The Starling Atlanta Midtown, Curio Collection by Hilton — Restaurant in Atlanta

I stayed here for a conference in mid-August.||Overall, the stay was decent. And while there were certainly some good things, there were several others that weren't quite so good, unfortunately.||Let's start with the good.||Check-in and check-out - both of those were smooth, flawless, and no issues whatsoever. The staff was friendly and helpful, and honestly, short of carrying my bags for me, there wasn't much else they could have done to be better.||The thermostat in the room was set to 63 when I got in, and while that might seem odd, I was actually happy to have that. I walked to the hotel from the Arts Center subway stop (wrong one to use, apparently), and I was hot, sweaty, and tired. Walking into a room that cold was a God-send, to be honest. Zero complaints about that (even though I might have complained about the waste of energy on other stays). Divine providence here.||The bed was comfy - not too soft, not too firm, and the pillows... FINALLY... pillows that didn't feel like my head would fall through them and land on the mattress. Four pillows that had some decent support to them. Wonderful!||The room was nice enough. No weird smells, and it seemed clean. Both sides of the bed had outlets AND USB ports. That was very nice. However, no clock! Yeah, I know, alarm clocks are more or less on the way out it seems, but this grumpy old traveler still appreciates a clock he can see when he rolls over and wakes up. Sue me. :-)||There is a safe in the room, and that's a nice feature. I'm glad to see more hotels adding that to the room.||There are PLENTY of places to sit and have conversations throughout the hotel. Not just the myriad of conference rooms, but seats (some with tables even), nooks, alcoves... if you want to step out of a conference have a chat with someone or make a phone call, you've got a lot of options. My only advice to the hotel staff about this is in reference to the two areas that I suppose used to be phone booth cubbies. Put some sound absorption on the walls. The echo in those is pretty bad.||Now, about some of the nits to pick at...||HVAC - it worked well, kept the room cool, and wasn't overly noisy; but that, for me, is a double-edged sword. I like some white noise as I sleep (more about that in a minute), and even with the fan on, there wasn't enough white noise to make any difference. Also, the one main vent in the room blows right out onto the couch. If you want to sit there and watch TV, you'll be in a nice breeze. To me, that's annoying.||Noise - this is why I was looking for a little more white noise. Street noise, even at 18 floors up, was noticeable. Sirens? No problem. Hot rods? No problem. Large trucks? No problem. You could hear them all. Hallway noise was pretty noticeable too. This was definitely not the quietest room I've ever been in.||Water - OK, I get it, I was 18 floors up. But the water pressure still wasn't really great. It wasn't BAD, it just wasn't... great.||While the room seemed to overall be clean, there were a couple of stray hairs in the shower. And let's talk about that shower. There is no door on the shower. Just a glass wall, because the shower uses a rain head. MOST of the time, the water stays where it's supposed to. But it's not perfect.||The toilet in the room seems really "out of touch" with the general vibe of the room and hotel. An old-style pull-handle toilet like you'd see in a HS bathroom. It just felt out of place. It works, but it didn't really fit in.||The sink drained sloooow. I'm thinking that by the time I post this review, all of the water might be out of it, finally.||The "closet" - more like the "garment bar" - the bar wasn't high enough up to keep shirts from dragging. Minor, but like Reacher says, "Details matter."||Fit and finish - the pocket door that separates the bathroom from the rest of the room was in need of some refinishing. For a hotel that looks like it wants to be "well appointed" and project that kind of an image, that door didn't match.||I paid for an upgrade to get a higher floor with "excellent views" of the city. I had an excellent view of the roof over the pool area. And the buildings around us. I'm not sure it was worth the $7/night extra.||Elevators... you can retire waiting on those. The outside elevator was out of service during my entire stay. The 4 remaining elevators just couldn't handle the load. There were times when the wait was 5+ minutes for a ride.||I did not use the recreation facilities. Pool, spa, workout... none of that. However, I can say that I considered getting a massage when I got in, following the long hot walk. But not at those prices. I can honestly say I've never, ever, seen an hour massage priced as high as the hotel's spa was pricing them. I want to say, about $190 I think? That'd be a hard pass.||OVERALL - the stay was OK, and that's the rating I gave it. Was the stay comfortable? Yes. Could it have been better? Yes. Would I stay here again? It wouldn't be my...

I had 2 rooms booked 12/28/24-1/1/25.

Lets start with the positive: The valet crew is superb and efficient, and checking in was a breeze.

It all went downhill from there. Things like asking for water at the front desk always seemed like a burden. We would ask for water to be sent to the room, and it would arrive hours later (sometimes after midnight). I asked the young ladies at the front desk if they were aware of any NYE plans taking place in the hotel or upstairs at the food hall area, or JoJos Beloved, I was quickly met with "We don't know anything, you'll need to go upstairs and ask them", as they then went back to their phones and their personal conversations.

I forgot a few toiletry items and I had called down to see if I could obtain them from the hotel. While being told yes, the items never came. I ordered them via a 3rd party to the hotel. When I went down and approached the front desk to inquire about the delivery, they pointed to this random table followed by the comment "We are not doordash, he left your bag there".

Having room service be delivered in paper bags, condiments wrapped in baggies, disposable bowls, and paper plates was not what I imagined from a 4 star hotel.

The final issue came when we decided to spend the last part of NYE at the hotel restaurant (Lantana).

