Hilton Garden Inn Tacoma Downtown — Hotel in Tacoma

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites on C Street in Tacoma. Upon arrival the staff was very kind and knowledgeable of everything at the hotel and surrounding area which was nice. There is even a mine "convenience" shop by the front desk in case you want to purchase a cold pop or candy bar or other snack and a microwave to use. Overall the lobby was clean and nice looking. Upon closer inspection you could see some surfaces had not been cleaned for a while.

It was nice to see that they offer two floors of parking that requires a room key to access; however, they leave it wide open during the day which clearly defeats the purpose entirely of securing the garage to protect vehicles.

Upon arrival into our Standard Two Double-Bed Accessible Room it was very roomy and inviting. Most everything was soft and clean. The window shades appeared to have a few stains, but not really noticeable until you were up close opening/closing them.

There are three major safety concerns that management needs to address immediately before someone gets seriously hurt and Holiday Inn will lose a liability lawsuit.

First, the bathtub. The base of the tub has absolutely no traction. It does not matter whether you're using the seat or standing, soon as water hits the base of the tub it is a slip and slide for anyone and everyone. And as much as I love the pump bottle mounted on the side of the shower with body wash, shampoo, and conditioner, they can easily be pumped to a point of dripping on the grab handles or going to the tub base, either way creating even a slicker area for any guest.

Second, the tile bathroom floor. Yes, this is quick and easy to clean, but it too is a major slipping hazard. Both wet and dry feet, socks, and shoes slip and slide on this tile, again, creating a major safety hazard that the hotel will lose in court over. And the "floor mat" for after you get out of the shower is even scarier.

Third, the office chair on wheels at the desk is a hazard. Every business out there knows that they are taking a major risk when putting a chair or stool with wheels for someone to use. The first problem with this chair is the seating surface is so slick that unless you're in your underwear, or less, there is not enough of your bare skin contacting the surface to keep you planted in the seat. The second issue is the wheels. The wheels have no brakes or anything to prevent the chair from moving, so where the put the desk and chair, the chair has way too much room to slide and you can miss and fall. I know this because I experienced both incidents in my stay that was less than 24 hours. I currently have a bruised and swollen arm from the chair moving too freely and hitting the desk on my way to the ground.

With today's prices for the hotel rooms, and what should be common amenities in every room at every hotel, I was surprised to discover that the room did not have a microwave. When I inquired about the microwave own could be delivered, or I could use the one in the convenience shop. Since hotel rooms do not have kitchens and people either bring their own food or to go boxes from local restaurants, it seems like poor choice to not have a microwave with the fridge in every room.

Breakfast was decent with the usual offerings, milk, cereal, oatmeal, biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, muffins, bagels, coffee, juice.

Upon checkout, staff does not want to hear if anything was wrong with your stay, or if you have anything to stay, nor do they want to give you a receipt (especially if you used a website for the reservation), even though they demand you out a credit card on file to the tune of $50 for "incidentals". Management needs to rectify this immediately. It doesn't matter if the money is being refunded. You are a business failing to provide any information as to what you are charging $50 for, or anything, nor are you providing any information to indicate that you are refunding that $50. Therefore, until Management changes this. Until then, it is my opinion this Holiday Inn...

My husband and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in downtown Tacoma last weekend for two nights and, unfortunately, we can’t recommend it. Most of the slots in the garage were narrow compact size but most people had larger cars/trucks, and the narrow aisle space along with multiple cement columns between slots made it extremely difficult to get into a slot decently. Most of the employees were pleasant and helpful, but the nights were miserable. The fan in the heating unit was quite noisy whenever it was on. Our room was on the side of the hotel which was up from a busy and noisy street during the night, including motorcycles gunning their engines to get up the hilly street. During the middle of the first night, there was a false fire alarm. Down in the lobby where the guests had gathered, we heard from one guest that supposedly someone who didn’t belong in the hotel had come in and pulled the alarm. Eventually, someone asked at the counter about what happened and then turned to the crowd and said it was a false alarm. A guest had to notify the rest of us rather than the hotel employee???

During the first evening, we decided we needed to stay another night due to our purpose for being in Tacoma, so we extended our stay at the counter that evening. The next day, after noon (checkout time), I went to the garage to move my car to a more convenient spot and found out I couldn’t regain access to the elevators because my key card hadn’t been extended. There was no way out of the garage for a pedestrian. Fortunately, I saw a man in his car, so I explained my situation to him and asked if his card was usable. He said he had just checked out but tried it anyway and it didn’t work. He let me borrow his phone to call my phone in our room but my husband didn’t answer. The only thing we could think of was for him to drive me out of the garage so I could go into the lobby and get my key card extended. He said he was ready to leave so we did that. When I started explaining the situation to the employee at the counter, she interrupted me by asking for my room number. As she was processing the card, I tried to finish explaining the situation as I thought it important to let someone know that an incomplete process of extending a stay but not extending the key card could be a major problem for a guest, but she couldn’t have cared less. She just handed me the card and didn’t say anything.

Hopefully not all Holiday Inns are like this, but we definitely won’t be staying at...

At check in the staff was already confusing. We asked if they had a roll away, they said yes, we asked if we could borrow one as we had 4 guests and they said no. Puzzled we asked why and were told "not in the suite". So there are rules that lesser rooms can use them? We asked why again, just told again "not in suite" with a language barrier.

When we got there, found the room to be an adequate size with standard items so it was fine. At bed time, we went to the pull out and couldn't find sheets. I'm a lifetime Marriott user and never haven't had the pull out bag in a closet or in the room. I called down as we couldn't find it, they said they will send one up. My daughter had a competition the next day and needed to go to sleep so a half hour later my wife down and Kalayah was straight confrontational, hostile and dismissive. She told my wife over and over that "sheets are only guaranteed for the main bed. Pull out bedding is not guaranteed." Baffled, my wife told her we have 4 guests, they knew this when we booked months ago, and we aren't sleeping in 1 bed so we need additional sheets. I have never once had a hostile interaction at hundreds of Marriotts I've stayed in. I will never stay at another holiday inn again. An hour after the initial call, we did get 1 pillow and a sheet.

The pool was OK size for an express but was cold AND NEVER HAD TOWELS. Basic rectangle, no frills, tons of chemicals that I doubt are reviewed properly.

Multiple elevators were broke throughout the trip. 1 elevator working in an 8 story building and we were at the top.

Maintenance staff was nice.

Continental breakfast was pretty good the first day, but never really rotated. Food would be gone quickly, trash overflowing every time we went down. Had "omelets" when not out, a pancake machine (when batter wasn't out and when it wasn't broke which it did), sausage, and biscuits and gravy pretty much every morning for hot breakfast. Some muffins (when not out), pastries, bagels, yogurt and some not kid friendly cereal. Milk (when not out which they ran out of so no cereal), OJ worked (apple juice didn't) and coffee (which was good, much better than the room).

Location was a 4/10 for me. Most things we wanted were within a mile walk. If you have a car, probably even easier. A cool bar across the street but not in the heart of the city by any means nor have picturesque views or anything. Kind of on the outskirts of what seemed to be...