Tru by Hilton Dallas Market Center — Hotel in Dallas

Just returned from a 3 night stay at this hotel. Checked in on Thursday 5/16/24, checked out on Sunday 5/19/24.||Parking: probably the most common complaint that people have made about this hotel. They charge a whopping $35/night for “valet parking”, which did not mean there was a valet that parked your car, but simply someone sitting at a kiosk in front who gives you a ticket to put on your dash after you self-park your car. I don’t need mind if a property charges a nominal amount for parking, but $35/night for self parking and calling it valet parking is outright highway robbery. I’m sure the hotel manager will respond to this complaint by saying “it’s common practice for hotels in this area to charge for parking” but that is not quite true - there are many other hotels in the immediate area and many of them do not charge to self-park your car.||Check-in: I’m a Hilton Honors Gold member and that was acknowledged at check-in, plus was given 2 bottles of water. Check-in process was fast and easy and the front desk clerk was courteous and helpful.||Elevator: the property has 2 elevators but only one was operational for the entire duration of my stay. Because this hotel has a rooftop bar, in the evenings it made for some long waits to ride the elevator to my assigned floor. Weaksauce.||Room: I selected room 421 at check-in because I had read multiple reviews from people complaining about excessive noise in rooms facing the freeway (the hotel is located right across the street from I-35E). 421 is located on the opposite side of the hotel facing the parking lot and did not have any noise issues.||The room opens to an entryway where the mini fridge, coat hanger bar, and coat hooks on the wall are located, and leads to the bedroom on the right and bathroom on the right. The main room layout is simply bizarre - quite large (I estimate around 500 sqft) but looked and felt like a prison cell - aside from the king size bed, 2 small bedside stool tables, TV mounted on the wall, a small bench underneath it, and a minimalist desk and chair next to the wall, there is NO other furniture in the room, and no decor on the walls. No dresser, closet, armoire, safe, or lounge chair. There is no place to store your clothes unless you just place them on the bench or hang them up on the hanger bar (which is just a pipe that comes down from the ceiling and mounts into the wall). Additionally, the vinyl tile floor has no carpeting at all and because there is very little furniture in the room, any sound produces a significant echo throughout the room. I’m not sure if this room was supposed to be a handicapped accessible room or not, but there was a LOT of empty space in it that could easily have accommodated a guest in a wheelchair with room to spare. Very, very strange layout.||And finally, the only lighting available in the room was 3 small wall mounted lamps (1 on each side of the bed, 1 next to the desk) and a floor lamp near the bed. For such a large room, lighting was sorely inadequate. With all lamps on, the room was extremely dim. I called the front desk and asked if they had an extra floor lamp, and a maintenance man was able to find one and brought it to my room about 20 minutes later, which was a fair improvement.||Bathroom: simple and clean. Soap, shampoo, conditioner, and other toiletries are in squeeze tubes mounted on the wall. Overall the bathroom is functional.||Dining: free hot & continental breakfast is provided in the mornings. Fair selection of food and drinks.||Surrounding area: directly next door to Medieval Times. There’s also a fair number of restaurants located in the area but not much else.||Staff: courteous and competent.||Overall: would I stay here again? Probably not, and if this place is representative of the Tru by Hilton brand I will probably not stay at any other Tru hotels in the future. With respect to this location, there’s plenty of other hotels (even part of the Hilton brand) nearby that are better alternatives. I especially did not like getting charged an excessive amount...

Do not expect a restful experience. Bar guests Hotel Guests. Arrived about 7pm Friday, already almost impossible to get in as hotel guest due to mandatory, undisclosed fee valet parking for club. I asked how to get into the hotel, not the club and the valet were extremely unclear and unhelpful since I was parking my own vehicle for hotel. After 12 hours of driving I would have chosen any other hotel in DFW had I known the club patrons were more important than hotel guests. Once in (after a lot of difficulty with just getting parked and inside to PAY), the bed was hard and lumpy (??), AC was on "high" but a box fan would put out more air, so it was hot and humid in the room all night. We were on the lower floors, so I can only imagine how loud and hot the floors above are. I have Tru another chance after a very bad experience with another location (booked Tru room online, they overbooked, and desk person refused to refund, find another hotel, offer points instead of refund or anything else to help. We lost money and my child and I slept in the parking lot of Tru by Hilton that night) Tru continues to be (in my opinion) the consistently worst customer experience of all the Hilton brand.