We arrived at Lantana at 11:15 and grabbed a table. We were told that a server would come to us, but it felt as if the servers were intentionally avoiding tables (not just ours), we saw a lot of people trying to get their attention as they quickly walked past tables. There were dirty dishes EVERYWHERE, and we had to clear our table ourselves before we sat down. After waiting we decided to just go to the bar and order, where we were met with such an attitude and nastiness (bartender). We literally witnessed him cursing at people, with management standing next to him in full support. At 11:30 the bright lights came on and the bartender yelled LAST CALL. That prompted us to order a bottle of champagne (that I had to beg for) because he was intentionally ignoring people at the bar. We were told all the glasses were dirty, so they will give us water glasses for our champagne. We had no choice and simply wanted a toast into the new year. At 11:50 we asked if the TV's could be turned to watch the NYE countdown/ball drop, and were told NO. After a $40 bribe (that we paid a bartender), ONE small TV was changed at 11:58. The restaurant was packed and people simply wanted to countdown. Right at midnight a man yelled out "you can go outside in the cold on the porch or hang out in the lobby, but you have to get out of here". At 12:01 People were still enjoying their drink, excited to bring in the new year but were ushered out. A LOT of hotel guests and patrons were out in the lobby area standing around, sitting on stairs, and lining the halls trying to finish their food and beverages. I understand not being served past midnight, but we cannot sit and finish what we paid for? Due to the lack of service, many people did not get their items till 11:45pm.

Hilton missed the mark on what could have been a safe and pleasant NYE experience for many. The staff at the hotel and restaurant were rude and we suspected that they perhaps had NYE plans of their own, and were trying to hurry and clock out so they could enjoy their fun.

I am not sure what training needs to be done, but Giovanni and Abowuela (I think I misspelled her name) were the ONLY people that displayed care, concern and customer service during our whole 4 day stay.

Unfortunately, this hotel will not even be a consideration for any future travel in Atlanta. While the lobby is pretty and the location is great, the rooms are showing the lack of care, and I refuse to be treated so nasty, paying $250+ a night.

We spent most of our time (and money) outside of the hotel due to the lack of service, quality of service and constant attitudes we received in the hotel and restaurant.

As a Diamond member, and staying at a hotel that claims to be a luxury 4 star establishment, I...

Upon entrance, the hotel is swanky. Fun decor and colors draw your eyes every which way around the lobby.

At the front desk, Stephen greeted me and was a wonderful, bubbly, kind person. However, at 6pm, the room we reserved was a) not yet ready and b) not yet clean and c) there was some ‘third party’ booking issue (done through a credit card service) where the room we booked, versus the room the hotel reserved for us, were not the same. Thankfully, the kindness of the hotel staff shined through and after 30+ minutes, we got a slight upgrade to another room. Great! Truly no biggie.

We get to the 23rd floor - upon exiting the elevator, you are hit with a wall of stagnant, humid air. Okay - I get it! It’s barely June and the humidity is 90% at 88 degrees. Whatever. No biggie.

I get to the room, turn on the lights, only for a lightbulb to explode. Yes. Explode. Oh well! No biggie. Because check in took longer than expected, my partner and I are hustling to make it to a dinner reservation. As we open our hotel room door to leave for our reservation, the cap of the card reader on the front of the door falls off. Perfect.

On the way out, we find that the attached parking garage read our car license plate wrong and we get held up for another 8 minutes. They chalk it up to a ‘lost ticket’ despite the system itself faltering, and we pay $12 for 45 minutes of parking. Again. Whatever. No biggie.

Back at the room, I decide to take a shower. I go to close the bathroom door, only to find the door scrapes in a truly ear-bleeding way along the floor as you try to close it all the way. The bathroom has only one light option - extremely harsh bright overhead lighting. There is no bathroom fan. There is no shower door. There is no shelf in the shower to place from-home toiletries on. When one of us gets up in the night to use the restroom, we both are awakened by the continuous horrendous screech of glass scraping against bathroom tile.

By the way, an entire luxury suite of a room - no full size mirror ANYWHERE. The best you have is the bathroom mirror, which isn’t full, and is tucked all the way in the back of the room. (To be fair, I guess it was designed by a man).

Okay. Cool. Whatever. No biggie. After my shower, I go to get a nice robe - turns out, despite the room being for 2 people, there’s only one robe. There’s a mild makeup stain on it. Whatever. No biggie.

The first night of sleep passes and it’s perfectly fine. Great! I wake up with a bit of a headache so I call to order some coffee, and hopefully get an Advil from the front desk.

Room service never picks up. The front desk, who I get pushed through to, give me a number to text so that I get ‘a faster response.’ Even now, no one has answered that text. A 30+ minute cat-and-mouse chase ensues just to order an iced coffee, a cappuccino, and some Advil. After 33 minutes, the front desk informs me I can come all the way down to purchase some Advil at incredibly inflated prices. They tell me they’ll try to reach room service on my behalf. Room service calls me back 10 minutes later - finally! Only to tell me, their espresso machine (I guess one for an entire downtown hotel property?) is down, and there’s no espresso to be had. And that it will take another 15-20 minutes to get my coffee, that is, notably, espresso-less. I go downstairs to get my Advil (a ludicrous price) and ask for some bandaids. The front desk person takes 5 minutes to come back with 3, slightly crumpled, and all mismatched, bandaids. I asked for 4. I got 3 different ones.

I don’t understand how these places, claiming to be some luxurious refresh that evokes the opulence of by-gone luxury hotels, are actually so cheap. Doors that haven’t been measured; completely understaffed; cheap, broken, under attended to facilities; uncreative food at $20 a plate; one coffee machine for 500 rooms; no mirrors; no robes; I just — after the money we spent, this is disappointing, and ends up exactly the way most people feel about all the new atlanta development: a cash grab with cheap...