Hilton Garden Inn Sarasota-Bradenton Airport — Hotel in Sarasota

We usually stay at a Hilton or Hampton Garden Inn because of the service, comfort, cleanliness and free breakfasts, and have always been pleased. Not this time. This location is just outside Sarasota city limits near the airport in an area that has seen better days. The roof of the entrance area is in the middle of major repairs, and according to one of the desk clerks, rooms are being renovated as well. We stayed on the 4th floor, which had yet to see any improvements. No room safe, tub cracked all around fixtures, and… well see the other issues below.|Our room was clean, but we noticed several issues as we unpacked for our 3-day stay…the toilet was barely flushing, the wall thermostat wasn’t hooked up, and the telephone was dead. When we soon headed out for the afternoon, we stopped at the front desk to tell them about the issues. They said they’d send an engineer up to fix everything. When we returned a few hours later, the toilet was fixed, however, the phone was still dead. As for the wall thermostat, we were told to still use the AC/heat register controls in the unit under the window as the wall unit had not yet been hooked up. It took more two days to hear that no phone service was likely a “phone company issue” and several other rooms were having the same problem. While we had our cells phones, it seemed a major safety issue to not be able to call the front desk in an emergency. |When we had checked in, we were told we did not have a free breakfast because we had partially paid with points. This had never been an issue before, but we were told THIS location didn’t offer the service, and a regular breakfast was just under $17 each. There was a Continental breakfast option, but there was no signage, and you couldn’t tell what was what…we noticed many people were confused as to what they could or couldn’t eat and were admonished if they erred. Bacon was in one server, potatoes in another, but you had to order anything else…which included eggs to order which came with bacon…but since you could already get bacon this didn’t make sense. We learned you could also have waffles, pancakes, and who knows what else because there was no menu to indicate what was available. Lisa, the restaurant day-manager, was sweet and wonderfully helpful, but even she had trouble with the kitchen staff, as we had to wait 50 minutes for one order of eggs and one of waffles on day two because they “misplaced” the order. Granted, there were a bazillion kids running amok all over the place…part of several pee-wee sports teams staying there with little adult supervision…however….Shaya, the night supervisor, was very warm, cheery and helpful, and did comp us breakfasts to help make-up for all the issues. Thank you, Shaya!|And, speaking of the kids, a couple of them apparently thought it was funny to run down our hallway about 6am banging on random doors, ours included, loudly giggling. And on day two, they burnt toast in the lobby/dining area, causing the fire alarms to go off, resulting in us traipsing down from the top floor, and the fire department showing up. No hotel staff seemed at all concerned about getting us out.|I will say the bed was very comfortable and the pillows were good, so we slept well minus the door banging. We did have to keep the bathroom door closed at night because the pipes in the wall behind the toilet ran loudly 24/7. One thing that marred our last night was the AC would no longer work on “auto”, so it blew cold air constantly. All in all…we would never stay at that location again. Be aware if you stay there…you’re...

Overall not bad, but there were a few things that made me hesitant to give anything above a 3. I’ll start with the cons and then discuss pros.

Cons:

The first being a lack of an EV charging station for vehicles, which my partner and I rented during our stay in Sarasota. Having to go quite far out of the way to charge the vehicle was a bit inconvenient, and could easily be solved by adding 1 or 2 charging stations. Heck, roof has plenty of real estate for solar to power them, too.

Second was the rear lot - both lights on the south and southwest side of the building for the lot are out, leaving it extremely dark. Not that I didn’t necessarily feel safe, but I’m sure it would make others, especially families and women with children, feel safer if using that lot.

The third was how easy it was to hear people in the hallway through our door, and how many of the doors on the 2nd floor seemed to slam instead of close gently. As someone who unfortunately sleeps quite lightly, this made me wish we opted for the room w/ the separate bedroom.

