Hilton Garden Inn Tampa Ybor Historic District — Hotel in Tampa

I go to Ybor City to go to The Castle club so let me start by saying that this will be my hotel of choice in Ybor. However, for a Hilton (which I have loved staying in in the past) and for a AAA discount rate of $140 for a small double room, I was fairly disappointed.

Positives: 3 blocks away from The Castle. (They should have a "free bottle of water & snack with Castle wristband" from 2-4am promo at the front desk.) Staff is wonderful and polite. Wifi is reliable While the room is small it is well thought-out--lots of table and closet space; so if you're sharing a room with people there's space to "spread out" Comfy, clean beds Someone earlier in these reviews complained about noise level...except once in a while in the halls, I couldn't hear people at all

1. We checked in around 4:30. We noticed the carpets were being cleaned on our floor; no big deal, in fact--reassuring. But then we realized the carpets and floors were being cleaned in all the rooms on that floor. Our tile floor was wet and slippery; our carpet was damp. (No smell however, which was good.) The safety factor of the tile and "eww" factor of wet carpet was disconcerting. We used towels to dry the tile and walk on the carpet; requested more at the desk later to use for us--which they did bring up (only upon check out did I notice a tiny sign at the desk saying they were doing carpet cleaning that day until 5pm and to "excuse the inconvenience" and "use caution" when walking on tile). Not sufficient in my mind; plan better.
2. Another odd thing was there was construction plastic blocking our window for no apparent reason. Not sure if that was from the cleaning crew or what but it didn't look good--it looked like it was hiding broken glass or something.
3. The bath faucet was very poorly installed; if you turned it all the way to Hot, it produced lukewarm water. Midway it was really hot. This was confusing.
4. The beds were small for a double hotel room...more like full-size than queen. I didn't mind, but the couple I was staying with kind of complained about it.
5. I found a live roach in the room, which I discreetly complained about at the front desk upon check out. I've never seen that at a Hilton before, even in Florida. I get we're in a party hotel, but it just added to the problems.
6. The fridge was not cold when we arrived (although the icebox was) so I think the cleaning crew unplugged to clean the carpets.

The experience was just annoying. And for a hotel room over $100, I shouldn't be annoyed. But I will be back. And if I have a better experience I will definitely let...

DO NOT STAY HERE! Have been dealing with ridiculous billing issues since having stayed here a month ago. A couple hours after checking in, our room keys stopped working and the front desk told me that somehow they had no record of me ever checking in or having a reservation with them....despite having already checked in using a confirmation number. According to them, the only way to get back into the room (which we had already checked into and all of our stuff was in) was to rebook and retroactively cancel that reservation and payment in the morning. Strangely enough, the room next to us was having a similar issue. It made little sense that I should have to pay a second time to get into a room I had already paid for, but I went along with it so that we could get back in the room and the receipt in the morning showed the second charge was cancelled. However, several days later I saw the hotel had somehow charged us THREE times for the one stay, all for different amounts. It took 3-4 calls to the hotel over several days to finally talk to someone that could help me. They were able to figure out and refund one of the extra charges but according to them my card was somehow linked to two rooms (the other was our neighbors' who were also having room key issues) and couldn't refund that one yet but would call back when they figured it out. I never heard back and sent the hotel an email, called twice, and left one voicemail over a week. Never heard back. I then went through corporate Guest Services who basically told me the hotel needed to handle it and called the hotel yet again this morning (almost a month after my stay at this point). The individual from the hotel told me they weren't able to help, but would have a manager call when they came in. That never happened. I have now totaled 2 emails that got no response, 3 unanswered calls, 2 voicemails that have gotten no response, and 4-5 promises for a call back that never happened. The hotel has made it clear they have no interest in taking initiate to remedy the situation. I understand weird things happen and can overlook the weird key issues and somehow linking my credit card to another room, but the complete lack of customer service and inability to return calls when they have repeatedly told me they would is absolutely inexcusable. Although other nearby hotels cost a little more per night, the cost is worth it knowing that you won't be stuck with ridiculous extra charges the the Hilton Garden has no interest in...

Aside from minor, rather annoying person at the Check-In in counter, an awesome hotel indeed - the room, almost the entire staff and the breakfast bar was dialed in and squared away. However, it actually bothers me to even bring this up... a front desk person by the name of Ed Carrol, was completely rude to me and my music friends. After the initial attempt to check in at a guaranteed midnight arrival with a confirmation number, where he basically told me to, quoting, "screw off... all Hilton brand hotels are booked in the into city, and your better off staying at an extended stay elsewhere." I soon returned into the hotel where Ed Carrol refused to even look at me and would speak to me while he actually looked solely at the security guard... later, stating, "that those people are always trying circumvent his authority." My friends and I had found out the next day that there were in fact, four rooms available, the one that I had the confirmation number for. Also, we found a Hilton Room available at another Hilton Hotel 6 miles away, in which they comped for us without me even asking. All the other employees mentioned, that Ed Carrol has been a thorn in their side and they are surprised they haven't been sued yet. On our last night, Ed was working the counter and simply ran off as my music friends and I arrived back to the hotel and then a security guard, just dumb enough to run the cash register kept repeating with a fake smile, "do you have your money ready for me," while looking in a completely different direction." I'm actually making a YouTube video on this and have notified Corporate Compliance of this, as everyone else was that worked at the hotel was afraid to take any notes down of the encounter. Hilton Corporate is welcome to talk to my lawyer about this encounter. Thanks...