Hilton New York Fashion District — Hotel in New York

I booked this hotel using 320,000 HH points since the average rate per night was around $500, making it a good use of points (or so I thought).||The positives: the location is good; the bed was comfortable, and the elevators were quick (I saw a previous complaint about the elevators which seems to be resolved). Unfortunately, these did not outweigh the negatives.||Upon checking in, I noticed the room (1102) was worn and not very clean. The bathroom had long hairs on the sink and in the shower, which I cleaned. The perimeter of the room carpet (which was dark blue) was lighter in color due to the accumulation of dust. There was also a layer of dust on the back of toilet. I brought this to the attention of the front desk and was told the room would get some “extra love.”||This hotel is also NOISY. While I got a room in the back (I don’t care about the view) to hopefully quell street noise, most of the noise came from inside the hotel. Each floor has about 15 rooms, the doors slam, and the closing mechanisms on the door are LOUD. The doors don’t block out hallway noise at all. So, in a city that never sleeps, expect to be one of those people. Doors slam and latches click all day and night. The rooms are extremely small, so my head was approximately 4 feet from the door, offering a very close pathway to the constant hall noise. Next, our room had a door to an adjoining room. These doors are always perfect pathways for noise from the room next door, offering all the noise abatement of a screen. Immediately upon checking into the room, I called and asked if I could get another room explaining that I could hear the conversation in the next room. I was quickly told “no” as the hotel was fully booked. I was staying for 5 nights and soon learned that it was only sold out that night. Yet no other offer was made to move me on the 2nd night. ||In addition, the ac units are old, unit ventilators (think Hampton Inn). It was both noisy and in need of cleaning, as the room smelled like mold when it was running. For most of our stay, we turned it off and opened the window. Believe it or not, the noise from outdoors was quieter than the AC unit.||On the second day, I messaged the hotel about the noise from the room next door (they had their tv on until 4 a.m. which we could hear), noise from the doors, mold smell from AC unit, and worn condition of the room fixtures. I received a prompt response from Darren A. stating that he would be “…noting these issues…” and “…looking into compensation.” I explained that I appreciated that offer but would rather have a good night’s sleep in a clean, comfortable room. I am certain that no one even considered accommodating a room change (I even offered to pay for an upgraded room). I never heard from Darren A. again.||Staff at the hotel seem nice but overwhelmed. We ate at the restaurant every day and while the staff were courteous and hard-working, there didn’t seem to be enough of them. As a result, everything took a long time – 5 to 10 minutes for a coffee refill, toast served without butter on it and then you have to wait 5 minutes for butter. A simple housekeeping request for towels (housekeeping routinely left only one towel for two people) had to be made three times over 2 days to finally get a response.||On checkout day, I asked if I could get late check-out )12:30 p.m. (I’m Hilton Honors Gold, and it’s one of the benefits offered). The immediate response was “no, the hotel is very busy, and we’ve had several requests for late check-out and have had to refuse everyone.” I then went on the app and could have booked 9 rooms for that night, so the hotel wasn’t sold out on the day I was checking out. In other words, they didn’t need every room clean by check-in time on that day. And it was unlikely that they would get to clean every room by 12:30 p.m. They took joy in declining customers’ requests. It seems that saying “no” to customers is part of their customer service philosophy.||If you are a light sleeper or value your sleep, I can tell you this hotel is definitely not for you. It has received many favorable reviews and maybe if you don’t experience any problems during your stay, you’ll be satisfied. However, if you do experience any problems, don’t expect anyone to respond favorably or resolve them. Since COVID, I’ve seen Hilton’s service deteriorate. But this was truly one of the worst Hilton hotel...

I was spending the weekend in New York and previously I have stayed in the Chelsea/Fashion District and really enjoyed the district. It was within walking distance to subway stations, within walking distance to Penn Station, and easily accessible and within walking distance to many restaurants and shops. This hotel is located in the Chelsea/Fashion District on 26th Street between 6th and 7th Ave (a block behind the Innside by Melia hotel).

The hotel itself is narrow, like many New York hotels, and that was evident in the lobby which had a wide circular car entrance but the lobby itself was narrow and long. As you entered, in front were the elevators and to the left was the small check-in desk and to the right was entrance to the hotel restaurant. Check-in was relatively quick and as a HHonor member, I received two complimentary bottles of water. I then proceeded to the elevator - there were 3 elevators but one was dedicated to go to the rooftop bar so was not accesible; another one was out of service and so were reduced down to 1 working elevator.

My room was on the 14th floor and the narrowness of the hotel also showcased on the hallways which were tight as well as the room size. I have previously stayed at Motto by Hilton which is Hilton's answer to tiny/capsule hotels and the room size at that hotel in DC and this regular Hilton in New York were somewhat similar. As you opened the door, you entered into a little hallway which had the closet, wardrobe, and coffee stand/shelves along one wall. The closet was narrow but still contained places to hang your clothes, an iron, as well as an ironing board. The coffee stand was on an open shelf next to the closet which contained the coffee maker and items on top, a minifridge down below, and another shelf/storage on top. Next to that was a mini chair space to put your luggage. Along that wall was a large desk with lots of desk space and places to plug in your electronics. There was a standard office chair which was very comfortable. Above the desk on the wall was the large TV and below the desk were drawers for additional storage.

