Homewood Suites by Hilton Galveston — Hotel in Galveston

Well, this was our second time giving this hotel a chance. The first time that we stayed here, we dealt with credit card theft from the employees (someone stole our information to put money on someone else’s JPay account, someone else did some online shopping with our information, etc.). But, against our better judgement, we gave this hotel a second chance. We checked in late last Thursday night and then went straight to bed after our drive there. The next morning, we noticed quite a few maintenance issues in our two rooms that we purchased, so we decided to bring the issues to the front desk staff’s attention. They stated that they would have the maintenance man come check everything out as soon as possible. Never happened. So, we notified the front desk staff again the following morning, and they stated that they would send someone right up to come look at our issues. Never happened. What really made us the most upset after all of these issues was that we specifically asked the front desk to have housekeeping clean our two rooms on Sunday (we did not have our do not disturb signs on, we just wanted to let them know that we would be out of the rooms SPECIFICALLY for them to have enough time to actually clean both rooms). We were out of everything in both rooms, our sheets were all sandy after sleeping in them for three nights and we needed them all to be changed, I took our dirty towels downstairs to the front desk so we needed new ones, etc. We were gone all day Sunday, just to give them time to clean both of our hotel rooms. We came back around eight p.m. and guess what we walked into? Housekeeping did absolutely nothing. Didn’t replace the sheets, didn’t even make the beds, didn’t replace the towels (I had to go downstairs to get just enough towels for us to be able to shower the next morning, whenever I made Griselda aware of the conditions our two rooms were left in), didn’t replace the toilet paper, did absolutely nothing to our two rooms except for replacing our empty shampoo and conditioner bottles. I also explained our maintenance issues and how they never got taken care of after three days to Griselda and she was able to have Calvin come look at our issues, but it was too far gone at that point because we were checking out the next morning. He did look at the broken a/c and changed the settings or something which seemed to fix the problem at first, but it only stayed fixed for a few minutes before it started messing up again, but we were already getting into bed and were done with the hotel at this point. Also, I’ve worked at a hotel for multiple years, and my housekeepers would have been FIRED if they would have pulled that while cleaning our hotel rooms. Even our shower floors stayed stained the whole time, they were stained with black smudges whenever we checked in and they were stained with black smudges whenever we checked out, our pillows and sheets and blankets were stained the whole time (some were black stains and some looked to be yellow pee stains), our shower curtains were extremely moldy (that should never happen), there were dirty dishes laying all over the countertops whenever we checked in, our refrigerators were dirty, there were just too many issues to be okay with any of this. Griselda told us to ask for the manager Duane at checkout the next morning, and that maybe he would provide us with a much needed discount for our inconveniences. Duane was not there at checkout and we were told that he would be calling us the next day, but it has now been three days and we have yet to hear from him. After two unpleasant stays, we would really like to give this place a third chance, because it really has so much potential and we need the bigger rooms like this hotel provides, but it seems like it is always something here. This hotel should always be giving 100% effort when you are paying $200 a night during the week and $300 a night on weekends, for a total of about $2,000 between the two rooms...

The number of problems with this hotel was almost comical. In August, I prepaid for two “guaranteed connecting” rooms. On October 12th, I began my check-in through the app. I was able to check into one room. When I tried to check into the 2nd room, it tried to put that room on a totally different floor. I called and was placed on hold and after waiting 20 minutes on hold, I was hung up on. I then tried calling back and got no answer. An hour later, I tried to call again and after waiting ten minutes I spoke to someone. I finally convinced her to help me get the connecting rooms and I was able to complete the 2nd room check-in on the app. I requested digital keys for both rooms.

On Friday, I got a notification that one room had a digital key ready but the 2nd room did not and that I needed to visit the front desk. I called and asked if there were any issues with my card and they assured me the problem was just that the room was not ready. When we got to the property, I was told that I had not checked into the 2nd room - which I clearly had done as you cannot request a digital key until you have checked in. I was then charged the price of the room on my credit card as a hold for incidentals. The charge went to the bank but the front desk clerk, Vanessa, said it did not go through on her side and made me do it again even though I showed her my bank app that showed it had gone through. At this point, this hotel had charged me the “incidentals” hold 3 times - more than the cost of the two rooms I had already paid for. They said it was their policy until Hilton paid them. I was then told it would be another $15 per day for parking. I asked for the desk clerk's name and she was incredibly rude and said she did not care if she gave me her name because she was right. She spoke to another customer waiting behind me about how I was wrong and did not know what I was talking about.

