Hilton Garden Inn Colorado Springs Downtown — Hotel in Colorado Springs

We had a fair overall experience during our stay here while traveling on vacation. The positives were the very nice staff who went out of their way to put cooler keepers in the freezer for me and treated us well during check in and checkout. The room was immaculately cleaned and that is much appreciated and we left a tip for our room maid for their extra efforts. The location was pretty good to visit Pikes Peak with the gate being around half an hour away and the ANA money museum being five minutes away just down the same street. The negatives are having to unload and load in a small area with a 30 minute limit in front of the hotel. Sounds simple enough, but try this during rush hour at 4pm. It took four or five light changes for me to find a place to get into traffic and that was with me stomping the gas to pull in.. The unloading area is past the entrance to the garage so you have to circle two blocks due to the traffic flow to get back around to the garage entrance....again in rush hour traffic. Then pulling into the garage is a trick with a large full size truck. I had to open the door to hang out to be able to put in my room key and still get the right angle to take my truck up the ramp because I was worried that my marking lights and antenna might not clear the inside of the garage ceiling. Parking at the garage is very tight for a large truck with several of the spaces labeled "compact cars only". My wife spotted me and I shoehorned it into a space. With my mirrors folded in, it all worked out. I found no dings in my brand new truck which I was very glad of. But I call myself fortunate as the parking for large vehicles is extremely tough and the extra $15 dollar fee for the privilege to do so just sticks me anyhow. I wish it was just added to the price of the stay and not one of those sneak fees that I hate. The breakfast was fair at best. The eggs were wet and had a funny chemical taste that tasted like cedar wood smells. That may sound crazy but its my best description. The potato cakes were powder dry and cooked completely through and were like eating a burnt rice cake. The bacon and toast i cooked was alright. The second day we stayed I ordered only bacon and made a waffle which was all pretty good. Then upon checkout, I found out ihad been charged $15 for that nasty breakfast the day before. I assume those few pieces of bacon also cost me another $15. That's $5 for a piece of bacon. I knew they took my name when I got food, and I figured it was to assure that only guests were eating breakfast. I didn't know that I was paying a premium for that mess. It wasn't posted anywhere. We looked on our way out. They contacted me about our stay midway. I mentioned the parking and breakfast and I appreciated their concern and attempt to right things at that point and allow me to just park my large truck in the loading area. I had it parked for the night already but it was a nice gesture. I was going to rate the place a four at that point instead of a three. Then I got the breakfast bill. It was like a boot in the tail on the way out. It all weighs out to an average stay. The stay was $200+ a night and $50+ a night in...

We were so excited to find this place, and honestly I should have checked reviews first as YELP clearly shows the true nature of this hotel. I don't know how they have such good reviews on Google. We chose this Hilton because the size of the suite. We also like Hilton's usually we stay with them frequently. We needed room for the kids to play as we were driving all day, and they needed to have space after being cooped up. Location wasn't really a priority as everywhere in Colorado Springs has phenomenal views and beautiful surroundings. When we arrived in the room we were welcomed by an overwhelming smell of smoke. It was very obvious that the previous guests had beed heavy smokers and were smoking in the room!! It was AWFUL! I do not at all understand people's selfish behaviors. How they can kill themselves and expose everyone one else to their toxins... Besides the point... Although it is not within the control of the hotel their guests actions it should have been addressed and noticed when their housekeepers went in to clean the room... I am assuming with the rigid COVID cleaning protocols this would not have been missed. It definitely made us question the cleanliness of the room. When I informed the front desk at first they couldn't do anything as there were no other suits. This was okay as we had a premium suite on the 10th floor.... My husband went out right away and bought fabreeze, air freshener and Lysol spray. I asked that all the bedding be changed out, and that a fan be brought up as well as spray from the hotel itself... It took them quite some time to get up there to bring only the fan and spray... The front desk called and informed that they did have a suite on the 4th floor (which is our lucky floor), but I had to decline as moving all our luggage and two young children (6 and 1) by myself seemed too much. Then housekeeper returned with linens. At first she just tried to hand them to me. I had to ask her to change them out... The manager Vanessa came up and the first thing she said (even though we had just sprayed and doused the room in fabreeze) was "It really does smell like smoke in here." This statement made it seem like she didn't believe us when we had informed her.... We chose to stay in the room as after driving 9 hours and paying an arm and a leg for the room (this was the most expensive place we stayed over our week long trip/the passing of my Mother in Law. Even more than our two bedroom loft air b&b) we had very high expectations as we have never stayed somewhere this pricy and not had a phenomenal room and service. They did apply a $15 credit to use in the snack shop, but honestly this should have been much better compensated. They should have adjusted the room price, given us breakfast... The staff were nice and polite, but honestly the customer service should have been way more in a place this this. I feel like they should have bent over backwards. Offered to send up staff to help move rooms... Given us a price cut... I gave two stars only for the room size. I do not recommend this Hilton... There are so many other great options...

December 7th - Walked a few miles to get a room because I got separated from my group and lost my phone but had my wallet. Was told rooms were sold out. Asked if I could call a cab after explaining my predicament. Called cab and asked if it was ok to wait in the lobby or if I needed to wait somewhere else. Crazy lady working the front desk snapped and started yelling at me like no you can’t wait in here, that’s not my problem, you need to leave etc. meanwhile I was trying to tell her through her yelling that I will gladly leave if she directs me back to the elevator which takes you to the door but before I could even get a sentence out she called security. Finally I was able to tell her that I’m trying to leave where’s the door and she walked me out while insulting me all the way down elevator. Upon leaving I was waiting for the cab outside and she tried to tell me I couldn’t wait on a public sidewalk for my cab because I quote, she doesn’t want me there. So I explained that I am on a public sidewalk and this is where my cab is picking me up. She then threatened to call the cops because I was existing outside and waiting on a cab and security eventually came over and said I can wait there. My friends and family have stayed here countless times in the past. This woman has single handedly lost you 7-12 customers because she’s either extremely jumpy or naturally that horrible to customers or maybe even people in general. Definitely didn’t follow the Hilton code of conduct and your security cameras can prove all of this. Someone looking for a hotel room shouldn’t be treated like some kind of criminal just because you guys are booked. It’s not uncommon to call a cab when trying to leave a hotel. If I were you I’d be looking for a new front desk person because front desk is the face of your company and if it were my business I would t want someone abusing returning customers based on appearance or whatever it was she didn’t...