Hilton Garden Inn Wallingford/Meriden — Hotel in Wallingford

The hotel is relatively new and beautifully maintained, but the staff is largely absent and inattentive. At my most recent check in, I had to wait several minutes for someone to come to the front desk to check me in. Not sure why a property of this size would not have someone standing there at all times, especially considering the size of the groups that tend to book rooms here and frequently occupy the common areas. Which brings me to my next point: I’ve stayed here a few times and the location is terrific—easy access to I-91 to get to New Haven or Hartford—and attracts large groups of guests (wedding parties,etc) that seem to overwhelm the location and the staff. Large groups of people congregate in the common areas and in the parking lot that make checking in and navigating through the hotel problematic. Not so much an issue, but just something to be aware of. All the groups I’ve encountered have been well-behaved, if a little oblivious to the fact that traffic needs to move through the parking area and guests need to enter and exit the building.

None of this is very bothersome, but what really detracts from the Hilton experience here is the nickel and diming that occurs once you check in. Bottles of water are offered in-room at $2 a pop, and there is “complementary internet access” that is awful. I was texting with another member of my party and she was missing the messages because the “complementary” connection she was using kept kicking her off and she repeatedly had to re-establish her connection. Needless to say, there is “premium internet access” offered for an additional fee to non- Hilton Honors members, just like the in-room bottles of water.

Why Hilton would want to create second class service for any of its guests I cannot understand. Surely there is some way to make membership in Hilton Honors valuable to guests without creating an underclass of less desire able service to paying customers.

Im a Hilton Honors Gold member because I travel a lot for business and my company picks up the tab, but this treatment of the other guests in my party during this visit has left such a bad taste in my mouth I’ll never book a Hilton property for leisure travel again.

Is corporate greed so rampant at Hilton that they feel it’s necessary to create this two-tiered system? They...

First, I would like to say that we really enjoyed our stay at the Hilton. Ga’Brielle welcomed us with open arms. She was very helpful and informative [ with things to do in the area, as well as generic information about the hotel itself]. She even offered to take our couple pictures by plants and the fire place in lobby. I was disappointed to find that we couldn’t hook our iPad to TV in our room [which means I couldn’t Binge watch our favorite TV shows nor the football game of our choice] All in all the rooms were very cleaned. I also would like to compliment our Bartender John for being helpful and great conversations as we ended our night. I will say that I had an uncomfortable experience at breakfast. I had a server by the name of Christina. During breakfast, she asked me “what room are you staying in?” [assuming because I had a tank-top with shorts on, with tattoos showing and maybe not realizing I violated a dress code policy] I asked why and she stated “ I need to make sure that your charged correctly on your bill” [As stated, Ga’Brielle already gave us that information the night before] I didn’t think much of Christina’s inquiry at first until I noticed that she didn’t ask any other guest at breakfast for their room number but instead their last name. I’m not going to say that she was being racially biased but I felt pretty uncomfortable to be asked my room number in front of other guest in the lobby while other guest had the pleasure of being asked they’re last name [ which according to facilities manager Mr. Boyles, is for confirming Hilton honors members] I decided to talk to Front Desk Rep Betsy about the protocol for servers finding out who pays for breakfast. She stated that all servers will ask for last name not room numbers. I explained to her my interaction with Christina and told her I will be informing the GM[Linzi] about the interaction. Betsy apologized and offer to pay for our breakfast but I declined. As stated, our stay at the Hilton was very pleasant besides the breakfast interaction with Christina. I truly do recommend this hotel to travelers...

I'd like to start this review by stating my review is strongly influenced by my personal preference in hotels.

In the month I stayed here, I only had one bad experience that had to do with extending my reservation. We had extended my reservation and 7 other people's reservations. It was not in their system and I got a phone call on the original checkout date politely asking why I had left all my stuff in the room. I spoke with the general manager and she agreed to extend all the rooms to the date previously requested. A few days passed and nobody except me still had their rooms when we returned after the weekend. Other than this major annoyance, every other part of my stay was relatively pleasant. However.....

It's clear to me that Hilton's main focus is service at the expense of complimentary amenities. They have excellent service. Every night I was greeted "Hello, sir" and every staff member was highly professional. I will also say that their complimentary internet is quite good.

I likely will not be staying again. Everything costs extra, and is quite expensive. Complimentary breakfast? Diamond members only. Restaurant? Expensive. Bar? Expensive. Laundry? Expensive. Soda machine: Expensive. Complimentary coffee? Morning only. Water from the lobby? Afternoon only for some reason.

If you're one that likes free amenities, this hotel isn't for you. If you like paying extra for nicer things, you'll enjoy it there. Oh, and you'll absolutely love dealing with the drunk wedding guests, even on Sunday night. Who has a wedding on a...