Homewood Suites by Hilton Salina Downtown — Hotel in Salina

Sadly, being the highest rated hotel in Salina, the bar is set pretty low.

First off, over a half hour standing in line at the understaffed front desk on a Saturday afternoon after trying to get the digital key to work for a half hour, which it finally did....an hour after I was into the room, which I did not get into until over an hour after I arrived on property, even though the day before I put in my arrival time.

After finally getting a room key, then comes the elevator, one is out of service, one was being used by room service, who were still cleaning rooms at nearly 5 pm and the last one, it is by far the slowest elevator in the state of Kansas. Plan on, at minimum, a 10-minute wait to get on the elevator from the lobby as it spent most of its time bouncing between the 2nd and 5th floors moving people around to all of the parties going on.

Next is the ice machines, only the one on the 4th floor was actually working and it was out of ice. Ended up taking my ice bucket to Starbucks to get ice for the room, which sadly involved spending way too much time waiting on the elevator or running up and down the stairs.

Checking out was also a long exercise in frustration. Room attendants began knocking on my door at just past 0800 in the morning, I told them every time, I would be checking out but not till a little later. Finally gave up (the "No Service Needed" sign was not doing anything) and left. Got a notification on my phone that "checkout was available", tried over and over again and it did not work. Went to the now completely unstaffed front desk and began waiting for anyone to show up. Once the same person from the night before finally showed up at the desk, it was a 15-minute process to get checked out.

Finally, and not so much the fault of the hotel but some oversight from the property could have helped, the number of unaccompanied children running the halls, riding up and down the elevator and just generally out of control in the public spaces above the first floor made for a rather unpleasant stay. Seems as though there were a lot of families booked into the property for on-site company Christmas parties where the adults went to attend the parties and left the children to have their own parties in the hallways and elevator.

If there had just been one or two issues, I would let it slide as this time of year, things like corporate parties put stress on these types of businesses, but it wasn't, it started with the inability to check in and receive my key from my app, which ultimately made me late for a meeting, my whole purpose of the trip and continued the downward slide till I went to try and check out. The app kept saying these things were available, however, they never worked.

Next time, I will fly into Wichita as I did this time, and stay in Wichita, drive to Salina for my meetings and drive back to Wichita, the time spent driving would be pretty much equivalent to the time wasted just trying to check in, get ice, get the elevator and check out. At least then I will have a highly rated hotel that actually lives up...

Our stay here went well almost the entirety of our stay, it wasn’t until we were packing and about to leave that we encountered a huge problem. My husband was returning to our room and could not get in because I had the lock on the door so our toddler could not leave the room while I was getting ready in the bathroom. I hadn’t turned my phone on ringer yet for the day after waking up so I did not hear his texts and calls. Their walls are sound proof, as advertised so him trying to call to me was not working either. It wasn’t until he yelled my name loudly that I heard him and came rushing to the door to let him in. A little frustrated he was asking me why I wasn’t answering to any form, phone or otherwise and that he had been trying to get a hold of me for several minutes. While we were talking this old lady comes up to him and tells him to calm down and that they don’t need that in their hotel. He said we were on our way out anyways rudely because let’s be honest, coming up to someone who isn’t yelling and telling them to calm down is just rude. She could have asked if there was anything she could help with instead of treating my husband like some kind of lunatic but instead she made her presumptions. She then walked of. We continued packing and getting ready to head out the door when 3 police officers show up because the old lady had apparently called the cops on us for a domestic dispute and furthermore lied to the cops telling them that she saw our toddler and I crying inside the room. So then we had to be interviewed for 20 minutes where the cops saw that no one was crying, everyone was fine, and at most we were all just frustrated and annoyed at the whole situation. So to conclude I would not stay here if I were you because you may have an old lady calling the cops on you as if you were a domestic abuser just because you were talking loudly. She apparently calls the cops on and lies about any guest she does not like or who is not perfectly polite with her. Retaliating against guests because they were rude to you is just wrong and she should be fired immediately. WORST HOTEL STAY EVER. Picture of the old bag below to...

Homewood Suites (Downtown Salina) has the most clean standards I've seen yet in COVID times. (In the middle of the heartland, mind you!)

During a quick trip down I-70, I was completely disgusted with the maskless procedures at neighboring IHG concepts. Happy we stopped at this Hilton concept to stay the night.

It just opened this year! Which is a bonus from a germs-traffic standpoint, but sad for the hospitality endeavor that it is. I'm confident, however, this hotel will succeed for many years to come!

Emmanuel at the front desk, a gal I forgot the name of at the social hour (cafe treats & wine/beer from 5-7pm certain nights), as well as the room service attendant- whose name I failed to gather altogether- were all INCREDIBLY helpful. And polite!!! And timely. (I don't say this often!)

The rooms have absolutely been treated with care. Lysol stamp of approval on the front door! Dustless furniture with crisp edges-- including pillows! And they included a small bottle of dish soap accompanied by a plethora of Neutrogena products for the bathroom... for sure a guarantee I will wash, rinse, lotion, repeat during my stay.

Seriously, just a wholesome, hospitable option in mid-Kansas. I even ordered Roasted Chicken Gnocchi in the late evening and it was a yummy treat. Spiced walnuts and all! I bet this place is a HIT for hospital guests.

Only complaint, the loud TV of the nextdoor neighbor. In a world of empty hotels, why not set the house a bit more spread out? It doesn't hurt anything making the housekeepers walk down...