Hilton Garden Inn Auburn — Hotel in City of Auburn

• update, they responded to my review with a near verbatim blow off response. Way to go Hilton! Unbelievable *

Terrible Experience

Despite having paid in full ahead of time, I was charged three times for my room. When I arrived, I was told I had to put my card in for incidentals—even though the screen showed I needed to pay the full room rate again. I repeatedly explained that this made no sense, and while I was assured repeatedly that the extra charge would “fall off,” nothing did. The supervisor’s response was both dismissive and condescending.

The next morning, I spoke with a friendly front desk representative who confirmed that I had indeed been charged twice and promised a refund for those extra charges.

However, two days later I discovered I had been charged a third time for the same room. When I called customer care, they processed another refund and assured me that the reimbursement would appear within 7–10 days.

As if that weren’t enough, I received a customer service survey and detailed my ordeal. The manager’s reply was a generic, dismissive note:

“Dear Joshua,

I do apologize for your card being charged twice however they are preauthorization's not charges your bank will release the charges seeing as how our hotel did not actually charge you. the release does take a moment it depends on the bank. Thank you for providing feedback on your recent stay at our property. We are sorry to hear that your experience did not meet your expectations. We will take your comments into consideration to improve our services for future guests. Thank you for your feedback.”

This response falsely claims that my card was only preauthorized rather than actually charged, which is simply not true. My card was charged, and now I’m left waiting for the promised reimbursement—with no guarantee it will fully materialize.

Regarding the facilities, I’ve stayed at this hotel many times for work. The remodeled rooms were nice, but the fitness center—currently under renovation—was empty, and the pool is both tiny and permeated by a stagnant water smell.

I travel frequently for work and have typically chosen Hilton for their reliable quality. However, this experience is forcing me to seriously reevaluate my...

I had booked two rooms that were connected. My daughter turned 13 so she and 5 friends stayed with us. We checked in and at the time of check-in, I reserved our spot for the pool which was 8-9. I asked for 730 but they did not do half-hour times. Which was absolutely fine. WE get to the pool and there were 5 teenage girls in the pool. We waited about 10 minutes, I went to the front desk to ask if I had times wrong. She stated that I did not and she would talk to the girls. They left, we went into the pool area. The girls were swimming, these girls were 11 and 12-year-old girls plus my 7-year-old son. About 10 minutes into their swim time a mother and those teenage girls walked in. I asked what was going on and she stated that she reserved the time 730-830 and they were swimming. So I had asked my children to stay at one end. When 8:30 pm hit, the mother packed up her teenagers and proceeded to walk out, however, while she was walking by my children she decided to give them the finger and tell them to go F* themselves. She screamed that they are spoiled B*tches and should be locked in a pit. I walked right out with her, I asked her not to speak to those young girls like that, she proceeded to grab my finger and bend it backward. My husband grabbed me and pulled me back into the pool area. I talked to the girls and apologized for that behavior. The front desk person had called the police. She was also harassed by this woman. The hotel did nothing. She was able to stay. I paid full price for my stay and those girls heard things that they absolutely should not have heard. We did get a free breakfast, well two adult breakfasts. But I was able to feed all the children. I have had a few days to process this, the hotel did not stick up for their employee that had to deal with this mother, and two they did not provide safety for the other guest. We are local, we stay at hotels a lot. Especially in the winter being locked in our homes during this pandemic. I can honestly say, we will never be back. We will never give Hilton any more of our money. They are okay with adults...

This is the tale of two posts. One being a 5-star review and the other being a one-star review. Let's begin with the one star. I turned on my light to check for bed bugs as I always do when I stay in a hotel, and noticed a rather large spot of dried blood on the mattress just over the bed sheet. It is beyond comprehension how someone could be so lazy and uncaring and neglectful to just throw a sheet over something as nasty as that. Had I not noticed it, I would have nothing except a very cheap sheet between me and some stranger's dried blood throughout the night. It took nearly an hour for me to get situated into a new room. I called the front desk and within 10 minutes, someone came up with the keys for a new room. I gathered up my things, noting that I was already in my pajamas, and went across the hall to the new room. The room key did not work. I went to go back to the old room to call the front desk and they had deactivated that key. So I had to go back down to the front lobby in my pajamas to get new keys. I said the experience was unacceptable and asked to speak to a manager. I was told to wait in the old room and one would come up and speak with me. 30 minutes later, Mandy came up and review the situation. She was apologetic, escorted me to the new room, and did an inspection of the new bed with me. I said it is what it is, took a shower, and went to bed. Now for the 5-star review. General manager Drew followed up with me a day later and promised me that the situation had been reviewed by the housekeeping staff. He credited me some Hilton points and again apologized for the issue. He told me if I was willing to give the hotel another try to reach out to him next time. The hotel is actually quite convenient for my job, and there are not many other hotels in the area. I'm willing to put this incident aside, given that I have had probably close to 200 nights in my lifetime at a Hilton property. I've never experienced something like this. Water under the bridge at this point but I will pay extra close attention when staying at this property...