DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Princeton — Hotel in South Brunswick

I stayed at this hotel over the weekend with my family and it certainly did not compare to our stay at the Mahwah location a few weeks ago. We booked a room with a king size bed and sofa bed that connected to a room with two double beds. Upon booking I asked the associate to confirm the size of the sofa bed and she confirmed it was not a twin size bed but very similar in size to the double bed accommodations. WRONG. This was a child size bed (not even a twin) that pulled out of a love seat and when we opened it there were small hairs on it, maybe pet hair?, regardless - GROSS. We then discovered that there was no refrigerator, although there is space beneath the TV console for one. I called the front desk to ask if there was a way to request one and she said there was but at a $10 fee. Now by no means am I opposed to paying for something, but a refrigerator is a necessity for an overnight stay with a family that has children - hello water, liquid cold medicine etc. When the refrigerator arrived the gentleman didn't even greet us hello. He just walked in checked where he would place the refrigerator and then went back out, retrieved it and then set it up. We said thank you to get some kind of response out of him and we got nothing - silence.

After the refrigerator was brought in we went down to the pool. The temperature in the pool area was 58 degrees! Now the water was warm, but its not so pleasant to swim and then exit the pool to such cold temperatures. We went to the front desk and asked them if they could put on the heat because there were vents but they were blowing cool air and a nice gentleman came in and explained that their heating system was broken and they could only set it to the temperature it was currently on.

That evening after returning from dinner, we were unwinding and discussing our plans for the next day while the kids played (laughing and playing an innocent game) the front desk knocked on our door to ask to keep the noise down because neighbors were complaining! The audacity to actually come by and knock instead of call and then to please one family over another is just terrible customer service. About an hour after we were noise shamed a crying baby could be heard until the wee hours of the morning. Now, as people who know that babies cry and children play, we didn't make the same phone call our kind neighbors did , but shame on the staff to actually make the trek instead of calling and to even make this a call out as if there was a a huge ruckus going on on a Saturday night.

Our friends who stayed in a different room on the 1st floor mentioned that there plumbing wasn't working when they checked in and there was a constant drip through the night.

And lastly, upon checkout we waited in the lobby for our entire family to come down so we could leave as a group and there was a interview happening in the sitting area. I observed this conversation since I was literally sitting right in front of the interviewee who was clearly uncomfortable discussing his vacation time and pay scales in front of strangers. His tone was professional, but the gentleman who was interviewing him was so loud and it just made the entire scenario horrible. I felt bad for this gentleman who came in to impress and wasn't even given the courtesy of a private meeting space to discuss a potential life change.

All in all - 2 stars. My stay at Mahwah was so...

