Embassy Suites by Hilton Pittsburgh Downtown — Hotel in Pittsburgh

We stayed here the week of May 9, 2022 and were quite disappointed in the hotel for a variety of reasons. I’m going to do this review pro and con style.

Pros: Chef James (the omelette maker) was the best thing about our stay at the hotel. He was pleasant, entertaining and the omelettes were delicious. We also appreciated his fashion sense of the hat color/eyeglasses coordinations. :o)

The staff in the breakfast area was very efficient in getting tables cleaned.

The room was clean and the bed was very comfortable.

The water pressure and hot water availability was excellent.

Cons: The front desk staff left a lot to be desired. We arrived at about 8:30 pm. Initially, they could not get us checked in. Sometime over night, they charged my credit card almost $600 extra than what my reservation was for. The next morning, I went to the front desk to find out why. They had changed the daily rate somehow and argued with me about it until I showed them my confirmation email showing what I had booked. They also put a $75 PER DAY hold on my card for incidentals. You are not told this when you book your reservation through the Hilton Honors app. The young lady at the front desk was quite rude when trying to get their mistakes worked out. She acted like I was stupid or lying.

They will try to pressure you into doing the valet parking which is $35 per day. When we first arrived, the valet came out and told us we had to do valet because the City of Pittsburgh would ticket our car for standing along the curb long enough to get checked in and unload our luggage. I’m not sure if Pittsburgh does any parking enforcement, but the delineated lane in front of the hotel is a “loading zone” with a 15 minute parking time limit so you do have some time to get unloaded. Also, there are numerous parking garages within a couple blocks of the hotel that charge $20 per day for parking which is much more reasonable.

Check in is on the top (25th) floor of the hotel which does make checking in more complicated ( especially if the desk clerk doesn’t know how to do the check in).

Our room was on the 16th floor and down an extremely long hallway which got tedious after a while. This is not really the hotel’s fault, but I thought I’d mention it.

The hallway was filthy. There was trash on the floor that remained there the whole week.

The view from our room was pretty dismal.

The room was not especially well thought out and there were a couple of broken features in our room. First, the charging station next to the right side of the bed was broken. The little switch looked like it has been jammed in thus rendering the USB ports useless. The microwave seemed to have a glass plate on the inside that didn’t go with that microwave and it did not run smoothly. This made it clunk loudly when it ran, and I couldn’t reheat my coffee because it almost tipped over the cup.

The bathroom was the most frustrating thing about the room. It was pretty and large, but there was no place to hang towels or washcloths to dry. This would not have been a problem, but with the new COVID protocols of not cleaning the rooms, everything had a tendency to stay damp. We were able to get clean towels from the front desk. It still would have been nice to just have towels racks so we could have hung our towels to dry. There was no exhaust fan in the bathroom so it tended to get very steamed up when we showered.

The shower leaked badly out into the floor. My husband was able to slightly move the shower head off to one side to help with this issue, but it was so high on the wall he could only touch it with his finger tips, and I couldn’t reach it at all. Also, the shower stall had only one, tiny little soap dish and no shelves to put shampoo or other shower accoutrements on. This made showering awkward.

This hotel does not enforce masking at all. Not for guests, not for employees, not for anyone. The only person I saw wearing a mask...