The room was defective. The microwave in one room did not work because the door would not shut and the light was on all night long. There was long hair in the bathtub - none of my family has hair that long. The hair dryer did not work. The last morning, the maid staff started knocking on the door at 9:30 a.m. to clean it despite the fact that we had not checked out yet. The app would not let us check out and we had to visit the front desk again.

I was then charged more than just the parking and a few pantry items that we had bought. I was charged almost $300 for what should have been $60. I called and was told they were having a billing issue and had fixed it and sent me a new receipt. I had also been charged for a rollaway bed that we never had in our rooms. The front desk person I spoke to did refund that charge immediately. The new receipt did not show that anything else had been corrected. I waited several days as I was not able to make a phone call and I sent emails to the email address on the receipt detailing the billing issue. I have yet to receive a response from those emails. When I was able to call, I spoke to another front desk clerk about the billing issue and overcharges and she told me she would have it corrected as soon as a manager was available. That was on October 20, six days after the initial incorrect charges. They finally did correct the issue, however, I would highly recommend staying somewhere else. At the very least, don’t bother prepaying for your stay as they will hold your money for days and might still charge you for a room you have...

On October 27th I reserved a room at the Homewood Suites through my Hilton Honors app. My life partner and I were camping and decided to get a room for the night due the weather change and the high tide coming in. When I called the hotel to confirm my reservation Vanessa whom was working the front desk the morning of the October 27th answered the phone. Things started off fine until I had gotten to the hotel around noon. Coming in from camping and the heat I was a bit hot and tired. I asked Vanessa if there were any early check-ins available and she said no not until 4pm. So I went back outside to my car for another 30 minutes until my life partner and I decided we couldn't bare the heat anymore and went inside to ask if we could wait in the lobby to cool off. As we were sitting in the lobby and watching a movie on our tablet, we got a little upset hearing the other guest that came in behind us trying to check-in and listening to Vanessa tell them "Check-in is at 4pm but if you call or come back around 2:30pm I can probably check you in at that time". I was never given that option and I'm sitting inside. Around 2:25pm two hours of waiting, a gentleman came inside and joined my partner and I in the lobby area and not even to have warmed his sit Vanessa came and spoke to him at 2:30pm saying "Sir I can check you in" when I looked up confused she immediately said to me "He has a different room then you" and proceeded with his check-in. I then asked her again how much longer and she told me "Not until 4pm" When I said "Oh wow" and walked back to my sitting area at 2:32pm was when she came over and said "I have a room for you now". As I went to the front desk to start the check-in process Vanessa looked at me and said "Yes ma'am" as if I were a bother to her. As I was checking in I commented to about the card I was using to pay for everything that insulted me as My family has businesses and being a descendent of Houston Reedy of the Historic Reedy Chapel Church on the island and we have all frequent that hotel for years. That is why a few of my cousins and I started our own honors profiles. After checking in I had no access to the room safe and the electrical box kept going out. After contacting the front desk they offered us another room so after we packed up and I went to get the new room key I was then told that the room I was being transferred to did not have a working microwave. It too late to do anything because we had already packed up everything and made it downstairs by then we were completely frustrated because of the hot night and not getting much sleep and then yet to another room where we were not able to use all the amenities. Then after checking out at 10:53am on October 29th I was charged a late check-out fee $103.34 like seriously this has never happened to me and I have sent a bunch of tourist over years to book at this hotel. I mean I won't stop now because this has always been one of my favs and convenient. i guess this past weekend was not my weekend. I have bank statements showing I was at a restaurant around the 1:10pm time that was on my statement and I also booked another hotel that same day on the West end of the island that I can prove as well. All in all the young lady at night with the dark colored hair i didn't get her name was very accommodating and had wonderful customer service Five stars for you young...