Hilton Garden Inn Ft. Lauderdale SW/Miramar — Hotel in Miramar

Let me first start by saying, I have been a loyal Hilton Diamond member for many years and have stayed at Hundreds of locations in and out of the country. There are times when I have issues here and there, staying in hotels as much as I do, it is inevitable. However, I generally let the manager know and trust it is taken care of. At this location, from the time of arrival, the stay was terrible so I felt it necessary to email. At the check-in, I spoke to the gentlemen and asked how he was doing that evening, his response was "good". A bit shocked as I was exhausted from a 14 hour day, I just smiled and grabbed by keys. Walking to the room, the halls appeared to not have been vacuumed in several days and the hotel smelled like marijuana. Entering the room (525), the door appeared to be open, but upon further look, it was just a damaged door frame. The issue is, since it was close to the elevator, I heard everything. In the room, the bathroom tub had visible mold issues and there were multiple towels that had hair on them. That night, there was a man and women arguing in the hall until 2am. I called the front desk and let the person working know, and he said it would be taken care of. This continued for another 20 minutes. The next morning around 9am, there was a lady, (at a different room), who was screaming and literally kicking the door as it sounded like someone kicked her out. This went on for at least 15 minutes, and I kindly asked her to be respectful of others and she rudely looked at me and kept kicking. I called down to the desk and tried to speak with someone, and as I was telling the lady what was wrong, she interrupted me and put me on hold. Maybe 5 minutes later, we heard another two women enter the room and they were yelling extremely loud at each other. This turned into a physical altercation and then we heard the door slam shut and people yelling in the hall. I went down stairs to let the front desk know, and saw the lady that I asked to quiet down, getting in a car and leaving. I tried to let the lady working at the front desk, but she was extremely busy so I patiently waited. I finally told her and since I had waited so long, I asked about breakfast as they do not serve any (I assume due to covid). She told me breakfast was $6 which they signed per your room and was in a paper bag. I let her know I was a diamond member, and she then gave me a bag which contained a bagel, a fruit, and a couple of other items. If I wasn't a diamond member and had to pay this, I would have been even more frustrated. Check out was fine but again, overall, I was extremely disappointed as this building is not being managed very well at all. I will never stay here and highly recommend no one else...

I'm not sure how to rate this hotel. On one end there were a lot of issues, yet they were quick to resolve them. The staff is wonderful, but they're dealing with an aging building and corporate issues es beyond their control. I'm the type of person who just wants to be left alone in my room after I check in. I'm not antisocial, just need to unwind after traveling.

Hilton offers a digital room key. I preselected my room and waited until 3:00PM to check in. By 3:20PM, it was still not available, so I went to the front desk. They checked me into a different room than I had selected. It wouldn't have been a big deal except that I wanted one on a lower floor so I wouldn't have to deal with elevators. There was only one functioning elevator, which is another issue in and of itself.

In my room, I was happy with its size. The room, however, was showing its age. For example, the bathtub was chipped and some parts repaired with blobbed on nail polish. The toilet wouldn't stop running. I called the front desk, and they sent someone to fix it immediately. He fixed it temporarily, but it needed repairs beyond what he was authorized. Again, I just wanted to unwind, yet here I was dealing with repairmen. He was super friendly, quick, and did everything he could.

There was no functioning ice maker on any floor. The hallways are hot and humid, not seeming as though they're air conditioned. To get ice, you have to ask the front desk and they'll get it for you at the bar. So the staff is helpful and tried to resolve issues, but they should have whatever support they need to have functioning buildings.

As for breakfast, it is NOT included unless you got a special package or certain honors rank (the buffet was still more than the hotel credit they give). If you do buy breakfast, they will add a tip into your bill. The buffet was well overpriced for what you get. You could get made to order egg items, bacon, etc. (no vegan or vegetarian options). I ordered à la carte off the menu. We travel a ton, and other hotels are offering non-dairy milk and gluten free food like muffins or bagels. The rest of the buffet was your typical waffle maker, cereal, and yogurt. The staff at breakfast was super nice and helpful.

The pool is situated at the front of the building. It's somewhat concealed with shrubs. It's not a relaxing pool since you're literally in the parking lot next to the front entrance. Obviously, the staff can't do anything about it, but if you're looking to relax by a pool, I would go elsewhere.

Less than a mile away is a Home2 Suites. The rooms are large with full kitchens. The staff was also friendly. Given a choice, I would go there over...

Staff tries but facility disappoints completely

I'm traveling for work and so this place has been booked prepaid for an entire week. This means I couldn't leave (because I couldn't get a refund) despite the saga of unfortunate events that happened just within the first 3 days of my stay.

Immediately upon arriving, I noticed that my room has a funky smell, kind of like musty old cats? The maid on the floor (who didn't speak a lick of English) sprayed Febreze all over the room. When I finally finished unpacking and kicked off my shoes to relax, I realized the carpet felt gross and sticky. Yes, carpet. Fine, that could be dealt with by wearing socks.

My final straw in that room was when I found tiny bugs on the counter. Management sent up their "engineer", who also didn't speak a lick of English. So with my broken Spanish, we discussed the bug issue. He claimed they were just ants, which was possible, but still gross. So he offered to spray them with bug spray. In my room. 5 feet away from my bed. Where I'd be sleeping and inhaling the toxins all night. Not ok.

I ended up changing rooms that night, two rooms over, on the same floor. I also requested a dehumidifier since he claimed the smell and sticky carpet were due to humidity in the air. I wasn't ok with running the A/C 24/7 and freezing my ass off. Generally I feel like you should be able to be comfortable in your own room, even (or especially) if every Florida restaurant and building is over air conditioned and freezing.

As it turns out they provided me with a defective dehumidifier. The next day I discovered my carpet floor was soaking wet and my room had started to smell again. The sensor to detect when the unit is full didn't work so it had overflowed. The staff claimed the unit was fine and told me to try again. They also offered to dry the room in the morning so it would be back to normal.

They did not dry there room out; the carpet was still a bit damp when I returned and the room smelled even worse. Further, the unit malfunctioned again the following day and overflowed onto my carpet completely again. It was the only unit they had available.

A lot of these problems are not the fault of the staff. They tried very hard to accommodate me during my stay. But they were given a low quality facility and poor tools to handle problems that arose. I appreciated everything the staff tried to do for me but by day 3 I started dreading having to return to the hotel and discover another new problem after a long day of work. I wouldn't recommend...