Hilton Garden Inn Detroit-Southfield, MI. — Hotel in Southfield

As a Hilton Garden Inn, you don't expect it to be as nice as super high end hotels, but you do have an expectation of having a clean room, reasonably in good repair building, and friendly and hospitable staff. This Hilton missed the mark on everything.

The room wasn't clean, the hotel building is in the worst condition I've ever seen a Hilton property and the staff was not just offensive, but they were downright racist in their comments towards white people.

Upon checking into the room, the bathroom had noticeable hairs (see picture) in the shower, and the floors did not appear swept nor vacuumed.

The building has massive deferred maintenance. While they are currently re-tiling the communal bathrooms on the first floor, there is no work being down on the rickedy elevators that grunt, groan and shake while you're on them. I'm not a person afraid of elevators, but these elevators do not give any semblance of reliability or safety. There are also extensive and visible signs of damaged walls and wall paper (see picture), lack of painting, cracks in flooring, and items such as a cracked garbage can that absolutely need to be retired (see picture). Rust as pours out of the shower facuet when first turned on.

Most troubling of all is the incredible prejudice displayed by their front desk lady, manager and one back office person against white people. After checking into my room, in the wee hours of the night (via the App keyless entry), and seeing the poor condition of everything, I waited until the next morning to approach the front desk staff.

When I went to the front desk and inquired about the block of rooms and breakfast, I was told there was only one person allowed free breakfast and that I would need to pay for our second person. When I asked that that seemed weird, and if there was any flexibility, particularly given the poor state of the hotel and the high price being paid, the lady said she'd ask her manager and then get back to me. I was polite with her and thanked her for her efforts. (She never got back to me by the way)

Given that I had two work calls and my teenager was still sleeping, I then went to the business center (which was adjacent to the front desk, and speaking of disrepair, had multiple light bulbs not even in the fixture so the lighting was super dim. See picture).

As I booted up my computer, I could overhear the front desk lady go to the back room (which shares a door with the business center). She was speaking loudly enough that I could hear the entire conversation.

Summary of conversation that I overheard and jist of the words said: Front desk lady: "All of them white people are the same! They all be entitled pieces of *#$%!". Manager asked the lady what went on? She then further stated how "all of them white people just trying to take everything and steal like they normally do." Manager then echos the same sentiment ("Yep!") and asked whether she offered any concessions (or a free breakfast to compensate for the issues). Front desk lady says "Hellz no!" Manager goes: "Good. Them white people don't need anything. His white $#% (butt) can leave and go elsewhere if he don't like it. F#% him!"

If I could have left that hotel, I would have. However, I was forced to stay there given a stay and play sports tournament.

As a side note, their breakfast was not good. Coffee grounds were in the hot water. The food was sparse and not good.

As a further side note, despite attempting to contact the front desk twice through the app, both times I did not receive any response.

Overall, even setting aside the racist attitudes and opinions of the front desk lady that were clearly condoned and encouraged by the manager, the hotel is way overpriced for how poor of...

