Hilton Garden Inn State College — Hotel in College Township

We were in town for two nights from Virginia to attend a gospel concert. We got in late Friday night, the concert was the next day. As we pulled up to the hotel, my partner took our dog for a walk while I checked in at the front desk. We had already checked in online and got an electronic key, but from past experience, we made sure to collect a physical key at the front desk as well. The night receptionist was very nice and informative. She asked if it was our first visit and told us about the parking situation. The front on the building only had a few parking spots, which were already taken, we had to take our luggage up to our room and then return back to the second floor(that's where the front desk located) to park our car to the rear of the building. We were very tired but made several trips to and from the building, taking our luggage to the room, then walked our dog again before bedtime. There's no complimentary breakfast, but there's a in house restaurant and bar. We never did use the restaurant and bar. The room had a funny smell but not too bad. While taking a shower, the water was not draining fast enough, but still nothing to complain about. I must say the lobby was very beautiful and relaxing. Chelsea, the receptionist, was so kind and gave us great customer service. She told us we could request a shuttle to and from the arena where the concert was held. I want to thank Betty(I think that was her name) she was our driver and housekeeper who did much more at the hotel(she work really hard), and also Bill, who was our second driver. My review on the hotel, a few parking spaces in the front of the hotel, and more to the rear of the building. The lobby was clean and beautifully decorated, with the restaurant and bar on the left of the lobby. The layout of the hotel was a bit confusing for someone who is new to the hotel because it's a little twist and turns to find the elevator. It's a dog friendly hotel and has complimentary bottles of water in the lobby and keurig coffee in the rooms. I must also say to Hilton, "Please don't change people membership level every year. Not everyone has money to travel continually and stay at your hotels every year. I was almost a diamond member, and it went right back to silver because I didn't travel as much the following year. I was one of the people who stayed at your hotels during covid when many people were afraid to do so, and i stayed several...

Worse place to stay and work. The staff are def not qualified nor trained properly for the positions they are in. They treat their staff horrible and give no sort of incentive to want to stay or continue employment there. Management gives part of their job duties to those who work the front desk and then takes credit for it as those who actually do it. According to policy your suppose to be up for a review after your 90 day probationary period, and during that time a pay increase discussed. When asked for it your supervisor will tell you they are busy and will get to you, 9 months later you will still be waiting for that review. In the meantime you will be expected to do more tasks that aren't required and aren't apart of your job duties. Also at this location their is only one front desk agent at the desk unlike most hotels that have two. Despite the number of complaints from guest about the check in line being long on event weekends such as PSU football weekends they still don't do anything to correct the issue. The front office manager just laughs and says "Oh you can handle it". Also they don't give the front desk staff any sorta of break as required by law like they should. They expect you to eat while standing in between the door and front desk while watching the desk. Your general manager claims to have an open door policy and willing to listen and address things when in reality he doesn't like conflict and will avoid guest and employees both at all cost, thats if you could even locate him while he is there. This hotels turn over rate is crazy with employees. They wonder why they can't keep employees maybe its because you can't treat your employees nasty and expect...

Pros: 1) Staff very friendly. Greeted by almost everyone I meet with hello. |2) Very close to Penn State if that's your intent. |Cons: 1) Given room right near elevator though checked in at 2 p.m. so got to hear the "ding" of the doors throughout the night since our beds were on the wall closest to the elevators, which is not a very good layout. Was not asked whether this was ok at check-in. |2) Wifi was pretty much awful the entire time. |3) Bathroom huge space except only a half sink that was barely accessible, stuck in a cubby hole like spot with no space to put toiletries. Very poor layout.|4) Am a Gold member and stay at Hilton hotels a lot. When booked reservation was told would receive two credits for free breakfasts. Instead of two free breakfasts which is what I wanted, at check in I received two $10 credits to apply to an overpriced in-house restaurant menu. So ended up paying out of pocked on top of high room fees. Many Hilton hotel chains offer free breakfast with multiple food options. I requested this with the booking agent. Would NOT have booked at a Garden Inn had I been made aware of this bait and switch. To boot meal was very mediocre. |5) Ate a restaurant a mile away in town and not charged taxes but charged taxes at hotel restaurant. Downtown restaurant and clothing stores both said taxes not charged on food and clothing. Guess there's an exception for a hotel restaurant. Minor issue but...