Towels had other guests hair still attached, stains from (hopefully) makeup. Towels smelled like old sour laundry. No bleach smell like Hampton or Hilton Garden. The bed was lumpy and hard but sheets were clean at least. Towels seemed really nasty with hair threaded into the fabric and folded into the towel, and didn't match my hair or child. 1 of 3 bath towels did not have hair/stains on it and was usable. Also found a dog collar! Charged $20 for self parking my own vehicle- I would have stayed downtown in a covered, safe garage for that price. Valet fees are NOT disclosed at check in, but are mandatory. Other reviews mention the valet parking price varies from $15 to $35. They don't mention why the price varies greatly.

If I do ever book Hilton again - I will not make the mistake of using Tru by Hilton ever again. Awful customer service, except for Charlie at the front desk who was stellar and the best part of the hotel. Valet were not clear on how to park for HOTEL guests and were only interested if you were holding a twenty dollar bill out. Other reviews are accurate - valets are rude to paying guest who self park. Hotel guests get a very negative impression of Tru by Hilton, as they are the FIRST contact, before a guest even steps into the hotel lobby. I would have left, based entirely on the valet first contact had I not driven 12 hours to arrive here and was too exhausted to safely go elsewhere.Trust I will not make this mistake again. 💀

Please communicate to the valets to be clear on where to park and how to check in as a guest, not bar patron. Need more info than 'just go over there' which felt more like ' you aren't paying me so go away'. Note: it is very loud due to the 9th floor club, and a neighboring club and the I-35 highway. The earplugs and noise machine help some.

Getting to the club does not require a key card. So there is a LOT LOT LOT of traffic inside and outside and it is almost impossible to access the guests parking area after 9pm due to the club. Cars are lined up to get into parking lot. The line extends into the highway access road, past the Shell station. Also very difficult for doordash deliveries, so keep that in mind when ordering food on Friday or Saturday nights.

It is walking distance to a shell gas station, which is also a post office (many indigent folks wandering the area), and Mideval Times is about a block away.

Tldr: Extremely popular club. $20 for self parking. Massive foot and car traffic after 7:30p every Fri/Sat. Not easy to check in after 7:30p for exhausted travelers. AC not cooling enough, beds lumpy. Valets ignore non-valet hotel guests, Charlie at front desk rocks. Approx 1 block from Medieval Times, Shell Convenience Store/US Post Office also about 1 blocks walk. Overall do not recommend, will not book a Tru by Hilton hotel again. ...

Mixed experience at this hotel.

Disclaimer: I was booked here by my work for a conference. My initial thoughts were that it felt like a more trendy, fun hotel, rather than something comfortable for a professional occasion. There were many younger people staying there, and lots of noisy things going on (people gathering in the lobby, party on their rooftop bar). Obviously it is not the hotel’s fault that this is where my work put me, but I just wanted to provide this context.

First, the positives. Every staff member was very pleasant and accommodating. They helped me check in early, check out late, allowed me to print a document to their reception printer when the lobby printer wasn’t working, and provided polite and exceptional service all around. The several housekeeping people who I ran into throughout my stay were also very friendly, and one of the young men who worked in the cafeteria very helpfully gave me directions to the fitness center. The fitness center was free and had the basic workout machines and free weights that most people would need to use while traveling. The complimentary breakfast was one of the best I’ve had, and they had free coffee and tea in the lobby 24/7 (and the coffee was actually pretty good!). The location was not bad, it was walkable to a few nearby restaurants and to my conference at the Anatole.

Things that were not so good: my room was not very clean upon entering. The floor was filthy including a huge wad of hair that had not been swept up, and there was also hair in the shower. The hotel offers “as needed” housekeeping and instructs you to call or visit the front desk to request a cleaning. I attempted to call the front desk from my room multiple times over two days, and their phone system never connected me to a person; it either gave a busy signal or put me into an endless loop of listening to an automated message. I ended up going down to the front desk to request a cleaning, and it took several hours but eventually it was taken care of. Finally, as multiple people have mentioned in reviews, this is probably the least sound-proofed hotel I have ever been in. The noise from the highway is impossible to drown out even with the white noise machine in the room. I am a heavy sleeper and it woke me up multiple times every night. It was also very easy to hear noises from other rooms in the same hallway and from the floors above. Definitely would not recommend for a light sleeper!

Overall, this may be a good hotel for a casual occasion and the price is fitting. I would consider staying here again depending on the...