I recently stayed here with my family for two nights. We were in town for a soccer tournament. The hotel was nicely decorated and clean, but the staff was just nice. Nothing overly hospitable. They were not very eager to answer questions or did not go out of their way at all. They simply just existed. The fees and deposit were not explained to us when checking in. I was asked for payment and told a total a number which was much higher than we originally thought we would pay. I asked the rate and she told me but it still didn't add up. We got up to the room and my husband looked at our reservation email we received when we first booked. Sure enough the rates were not the same. He brought it to their attention, and it was changed. Had he not, we would have paid a higher price!!! The lighting in the room was awful and the bathroom lighting was even worse. The sconces on the bathroom wall did nothing to light up the space. The water pressure was awful as well and even though we told them we were a family of 4 there were only 3 towels in the room. We left a tip for the housekeeper and a note for more than 3 towels. Nope still got 3 and the room was barely touched. The fees and deposit were not explained to us when checking in. The wi-fi was not free!!! I am sorry but really, not free. We had to be a HH member or something. We could have signed up for the program and we could have gotten one night free of wi-fi, but we would have had to pay for the other. Coffee shops, grocery stores, gyms, public libraries, etc. all have free wi-fi! This all seems a bit ridiculous that you are basically shoving your frequent guest program down someone's throat in order to get free wi-fi. I would rather use my data than sign up for your program which is going to bombard me with unwanted emails. The highlight was the indoor pool. My kids loved it and we did think it was a nice touch for them to have blow up pool toys there to use. However, the indoor pool are was so hot. It was a super hot day outside and I get that it is a heated pool and all, but there should have been some better circulation in the pool area. Perhaps allowing the doors to open to the outside or something. Just think there needs to be a better temperature control system for when the weather outside is not and humid. We were not presented with a final bill when checking out. Not even slid under our door. Still trying to look at my bank statements to see what the final charge was. Hoping we didn't get slammed with an incidental fee or something like that. And the "Check Out" process was a joke. We were not sure if they would want to know we were leaving, so my husband went to the desk on the way out. He was not greeted, only looked at and then he said, not sure if we have to tell you we are leaving but we wanted you to know so that you may be able to get a head start on cleaning the room. He was met with a reply of," you can tell me, but it don't matter". I will stay at a Hampton or Holiday Inn long before I ever stay at a Double tree again. They honestly have so many more included amenities. I honestly would not have stayed here to begin with had it not been on the tournament list and our first choices were booked solid. Just dropped a ton of money here just to be annoyed...

Terrible experience! “Free shuttle” was non existent , charged for coffee in the lobby, unhelpful staff. I called a week ahead of time about the free shuttle they provide and was assured there would be no problem picking us up at 11pm at the train station even though it’s outside their usual hours they also offer on demand rides. I repeated several time 11pm and was assured it wouldn’t be an issue. When we arrived we were told the shuttle driver went home. We had to wait at the train station for fifteen minutes late at night (not a nice area) and pay $20 for an uber because the hotel is in the middle of nowhere! Upon arrival staff just shrugged their shoulders and said I should’ve called in advance (which I did do!!). Then the staff person gave us 2 cookies for 3 people and looked at us like we were greedy when we asked for another so we could each have one.

In the morning things did not get any better. The self serve coffee in the lobby which is free at every hotel I’ve ever been to was not free. We didn’t notice until we started the machine for my husband’s coffee that there’s a little sign off to the side that says the price (if I remember correctly it was about $5!). Once we noticed the price I decided to grab a glass bottle of cold Starbucks from the little convenience area in the lobby since we were paying anyway. To my surprise (since there are no prices listed) we were charged almost $8 for the bottle of coffee that can be bought in convenience stores for half that.

Then we asked about the shuttle to get to our university tour. We were informed that the shuttle only “runs from 8-10 and 5-7 but can be offered on demand if available.” Ok so we asked for shuttle at 10. Nope! “It stops running at 10.” Hmm. Ok, what about the ‘and on demand’ part? The unhelpful person at the desk left for several minutes to ask someone and returned to say that they “don’t really have a shuttle driver and the maintenance guy is the only one there til noon so he can’t help” at 10 or even slightly before that during the 8-10 window. So another $20 uber would be needed. Had we known the shuttle would be such an issue we would’ve booked a different hotel within walking distance of the university (we ended up not saving any money since we had to keep paying for Ubers). We had planned to leave our luggage at the hotel while touring Princeton so we then asked about a shuttle to pick us up from the university at 6 to return for our luggage and then take us to the train station. We were told it’s “on demand so you’ll have to call then to see if it’s available.” OMG! Can’t win with this place! So rather than risking leaving our luggage and having the non existent shuttle not come through in the evening which would’ve costed $40 just to retrieve our luggage and get to the station we opted to leave this terrible place and another hotel in town was very accommodating with storing our luggage for the day even though we hadn’t stayed there.

To summarize: the customer service at this hotel is terrible, the shuttle is non existent, and the coffee is horribly overpriced. As a frequent Hilton customer all over the country I don’t think Hilton shouldn’t even have this as one of their locations because it reflects so...