Hilton Garden Inn Palo Alto — Hotel in Palo Alto

I am a gold member of Hilton honors program, and I had a great stay at this hotel. Here are my personal notes: Pros: (For this part, this hotel deserved a 5-star review) Rohan the front desk manager was really nice. He made me feel welcome. He acknowledged the Hilton gold member status right away and offered the perks without me asking. He was very friendly. He offered $ 10 breakfast credit or additional reward points.Which I picked the breakfast credit. He also gave us an upgrade to a bigger room and waived the parking fee. The room is really clean and everything in great order. For example, the bathtub held the temperature of water for a long time and the shower drains fast. The bed is firm, which I like a lot. The hemostat, the refrigerator, the TV, etc all in great condition. Everything looks pretty new. The edges of the bathroom walls or around the bathtub also looked very clean. The gym, the swimming pool, and the hot tub are all well maintained. The location is really good. Close within 10 minutes to all the places we need to go. The room does not have any strange smell. Cons: (For this part, one star out of five was removed) Billing system: Used the Hilton app to checkout on my mobile phone. The pdf of the receipt never arrive in my email. So I went to the front desk to ask for a printout of the receipt. That was when I found out that all the perks (waive parking fee, breakfast credit, etc) promised at check-in for gold member status were not honored and my credit card was charged. The front desk manager could not find the credits in the system until I mentioned Rohan's name. Then the credits were finally applied and I got a new receipt. So it is always a great idea to make sure you review the receipt before leaving the hotel to avoid surprises like that. $12.95 continental breakfast per person is steep, considering what you get. There are just some cut fruits, pastries, and bagels, and Quaker instant oatmeal in the cup. I was expecting some eggs, pancakes or hash browns for that price. I don't recommend it unless you need the convenience of eating breakfast in the hotel and you are given the $10 credits. Instructions about the facility are lacking: I could not find the pool hours and breakfast hours on the hotel website or in the app. I did not see any posted signs about the hours, either. Had to ask the front desk for information. I suggest updating the website or mobile app hotel info to include such information. Also on the signs which show where the restaurant, the gym and pool are located, add hours to the signs. That would save the staff from constantly being asked about the hours. In suite #371, where we stayed, the blackout curtain in the bedroom cannot totally be pulled to the center to cover the entire window. It left a big gap (about 4 feet wide). So we got woken up by the bright light early in the morning. (This seems to be a design flaw only for this window. The blackout curtain in the living room covers the whole window, though.) El Camino is a very busy street. There were still cars passing by constantly late at night. Our room faced El Camino. I don't know if other rooms facing the backside is any quieter or not. $15 parking fee. In our case it was waived. But my relatives stayed in another chain hotel on the same street with similar pricing and there was no...

If we could give them 0 stars, we would. Before reserving, I called to make sure they would have a crib for our baby. If they didn’t, it wasn’t a huge issue because we could take our Pack n Play. I was told they did have cribs available. When I made the reservation, I even made a note to please have the crib set up in the room, and I had even done early check-in on the app. When we got to the room, there was no crib. I tried calling the front desk and texting on the app but got no response. We had to go to the front desk, and it turned out they didn’t have cribs. The employee at the front desk (Ashton?) tried her best. She contacted several people, checked the storage, contacted the manager, etc. (Please, give her a raise because she was kind, understanding and did all she could to help us). She gave us the card of the manager and assistant manager. Both cards had the same number, which was just the general hotel number, so we couldn’t contact anyone. There was no manager on duty, and Ashton (I’m sorry if that’s not her name) seemed to be the only one manning everything and was clearly overworked. She contacted the manager, asked us for our number and said they would call us. A few minutes later, we got a call from someone but they said they had dialed the wrong number and hung up even though they asked for Ashton. We called and texted that number to try and get a response, but we still have not gotten a response from anyone. At this point it was over an hour past our baby’s bedtime, he was exhausted and we were stressed. Ashton said she could cancel the reservation, and we would not be charged (still waiting for everything to process). At 9pm, we were on the road again, looking for another hotel to stay at. Luckily, Marriott’s Westin had some availability. I will update this review if I hear back from someone.

Update: I changed the rating the rating from 1 to 4 stars. Jason Yamada, the assistant GM, emailed me within 24 hours. He recognized our unfortunate experience, apologised and assured us we would not be charged for anything. He also offered a complimentary stay or Hilton points. Though it does not take away the experience we had, we truly appreciate the gesture and that the situation was addressed. Though we were not able to enjoy a stay with them, the room looked clean and comfortable. We look forward to having a more positive experience...

On August 23rd, I made a reservation at this hotel under the circumstances of a deeply sorrowful family situation. My grandmother was at Stanford Hospital, and I was part of the Winnett family group attending to her as she passed away. Despite my emotional state, I received multiple emails reaffirming my reservation, and I even called to confirm. I explained the urgency of the situation to the agent, as I was driving four hours away and couldn't predict our arrival time due to the hospital circumstances. The agent assured me everything was in order.

However, when I arrived at the hotel at 3 o'clock, I found myself trapped at the entrance with no one to assist me. I frantically called the front desk for 15 minutes, but there was no response. Eventually, my aunt Heather was able to gain entry, but still, there was no agent present. We struggled to get someone's attention, tapping on the glass for another 15 minutes, until a young girl with short hair finally showed up.

As I checked in, my aunt reminded her to apply the Stanford family rate, but she had already charged my card $313. Meanwhile, my aunt had to request pillows and blankets multiple times before they were provided. My sister and I entered our room exhausted at 3 o'clock in the morning, only to face another ordeal the next day.

The following morning, I discovered that the promised continental breakfast was not free as I thought. My confusion deepened when I realized I had been charged twice, leaving my account in the negative. Seeking answers, I approached the front desk, where an Asian lady and a younger Mexican girl dismissed my concerns, claiming it was a deposit that would be returned after 24 hours.

By August 27, my account remained in the negative. I contacted Paula, who directed me to speak with a manager, Gabe or Jason. When I finally reached a manager, they explained that I had supposedly made two reservations, which was incorrect. They apologized for the inconvenience and assured me the money would be refunded. Despite their apologies, this entire experience has left me deeply saddened and frustrated. It's unlikely that I'll ever choose to stay at this hotel again after...