executive Suite, and through the process of unfortunate events (Excelsior University graduation), unforeseen weather issues, and a fully booked hotel, ended up in a subpar smaller room with less of the view we expected with coupons for something I did not want or need. There was a lack of communication between us and Hilton. They were looking for a bandaid fix. I was looking for a good night's rest from really late Thursday to really early Saturday.

This is a first, that I give a One-Star rating for the room. Both were unacceptable. Really! One leaking and the other not completely cleaned and no follow-up with me or my wife.

The reason I give a Three-Star rating is because they were trying. It was just draining me in the process. Please, somehow get back to under-promising and over-delivering. Following up with the customer means a lot, but just didn't happen at any level.

The location was perfect. It was literally 2 blocks away from the graduation location.

I really need a "do over". I have been a Hilton Honors member for years. I know you can do better. I could have a better experience by paying more and adding a rental car and staying somewhere else, but I typically trust Hilton Brands.

I can't recommend this location unless they do better in their services when things don't...