The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center, Curio Collection by Hilton — Hotel in Roanoke

I live in Roanoke, but every now and again I book a hotel for me/wife for something different and special. Since it's the holidays, Hotel Roanoke does a great job with decor, and I thought it would be a nice "escape" from everyday life to stay the night there. It's been years since we've done that, so I did it this year. Our prior opinion was that the hotel was overrated then, and unfortunately it still is.

Our room was fine. Not great, not bad, but just fine. The placement of the tv with the four post bed was bizarre. The tv couldn't be placed in front of the bed, because there is a window there. It was mounted off at an angle on a swivel. They did the best they could with it, but with both of us sitting on the bed, no matter how we moved the tv, the post blocked a portion of the screen for one of us. I took the hit and chose to have the screen blocked for me so that she could watch the full screen. The fitted sheet for the bed was on inside out, too.

There was a nook in the main part of the room that had a countertop, a small vase/centerpiece of fake flowers, and cabinets underneath that contained the mini-fridge. Any other hotel would have a light over the countertop recessed in the ceiling, as it's really dark there (the dark countertop color didn't do the situation any favors, and neither did the dark wood cabinets underneath). But, no light present. It was odd (and dark!).

The bathroom was laid out strangely. The vanity is very small, and a mirror, tissue box, and toiletry tray are all off to the left of the vanity on a windowsill. There was room to run the vanity the full length of the space available - perhaps even making a double sink, but instead it's just had an odd area of dead space that isn't really usable for anything. The vanity top could have run the full width of the wall and a pull-out stool could have been used to make the space a makeup table area. Not a great use of space at all, and we both found it bizarre.

The clock in the room hasn't been adjusted for the November 3, 2024 time change, so it's off an hour. Let that sink in - it's now late December, and the clock in the room hasn't been changed in nearly 2 months to the correct time. I couldn't figure out how to get it changed, so that's probably why nobody's done it over the course of 2 months. So, when you look at the clock in the middle of the night, subtract an hour in December and that's the real time. If they wait a few months, the time will be correct again, so maybe that's the plan.

To try to make things a little special for our visit, I got the "romance" package. The champagne and strawberries included were fine; no comments there. The buffet breakfast in the crown jewel, fancy, revered Regency Room? Not so great.

We arrived at a reasonable time in the morning, and plenty of seating was available. We were promptly seated, and had our certificate indicating that our breakfast was already covered - 2 buffets, all costs included (including gratuity). We were seated in a lousy spot, and one obviously created that wasn't "normal" in order to accommodate increased holiday traffic. But we are easygoing and rolled with it. It seemed to "fit" with the rest of our stay, actually. We were told that our server would be with us in a minute. 5 minutes go by. Then 10. Then 15. We were seated to the left of the desk where you check in to be seated, so we weren't buried in a back dark corner somewhere. We were 100% in plain sight of the desk. Other people were seated and being waited on after us. Not sure of the protocol at that point, and not wanting to be "those people", we ultimately gave up and just got up and went to the buffet. Never saw a waiter/waitress. I hope that individual enjoyed their automatic 18% gratuity that was built in with the cost of our meal. The food was ok.

In total, our stay was what we expected. Overrated, expensive for what it is, and the breakfast experience (as the last thing we did before checkout) just cemented the mediocrity and lack of understanding of the hype...

3 star accommodations (poor cleanliness in the rooms, misrepresentation of bed size, tiny room size, the WORST WiFi connection I’ve ever experienced with no option to upgrade, etc) - less than 1 star service.

This hotel is egregiously overpriced for what it is and has the worst customer service I have ever experienced at every level of the chain of command, starting with management and trickling down.

Every single interaction I had with an employee here was abysmal with the exception of one very sweet girl working at the Steam coffee bar early Saturday morning and one of the valet dudes.

