Hilton Garden Inn Salt Lake City/Layton — Hotel in Layton

Oh goodness, where do I begin.... Well they get 5 star for convenience location. Then a negative star for the room and 2 star for effort and wondeful new zealand staff. First off the room....DIRTY filthy. At check in the ladies up front were amazing and so kind. Then we got up to the room... There was mold in the shower. The telephone didn't even have a power cord and the number on the phone wasn't even the room we were in (room 310) then the TV remote was taped together with white electrical tape. The refrigerator was missing the front peg so it would just fall out when you would open the cabinet. Then the was dried sticky exploded , what i think was soda, all on the wall behind the night stand and lamp and switches. Every surface sticky and every switch had sticky fingerprints. It was disgusting. The bed was so hard and uncomfortable I was in terrible pain and had to take ib profen to make it through our stay. The only reason we didn't leave is that all hotels were booked up because of the dance competition. When I told front desk about the room they were kind and apologized and offered breakfast for free. That was a kind gesture. It's just sad that because they know they are conveniently located that they could care less if their rooms are taken care of. We coughed the whole time every night in the room, only In the room though so not sure if it was the mustyness or the mold . It's deceiving as their lobby looks nice then the rooms are run down and dirty like an old motel 6. Then comes the payment. Yes part my fault in the beginning as the bank thought the charge was fraud. But day 2 went to go have my daughter change to go to comps and we were locked out of our room. I ran downstairs to find that they had locked us out because of card decline. I called the bank got it sorted but it was just because we were out of town. I was mad because my daughter needed to get dressed hair and makeup for comps and they locked us out! Like there are other ways to get a hold of us. I mean the phone ...oh wait their still no phone cord...but I had my cell which they never called. Then the night before we left I wanted to pay to be done and get out of that hell hole and so I did. Well the day after we got home my card had been charged and additional $1,700 on top of our stay! When I called they said it was because of the system error and they hadn't checked us out....I'm like wth?!! They assured it would fall off in 5 to 7 business days and offered to add hilton points. I'm like uh..whaaa? I'm just glad it was a cc....it did fall off and they were apologetic and kind but omg so many problems. Hilton! Be better. Do better. Customers are paying 300 a night to be conveniently located at their kids already stressful competition. This stay was so incredibly awful and put so much unnecessary stress on our plate that when we got back home I got so incredibly sick 😫. Probably from the filthy room. Puts a bad taste in my mouth about Hilton and we will be staying at Marriotts from now on even if we have to walk or drive further. Not worth the yuck. WE ALSO NEVER RECEIVED THE EXTRA HILTONREWARDS POINTS FOR THE STAY. $944 LATER AND ONLY GOT THE POINTS ACCRUED FROM WHAT WE SPENT. WILL DEFINITELY BE...

So, a few things went wrong here. We booked a 2 queen bed room over 7 months in advance for a convention, were given our complete total after fees of roughly $1200 for 5 nights. Seems pretty pricey for an everyday hotel but fine whatever, its at a convention center at the time of a con i suppose thats to be expected. Upon arrival we were told there would be an extra $200 fee that was NOT stated anywhere on our totals given beforehand, plus an additional $25 fee. So with the already absolutely absurd $1200 for 5 nights, we ended up paying roughly $1425 for 5 nights in a very subpar hotel.

The bedding was fine except for the pillows... you'd think with paying over $240 per night (BEFORE the hidden fees 🙄) that you'd be getting some decent pillows but these are god-awful, they completely flatten as soon as you lay on them and everyone in my room has messed up necks now.

Why do none of the rooms bathrooms have fans?? With how TINY these bathrooms were my roommates and i were suffocating by the time we got out of the showers, and the bathrooms were VERY damp and muggy for hours after and would hotbox the rooms if we left the door open.

Our shower's drain was clogged up so badly that by the time I got out of the shower the bathtub was about to overflow, and there was a nasty slimy grit all over the bottom of the tub. We called the front desk to get it fixed, because the showers were unusable in that state, so someone came to the room, poured something down the drain, said it was fixed, and it did absolutely nothing. Still completely backed up.

The only reason service is getting 3 stars instead of 1 is because the ladies at the front were very very sweet and understanding when checking us in and we had to figure out the surprise fees.

The location was actually pretty nice. It's close to a strip mall as well as plenty of accessible everyday food/convenience places.

Overall a lot of things about this experience were very disappointing and I wish the convention I attend would switch venues. For over $240 a night this felt...

My stay: rooms great, staff, bar, gym, and lobby operations were solid.

My gripe: After check out, my issue started specifically with incorrect billing and tax exemption. Poor communication, inconsistent customer service, and several phone calls last week and this week on hold (or on the constant corporate hold that hotels are famous for "dial 1 for reservations, dial 2 for...etc.). I spent a lot of time with minimal resolve, did not get a call back yesterday (Monday) that I was told I would receive by 11 a.m. as well as no emailed corrected invoice. I get they have certain tax exemption protocol, but if they inconsistently apply the policy then that helps no one. I'm tax exempt on one invoice but not the other, as well as using a government travel charge card. I get it, Utah has specific tax laws but lets use the common sense approach. Using a government travel card has it's own rules and limitations and it's simply not paid in a timely manner unless invoices are correctly billed and documented.

On top of that, the Hilton point of sale/billing system is hard to interpret especially when it comes to refunds and how it reads (corporate problem, not a staff issue).

If the poor staff doesn't have enough time to handle incorrect billing issues (since they're busy checking people in and out/daily operations) then Isabella/managers should figure out the root cause. Possible solutions could include the managers being more active in their work centers or B. Staff more folks, which could be hard in the current job market. When a customer becomes frustrated when the business didn't handle something correctly last week or this week that was originally agreed upon, don't act nonchalantly as Isabella did which could easily imply or be interpreted it's not your problem. That "not my problem, OK anything else?" perception is what prompted me...