Concerns about the Hilton Garden Inn Detroit-Southfield

I booked the Hilton Garden Inn Detroit-Southfield on January 30, 2017 for an event May 20, 2017. At the time, I worked with Patty Drew as the sales and events manager. One week before my event I received a phone call that Patty was no longer with the company and that Valerie Wiese would take over my event. When I booked my event, I was told my hotel room would be complimentary once my guests booked at least 10 hotel rooms. Valerie, could find no proof of that in the contract and unfortunately, Patty was of course now gone and could not vouch for the agreement she promised me. So, I was charged $159 for my suite, even though I had over 10 guests who stayed at the property. The night before my event, I wanted to have a meet and greet in my suite. I was told instead the hotel would give me the sixth floor “boardroom.” The boardroom was a regular hotel room that was clearly still under renovations. The counter tops were still dusty and dirty. The hard floors at the entrance to the room still had dust and dirt from the installation of the counters. I served food in a dirty, dusty room because the staff never came to clean it up. In addition, there were no hand towels or soap to wash your hands in the “boardroom” bathroom. I asked for a trash can to be brought to the room, and no one ever brought it to the room. We asked for a carafe of water and was told it wasn’t “in our contract.” I didn’t want bottled water. A jug or pitcher of water would have sufficed. We asked for more chairs in the room, and we never got those as well. The day of my event, I had numerous concerns. The air in the banquet hall never seemed to kick in, and I had a room of over 100 people!!! As the day went on, it got hotter and hotter in the room. Staff never fixed or address the air conditioning. The volume on my music was too low at the beginning, which affected the introduction of speakers. We had to literally find staff instead of a designated staff person checking on us to see if we needed anything!! I paid for the mic use, which was horrible! Every other word my speakers spoke, the mic would go in and out. The staff kept trying to give us the clip on mic, but when you have 3-4 speakers, putting that mic on and off causes an event to lose time! Very rarely did the staff come into the ballroom to check on how we were doing and if we needed anything. Courtney and Jamil were very helpful and friendly. But their hands seemed to be tied on a lot of things. My guests asked for more salad dressing at lunch and was told the kitchen was closed! Why is the kitchen closed the day of a major event at your hotel at noon?! I’ve been to corporate events where coffee, tea and water are available all day throughout the 8-hour event. After breakfast, my guests did not have water, coffee nor tea besides lunch time. Keep in mind, we’re in a hot room with no A/C and no water! After lunch, staff did not adequately remove lunch trash and particles from the guests tables and we didn’t have large trash cans in the room to dispose of the stuff. The hotel did agree to compensate me for 50% of all fees and service charges, and they debited my bank account right away for the...

As a diamond member I am very dissatisfied with my overall experience at this property. Check in was not the most welcoming. Bathroom tub had hair in it. Floor needed vacuuming in room. Hear traffic noise. I chose to eat in at the restaurant (was by myself) food wise-nothing special and wasn’t looking to be impressed there. I got the steak. Was ok. I had a bottle beer and a cheesecake desert. No water offered/ served. At time of ordering (and bar/restaurant wasn’t busy) the waitress/ bar tender was in such a hurry didn’t complete my order. Never checked back on how meal was during either. Oh well, finished and ordered the cheese cake. Got my check which came to $52.92 huh??upon review it automatically include a 20.00% gratuity on my check. Not an option. Already included!!! I asked The bar/waitress Krystal what the charge was-she confirmed it was the gratuity. I asked her to remove it but she wouldn’t. She said it was auto added and couldn’t come off. Due to the bill i also asked her to charge another card splitting my bill which she did but when I checked, the total remains the same. (Ie included the gratuity). When I challenged her again on this she again confirmed it was an auto charge and couldn’t come off. She also stated that it was common and all the local restaurants were doing it. ( like it was an ok thing) Interesting yet sounds fishy. Unfortunately I paid the bill, no I didn’t leave an additional gratuity where there is space on the check for you to do so if you don’t actually check your receipts and pay twice. I asked her about that and she smiled. I don’t mind seeing on checks a printed option letting you know what 10%,15%,20% is with the dollar amount next to it for those that can’t actually do math, at least o get an option, but this was a blatant “stick it to to you” kind of deal that I have been seeing more of recently and didn’t like the fact she didn’t want to remove it. I bet she could. There was no information on the menu indicating such charges would be incurred nor on the check itself which is what makes it seem fishy to me. Rather than make a scene i paid (I wouldn’t say settled as I’m not happy with it) and figured I’d fill out a review…I like those 😁🇬🇧🤷‍♂️🤬 It’s ok, I’ll follow up with management when I check out in the morning and then follow up with Hilton Corporate. Either way, I won’t stay at this property again and leave it up to those of you if you want to or not. Check your receipts.

Anyways there is always breakfast tomorrow, let’s see...