Hilton Garden Inn Irvine Spectrum Lake Forest — Hotel in Lake Forest

I planned a staycation at this location specifically so I could relax and enjoy a nice bath. I booked a room with a bathtub and made sure to check with the front desk that I had a room with a bathtub. The front desk representative was quick, efficient, and courteous when I arrived to check in.

When I got to my room, it was nice and spacious and seemed to be clean. However, when I grabbed the remote to watch some TV, I noticed there were smudges from previous use all over the remote. I was quite bothered and went ahead to wipe and disinfect the remote on my own.

Upon my return from a long day, I came back to draw a bath, but to my dismay, the bath plug was not able to tightly plug the drain. I tried to push the plug down, but it would not stay, leaving a large gap between the drain and the plug. After trying to unsuccessfully plug the bathtub, I called the front desk several times, but the phone kept ringing each time and I was unable to reach someone. After waiting another 30 minutes, I tried contacting the front desk again, and after several rings, someone at the front desk picked up. I explained to them that I booked the room so I could utilize the bathtub that night- as my stay was only 1 night and that I was unable to use the bathtub because it would not plug properly.

The front desk representative stated that she would check if maintenance was available to come take a look at the bathtub and would call me back. After about 20 minutes, the front desk called me back informing me that maintenance was no longer available as they have clocked out and could come take a look at the bathtub in the morning. Frustrated, I informed the front desk that I was only here for 1-night, but there was nothing the front desk could do. I asked if there was another room with a bathtub and the front desk said there was only a room with double beds that had a bathtub. It was late by the time the room was offered and it was an inconvenience to transfer rooms (as I paid for a room with a king sized bed), so I declined as I was already frustrated and tired.

The front desk asked if I wanted maintenance to come by in the morning to check the bathtub and mentioned that I would not have time to utilize the bathtub in the morning, but that they could come in the morning. I asked what time they would be available and the front desk said around 8:30a to 9am.

So instead, I took a shower because I was unable to use the bathtub. I looked for the hair dryer to dry my hair and despite the cleanliness signs in the restrooms, the hair dryer was full of dirt and smudges from previous use. It was upsetting to see this especially during the pandemic as the cleanliness standards and Hilton Promise was not reflected during my stay. I went ahead and cleaned and disinfected the hair dryer on my own.

I was awoken in the morning around 7:30a to ask if I would still like maintenance to come look at the bathtub. Due to having to work in the morning until check out, I declined. Overall, the room was beautiful and check in and out was easy, but I was disappointed with the lack of attention to detail placed with the cleanliness and also with the lack of functional use of the bathtub. My relaxing trip turned out to be quite frustrating and disappointing- I was hoping for more as I have stayed at other Hilton Hotels in the past. I hope that future customers will not have to go through what I...

Facilities are nice and clean... this review does not factor that in because the customer service was so disappointing.

I rarely write poor reviews but the customer service did not go above and beyond to rectify an error on their end.

I booked 2 x rooms with Queen Beds via the Holiday Inn Customer Service Number...

Upon arriving, we were told they could not give us the rooms because they were sold out of rooms with two Queen beds. After some discussion, they indicated that apparently the reservation made was not "guaranteed." In other words, "You didn't properly book the reservation... so its YOU"RE fault."

I then proceeded to explain that I could not control which buttons the customer service specialists pressed upon booking the reservation... I specifically TRIPLE checked on the phone with the customer service representative to make sure our reservation was as I had requested (2 rooms with 2 queens per room). She CONFIRMED multiple times and assured me that we had booked rooms with 2 queens.

So when the Manager on site told me there was nothing they could do and did not have the Queen rooms available, it was quite frustrating. I then asked what they could do to resolve the error (which was on their end) they began to blame the call center as if it was not their company.

Regardless of whether or not it is a franchise, the error was still made by them, whether at the local level or some corporate call center. They did not want to own it and just simply apologized without any resolution.

The only resolution was for me to cancel (which wasn't possible at the time) or to spend more money and book more rooms which I found absurd due to the fact that it was their error and not mine.

I'd be happy to own up to the error if it were my mistake; however, in this case it was not, and they did not give any other possible solutions save the solution of pulling more money out of my wallet. I asked to have them comp. a room with a bed in it to make up for the beds we were not given.

I had no other choice due to the situation and had to purchase another room etc.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Sadly, If you have an issue (You may be fortunate enough not to have one, but if you do...), they will not go out of their way to resolve it even if it is an error or mistake on their part.

This wasn't about the money... albeit I wasn't thrilled to have my bill go up by 33% This was about the principle. When you screw something up... You should fix it. Especially when you're in the service industry. This particular Franchise did NOT and would NOT resolve the issue because they knew they could "book out the remaining rooms for the weekend without me." True customer service right...

It’s very rare that I write bad reviews- Most of my stay was pretty average. The best part of my stay was housekeeping. Housekeeping was so kind and did a great job cleaning the rooms. The location of this hotel is also pretty good. It’s in a relatively safe area and only an 8 minute drive from the Irvine Spectrum Center. I stayed a total of 8 nights, and on my 6th night a group of 6-7 teenage boys who looked to be between 13-15 years old checked onto our floor. Some of the boys were walking around with their faces covered in a ski mask style, but I just tried to ignore it. They watched what room I went into and began donkey kicking the door extremely hard and loud. After the first time, I immediately called the desk and told them what happened. They said they would take care of it, and it proceeded to happen another 2 times. At this point my husband went to the front desk and threatened to call the police if the desk didn’t stop it from happening. The donkey kicking stopped, but about 45 minutes later the boys began calling our room phone repeatedly and hanging up. After multiple calls and speaking to the front desk at least 4 times, I called and told them they need to switch our room. Joe was very understanding and accommodating and worked to change our room quickly. I overheard his coworker contest to us changing our room, despite the harassment we had been experiencing for nearly 2 hours. She was saying if the noise is the issue (it wasn’t, the targeted harassment was our issue), then we need to stay on the 5th floor and not change rooms. I explained I don’t want this group of boys to have my room number since they’re harassing us. We were able to change rooms near midnight. Aside from Joe, no one that we spoke to at the desk seemed to care that we were being harassed. I believe we spoke to 4 people in total, and Joe was the only one who cared enough to help us. I was very disappointed with how long it took for someone to assist us. After the room change, no one ever followed up with us or apologized for the harassment we faced from other guests. The desk staff in general wasn’t very friendly or accommodating, with the exception of Joe. I would never stay here again based on the unwillingness of the staff to assist us during a time that we...