Fourth was the inconsistent housekeeping. Toiletries were not completely refreshed every other day and my initial request for extra pillows and a blanket wasn’t fulfilled until I ended up going down and getting them from the front desk. Water bottles never replaced.

Fifth are the elevators - both cars are in need of an update and/or modernization and remind me of 80s elevators with how long they take to come/open their doors.

Sixth - the color temperature choice of the guest room hallways and the rooms themselves (bright almost blue-white light) felt the opposite of relaxing and instead felt quite sterile

Seventh - the lack of any type of available USB port or readily available place to plug in electronics was a bit disconcerting and resulted in us having to use our back-up battery packs to charge our things. Modernizing the rooms to include these very simple amenities would go a long way

Eighth- as a cost-saving measure, the rooms’ AC units are motion controlled, meaning if you leave the room for an extended period or if you don’t move in your sleep, the AC will turn off. As someone who needs cold air to sleep, this made things a bit inconvenient and uncomfortable at times, as my partner and I both give off a lot of heat. The units also need to be thoroughly cleaned.

Ninth - in addition to hallway noise being easily heard, the walls are a bit too thin too. Unfortunately we had a next door neighbor who decided to play bass-heavy music at 12:30 AM and it bled through the walls.

Final was the cost of refreshments at the mini-mart; $15 for 3 sodas is a bit wild to me personally, but hey, you’re paving for convenience I guess.

Pros:

Directly across from the airport

Right off major thoroughfare through Bradenton/Sarasota (Tamiami Trl) which has numerous restaurants, attractions, shops, etc within a 30 minute drive in either direction

Reception was, at the least, pleasant when we interacted with them

The hotel as a whole was clean...

STAY AWAY - NO HOT WATER AND POSSIBLE FOOD SAFETY ISSUES

This horrific experience occurred this past weekend, January 26-28.

We were advised prior to our arrival at the Hilton Garden Inn by family who had checked in earlier that the hotel had NO hot water.

On arrival late Friday afternoon, we asked about problem and was told that heater had been fixed and that water was being warmed and would be hot later that day. This turned out to be a complete lie! When we called the front desk the next morning at 730 am after finding only a cold shower, we were told that the heater had not been fixed but that plumbers had been called.

We checked back to the front desk mid-morning and were told the plumbers were still coming but hadn't yet arrived.

We checked back again early afternoon and was told the heater would not be fixed until two days later. Apparently parts weren't available until then!

I asked for our rooms to be comp'd but was only offered a free buffet breakfast and a $50 one night discount. I told the front desk manager Rick Ring that was not adequate given that I was told on check in that the problem had been fixed and that front desk staff lied to me.

Ring responded that $50 was the maximum discount he was authorized to provide. I asked Ring to speak with the general manager Catlin Naser who was off site but access was denied stating he wasn’t available. Hard to believe that the general manager couldn’t be contacted if there was a fire or worse!

I asked without hot water how did they clean dishes, etc. used for breakfast which was to me a sort of a disgusting, unhealthy thought.

I mentioned that I led a group of ten families who had stayed at the hotel before and would now would not return but that didn’t matter.

I am a frequent traveler. What I have encountered problems like this in the past, my rooms are always fully comp’d and alternate hotel, which is also covered by the hotel without the hot water, is offered for the stay.

Feels like the owners of this Hilton Garden Inn are dishonest or have gone cheap and don’t understand importance of good customer service. Or if they do value good customer service than there is a failure in the management and training of their employees.

In any event, we with our ten rooms will not stay there again. We will seek reversal of charges through our credit card company. I will report the food health and safety question to Florida Health next week, when their call center will be available. With this review, we hope all will beware of this Inn until their management changes. Bad place and bad people.

PS After posting this review, we witnessed another irate guest who “wanted his money back” which was refused by the front desk. He apparently had not been told at check that was no hot water. The shouting match went on for about fifteen minutes ending with the front desk threatening to call the Sarasota Police. With choices, why spend your money here? Honesty and...