Has all modern amenities & technology. The building looks to be an historic landmark, it’s a sturdy building. Its location is in the middle of everything & within walking distance to great stores, sites, restaurants etc. Security is present yet no over bearing they blend in and greet you. I felt safe The check in/ lobby / bar is on the 25th floor this to me felt safer & different from other hotels. I arrived at 12 at night on business for a 30 hour stay I was checked in by the lovely Ethan! If you meet Ethan I asked that you be nice & respectful to him. My room key was ready waiting for me, Ethan has got you covered. So please be nice to Ethan & tell him I said hello & thank you for his service. I arrived tired, worn out & aggravated and hungry. Ethan was working the front desk he is handsome, well dressed. Ethan changed my mood by professionally& warmly greeting me with understanding. Ethan quickly, politely & respectfully checked me in and gave me a listing of all the local restaurants. He clearly & concisely explained all of the hotel accommodation. I ended up just purchasing some snacks from the hotel’s snack area and going to my room. I hope Ethan’s employers know that he does a wonderful job. He did not make me wait long for nothing & Ethan exercised great patience while answering my questions. This was my first time staying at this hotel & given the late hour I arrived the reception from Ethan was excellent. The hotel is clean & well lit. The building is old & sturdy however the furnishing & decor is modern, in working order along with clean. The carpet doesn’t smell like mildew nor look dirty. They keep this hotel clean. Lots of elevators so you won’t wait more than 1 mins for one to come. The walls are either thick or well insulated because you can’t hear any noises in the next rooms or hallways. Every floor has soda vending machines & ice machines so you don’t have to travel to other floors. The hotels also has a lot of space in the rooms, halls, bar etc nothing is small high ceilings. The suites are 3 rooms kitchen-living room, bathroom, bedroom areas. Two tv one in bed room another in living room area. Microwave, fridge, coffee maker, sink and table, couch with a lounger. Bathrooms are big. The bedrooms are big with comfortable beds, I pull back all my sheets to look at the bed no stains no bugs. The beds are so comfortable that you have to force yourself to get up. AC gets cold. There is a closet with iron & ironing board, full length mirrors, blow dryer and the curtains are blackout style. WiFi Is strong. I slept good woke up for breakfast which was satisfying well done and hot enough choices to satisfy all appetites. The breakfast staff are total professionals & there is an omelette station that is worth trying. I later had dinner at a local oyster bar. The hotel gives you a map of at least 80 local restaurants. I definitely can’t wait to come back &...

EDITED: Just after I posted this review, another manager contacted me and said they would offer a credit for one night.

First, the folks who complain about “the neighborhood” really shouldn’t ever go to Manhattan. It’s a city. There’s a variety of people. It’s fine.

The good: Spacious rooms. Nice linens. Neutral fragrance toiletries. Shower has good water flow (albeit poor lighting).

The meh: The hotel never looked gleaming clean. It looked grubby. Always fingerprints, always scraps & crumbs on the carpet. The room looked cleanish but not really CLEAN. PIN pads grimy.

The HVAC unit is loud (adjust the TV loud), and blows really hard. It has to be large to serve a whole suite, but if I was sleeping in the living room the breeze would bother me.

Wanted room service; couldn’t get it. Phone rang & rang & rang. For 10 minutes. Turned out to be a good thing (Eat at Täkō—you won’t regret it!).

Checking in & choosing a room on the app: There was no option of room—I was only offered one room to “choose from”—and when I arrived I was assigned a different room anyway so what’s the point?

The bad: I was charged for valet parking. I didn’t drive. Watch your invoice (which you can’t do in the app or TV while you are there).

There is no security for buying from the snack shop. Could have given any room number.

When I called a few days before my stay with some questions, I was hung up on, twice, for asking the clerk not to have me on speaker phone as I have trouble hearing when people are on speaker phone.

The digital key was unreliable working the elevator.

The horrifying:

I asked for a physical key (see above) and despite their published policy, I wasn’t asked for ID. Anyone who knows someone’s name & room number could get a key to their room.

I had to change rooms after two days because there was an enormous cockroach in my bathroom. When I went to the desk at 5:30 in the morning, the clerk was sympathetic—but not surprised. Fortunately she was able to switch my room. I was switched to a lower category room, and the bill was not adjusted to reflect this.

By the way, I prefer to deal with issues directly. I wrote an email to the manager about these issues. I received a cut & paste non-answer…”thanks for your input, will take it under advisor.”

Would never consider staying here again. The folks who stayed at the AC Marriott had...