DoubleTree by Hilton Hartford Downtown — Hotel in Hartford

Do not hold your event at this Hilton. It will be your worst nightmare! I had my wedding at Hilton Hartford this month and it is the most regret I have - choosing to hold my wedding reception here. It was a disaster! Unfortunately, I didn't do a thorough research about hosting events here as I was out of state then and my fiance at the time chose that location without me physically seeing the place first. The hall itself is okay but after paying so much money (including "service fee" for "setup and "tear down", a big amount of $1800 we later found out is really tip and not service fee), the staff did not do anything to setup or tear down. All they did was set the tables and chairs and cover the tables with table covers. We had to setup before the event and tear down after our reception ourselves. I was wondering what the setup fee was then, if we had to set up ourselves and still pay 22% set up fee. I personallly asked Emma about why we do our own set up (e.g, cover our chairs ourselves when they are charging us 22% gratuity they deceptively indicate as "service charge." Emma's response? Becasue "we didn't purchase their chair covers." Why isn't that included in their contract? Their contract only says "there is a 22% service charge for setup and tear down" not "... 22% service charge for set up and tear down IF YOU PURCHASE OUR CHAIR COVERS" And no where in their contract does it states that the 22% service fee is for gratuity as we found out the day before our wedding. Quite interesting that Hilton will force people to 22% (that they deceptively indicate as "service charge" in their contract) and have couples do their own setup and tear down. This is nothing but thievery and and as a person in who works in the legal field I pay attention to contracts and I think this hotel needs to pay attention to the wording of their contracts. We didn't know that 22% service fee stated in their contract (which came to about $1800 for our wedding reception) was actually gratuity until the day before our wedding when Emma, our assigned personal assistant explained that the service fee we see in their contract is actually gratuity. i have her email correspondenct confirming this. Who charges 22% gratuity as a required bill? Gratuity must never be forced on people (perhaps the reason why it is not stated as gratuity in their contract) and talk of a good 22%. These people are just about their gains and nothing else. What work did they even do for us on our wedding day for them to require 22% gratuity? This is the first time we heard from anywhere that gratiutiy amount is the same as service fee. We learned a big lesson in a very hard way- with the most importance event of our life. Beware, and don't fall prey to them like we did. We can't get our memories back but we can help others not experience what we did at Hilton Hartford! We are beyond dissappointed and we started spreading the word about our experience with Hilton Hartford. One of our friends was considering having his reception here and I'm glad he changed his mind. From the very beginning, after we had signed their contract I had a bad feeling about this place because I didn't get the chance to see it myself but of course we had already committed to it and I was hanging on to hope...that everything will go well. We lost more than half of our guests because the reception hall which had guest seats was closed and our guests kept coming to ask us why they wouldn't open the hall for them to sit down. After walking around for a while without being able to sit, they left the reception. Additionally, the wedding attendant didn't put out our guest signature book for our wedding guests to sign and as a result we have no record of our wedding guests. We found the guest book somewhere later. Very dissappointing!! DO NOT go through what my husband and I experienced after paying so much money to this Hilton for a nightmare experience. This is the worst experience of our lives. Luckily, we had our ceremony somewhere else and that was really beautiful so we are hanging on to...

I don't blame them for the fire alarm and walking down flights-of-stairs from the 11th floor -- great exercise. However, I extended my stay -and paid- and called the front desk twice to confirm. The front desk assured me they would communicate with the staff. I remember on the second call even asking her to coordinate with her housekeeping colleagues. She assures me, "Oh, they won't knock or enter if you have the privacy sign on the door."

9:30 am knock on the door (privacy sign on door knob) 10:30am yet another knock on the door (privacy sign on door knob) it's that annoying tap-with-the-plastic-key-card noise.

She says, "I apologize, we are short-staffed..." and the kicker "the front desk never told us that you extended your stay," she proclaims. Then came the fire alarm. 🧯🚨

The Front desk says they don't knock if your privacy sign is on door -- FALSE. Twice, I would learn that was false.

Later that day, I get a call. Caller ID reads: Hilton. "That's odd," I recalled... They've entered my room. I'm at the park down the street. Why am I being asked, "When do you plan to check out?"

Later, when I return to my (paid-for) room. The privacy sign has been removed. On that call --which abruptly ended my zen at the Saukiog fountain-- I explained to the General Manager (GM) that I'm confused why this is happening. He confirms I paid. He apologizes. Now, I'm finally annoyed - my patience has left.

Later that day, when I return to the front desk to re-certify my key cards, I'm met with annoyance by the reception. A simple question about the 2-day WiFi upgrade I paid for is met with disdain. My first time (ever) to Connecticut [Hartford] and the only pleasantries are that the bus is free (until December). Tourism appears broken, but the municipal government is working for the people: I'm happy about that.

Otherwise, everywhere I've been --- except for the sweater store on the corner of Trumbull street --- every store/business has lacked customer service. I waited 35 minutes at a coffee shop for hot water... a cup of hot water. Downstairs at the restaurant, I waited almost 40 minutes to purchase one bottle of sparkling water. I don't mind being patient. However, the trend is clear: this (downtown) is not meant for tourists. This hotel was merely emblematic of the trend.

Tonight a group is next to my corner room; the amount of weed they are smoking has seeped into my suite and I'm up at 5:55 am with a second-hand high and waxing poetic on this review of my first-ever visit to Hartford. Maybe that's why I added another star - Two instead...

Our stay was excellent this trip. This was our second time staying here and Juan particularly left an impression on me. He was very friendly and super professional. His smile and laughs made our days better.

As diamond we had the $15/pp credit and were able to get complimentary late checkout. I used our daily $30 on 4 juices and coconut waters.

The text messages were not effective as the most important issue we needed resolved quickly was not addressed from the text messages. We received a text about our stay and if we needed anything. I messaged them at 2pm before I left regarding our thermostat battery dying and when we came back, the room was 86 degrees. I had to call the Front desk and An engineer came up within 15 minutes so that was our only hiccup. But we literally could not breathe in the room so I couldn't put the baby to sleep.

One of the younger female front desk staff was pretty blah too. If everyone was more like Juan, the world (and Hilton) would be a happier better place.

The beds and pillows are comfortable. The room was very clean, I personally wipe down the entire room with antibacterial wipes and found no dust or dirt on my wipes. From room 709, I did not hear any of the traffic outside. Last time I stayed, I heard the highway noise. I did hear doors slamming in the middle of the night though.

Sadly the pool is officially closed. Unsure if the sauna is still working, I forgot to check. I was able to use the sauna in March. Also, in March, I had to scan my room card in order to activate my floor for the elevator. This time the access was granted without the key card so anyone can get to any floor of the hotel.

For parking ($19/day)you get the ticket and validate it at the front desk for in and out privileges. We like this Hilton because we love the food options. Down the block is trumble kitchen which is what we had every day.

Highly recommend this Hilton but whoever handles the texting/chat needs to do better because I had the same issue in March with no one responding. Thank...