Hilton Garden Inn Allentown West — Hotel in Upper Macungie Township

My stay was typical of Hilton hotels, very good in general…. The room was ready, very clean, good parking, in general very nice staff.

However when it came time for breakfast and the confusion of the staff, they handled it very poorly. I saw a sign showing $15.95 per person for breakfast. Though I booked my stay with breakfast included, as I always do, I was informed when I checked with the front desk they’d just switched to a new ‘system’ and couldn’t verify it. I was told I could add it now for $20 for my son and I for our 2 day stay. As we were in town for an event with limited time in the am, I just paid the additional fee so we could manage in the am quickly right at the hotel.

Breakfast is a combination of buffet and made to order (eggs, pancakes, French toast all to order) When it came time for breakfast day one - we’d ordered pancakes and eggs… we waited quite a while and were running out of time to leave for our event (this was at 7:30 am on a Thursday), I checked in and was told they had to start them over because they’d run out of batter. It was not busy at this time. No one had said a word to us so we didn’t have time to do anything else and had to leave. We reluctantly grabbed a muffin and left.

On day 2 for breakfast, it was 8:30am on Friday. There were around 6-8 guests seated already so a quiet morning. We asked to order pancakes and eggs and were informed by the lady managing the cafe area she was alone so she could not cook and we had to eat only what was out. I went over to the eggs as you can see in the picture, they were burnt and awful. There was almost no oatmeal and it was completely watered down so it left only a little fruit and a yogurt if we wanted. I went to get a coffee and it was completely out - at 8:30am… I explained to the lady that we looked at the eggs and they were really bad and no coffee, etc… she just walked away without saying anything.

At that point we left to go to a Cracker Barrel around the corner for a fast breakfast before our event.

I explained the situation and how I’d actually paid additional for breakfast at checkout to the lady at the desk, she was very nice and said she’d explain to the manager and email my receipt and if there were still any concerns I could call them back. I assumed they’d simply take the $20 breakfast charge off - but no, nothing at all…

I choose Hilton because they’re very clean, friendly, easy to check in/out and I can grab breakfast as I head out simply within the hotel. This experience was very disappointing and only made worse by the lack of willingness to address...

I called the hotel directly to book with them, didn't use any third party, so I was talking to someone actually employed by the hotel. This hotel charges for breakfast, but the rate with breakfast that the phone rep quoted was just $12 more than without. And the website said it's a full hot breakfast, so we thought that was a pretty good deal. I told them we were bringing our dog, and the rep asked how large. I said about 13 pounds, and she said for that weight they wouldn't charge us, it's only for larger dogs.

We arrived to check-in late and weary. Found out our assigned room was NOT the room type the phone rep CONFIRMED over the phone with me, breakfast was NOT included in the price quoted on the phone and we most definitely WOULD be charged for the dog, $75. Breakfast would be $15 PER GUEST and it's a continental breakfast. So we passed on that.

When I made the reservation, I signed up for the Hilton rewards program. The phone rep told me about some of the perks, including the free bottled water in the room, which was a welcome treat after we'd been driving for so long. There was a sign on the bottles that said it's a $2 fee per bottle for a certain tier of membership, not a new rewards member.)

Our coffee station looked like it had not been restocked from the previous guest (only 1 cup, no sugar, 2 packets of tea, no coffee).

At check-out, which I did in person at the desk, the clerk said she would have to have my final receipt emailed to me, could not provide it onsite. So on our drive home I opened my email and saw the receipt. There's a $3.87 "Parking Recapture Fee", which was never disclosed at any point, by the phone rep or the clerk either at check-in or check-out. Some digging online told me that this fee is charged to everyone, whether they park onsite or not, and other hotels charge it as well, and if an establishment does disclose the fee, it is in very fine print.

Well, at least the stay was relaxing and we could take advantage of the hot soak in the heated spa? Nope, that was out of order during our visit. We travel a couple times a month and Hilton's now off our...

*This hotel has a lot of potential, but, sadly, seems to be very neglected on behalf of the management. The grounds are unattractive and a mess. The beautiful fire pit area was a slop with chairs all over. I tripped on a huge branch that was laying right in front of the fire pit. There are weeds all over in the areas that are supposed to be rocks. The inside of the hotel is nice, but, like I said neglected. Excited to see hand sanitizer stations, but, disappointed they were empty. The floor by the side door that I used for 3 days covered in filth, never cleaned. The tile floor by the ice machine filthy.

*The rooms! They are spacious and very nice, but also neglected. Thick dust all over. We wiped down shelves and you can see the dust thickness is the corner. The bathroom could have been nice if the dirty bathtub from the 1970’s was cleaned up. The floor behind the toilet had black mold on it, and the floor in front of the toilet was bubbled.

*Housekeeping, needs to have some meetings with a lesson on when to knock/open people’s doors. They knocked on our door at 10:40am when checkout is at 12:00pm. We also had a “do not disturb sign on.” My family in another room, did not have a “do not disturb sign” in their room. Housekeeping barged into their room at 11:00am while they were asleep, again, checkout is at 12:00pm. Thank gosh, they had the metal door blocker up, so housekeeping couldn’t get the door open to come in.

*Front desk was ok for the most part, except for one woman who decided to walk away from us while we were talking to do the trash. Very strange and rude.

The best part of the stay was, the free brownies they had out!!

So, overall, this can be a great hotel and has great potential, but, it’s lacking sadly. Location was great, went to Dorney Park, and close to many eating and...