Across the desk, along the other wall, was the bed along with two bedside tables. The bed size was a large full-size or a small queen. There were lots of pillows available and the bed was generally comfortable to sleep on - it was a bit tight so not sure if two people could fit comfortably on the bed together. Next to each side of the bed were nightstands with nightlights and places to plug in your electronics on each side. The bathroom was across from the bed and next to the desk. It was narrow but did have a walk-in shower, a toilet and a sink. There were refillable bottles of lotion next to the sink, and shampoo and conditioner in the shower and bars of soap were provided next to the sink as well as in the shower. Like the room, the bathroom contained the basic necessities but was narrow.

I did experience the wifi which was strong and was not limited to a certain number of devices. I was able to stream videos on youtube with no connectivity issues. Checkout was at 11am and I had requested a late check-out at 12pm but I was told 'to call in the morning and check'. I called at 10:30am and they said 'no, the latest we can do is 11:30am but you can hold your luggage at the front'. This was the first hotel that did not offer at least checkout until 12pm and the service was not the greatest in their response. I checked out and was going to leave my stuff at the hotel and that is when I was told there is a $2 charge to leave your items at the hotel - I wish this information had been told beforehand so customers could be aware. I am glad though, that unlike other hotels in the area the hotel does not charge a 'facility fee' per night for the wifi and the bottles of water, but $2 to hold luggage when you are demanding customers get out of the room at a certain time is...

GOD FORBID you book with a third party, other than Hilton. Should you (as I did through Agoda), you will be treated as a 10th class citizen, made to feel like you are absolutely not welcome and some kind of criminal, bound to destroy the room and/or property.

Upon check in, I discovered that my Hilton Honors gold status wasn’t valid as I booked through Agoda. Understood, however slightly ridiculous. Airlines honour membership and status regardless of where it was booked, unsure as to why it differs with hotels. Was then told that to check in, a $100USD per night “deposit” was required (~$300AUD), and must be on a credit card, with the return of funds to take up to 7 business days. I’m always astounded at how easily businesses can debit a customers account instantly, yet to return funds takes an infinite amount of time.

Should you not have the funds, as was my case ($260AUD remaining on my credit card), you can go and withdraw cash at DOUBLE the original deposit amount, so $400USD! After trying to negotiate, the awful woman I was dealing with told me I would need to get a credit card authorisation filled in by someone I knew. My family is in Australia and at the time of check in were fast asleep. She proceeded to tell me that I would need to then wake them up. After 5 minutes of this “negotiation” I was then told by her, “I’ve given you several options, I will not allow you access to the room without a deposit”. I must mention that she told me this is required, “in case I damage the room or break the TV”. To note, none of this was mentioned in the property policy section on the Agoda websites listing for the property.

I spent about 20 minutes looking at what I could do, trying to see if I could access additional funds or some other line of credit. Once I had sorted something I checked in successfully. I had my AirPod pros in the entire time, set to transparent mode. When I was waiting at the lift, I overheard the horrendous, awful woman speaking with her colleagues about me and speaking about me extremely negatively. Wow, what a wonderful welcome to the Hilton.

When opening the door to the room I was provided, I was greeted with bubbling wallpaper from what appeared to be liquid/water damage, a broken light fitting in the bathroom, what appeared to be mould in the tile grout in the shower, a broken glass casing to one of the bedside tables, mould and dirt on the windowsills, and stains on the wallpaper behind the bed.

The property listing on the Agoda website said that this property included a $0USD transfer to the airport. Well, this didn’t exist according to the awful front desk Hilton staff.

I spoke to yet another awful staff member over the phone from my room via the room phone. She was rude, cut me off while I was speaking, then told me she was placing me on hold to put me through to her manager. She then came back to me, and said something else to which I protested, then placed me on hold without telling me and transferred me to another extension that went to voicemail! I was told I would be speaking to the front office director. Understandably furious, I hung up and called back to be then speaking to Brianna, who was apparently the front office manager. She told me the hotels policy, was extremely blasé and from her tone couldn’t care less about the issue of the transfer. I asked why it couldn’t come off the deposit I had been charged, she said it wasn’t an incidental, yet kept referring to the transfer as a “house car”. I was in shock. I was told I would need to refer to Priceline (assuming that Agoda books these rates via another party, so I’m actual fact seems that there are 3-4 parties involved in these bookings). So

Bottom line, if you want to stay at this outdated, unkept property, do not book through a third (or in Agoda’s case, fourth party) unless you want retribution and to be be treated like the scum of the New...