From the check-in clerk who was as welcoming as a dead fish and seemed genuinely confused to be alive and doing their job, to the porter who cut my partner and I off from entering into the elevator- nearly running us over with a cart of luggage remarking that he “had gotten there first” to getting up to our tiny overpriced coffin-sized room that had not a queen sized bed as advertised, but a full sized frankly child sized bed (yes we literally measured it because I was so blown away by the audacity). And upon calling down to the front desk was received with the rudest reaction from the manager on duty our first night, Sheryl. This women gaslit me and argued with me for a good 10 minutes on the phone before finally agreeing to just move us to a different room with two beds that was the same price anyway 😂. We literally could not sleep in the same bed during our vacation and were told there were no kind rooms that we could ever pay to upgrade to available despite listings on their website stating they had availability.

The cherry on top was our last night when the Bartender at the lobby bar charged me $3 for a soda water after barking “what are you drinking?” by way of greeting without giving us menus with which to order something in the first place. We ended up getting food to go and leaving as quickly as possible as the three female bartenders that were working were loudly complaining about their coworkers and slamming cocktail shakers down inches from where we were sitting.

The notable exception to the terrible attitudes here was the absolute angel working in the Steam coffee bar early Saturday morning. My one tip besides avoiding this puffed up, condescending soul sucking place is don’t bother with valet. It’s $28 a night and will take forever. Just park in the tower garage across the street and use the pedestrian bridge. $8 max per 24 hours and it takes seconds to walk over to the hotel. Nice view from the bridge at least.

A note to the quality control of this hotel. The black mold shower curtain and other people’s pubic hair on the floor was not helping justify the $300+ a night I paid for our room. The food here was also so incredibly mediocre, it would pass for cafeteria fair, at a hospital. I was coming down with a slight cold and ordered chicken noodle soup one night. It came out ice cold, gray meat, on its side in a bag, with zero liquid left.

I’m honestly truly shocked by my experience at the Hotel Roanoke. Never have I had such brazenly rude customer service at a hotel of this “caliber.” I feel quite bad for these employees if they hate their lives so much working at this supposedly upscale hotel that they have to treat their customers like dirt that are literally in a good mood and are just trying to enjoy a...

If you're looking for overpriced tawdry accommodations and services, look no further—Hotel Roanoke will meet and exceed those expectations. You can get a better experience at a Motel 6 charging by the hour.

Their business model revolves around weddings and conferences, as seen in their in-room channel and skywalk advertisements. This focus is fine but should be clearer to potential guests. Observing the staff’s general care and aptitude, I question why any organization would want to book an event there.

When we arrived, six staff members stood outside the front door. None offered to hold the manual wooden doors or assist with our luggage.

We visited the bar for a drink and snack. The bartender was impatient when we didn’t order immediately. After serving us with an eye roll, we were ignored for 45 minutes at a low-traffic bar. When we finally flagged someone down, they admitted our food order hadn’t been placed but promised to rush it. Suddenly, their demeanor flipped to courteous and apologetic. They comped our meal and sent a small snack as an apology, which was appreciated. Unfortunately, after eating, we became violently ill. Upon checkout, we saw a lobby bathroom notice warning of norovirus cases stemming from their kitchen—information that should have been disclosed at check-in. A formal complaint to the Virginia Department of Health will be filed.

Our nights were nightmarish due to the loud, frat-house-like behavior of conference attendees. While some noise is expected, this went far beyond. Even with noise-canceling headphones, we couldn’t sleep due to screaming, running children, and belligerently drunk guests. Morning hallways resembled a rager aftermath—beer bottles, pizza boxes, soiled towels, and ties hung on doors.

When we called the desk to report the noise, security arrived at our room and loudly announced, “YOU’RE THE ONES LODGING COMPLAINTS!” in front of the group causing the commotion. For the rest of our stay, we became targets of their hostility. We later found the registration page for the group, whose self-awareness about their behavior exceeded the hotel management’s preparedness.

The front desk’s final solution to the chaos was to “just wait it out”—at 1:00 AM.

Hoping to salvage the stay, we explored downtown via the skywalk. However, the experience was a sensory assault: the smell of urine and blunt smoke, the sight of six homeless individuals in a gauntlet, and the sound of blaring trap music. We were accosted throughout the entire...