Hilton Garden Inn Lake Buena Vista/Orlando — Hotel in Dr. Phillips

This is a REAL REVIEW!! This hotel offers self- check in- however that didn’t work so we had to go back to the front desk. Room was really clean. Awesome job housekeeping team !!! Now to the overall maintenance: In the shower grout missing in several places and the ceiling paint is coming off / hanging which we got pieces of it on the head while showering. Toilet had the sound of a cho cho train - I think I can ( annoying!) 2nd day we couldn’t enter our room - not because of the guest room key- Nope battery of the scanner lock empty- nothing like standing and waiting dripping wet from the pool for 15 minutes. And no front desk absolutely not helpful- And Again - thank you to the room attendant that took charge of the issue and called maintenance! In the early afternoon we checked our credit card and the Hilton inn charged us with additional $88 (which we paid the entire stay upfront with Hilton.com) however we are aware there is a holding for incidentals ( normal ) but the $88 front desk claimed was not them. We called Hilton main office and they said it was the hotel who charged. Front desk female ( 60 + Caucasian )denied and got rude and seriously out of control ( anger mgmt needed or retrain what Hilton likes to represent). While on phone with Hilton even the representative on the phone asked if that is the front desk person - he was shocked of her conduct too. Sometimes ppl are just having a bad day or minute, but as I ( my husband was first contact with her ) walked upfront, the self proclaimed Manager talked loudly ( i was still around the corner and could hear her ) to another employee upfront clearly rectifying and playing victim . I decided to mingle into this not acceptable behavior of her and stated that she is absolutely out of control and reminded her that she works for Hilton. First listen to the problem - understand- try to resolve- and if you can not fix it in that moment, you ensure that you tell the hotel guest that you take this seriously and try your very best to resolve it. However - her statement was in front of me and the other employee: I am not gonna deal with that ( loud ) hands up and walking into the back office again saying loudly : I know Hilton’s rules ! So I tried to resolve the issue with the very calm as I was other front desk person. However - it might have irritated the older lady as the back office door was open and she came back out tried again loudly to interfere and I reminded her that she chose : Not to deal with it and she was extremely unhappy of me reminding her of that. There are several more misses that I however overlook ( due to shortage of employees) but rudeness- fish market like behavior is not one of them. Hilton strives to retain high standards ( my understanding) customer service is high on the list. Guests come to take a vaccination and not deal with employees anger / personal issues! Customer is Not Always Right but if you work in customer service you need to understand you represent the company you work for the moment you clock in. You are a mediator between main office and the guests and hotel operators itself . You are not just there to be behind the desk and everything goes perfect ! Hold the highest standards that you expect to receive if you are to check in to Hilton. If you are ok with what you transpire ( rudeness- loudly out of control behavior) perhaps there are hourly places that are more suited for that type service! Now this is Not Personal- it is a guest that received that professional conduct ( if you want to call it professional). How disappointing for Hilton - all these training hours wasted on someone that operates...

If you have another option that isn't some 1 star hotel, take that option. The price you save is not worth the headache and livability you sacrifice; it might as well be a motel with decent service at this point.

Where do I start with this place?

Hotel: Upon walking into the room, you'll notice there is rust in the room, noticeably in the restrooms and in some parts of the wall. Aesthetically that's a downgrade in ambiance in the room, but I never take away stars for this issue. But it's a warning sign.

The shower LITERALLY doesn't have a cold function. The tub only ran scalding hot water with no way to change the temperature of the water. To make sure I wasn't going crazy, I turned the knob just a tiny bit, and out came scalding water. That's a deal-breaker; I literally couldn't take a shower unless I palmed water to splash on myself like a caveman.

The microwave was DISGUSTING. It was filled with cheese and unusable. Our family had to spend 10 minutes cleaning up the microwave and sanitizing it to even be able to heat the food. We didn't even know if we should take a risk at that point. This issue should have been warning signs on the housekeeping - more on that below.

The mattress is squeaky, but at that point was not a deal-breaker to me.

The service was questionable at best, below-average otherwise. We asked for towels to our room, and when we came back tired at night, we discovered they just completely ignored our request! They openly acknowledge the request was received and would be handled in the morning. How do you mess up bringing towels?

Fortunately, they did fulfill our request of a tissue box and did housekeeping... oh wait, despite us specifically putting a request for DND with no housekeeping (we only wanted new towels), so prepare to have your requests and privacy ignored.

The pros Free wifi is decent Clean of bugs / infestation, no bed bugs Has a microwave, fridge

Go somewhere else if you can. Based on previous reviews, it looks like quality of the hotel took a nosedive.

I'm sure management will say something along the lines of "We apologize for a poor experience and we appreciate your feedback. If you'd like to discuss the details of your stay, please contact blah blah blah and (phone number). We hope to welcome you again under better-suited circumstances" or something along these lines, if they bother. It's just lip-service. I haven't seen active improvements being done. I’d like to see them put action to their words, such as refunding and / or compensating I and other customers who were robbed of the experience they paid for, AND taking initiative to improve...

If you're planning a vacation, DO NOT STAY HERE. It will ruin your vacation. This may seem drastic but it's unfortunately a reality. Just look at the other reviews people post about this place. There were so many issues we experienced, it overshadowed our entire vacation and made it so stressful for my family. Hopefully this saves you from also having a bad experience. We arrived to the hotel around 10pm. As we walked into the lobby, it felt like the heater was on. Florida is already hot but now there's no A/C in the hotel lobby? I immediately began to worry. We went up to our room and attempted to give our kids a bath before bed. The water spurted out on and off before shutting off completely. I called the front desk to let him know and he said yeah it was an issue they were aware of in the higher floors and that we could move to a different room if we wanted to. Why this was not disclosed before arriving or upon check-in, I have no idea... We packed up all our stuff we just unpacked and herded 3 sleepy, grumpy, crying toddlers to the 'new' room. The next morning we noticed a piece of paper had been slid under the door. It was a boiling water notice and advised patrons that the water was not safe to drink or ingest (doubt this had anything to do with the hotel but rather just poor circumstances and it added to our poor experience. Can't brush our teeth? Are they using that water in the ice machines, in the water filler downstairs?). When we went down to breakfast, we got to experience the heated lobby once again (yay!). Staff were not super friendly but with the frequent poor service their hotel provides, I'm sure they hear complaints all the time and are annoyed with the customer's attitudes toward them. Not their fault but rather poor management. Carpet was dingy and stained and ceiling tiles had water damage all over, elevators creaked and groaned like we were on Tower of Terror. The price of the hotel is okay for the area but you have to pay $27 per night for self-parking and breakfast buffet is $16 per person. Just please do yourself a favor and stay somewhere else. Pay a little more and have a nice vacation. Don't ruin it by staying here. I'm disappointed in Hilton as a brand. I've stayed at many Hilton hotels but this was my first Hilton Garden Inn I've stayed at and it will for sure be my last. Hilton management needs to shut...