DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel & Suites Houston by the Galleria — Hotel in Houston

This was the worst hotel stay I have ever experienced.

Not sure what all of the positive reviews are for, but I paid extra to stay in the "suite" thinking it would be a nicer room than the average hotel stay. I never book anything fancy so I was really excited to have a nice place to stay after being on the road all day with my girlfriend.

When we got to the front desk, the woman working was on the phone (on speaker) with her boyfriend and was completely distracted/uninterested in helping us. She did not explain ANYTHING at all. Just took my payment and ID and basically shoo'd us away.

We got to the elevator and someone else walked in with us. They swiped their card before we could, so we rode with them up to our floor. When we got to our floor, we realized our key card wasn't working for the room. We tried to go back down but we needed a working key card to get back to the lobby, which we didn't have.

My girlfriend ended up stuck in the stairwell while trying to get a new key card because again, doors would close behind her and she needed a keycard or code to get back to the floor I was on. The only exit door from the stairwell led to the outside and NOT the lobby, and it was late at night so I didn't want her to walk to the lobby alone (I was waiting outside our room with all of our luggage).

I ended up trying to call the lobby to ask for help (the hotel was not busy) and got stuck in a loop where I was put on hold repeatedly and not able to get help. I tried the phone in the hallway. No luck.

After about 40 minutes of her being stuck in the stairwell and myself being stuck outside this room that I paid extra for, I was finally able to talk to someone. I explained which floor I was on, the nearest room # to the stairwell which my girlfriend entered, and I explained that she was stuck and it was an emergency. I was told someone would be there shortly to walk her back to the lobby. 20 minutes passed and NOBODY came. No follow up, either.

She ended up having to sprint around the perimeter of the building alone, late at night. I was extremely unhappy this happened this way. When she got to the front desk, they gave her a new key and that one was ALSO defective. She had to go back a third time to get a different key, and when she expressed a bit of frustration about the key cards not working, the front desk employee looked her in the eyes and told her that we "didn't check in."

This is incredibly unprofessional behavior. After showing the front desk lady that we did indeed check in, she (with an attitude) gave my girlfriend yet another key card that finally worked.

Over an hour of sitting around and getting stuck/ignored just trying to access the room we paid for is absolutely unacceptable. I have personally worked in the hotel industry for years. The service at this hotel is pathetic and infuriatingly bad.

We finally got into our room to find that the carpet was disgusting (room 1305), there was no hot water in our shower, the water pressure was bad, and the bathroom looked like it hadn't been cleaned.

We were too tired to request another room. We did not want to deal with the lady at the front desk anymore. She was insufferable.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of water dripping through multiple spots in the ceiling next to our window (it was raining). I used all of our towels to prevent the spread of water.

I genuinely cannot believe I paid what I paid for such an awful experience. This hotel is THE WORST hotel I've ever stepped foot in. I did not even want to address any of our issues with any of the staff as I knew they would not be willing make things right for us.

I will not be back. I will make it a point to let everyone I know who visits Houston to avoid this place like the plague. I'm thankful I didn't end up with bedbugs in my luggage or something like that.

AVOID...

Two weeks ago, my boyfriend planned a surprise birthday celebration for me at this hotel, inviting my closest friends for a special night. It was supposed to be a memorable experience—but it turned into an absolute nightmare. We checked in on March 11th, excited for the celebration. My friends had all come together to surprise me with thoughtful, sentimental gifts—over $2,000 worth of them. Many of these gifts were incredibly personal, including items meant to honor the recent passing of my grandfather. But by the evening of March 12th, everything was gone. According to the hotel, the nighttime housekeeper “allegedly” got confused and assumed we had checked out. At 9 PM. Who checks out of a hotel at 9 PM?! It made absolutely no sense. Yet, when I confronted management, their response was beyond dismissive. They claimed there was “nothing they could do” and handed me a trash bag containing the only items they “recovered” from my room—a deck of playing cards and a shirt. That was all that was left of my stolen belongings. When I pointed out how ridiculous it was that they returned my things in a trash bag, one of the workers had the audacity to correct me and say, “It wasn’t a trash bag; it was a laundry bag.” As if that somehow made it better. Those weren’t just random items—they were gifts from my closest friends, carefully chosen to make my birthday special. And now, they were gone. Desperate for answers, I met with the Director of Housekeeping the next day, only to be fed more absurdity. The housekeeper claimed she never saw the items she took. He took my claim and promised to follow up. A week and a half passed. Silence. Fed up, I personally went to the hotel last Thursday. The front desk worker, “Pinky,” told me the Director was there and she would get him. Twenty minutes passed. Then she returned with a smug response: “He said there’s no reason for him to speak to you because he already sent the claim.” But guess what? That was a lie. After finally getting in touch with the claims department, I found out that he never actually submitted the claim until after I came back up there. So not only did they steal from me, but they also lied and stalled, hoping I would just give up. Excuse me? A Director of Housekeeping refuses to face the person whose valuables were stolen?! Furious, I demanded she go get him. And that’s when she lied again. She suddenly claimed he had left for the day, then shooed me away like I was an annoyance. This hotel ruined my entire birthday experience. If you value your belongings, do not stay here. I am not the first victim of theft at this hotel, and their passive, dismissive attitude toward these major security issues is appalling. On top of it all, I couldn’t help but notice how they treated non-colored guests with kindness and respect—while treating others like a burden. Stay here at...

I travel to Houston often for work. I WILL NEVER STAY AT THIS HOTEL AGAIN!!

The trouble began at arrival. The parking staff would not allow me to park near the front of the hotel long enough to unload and check in. I was here for work and therefore had a bunch of equipment I needed to unload because it cannot be left in my vehicle. I was forced to go ahead and park then bring my stuff over without a cart. Then the parking garage doesn't have an elevator. So I had to either go down stairs or walk the long driving ramp with all of my stuff. I had to make several trips. Yes, if I had used the valet, I would have avoided that. But I work for the government so I'm not allowed to use valet.

Then the digital key doesn't work on the parking garage OR the elevator. I had to go to the desk to get a physical key. And the line at the desks were really long every day of my stay. It was a 30 minute wait just to get a key. A lady in line finally told them to cancel her reservation because everything was taking so long. The front desk staff would just randomly wander off without saying anything about where they were going. Everyone would have to adjust to other lines after waiting for that person.

Then there was only one of the four elevators working .... for a 26 floor hotel!! The wait was horrid and everyone would pack in as a result. Did I mention it took several trips to get my stuff up? Because in addition, they only had one cart that was only allowed to be used by the valet staff apparently.

Icing on the cake was the room. One night the air conditioner quit working for half the night. And there were very few outlets, and none in the desk area. Completely impractical. The 26th floor smelled like stale cigarette/cigar smoke and the elevator lobby had a bunch of equipment for repairing the elevators .... that I never saw being actually worked on for the 4 days I was there.

The only bright spot was the staff at the bar. They were kind, friendly and efficient. Maybe the hotel should find people like them to work the front desk??

Ok, it gets worse!!! I paid $58 for a 2pm late check out for my last day. When I get my bill, I was charged that late check out fee PLUS a $50 late check out fee on top of it!!! When I called, they said I didn't stop by the desk to physically check out ..... in those long lines I talked about. I had a work appointment and couldn't wait. And usually Hilton will do an automatic check out for me. I was not in the room past 2pm. I called accounting and they told me it was my fault. But they did reverse that $50 charge for the one time only. No worries, it won't happen again because I'd rather stay at a Motel 6 than ever darken the door of this...