Hilton Garden Inn Rockaway — Hotel in Rockaway Township

I had a reservation here in July for my brother's wedding. I don't even know where to start as this was absolutely the worst wedding hotel story I have ever heard of/experienced. I DO NOT recommend booking a wedding block of rooms at this hotel as management is very poor here.

About 5 weeks before the wedding, a relative called the hotel to add a day onto his stay, as he would be arriving early. When he called, the front desk person told him that he would add the day, but they might be cancelling the entire wedding block because the A/C was being fixed and they didn't know if it would be done in time. This was a huge red flag, as a GUEST of the wedding was told this information before the Bride & Groom.

When the Bride called to follow up on this, she spoke to Debbie, who could not guarantee that the block of rooms would be available, had an obvious attitude, and said, "How do you think I feel having to call Brides and tell them this news?" I am sorry ma'am, but I bet you don't feel as bad as the couples who spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a wedding, and don't have guaranteed accommodation for guests coming from out of town and out of country.

The bride and groom got no where for 3 WEEKS with this hotel. The groom even drove over an hour to the hotel and sat there until there were able to speak to someone. The general manager, Joel, refused to see them and they were unable to get anything confirmed as to whether they were going to have a block of rooms for their wedding which was now ~2 weeks away.

The hotel eventually notified the Bride and Groom that they would be unable to accommodate their wedding block and they gave an option of 4 hotels that could accommodate them. The bride and groom signed a contract to transfer everything over to another hotel, but were not notified that every room transferred as King rooms, but we had multiple doubles that were booked to accommodate families. The new hotel shared an email thread between them and the Hilton Garden Inn notifying the Hilton Garden Inn that only King rooms were available, but the Hilton Garden Inn intentionally left that part out so the Bride and Groom would sign the contract and they would not be liable for anything.

LUCKILY, there was a block that cancelled at the new hotel and with a short time to spare, we were able to get the double rooms, with minimal help, support, or compassion from the Hilton Garden Inn.

The Hilton Garden Inn could have avoided this negative review if they were transparent and compassionate about the situation. If the Bride and Groom were confident that they would receive answers and this could be resolved in a reasonable amount of time, there would not have been an issue. Instead, they decided to withhold information from the Bride and Groom and have the information slip up to a guest. Bride and Groom should have been notified before the guest was. Then, after the Bride and Groom found out, the reaction from the Hilton Garden Inn was nothing short of appalling. For a couple that had a block of ~40 rooms contracted with this venue, they were sure treated like an afterthought. If you want a hotel management that you cannot trust will keep your reservation for your block of rooms, this is the...

I normally don’t like to write bad reviews but unfortunately my experience was so awful that I would like for others to at least know what they’re getting into. I used this hotel for my wedding in May 2024 and if I could do it again, I would steer far away. So many things went wrong that I am just going to list them:

-The hotel was planning to undergo renovations and we were told that they would be completed by the end of March 2024. Direct quote: “It is going to be all brand new and beautiful by the time of your wedding.” We were also told that the renovations would be done in sections by floor (replacing carpets, repainting, new linens). It was a shock when we found out that the renovations would be delayed and that the hotel and lobby would be unavailable (a lot of brides, including me, chose this hotel because it had a bar for an after party). -No one could believe the level of construction when we arrived; the place was being gutted. The outside was a complete mess and I am attaching a photo of the check in signs for a laugh. -Check in was a disaster and set up in a narrow hallway at the back of the building. Upon arrival, we were handed out flyers that the water would be shut off most of the day on the day of my wedding, which had never been communicated to us prior. -The computers went down and people couldn’t check in. Room keys would randomly stop working. -My mother in law had spoken with the hotel and moved our block’s check in up an hour. However, upon arrival I learned my bridal suite was nowhere near ready. Worst of all, this caused me to be late to my own rehearsal dinner. I was pretty angry about this and later caught wind that I was being referred to as the “mean bride” by staff. I found this pretty unprofessional and it seemed like the staff was just in general unable to handle the renovation situation. -The AC in my suite was broken and not fixed for more than half the weekend. -One of my guest’s rooms had no working lights. -Another guest’s room was missing the bathroom doorknob. And another guest’s roof leaked on her to the point that she had to take a shower. -Half the floors were completely exposed with construction and there was only one really slow elevator in use. -Loud banging could be heard at all hours, including in the middle of the night and early morning. -The fire alarm went off on accident in the early morning the day of my wedding and people had to run outside in confusion.

My guests and I do not feel that this hotel should have been kept open during the renovations. This is not the first time they have had issues like this; their HVAC broke last year and brides had to find a new hotel right before their wedding. If you are considering using this hotel for a wedding, I would encourage you to read other Google reviews and reviews in the bridal...

STAY AWAY! First I would like to start by saying that I typically do not write reviews even when the service isn't great but this is an exception. If you are hosting a wedding/event in the area I strongly advise you to consider going across the street before booking here.

Here's my story: I booked a block at the Hilton Garden Inn Rockaway for my wedding and everything was relatively smooth leading up to the event. Communication was decent and they have a great portal to check on who has booked etc. On the night of my wedding their computer system went down. I'm sure this will probably not happen again but the way the situation was dealt with was absolutely appalling. My guests arrived and they were unaware of which rooms were occupied (b.c of the system failure) so instead of figuring out an efficient way to get this information they didn't let all of my guests check in (even though it was after check in time). Their "solution" to the problem by having everyone hand write their information and then took photo copies of their ids/credit cards. They let my guests know they would be able to check in after the wedding (really unacceptable). Okay fine so after the wedding we went back to the hotel bar while people waited for rooms. The staff was completely unapologetic "it's not our fault the system is down" and some of my guests didn't get rooms until 1AM....They had stacks of everyones information (credit cards, IDs etc) and were unable to find one of my guests documents so they handed it over everyone's paperwork for us to go through and try to find to no avail. One of my guests was given a room that other people were occupying and walked in on them. They did not apologize to me or my guests and would not issue a discount or refund (even thought some people didn't get a room until 1AM). This was their response via email to me about the issue:

"I spoke with my manager regarding your guests rooms regarding this weekends system failure, and it is with regret that I must inform you that he will not be reimbursing any room charges.

The system failure was an unforeseen event that was out of our control. We are a 162 room hotel and every guest arriving this weekend was affected by the system failure. Our staff did the best they could do under these circumstances since they were unable to identify which rooms were vacant, dirty, occupied or vacant ready."

DO NOT GIVE YOUR BUSINESS TO THEM. There is a Marriott across the street that also housed some of my guests and they were good to deal with! I understand that things happen but not taking responsibility for their own system...