Hilton Brooklyn New York — Hotel in New York

Let’s start this horror story where most of these begin: the reservation. We needed an early check in for our conference so prior to booking our group called ahead and inquired about checking in earlier than the standard 4:00 PM check in. We were told that it wouldn’t be a problem at all and to just call back once we book and we can put our request in - no big deal. We proceeded to book then call back to schedule our early check in, to our surprise they then notified us that in order to do that we would need to call back the morning of our check in date and ask if they had any availability for our request, and this was something that was not guaranteed. We were appalled that they would wait to tell us this after we had paid a non-refundable amount to book at their hotel. Due to this we had to continue with our booking and call the morning of our check in to secure an early time. When we called the morning of our check in the staff acted confused at our request and quite frankly offended that we wanted an early check in, stating that we would have to call back in the afternoon as the cleaning staff hadn’t finished for the day. Understandable, but we had been inquiring for weeks why would you tell us to call the morning of if that’s not possible for you to find us accommodation without the cleaning staff finishing first. So we called back mid-afternoon like they directed and in the end we were not able to get our early check in. Shocker.

At check in we were told that we would have a $25 “destination” fee per night in exchange for credit at the bar and other amenities at the hotel. The drinks as well as food at the bar and restaurant are overpriced and you end up losing money due to this credit if you have a meal or happy hour at the Hilton. Best advice is to find a real restaurant or bar within a 5 minute walk of this and skip this overpriced monstrosity of a “bar” , as others have stated the food and drink are just not good to what you can get for the location and price.

The rooms themselves were not too bad and clean overall, but expected for the premium price we had paid. We did however smell marijuana throughout the hallways as well as elevator, somewhat disappointing for a “smoke-free” building that we booked for a work conference. Additionally, EACH shower in all of the rooms started to pool after even a minute of usage; creating an uncomfortable lake of dirty water around our ankles and legs. It was if the drains hadn’t been properly clogged in forever, the drainage in each tub was horrendous. We had brought this issue up with management but to no avail, thanks Paul!

Lastly, we were near these two rooms with toddlers/children that cried continuously throughout the night and had children that would run up and down the halls during the early hours of the morning. We explained to management the situation and our preference to having minimal noise levels during sleeping hours for the duration our stay. Again management explained that they would be unable to deal with the situation, thanks again Paul! We won’t be able staying at the Hilton...

We experienced some very disappointing series of events. The room that had the issues was 542 and the room that we had to move to was 346. Here are the issues we encountered:

The thermostat and heater did not work properly. We did not have heat and the room and it was very cold. We did not notice this until Friday night as we had business to conduct and when we got back, it was late to have maintenance come and deal with that issue so we slept through it. The next day, we called and the super came to see what the problem was and acknowledged that there was a problem. After this, he brings up to small space heaters and plugs them in as we were initially told that there weren’t any other rooms available. Then the heaters blew the breaker and we lost power in the room. The Super had to come back and reset the breaker for the power.

We got downgraded to a smaller room when we paid to have the bigger room. This was an inconvenience on it’s own as we had to re-pack and move all of our stuff.

The water in room 542 was not consistent and it fluctuated a lot (either too hot or cold). Super came to look into this issue as well.

We put the privacy tag on the front door but the room got cleaned anyways. We called about this and they said that it wasn’t on the door but when we arrived to our room we saw it on the floor in the hallway in front of our door. The tags do not stay well on the doors and even someone walking by could’ve knocked it down. I would assume they would see it on the floor and think this as well as I wouldn’t leave the privacy tag in the hallway on the floor.

In the downgraded room, the water in the tub would not drain properly and we were showering in lower shin high water.

All of these issues combined and with the amount of time the engineer came in the room (Super was very helpful though) overall it was a very bad experience and unacceptable at a hotel of this caliber. I am never a complainer and I usually just accept certain things but in this case it was not just one thing, it was a series of multiple dissatisfactions.

We were told to contact the Manager via e-mail and we did this and followed up with him and till this day I have not received a response. Due to these issues, I decided to...

Rude front desk, unannounced closure of the executive lounge services just by their pure will, an empty (more like looted) executive lounge without even water in it, an underwhelming breakfast. Last but definitely not least, zero compassion for the guests. We stayed there for the long weekend (Labor Day 2022). A major factor in choosing this hotel was the executive lounge and I called the hotel before booking just to confirm the lounge is open on Labor Day weekend and is providing services. Even when we got there, the front desk told us the hours and when we can get some hors d'oeuvre. However, when we went there at the time, there was an empty lounge that looked like a looted room and there wasn't even water in there to drink, let alone snacks or a tea. After inquiring, we were told that the lounge we got many conflicting answers including that it does not work on the weekends and they will just fill the snacks later which they did not during our 3 night stay. Interaction with the front desk at best can be described as unpleasant. A simple check-in felt like we are imposing some extra work on them. We forgot a foldable cane (for the elderly) in our room that can be easily folded to fit in a pocket. After they found it in the room (I assume during room cleaning when we were still in NYC and could come back to pick it up), they did not bother notifying us. Their lost and found does not answer phone calls and the voice mailbox was full so we couldn't even contact them about it. Finally the front desk gave us an email to communicate which we had to call again just to ask for the email again because they cut the phone off on us once they quickly told us to email. Once it was confirmed that the cane is found, we filled a form for them to ship it by FedEx Ground. After 4 business days we contacted again to follow up until they finally put some effort to ship it. And now I just realized that I was charged over $36 for a FedEx Ground (the cheapest possible service) for something that can fit in a pocket and weighs less than a pound and does not need any kind of special handling. Usually I don't have high expectations from NYC hotels or from this specific sub-chain in Hilton, but this place is really a shame on the...