Hilton Garden Inn Topeka — Hotel in Topeka

We had reserved a room for this Hotel on Friday night 4-29-2022. My daughter had state finals for her orchestra group the following morning and we had to choose between a hotel or drive in early in the morning. We decided to get the hotel, that way she could have a full nights rest before her performance. There were storms breaking out all over the place that Friday night. Many tornadoes were ravaging many areas along our route to the hotel. I called the hotel and told them that I may have to cancel our reservation for that night due to the weather. The woman on the other end of the line said there was nothing they could do, I had to pay the room regardless of if I stayed or not. So, we waited out the storms and drove to the hotel. I asked the woman if it was okay I was to show up shortly after midnight, she said that was fine and she would call me if there were any problems.

I showed up at 12:05 am early Saturday morning, which was a little late but not terrible. My daughter would get enough sleep to perform well. I told the woman at the front desk that I was the one who called earlier that night that was stuck in bad weather and that I finally made it and that I had a reservation. She said “We overbooked, you gonna have to go someplace else.” I was shocked. We were tired and had been dealing with storms all night now I had to find somewhere else to stay. Which was bad enough but then when I asker her to refund what I paid for the reservation she refused. When I asked why she said she didn’t know how to do it to ask the next shift when they come in later that morning.

We ended up going to another hotel that night. The Sleep Inn not far from this one. They were fantastic. Lee Evan is the manage there and he runs a tight ship. Lauren Ortiz was an angel. It may not be the nicest hotel but the service is worth every penny. After a good nights rest, we went to the performance and she did well. She sounded beautiful. I credit the Sleep Inn for taking such good care of us.

I went back to the hotel to see if there was some one who knew how to refund a reservation. There was not. Again, I was met with a woman who didn’t know how to do a simple refund, only this time she said I would have to wait a month after her manager got back from vacation to get a refund. This was outrageous. I asked who ran the hotel and said she didn’t know. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This story is my only recourse until I can get a hold of some one who can do refunds. That and I can recommend to everyone to skip this hotel and go to the Sleep Inn down the road. The service is fantastic and they run a tight ship.

UPDATE: After leaving a reply to this comment, management finally reached out to me. They will refund the money, because of their 'good will'. If the roles were switched and I skipped out on a reservation with this multi-billion dollar corporation, they'd take my money by force. What a joke of a corporation. They owe me the refund PLUS the cost...

We stayed here over the Christmas holiday while in town visiting family. First things first; upon check in they always have our last name incorrect in EVERY Hilton Hotel. So even though we reserve the rooms under our proper last name, somehow the computer system changes our last name to something else, that has zero relation to our last name. We've tried so hard to get this corrected, as I spent 30 min being told we didn't have a reservation, bc they had our reservation booked under a different last name. Now I bring the reservation/confirmation with us, to save us the time & total embarrassment. Christmas night we returned to our room after a long day of fun filled family Christmas activities, only to be ushered out of the hotel swiftly by the sound of the fire alarms going off. We hurried & got dressed & grabbed what we could to go stand outside for 30 minutes with ZERO direction from staff. We had heard from a couple standing outside next to us that there was water coming from one of the storage rooms on the top floor. They stated they witnessed a staff member open the storage room door, & water came flooding out of the room, & the overhead sprinklers were also going off in the storage room. After standing outside in the freezing cold, we made our way around the exterior of the hotel in hopes of finding someone who worked there to provide us with some kind of direction. We we're freezing our butts off! I finally passed by the front lobby doors to see a staff member standing behind the counter, acting as if nothing was going on, while several guests were just standing outside, freezing, holding whatever luggage they could grab, & some even had their pets! I decide to YOLO it & walk into the lobby to ask what in the heck is going on here?! & I was told, "Oh you can go back to your room." I politely went outside to let the rest of the hotel know. (I think I deserve Hilton Employee Of the Month). We made our way back to our room, which was on the 2nd floor. Before long water started leaking from around the door frames & the hallway ceiling light fixtures! Needless to say, I didn't get a very good nights sleep, because I kept wondering if the entire hotel was going to collapse on top of us while we slept. We woke up the next morning, in a hurry to make it out of the death trap, & the water situation was even worse! I won't be staying here again. I've had it with Hilton Hotels! Ya'll can't even figure out my last name, & you're trying to kill me! If the bulding did collapse, & we did die, nobody would know, because you have us booked under the wrong last name! (These are all the thoughts that were running through my mind). It was definitely a memorable Christmas!...

We are travel agents and booked this hotel for a client-couple who were passing through. They paid a little extra for the "breakfast included" rate and were looking forward to a nicer breakfast than the "free breakfast" that other hotels have to offer. This was actually the selling point we offered to have them book this property vs another in the area that offered free breakfast.

As they were finishing their not-any-better-than-the-others breakfast, they were presented with a meal check. They went ahead and paid but were confused, but they didn't have time to question it.

They called us to let us know, and we called the hotel. With it being a Sunday, the GM was not in, and the front desk could not assist. We called back on Tuesday, and the unhelpful and "wish-I-was-anywhere-else" front desk team member said the GM was not in and "if he comes in today", it would be later, at an unknown time. She did not know his email address, and from looking at other review responses, we can see that his email address is not for public knowledge. Unfortunately, a public review seems to be the only way to communicate concerns.

This presents a couple opportunities for staff training: The breakfast bar staff could ask for guests' room number to see if they have the "breakfast included" rate. Many travelers either don't remember they purchased that rate or are less-seasoned and don't know how/if to ask the breakfast bar team and assume breakfast is covered.

Front desk staff could be reminded that guest satisfaction is top priority, and all interactions should let the guests know they are valued.

General manager could be reminded that guest concerns are valid and provide a way for guests (or their travel agents) to communicate concerns. It would also make sense to let your team know when you will be in the office so that if someone needs to be in touch with you, they can provide a more reasonable call-back timeframe than "later today".

We will likely not recommend this hotel to our...