Hilton Garden Inn Reagan National Airport — Hotel in Washington

I was excited to book this hotel due to its close proximity to the Metro, giving us a neighborhood feel in Arlington while being close to the excitement of DC. Sadly, the hotel failed in a variety of ways.

The free airport shuttle was also a nice touch, but it's better in theory than principle: I called the front desk before boarding our plane to see what kind of lead time was needed for the shuttle. I abandoned my first call because I was immediately put on hold and never attended to. A second call later was finally answered and instructed to call when we had our bags.

Upon landing, I dialed the hotel when we had retrieved our bags. I waited on hold for 10 minutes, waiting to talk to someone at the front desk advising that we needed a pickup. During that time, the shuttle arrived so I ended my call. The driver was unfriendly, never asked us which hotel we were staying at (the shuttle is also for the sister Hampton Inn property next door), and started yelling at the rental car bus parked behind the shuttle. Thankfully the rest of the ride was uneventful and extremely short.

Checking in, the line was one of the longest I have experienced outside of Las Vegas, though staff was pleasant. Anytime we entered or exited the hotel, there were always several people waiting to be served. The lobby is nicely appointed and open. I also appreciated the large fitness facility that was never crowded.

The room itself was a mixed bag; the suite was very sizable given our location, but was lacking in the upgrades most other hotels have, such as USB ports. The small sofa was very uncomfortable, the material made it seem as though it was for decoration, not actual use. Having the fridge was handy, and both the shower and tub were excellent. Yet the toilet paper appeared to have been made by 3M, it was not kind to our skin.

The worst part of the room was a random, loud mechanical noise that appeared to come from directly above our room (903). The noise would last for several minutes before subsiding and always seems to come in the early morning. Given the aforementioned lines at the front desk and my earlier failures in talking to someone at the front desk, we just used it as an alarm clock.

The icing on the cake? More airport shuttle issues. We were told that we just needed 15 minutes lead time to get on the shuttle. We entered the hotel at about 430, and my boyfriend had them retrieve our bags from the luggage hold while I ran to the bathroom down the hall. The driver would not wait 30 seconds for me and took off with just a single passenger in a van that seats 12. 15 minutes later the van returned and dropped off guests at the Hampton Inn next door and then proceeded to exit for the airport again without stopping at the Hilton Garden Inn. I alerted the front desk staff who called the driver, but he left anyway.

At this point we're past 515 and our flight is at 645. One of the other front desk members (without a name tag so I have no idea who he was) offers to use the other van to take us and another guest to the airport. However, when he pulls up the van, the sliding door doesn't work and he disappears inside only to return and announce that there is a problem with the van. I say that we can go through the front passenger door to the rear rows but was told "no, that would be bad for our insurance." We then have to remove our luggage from the van and wait for the driver to finally arrive. Thankfully we did make our flight, though this comedy of errors added unneeded stress to the end...

Every nightmare possible happened here. At check in Christina said she could not find our reservation, that I made 3 months ago. I had confirmation number, printed receipt, Priceline trip number, and my Hilton Honors info. Said she couldn't find anything, and offered no solution other than "I guess call them". For the next 1.5 HOURS I had to fight tooth and nail to get my already paid for reservation. Priceline kept me on the line as they called the hotel over and over, getting put on hold repeated times, hung up on, and then forced to repeat the same information to Christina and her boss Patricia multiple times. I say listening and watching while Hilton repeatedly lied over and over again about not being called by Priceline (I watched as they ignored calls, answered and put on hold, or answered and hung up). They lied about how much rooms were currently going for, and about room availability. The easiest way to explain the situation is an exact quote from Patricia the assistant manager when we asked why we can't be helped and why this was taking so long "I have to take care of myself first". She then tried to correct herself after seeing the shock on our faces "I mean, the hotel first". So apparently customers come last here. It was 90+ degrees, we had been standing in the lobby for over an hour, just driven over an hour, and were dying of thirst. I tried to buy a bottle of water "sorry, you don't have a room to charge it too". It was getting to the point I was worried about dehydration for my wife and me. Eventually a group sales manager saw that we had been there forever, and offered us a bottle of water. After over 1.5 hours they finally gave us our room. With not one single apology. Patricia basically handed us our cards while looking away, like she had somehow lost. Had to get a temp charge on our credit card for everyday staying. Ok. She put 200 on the screen and I paid. Checked that evening, they fraudulently charged another 100 to my card without my permission. Working with Chase on filling fraud. I realized I made a mistake and needed 2 beds, for at least one night when my daughter would join us. I called front desk and asked if I could possibly pay to change rooms. I was told none were available. I looked online, I could have booked online the exact room I asked for, shows available I was again lied to, small thing that I normally wouldn't have cared about. Was told parking was 35/ night by Patricia. Except the parking permit says 33 per night as well as posted in lobby. I tried to give Hilton one last chance and asked for the general manager this morning. Was told she was in a meeting and would call back. Never received a call (not a surprise). I have been treated like a nuisance, lied too, defrauded, ignored, and treated like I was hated. In addition, exact same thing happened to another guess in line, they were forced to call through Travelocity to get them to let him in. At least it only...

The company I work for booked this place, but I couldn’t wait to get out of here. After driving for 4+ hours from my previous post in NY/NJ, I arrived at the hotel just after noon. They would not allow an early check in, so had to leave & come back at 4pm! Upon check in they informed me that housekeeping only services the rooms every 4 days. So basically no fresh towels!. I did request a room overlooking Richmond Highway thinking a view of the area would be nice. Big mistake! They put me on floor 4 in room 428. The street noise was constantly loud morning & night. Between horns & sirens there was definitely no need for an alarm clock, as I was awake before 6am. The walls are super thin here compared to other hotels that have soundproofed rooms. Even NYC hotel rooms are quieter than this place. All of the bathroom lights, which there’s three of them, work off of one switch & they are super bright, especially waking up during the night to take a leak. I did notice a very peculiar hole in the floor by the entrance doorway. There was also a constant only way to describe as a buzzing sound coming from above. It sounded like a helicopter was just above the ceiling. It would come & go, but very annoying, especially trying to sleep after working all day. I did record a video of the sound. Will try to upload. The front desk staff are incredibly rude here. I called to request some additional k cups for the Keurig & fresh towels, but I was hung up on by some woman before I could finish or get her name. I called back & spoke to Mario, but the k cups or towels never arrived. No water is provided, so you’ll have to source your own. Like other hotels that have paid parking, you do get in/out privileges. The spaces are a very tight fit. To access the hotel entrance from the parking lot, there is no elevator. You have to walk up some steps. Tough when your hauling baggage & equipment. Getting out of the parking lot can be tough as the traffic on Richmond Hwy was bumper to bumper morning & evening. They had originally booked me a three night stay here, but we changed it to two. We tried changing to just one night, but the third party my company booked through would not allow us to do so, so two nights was the minimum. I did check out early late afternoon of the 2nd day. I had enough of this place & stayed elsewhere. I paid out of my own pocket for the second night just to get the hell out of there. Needless to say I won’t ever return to this place. It may be fine if your in a bind or your flight is canceled, but other than that, I certainly don’t...