We stayed at this property a year ago and loved our renovated room with the breathtaking view of the Manhattan skyline. Granted even then it was far from the poshest Hilton we've experienced, but our stay was still perfectly lovely, and we looked forward to returning with our daughter and son-in-law for their first visit to NYC. ||We had told them so much about the rooms at this hotel and how enjoyable it was to experience the view of the city from this vantage point but still be able to get out of the madness each night.||I booked this year's stay months in advance with special attention to reserving the same room types we'd had last year. We are Diamond Honors Members and as such travel with Hilton very frequently and are completely familiar with the usual process. I'd received an online check-in notification on the morning of our arrival, completed it, received assigned room numbers and e-mail confirmations as usual...||From there, nothing ever felt normal again...||Check-in was 4:00 PM. When I still had no digital key by 4:15, I went to the front desk to inquire. I was told that due to a concert the previous night, our rooms weren't ready and it could be at least another 90-mins until they were.||We had reservations for the evening and needed to get ready, so the associate called the front desk manager for help. The manager took over from there and promptly told me that our rooms were not only not available yet, but that they wouldn't be at all. Not only that, but NO comparable rooms were available.||I communicated that this was unacceptable as I made the reservations months in advance. I asked him to explain to me how this was possible and what he was going to do to correct it. ||At this point, he shifted to blaming it on me, claiming that I “must not have completed online check in”. I assured him that, yes, I had and proceeded to show him my two confirmation emails.||From there, he began blaming it on a glitch between the Hilton Honors app and the hotel's system. I can understand that those things DO happen, and that sometimes things are beyond an employee's control, but he also clearly did not care at all about trying to make it right. His "I apologize” was completely insincere, and at one point he rolled his eyes at the fact that it was not enough. We had driven six-hours to get there, had a weekend full of plans, and were standing in the lobby with no rooms. | |It got worse: He then explained that we are basically “only guests” and that the rooms we had booked were reserved for businesses. He mentioned the airlines but then seemed to have not meant to say that out loud...||He said “I see you’re an Honors member. I can give you a couple thousand points or something.” This was just plain insulting, because we had used 193,000 points on each of these two rooms, which we were now not getting.||The other associate at the desk looking at the screen with him pointed to something and said, “You could give them the suite…” He quickly shut that down and proceeded to tell me there was nothing he could do.||I said, “What did HE just suggest you could do?” To that, he condescendingly referred to the other employee’s title as if to say “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about…” And proceeded to tell me that he could not do what he had suggested. I was just out of luck. I told him that, regardless of title, the other employee clearly cared more about guests than he did. (I later returned to the desk to thank the other employee for having tried to help us.)||Eventually, the front desk manager came up with “non renovated” rooms on a lower floor, assuring us that they still had a view. At this point, we needed rooms and had no choice but to take them. He offered absolutely nothing in concession for this forced downgrade.||And a downgrade, it was.||Our rooms did still have a view, albeit not the one we had reserved. We were majorly disappointed in the difference between our accommodations last year versus those we received his year. Especially because we had brought guests and were excited for them to have the same experience we did last year, and had done everything we should have to book it well in advance. ||Our non-renovated room had no refrigerator, loose electrical plugs, a bathroom better suited to a Motel 6 than a Hilton (no ventilation, stained tub and tile, and stains on the walls), and a bed that creaked every time we moved. The baseboard in the hallway was duct taped on. Our room was supplied with only two towels and washcloths, and it took two phone calls and 4-hours to receive more. Worst of all, the air conditioning did not work properly. We returned to our room at one point and were hit in the face with hot air immediately upon opening the door and found it 80 degrees in the room!||We are not difficult people to get along with. If it had been a matter of having different rooms than the ones assigned at check-in, we wouldn't have batted an eye. |But it is completely unacceptable that, although they’d been booked for months, and checked in online that morning - we were told NONE of the correct type were available. The worst part was the front desk manager's attempt to blame it on something I had done wrong, and then on multiple other things, yet make no sincere effort to do ANYTHING to make it right. ||As often as we travel and use Hilton properties, we have never had an experience like this before. Disappointingly, it couldn’t have happened at a worse time - as this was a trip we had planned specifically to give our guests... our kids... a wonderful first-time experience. ||After checkout, we did contact Hilton directly and were partially refunded some points (more than the "couple thousand" the manager condescendingly suggested) to help offset the poor service. ||However, it's too little and too late to have saved us and our guests from this experience completely not representative of a Hilton property. Upon reading other recent reviews, I can see that it's unfortunately not necessarily an isolated incident at this property. ||I encourage anyone considering booking here to proceed with caution. ||We had another reservation for this property booked in December, but I have already cancelled it. After this experience we will not...
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