Hilton Garden Inn Jacksonville Downtown Southbank — Hotel in Jacksonville

As a long-time Hilton Honors member, I was devastated to hear about my 23-year-old daughter's experience last night. We were supposed to meet her in town overnight before leaving for our holiday destination. However, we had unforeseen delays, so she was forced to stay alone. Around 3 am, she started feeling very sick wanting to make medicine, she went to the lobby in a T-shirt and pajama shorts (straight out of bed, thinking the lobby would be empty) to grab a quick Gatorade. She waited while the young lady behind the desk was apparently enthralled with her task. She started to feel increasingly ill and asked if there was any way she could just give the room number to add the drink to the account. She was told, "No, not if you want the Gatorade." She said the attendant was extremely rude, no doubt having dealt with local concert goers all night that my daughter said filled the hotel. She waited another two minutes and advised the desk attendant again that she felt ill, to which there was no acknowledgment. Sadly, unable to hold back, she got physically sick right there on the desk, the floor. She was advised she had to leave immediately and was essentially "put out" via an exterior side door - in her pjs as she was dressed to "finish puking". The door had no handle and she had no key, so even though she no longer got sick, she had to walk around in the middle of the night all the way to the front of the building to get back in the room wearing a pj short set. There was no attempt to show her to the nearest bathroom, or offer assistance. This wasn't someone staggering in from a bar, this was someone who had been asleep, causing no issues, and felt sick and was met with a locked door and kicked outside. She was humiliated and felt so embarrassed and awful and upon coming back in, apologized to the desk attendant - he same woman - repeatedly and said how bad she felt and that she couldn't help it. The woman refused to look up, make eye contact or even speak to her. She went back to her room in tears, feeling awful about the exchange. I have never experienced anything like the service she received as exclusive Hilton customers for over a decade. I am saddened by the staff's inability to deal with unexpected illnesses and that the protocol is to throw them outside in the cold and dark in their pjs instead of showing them to the lobby bathroom or ensuring they had the help they needed.

This has made me rethink our upcoming Hilton experiences reserved. Do better, and apologies again for the...

Sometimes you need to control the things you have control over. The things that they have control over and haven’t done anything about are things in the bad and ugly comments- The good: Free garage parking, good size room, digital keys, small fridge, Keurig and microwave in room, pool and hot tub, motion activated light in bathroom (could be dimmer for those that don’t need full light for the night time visit), towels SMELL Clorox clean, pillows were good, clothes storage 6 drawers under the tv are available along with a dark closet and a desk. The a/c works, plenty of places to plug in for chargers by the bed

The bad: construction closing the street, the train horn every time it comes past , old infrastructure and fixtures, toilet has to hold the handle till it goes down, travel sized soaps don’t match, shows head is for someone who is 7’- not 5’. The water never got hot, carpet worn and frayed, ceiling painted 2 different colors, hole in curtain, mattress is dented it’s so old, no place to open your suitcase up (stand or counter) no breakfast coupons given, the air conditioner is a large window unit in the wall, controlled by a thermostat on the wall. The furniture shows lots of wear- parts of the veneer is pulling off in several places as well as scratches at the corners from years of use.

The ugly: room not clean (someone’s night guard was on the floor, bathroom had someone else’s hair and ‘stuff’ on floor, after my morning shower- I had to get a clothes hanger from the closet to reach a towel, and when I did. I buried my face to dry it then pulled back and saw something black- did I miss some makeup? No it was someone else’s dark curly hair, ). The sliding glass doors are open- and don’t shut or open further . So anything can come in. (Person, weather, bugs)

It’s a good sized room. But it’s like they ordered furniture for a smaller room and stuck it in here, yes it fits, but it doesn’t “fit”. So many brands and chains have updated their rooms and furniture and fixtures, I hope this one does soon. If you needed to bring a cot or pack n play or had several large suitcases you could have them here and not be encumbered. - hotel- if you want to know which room we stayed in leave a response- I’ll tell you and my followers will...

We arrived at 3:09 pm check in time says 3:00 pm. Our room was not ready. The women at the desk acted as this was routine. We asked if we could leave our suitcases there and they did let us do this. We went out to eat and shopping and arrived back at 9:00 pm. After following several children that were dripping wet from the pool through the lobby and then up the elevator watching the water pour off of them and avoiding this as not to fall we arrived to our room on the 5th floor. After getting to our room and going in we found a room that had a distinct odor. This was unpleasant but since we need an accessible room that is all they could offer. We had read there might be train noise and clarified that there were ear plugs in the room they said "yes." There were none and we had already changed before we noticed this so between the train and the ghetto noises of people screaming and fights in the halls and outside( we were on the 5th floor) we did not get more than 3 hours of sleep. We had called when we arrived in the room for a wake up call as we had to be up by 6:00am. That did not happen either. We were told the bed was adjustable and we found the controls at the top of the bed under the fitted sheets. They did not work either. All in all I have stayed at better 2star hotels (in a crunch ) normally only 3 stars and up they were far supervisor to this (motel) sorry but I can not classify this as a hotel. We were charged 9.99 to park right outside. I still did not understand this and was truly worried that with all the screaming and banging we heard outside that our car was going to be on blocks in the morning. Thank God it was not. There is NO free breakfast it was 12.95 a person for the same stuff you will get at Embassy Suites for free. If this place had not said Hilton on the outside I would have guessed this is what a travel lodge or motel 6 was like. If you like to waste money stay here. I will not stay at Hilton again. Very disappointed. So happy only had to endure this place for one night. I noticed the gift bags but was not given one. I wonder why they had a sign in the room that said " Hilton Garden inn...