Hilton Grand Vacations Club Palm Desert — Hotel in Palm Desert

This review is for “HILTON GRAND VACATION” Do NOT USE HILTON. Our holiday was to HELL and back. There were so many promises, we were so much looking forward to this 3 nights stay at the Double Tree Hilton in Palm Springs. We paid “Hilton Grand Vacation” fully and also we paid lots of monies for our flights out of country and car rental at the airport, BUT, when we got to Double-Tree Hilton in Palm Springs, the lady who introduced herself as the manageress told us that “Hilton Grand Vacation” had forgotten to send the information. She was absolutely rude, intimidating and angry. She said that the Hotel was totally fully booked and there was no room available, even if we got the confirmation from the “Hilton Grand Vacation” we couldn’t stay there. I told her that this hotel is “Hilton” and “Grand vacation” is also “Hilton”, you can sort it out internally. But she didn’t care and told us, you go and sort it out yourself. It was at night and we were tired and stranded and had no place to stay. I called Hilton Reservations again and they told us that there was lots of rooms available at this hotel. We were forced to accept another almost $1400 charges to stay there for the same period we had already fully paid before. We were up all night trying to find someone at Hilton to help us. We tried for the next day also, but every person we called and wrote emails to at Hilton and Hilton’s affiliation seemed not to give a damn about our situation caused by Hilton. The very last night they changed our hotel for one night. I have been asking for a higher management personnel to contact me on several occasions and via several different departments of Hilton to discuss this hell that they put us through, but as of now (over 2 weeks) no higher management has contacted us. I am hoping that Hilton will recognize the stress they put us through and do the right thing and reimburse us for our flight and car rental as well as compensate us for the un-necessary suffering they caused us. BELOW IS OUR REPLY TO YOUR RESPONSE: Your response is very dishonest. 1- The link you have given for me to contact doesn’t work. 2- We have been calling and writing to every Hilton number and address and no body has yet come back to us. 3- Hilton Customer Relations has all the story as we have call them several times. They always say the same thing; “some one will contact you from our higher management. 4- Hilton should compensate for this mess.

Below are photos of the room’s...

We stayed in a 2-bedroom villa. My husband's sister stayed in the 2nd bedroom with 2 twin beds. The price was nearly $800/night after fees and taxes were added. It was a splurge but we wanted to pay for my sister-in-law's stay and there weren't many other options in the area. We stayed 3 nights.||For the price, we expected more. The decor is a bit dated. The linens on the bed were not especially luxurious; there wasn't a thick blanket, duvet or bedspread so the bed wasn't very cozy. The toilet paper was cheap and rough. Housekeeping was by request only. There was a packet of coffee in the room, but there wasn't any complementary bottled water. A box of date treats would have been a nice touch. There weren't any robes or slippers. All of these are minimal cost extras that would have increased the value delivered for the money.||The layout of the 2nd bedroom is really weird. There is a large open shower in the same room as the beds, and a step in tub with a shower. The water in the shower was never hot enough.||There is no dining on-site, but there is a grocery store and restaurants nearby. We ended up going to El Paseo for dinner every night. The location of the resort may be great for golfers, but it wasn't especially convenient for the activities we did (Aerial tramway, Joshua Tree, Indian Canyon, dining). ||There are several pools, including pools designated for adults only. The pool near our room was quiet at first, but then filled with screaming children. It was nice to be able to be able to go to another pool that was adults only. ||The fitness center is fairly small, but there is a Peloton bike, an elliptical and a treadmill along with a pull down weight machine and free weights.||There is a laundry room in the building, but no laundry within the...

False expectations/ wasted money. We wouldn't consider this a 4 star resort.

Positive comments: During the check-in experience, we were provided with great information and hospitality. The main building smelled great and made us think the entire experience would be high class.

Negative feedback: One blemish on the checkin experience was being told we would get a welcome packet with hand sanitizer, but we did not receive that. Instead we were ultimately asked to sit through a sales presentation- we were offered a reward if we did that, but we didn't appreciate that kind of request from a "four star resort". We don't prefer timeshare properties because we don't like that pressure.

Our main disappointment came from the room itself- our room did not have a full kitchen, and there weren't any BBQ grills close-by. Because of that, we weren't able to make our Thanksgiving dinner. We were also upset that the bath soap dispenser was empty and we had to use shampoo to wash. The towels felt scratchy as if they'd been used and washed too many times. There were instructions to put our dishes in the dishwasher before we left, but there wasn't a dishwasher. The fireplace outside worked, but didn't put out enough heat to comfortably sit outside at night.

If we went in expecting an experience like a "3 star" motel/ Airbnb condo/ WorldMark, we wouldn't have had any complaints... but we paid MORE than we paid at the JW Marriott and had an experience less than half as valuable.

Embarc should reset expectations and not try to attract the same customers as luxury resorts. Because of what we believe to be false advertising, we were very disappointed and frustrated with spending money there instead of staying at...