Hilton Garden Inn Fredericksburg — Hotel in Fredericksburg

I want to rate this out of 10 possible stars and then give it a half a star at best. I would like to give all of desk staff a perfect 10 stars. The woman who did the breakfast on Wednesday and Thursday also gets 10 stars from me. The woman who did the breakfast on Saturday didn't seem to be doing well at all with less tables than the other woman, even when she had help. Not to mention having to watch her walk around with her shirt hiked up in the back and seeing WAY to much skin.

There are a few reasons I gave a low review. The biggest is the state the hotel is in. Every single wall is marked up badly, nearly every painted door is scraped up. Fairly easy for housekeeping to care enough to use a magic cleaner (or something) and get that off. As well as maintenance taking time to do a quick paint touch up once a week. I have been in cheap hotels that kept their walls nicer. I was also shocked to learn that even though it is a few dollars more than the Hampton (owned by Hilton) there's no complimentary breakfast like the Hampton has. 11.90 a meal per person was something I had not expected. Especially since all our other hotels have always had the complimentary breakfast.

Another issue is how bright the room is at night. The curtains aren't worth much and I am grateful I took the time to buy sleeping masks otherwise I don't think we'd have slept much. Another issue is they are right next to a very loud highway and they didn't even put up one of those sound barrier fences. In the back of the parking lot you can't even talk to one another over the sound. And at 5 or 5:30 am when that road gets going it is hard to sleep through. Another issue was how slippery the shower is/was. They put in tile floor but didn't bother to use a textured so you slide around quite a bit and I was afraid of falling several times. Also in the bathroom the room was clean but there was something going down the door on the inside of the bathroom door. I did take a moment to see if it wiped off and it did. I left the rest there because quite frankly I was too tired to do the cleaning. I was also too busy and too tired at night to have the cleaning staff to come in and point out their job. Though with friendliness the cleaning staff worked with me in the mornings to take the trash I gave them, change out the towels as I needed and give me more items. But I also noticed a horrible black mark in the top of the closet which rubbed off on the pillow cases that were on the spare pillows in the room. I set out the pillows and wonder if they will figure it out? I was also shocked to see such a limited menu at 8 pm and the food was sub par at best. Was nice to have the option as we were exhausted. The other Major issue I have is that as a handicapped person who found only parking in the back of the hotel... I had to drive all the way around the parking lot to make it to the side of the hotel as there are no ramps up. That is Very dangerous!

Those are the reasons I put the 1 star rating. These things are very fixable. Now... I will state that the rooms are designed VERY badly. To get into the shower you either have to leave the bathroom door open to make it easier while you scrunch around the toilet to get to the door. And if the bathroom door is open you can't get to the main door. And if you need in the closet... you have to make sure everything else is closed. Not great when trying to pack and get out of there. Not great while there either.

I will also give the hotel kudos on handling a 3 am fire alarm going off. I was minorly shocked that the fire department didn't even look around and just turned it off on the word of the night staff that he didn't see or smell smoke on any floor. That evening staff guy was awesome though and deserves 10 stars for working to answer calls when we were all disorientated and to find out if we were safe.

I won't be...

Ideal location, awfully disgusting hotel. The facade and the entry look gorgeous, what I’d expect from a HGI at that price. The rooms, however…

The first room they put us in had a broken switch, mold in the shower, and, I kid you not, bright red blood on the sheets, not a lot of blood but very clearly blood. They moved us into the room next door with a genuine apology and a statement that they are understaffed, but would speak to the cleaning crew. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to check the new room as well as we clearly should have because we were traveling with our young children and it was late for them. In the morning we woke up bitten up. I had blister bites on my arms and hands. My daughter had a huge welt on her head and smaller bites around her neck and arms. I decided to throughly search the room to find what bit us. I was not prepared for what I found. Under the bed along the baseboards was a lot of splashed brown grossness. The mattress itself had a huge brown stain. Though the sheets were not dirty they were old- stretched out, pilling, and rough. Never had worse at a hotel. The pillows were also long past lifespan. The epicenter was the couch/chair next to our bed. It was the most disgusting chair I’ve ever experienced in a hotel, and I’m certain was where the bugs came from. They clearly just flipped the cushion to hide the dirt and literal food. It had a lot of white stain of unknown origin… plus whole Cheetos, crumbs, and most importantly the brown sheds the internet tells you to look for when you suspect bedbugs. We went to the concierge to talk to them about what to do. Most pressing concern was that I did not want to bring bedbugs home with us. We were brushed off by concierge with the information that the manager was unavailable on the holiday weekend. And that she would not be able to come up to look at the room because she’s the only one on duty. She did tell me what I should do with all of our soft items to try to kill any stowaways that we might have. But of course, she did not admit any culpability of the hotel for the situation. She actually made the claim that they have never had a bug issue and suggested it a was mosquito… on like the 4th floor, specifically in our room, and it bit us repeatedly. Hahaha. Yeah, sure, sure. Makes total sense (dripping with sarcasm). She took our information and promised that her manager would call. We waited a week and received no call. No surprise there.

There were many general problems with the hotel itself as well. One of the elevators was out of order. The one that was still running, had a broken alarm button… like the button wasn’t there at all. It was hole. The elevator button on our floor looked like someone had punched it in. The blind/curtain in both rooms were broken. The first wouldn’t lift and the second was set to a partly open state that couldn’t be closed. The lifting string was broken. The light switch in our second room was cracked, and in the first room the fan button was missing two buttons like someone had pried it off. I didn’t get a picture of...

Hotel states they have no control over activities by the renovation crew. Stayed here in September during renovation. On check-in, I specifically asked the person at the desk (Kristina) is there any construction near our room? "No Sir, there is nothing near you." Half an hour later we hear something large being dragged on what sounds like cement on the floor above us. I go up the stairs and I see the entire 5th floor under refurbishment and there are 3 workers removing stuff from the room directly above ours, dragging a sink(?) across the floor out the door. I go downstairs and ask what the heck? Kristina says, "oh, they aren't supposed to work that late, I'll go talk to them". 30 minutes later (this is now 7:30 pm), we hear more loud noises. I go down to the front desk again, and this time make the point "You said there wasn't any work around our room, they are working directly above us, why did you lie about that?" Her response was "well they aren't supposed to be working now, so they wouldn't be near you." I couldn't believe that logic. She went up to talk to them again. Around 8:00 we hear more noise. I go down to talk to the manager...there isn't one on duty, just her. My wife talked to her and she told her that there is NOTHING she can do about the workers, not even calling the police "I can't call the police". The guy across the hall from us was there with a similar complaint.

Next morning, I talk with the manager, "Dan Outlaw", who echoed Kristina's comment. "Sir, there is nothing we can do". So, we then get to the Hilton Garden promise, "Our goal is to make your stay better and brighter. If something isn't just the way you like it, simply let any hotel team member know, and we will make it right. Guaranteed." Now I remember the Hampton Inn promise that the guarantee means you stay for free. According to the manager, even though we had a horrible stay he flatly stated "I'm not going to comp you the room." So he completely denied having any say in the noise, or the workers walking around without any COVID masks and using both elevators without masks, but we could get a discount? Nah...I'm not staying at this hotel again. They plain old don't care about your comfort, your stay or your safety.

On the plus side, when I eventually talked to Hilton Customer Care, they were very nice and helped resolve things in a pleasant, professional manner. Too bad this location didn't do the same.

Update based on managers comments: just checked, there are no hours posted, and work was being done at 7:30-8:00 at night, I personally witnessed the workers on the 5tg floor, and management specifically stated they had no control over...