Embassy Suites by Hilton St. Louis Downtown — Hotel in St. Louis

My family and stayed at this establishment over the weekend for my nephew birthday and it was the worse experience ever with a hilton establishment. Upon arriving at the hotel there was someone else hair on the bed, the restroom, and the couch. Initially we did not address because we assumed it may was the housekeeper. During the busiest day, Saturday, only 1 elevator worked so that cause tons of problems. Still really no compliants. On Saturday night 2 NIKE boxes were missing from the room. The housekeeper cleaned the room earlier in the day. I went to the front desk and inquired. The manager on duty, Mike or Mark, stated he would follow up with housekeeping and they will provide an update. On Sunday morning, I still have not received an update so I went to the front desk again. At this time, the front desk supervisor follows up and I am told the shoe boxes were outside the room with "weed" in them. Really who would knowing put a box with weed in it outside in the hallway. I advised to speak with GM on Monday morning. I check out at 10:30. At 12:45 pm, I receive a notice that I just checked out the hotel. Really didnt think anything of it until I saw a additional 250 dollar fee for each room. I called the hotel, and it was explained that it was a smoke fee. Mind you noone smoked in the room. The front desk staff say I can speak to the manager on duty. She put me on hold but then the phone hangs up. I call back, noone would answer. I call from a different number and she picks up and say you still want to speak to the manager. No hello or anything she already knew who it was calling. Christopher Jordan then tells me that I would need to speak to the GM. He then send photos of tobacco on the trash can says that the room was had a heavy smoke odor and a photo of an addias box with converse in them. Remember I said it was 2 NIKE boxes. I explain in the email no one smoked in the room. We were traveling with children. I called the GM Mike Brown on this morning. From the initial hello, his mind was already made up and he did not want to hear my side of the story. I asked him to view the camera footage, thats my proof that the individual who smokes a black mild smoked outside the entire stay. He says that would be too much but he would follow up with the housekeeper. The same housekeeper that lied on Saturday. I waited 2 and half hours no return call so I called him. The first time he didn't answer but I called again. He says the housekeeper (the liar, theft) Monica said it was smoke in the room. Please stay clear of this hotel. They make up false accusations to cover their mishaps. I still do not know where the shoes are because that has not been addressed. And there is no photo to show that it was outside the room like they did the addias box....

We arrived and were happy with the room until realizing that the only washcloth we had in the bathroom was used and in the corner of the shower, the shower is as dark as a closed closet with no overhead lighting, and the sink took a solid hour to drain.

The room was comfortable and quiet though, so that's good.

In the morning, getting breakfast was like a scavenger hunt. The different stations for waffles, eggs, toast, oatmeal, coffee were all across the room from each other in different places, so we weren't sure what was even available at first, aside from the area with the eggs. After some time of walking around, I decided on oatmeal; this was a mistake. It was so thick it barely would come off of the ladle, which I gave up on after getting maybe 1/4 bowl. I tossed a packet of brown sugar and some walnuts in it and that was that...until I sat down and realized that the walnuts were actually peanuts. Who the heck puts PEANUTS out with oatmeal fixing? Lordy. Anyway, I moved on to make a bagel. I put it in the first toaster, which absolutely didn't work. Both slots wouldn't do anything. I moved on and tried the second (and only other) toaster, which had the "stop" button and pop-up mechanism handle missing. It heated up, barely. The right side was missing the pop-up handle and didn't heat up at all. I moved on with my raw bagel and tried to make a waffle. The button to pour the batter was completely jammed and would not budge. I don't think I've ever had such an awful experience with breakfast in a hotel. When I mentioned the toaster situation to a woman working in the restaurant area, instead of looking for a solution, she explained that upper management doesn't want to pay for a new toaster despite the broken ones being broken for a very long time. I noticed a lady struggling at the toasters with her own bagel, but when she mentioned it to a young man working in the restaurant area, instead of listening to her, he just popped her bagel up and said "there you go, works fine, it was just stuck." She was telling him it wasn't heating up, not that it was stuck.

I've been searching for a new hotel in the area since I'm in town for ball games pretty often but between the dirty washcloth and breakfast, this was a big disappointment.

The pros: valet parking and all the guys working are SUPER nice. Room is comfy. Less loud than Ballpark Hilton. Still an easy walk to the park.

The cons: housekeeping never showed up. Dirty washcloth in the very dark shower. Breakfast was a disaster, as were the folks working in that area. Pillows are...

Where to start?! Well, I guess with check-in….apparently there was a concert AND some sort of baseball tournament the weekend we were in town which made for a very busy lobby. We first queued up for the front desk but when the person in front of us stated they’d been waiting for over an hour just to check in, my husband quickly pulled up the app and did everything virtually so that was a plus.

From the moment we walked in until we checked out there was a VERY heavy cologne smell throughout the property; lobby, elevator, on our floor as well as the floor w/ guest laundry and pool. Fellow migraine sufferers will get it.

First night we asked for a blanket bc technically we were supposed to have 3; one for each queen bed and one for the pull out sofa bed. However, we were told “well with the concert & baseball teams we’re out”. Ok, well, I still paid for a room too and I have a bed without a blanket, so we had to go buy a blanket for our kiddos on the pullout couch. And speaking of the pull out couch, I would use the words (extremely accurately, I might add) “filthy, stained, torn cushions”. As well as the seat part of half the chairs for the in room table we’re loose (rm# 410, if anyone cares enough to check it out)

Then the laundry room soap dispenser ate my money, called the front desk who said they’d send someone up right away. Twenty minutes later, I was still waiting, so I physically went down to the front desk where everyone is playing on their cell phones, security is sitting on the lobby couch watching TV, and when they finally noticed me it was very much “oops! I got caught” vibe.

I also used the messaging system in the Hilton Honors app to ask for additional towels AND shampoo during the next day’s maid service. I received a message back via the app that said “those services will be added to your suite”. We did get clean towels but still had no shampoo (which was already out when we checked in); yet another purchase.

There really were only two redeeming qualities for this hotel/location; the valet staff was on point every single time we used their services (although the $45/day fee seems a bit steep since we walked about 50% of the time) and the physical location is close enough to many of the must see/do STL...