Tru by Hilton Fort Lauderdale Downtown — Hotel in Fort Lauderdale

I recently had the misfortune of staying in a king Room 8th floor at Tru by Hilton Hotel in Fort Lauderdale Downtown and it was an unmitigated disaster, From the moment I entered the room, I knew something was off. The floor was filthy , and after walking from the shower to the bed , the bottoms of our feet were black with grime. The shampoo provided smelled like alcohol and burned my skin, it had the consistency of hand sanitizer. The bed was equally uninviting, with hairs on the pillows and sheets that reeked of stale sweat. The entire room smelled musty. When I reached out to room service to report these issues, they claimed the cleaning crew had left for the day and they suggested that we move rooms or we could make the bed ourselves. We decided to make the bed ourselves if they would provide fresh linen and they agreed. However, the "security guard" they sent over brought only a flat sheet, two pillow cases, and a course burlap-like blanket. I called the front desk to request another room change, they complied . Unfortunately, the new room was hardly an improvement. The pillows smelled of dirty head and hair product, and there were curly hairs on the sheets. To add insult to injury, the soap was in the shower once again nothing more than hand sanitizer-a far cry from the luxurious lemon sugar scrub Ive come to expect from Tru by Hilton Hotels. Given the filthy conditions and utter lack of comfort, I couldn't bring myself to shower and or sleep comfortably. The next morning, I reached into my pocket to retrieve my room key, and the front desk lady immediately asked if I was checking out early, I was taken aback, as I hadn't indicated in any way that I was planning to leave ahead of schedule- in fact, I was still a distance from the front desk. Before I could even respond, another lady chimed in loudly, her tone was condescending, "Wow, you want her to leave already?" she said, bursting into laughter. The two ladies continued to laugh and joke unprofessionally, making me uncomfortable and frustrated. I interjected and said, No, Im not checking out early. The exchange left a sour taste in my mouth I couldn't help but wonder why the staff seemed eager to rush me out, or why they were so comfortable in being rude to me as a guest. On the other hand the included breakfast had a variety of choices more than the average Tru by Hilton it was clean and the full breakfast was hot and delicious they had plenty of optional combination breakfast plates, including Pancakes, waffles, frittatas, fresh juice, hot cereals, muffins, fresh fruit and so many bread options, etc.. The breakfast was the highlight light of this unfortunate situation. The indoor Parking is an additional fee but I have a tall Transit van and was unable to clear the recommended height which is , I was directed to park across the street in a pay on site parking lot but I had to leave before 7 am, It worked out fine but there were a lot of homeless people in the area. This is a nicely decorated Hotel but the rooms need to be cleaned properly and the staff should not make jokes at the expense of the guest. I will post some photos...

Ok, so I just spent 4 nights at this hotel, on vacation with my teenaged kids. I had read all the reviews and had some concerns about the location. We flew in and did not plan on having a rental car. I was a little worried because of the previous reviews. So here's my after trip report: The hotel is fantastic looking and feels brand new still, the staff members are super friendly and helpful, the rooms are exactly the Tru model which is different from the Hampton Inn (peronally I prefer the Tru minimalism and functionality, but to each their own), the neighborhood, however, has some drawbacks especially if you plan on going outside the hotel on foot in the direct vicinity. There is a semi vacant lot like area between the hotel and nearby transportation hub that has, for whatever reason, become something like a homeless camp. I will tell you why this became a non-issue for us: First, the hotel entry is keycard only and staff monitored 24 hours a day. Second, there's really nowhere much to go on foot directly outside the hotel. However, there is an app driven shared trasnportation system called Circuit that is provided by the local government and businesses to taxi visitors around the Fort Lauderdale area in electric golf carts. Its actually huge fun because the drivers are locals who enjoy interacting with visitors. Also its free. They don't mind even short little rides just to the Las Olas shopping district (maybe 6 blocks away?) and that area is perfectly safe, beautiful and full of restaurants, shops, galleries etc. hey pick you up directly outside the hotel doors. My teenagers loved it. The circuit transit will also take you all the way to the beach and drop you off right on the boardwalk wherever you want. The circuit carts were running from 10am-10pm while we were there. Besides that, the regular ride shares are easy and readily available like in any city. The airport to hotel trip cost about $16 via rideshare. So, with the neighborhood being a non-issue, all that's left is the hotel itself: we have nothing at all to complain about, it was clean, in good condition, had super friendly staff, decent "normal" hotel breakfast (+ waffles!) and the regular Tru model room (mini fridge, no microwave, not a lot of extra furinture, no closet, good storage, lots of USB ports, big TV, nice, large shower.) Like all Tru hotels, the amenities are in the public areas: microwaves downstairs near the food shop, a pool table, lots of public hanging out spots with board games, etc. Plus, this hotel has a practically resort quality pool with a pool bar and a fun outdoor giant chess set. We loved it! There is even a guest laundry facility near the fitness room so you don't have to pack your wet bathing suits when its time to go home. Also, our room was on the 19th floor, we had a great city view and as far as we could tell that train went by without making a...

First impressions are everything and my first impression of their customer service was not great. We were staying here after leaving a cruise so had to wait a long while before checking in on 8/30. Eventually, we decided to call around 2pm to see if there was a possibility for early check in. They said to try again in an hour. We called back and the staff was rude on the phone but said there was “nothing at this time”. We decided to just show up anyway and wait in the lobby if nothing was available still. We arrived about 15 minutes after that call during a shift change. The first thing I saw is one of the female employees that was ending her shift playing/standing on top of a luggage cart on her phone and laughing with the other employees. We weren’t really acknowledged until walking directly to the counter. There was another employee who looked to be at the end of her shift behind the counter with 2 other woman and a gentleman named Marcus who assisted us. Marcus was nice enough. He checked us in no problem which is odd considering we were just told there was nothing available for early check in…

I also had an issue seeing the service provided by both women behind the counter. I overheard a women checking in a gentleman who didn’t speak English well. When he asked for his room #, instead of just telling him while writing it down, she instructed him to open the key card envelope and it’ll tell him the room number. Immediately after, a woman walked over to the other woman to check in. That employee told her they are in the middle of a shift change and she’ll be with her soon. Meanwhile, the other female employee I mentioned that just finished checking in the guy was literally standing there. Neither said anything until the woman walked away from the desk and then she addressed her and asked if she could help her as if she didn’t just hear this interaction. I thought that was odd and very unwelcoming and childish behavior coming from the staff. We avoided going back down there if we could after checkin. We also parked in the front to check in and get the parking pass for the garage. We came back out to angry people waiting for us to move our car so they can get around us. Seems like they need a better place to park/check in without blocking the way.

Outside of this first impression, the stay was nice. The room was pretty and clean. It’s not a quiet place to stay. The doors are loud and you can hear anytime someone opens/closes doors. It took a while for the elevator to reach the 15th floor where we were during breakfast hours. Breakfast was a zoo but it was a good breakfast. Brianna was fantastic and very friendly. We braved going to the front desk again to request a late checkout which surprisingly was granted. It’s unfortunate that my first impression was as bad as it was because this could have easily been a 5...