This is long but bear with me, you will want to avoid this property at all costs. And the only reason this is so long is because our stay was so shockingly bad it will take me forever to go over all of the problems.
My husband and I were travelling with our 3 children and my son’s girlfriend so had booked a double queen room and a suite. My husband, who has been a diamond member of Hilton Honors for over a decade was travelling for business and I decided to go with him and take the kids for a holiday in NYC as he was leaving for his home on Australia for a month directly after work so it was the last time we’d be together until August. I was a gold member last year and am currently silver but will achieve gold again this year.
When we checked in, my husband was in a room next to someone with a baby who was crying a lot (not Hilton’s fault) so he asked to switch rooms. When he got to the new room, the air conditioner was broken and had flooded the room so he had to switch again. In his 3rd room, the bathroom door didn’t shut, it was sticking on the floor but at that point, he couldn’t be bothered to switch again so kept the room.
It was triple digits outside when we checked in and had bought wine and drinks for the kids and the ice machine on our floor was broken so we had to take the elevator to another floor every time we needed ice and there were no towels in our room, after trying to call the desk a few times with no answer, we had to go down and get towels ourselves.
I was in the suite and my son couldn’t connect his PS5 to the hotel WIFI. He travels all the time with us in other countries and in the US and it has never been an issue. They tried calling the front desk and no one answered so his girlfriend went downstairs to ask and was told by the lady behind the counter that she would have their IT department call our room so we moved the hotel phone from the bedroom to the living room so he would be able to speak to them while in front of the TV. After waiting over an hour and a half, my son went back downstairs to see how much longer it would be and was told by the same lady who was scrolling on her phone and barely looked up at him that there was no IT department. When he said that she had told his girlfriend that someone would be calling, the lady told him that his girlfriend must have heard a recorded message and misunderstood. Even though she went down and spoke to her IN PERSON. Finally I went down to try to figure out what was going on and this same lady told me that the hotel TVs were too old and you cannot connect PS5’s to them, again barely looking up from her phone. At this point, I called Hilton Honors 1-800 and made a complaint. I was told I’d hear from the hotel manager within 24 hours.
The next morning, my son told me the pull-out couch he was sleeping on was so uncomfortable he barely got any sleep so I told him to ask if the hotel could provide an extra comforter to put underneath him and he was told there was no extra bedding. When we got to the free breakfast, there was no food left and I had to buy breakfast for everyone at the Dunkin Donuts next door. Additionally, when I asked again about the PS5 issue before we left for the day, the guy behind the counter actually told me he knew that the hotel wifi had issues with PS5 connection and that he always tells people to google it and watch some videos, he said normally people figure it out. What?! Fortunately, I had my laptop with me and could connect it via HMD to the TV so at least my kids still had access to movies etc. otherwise I would have had to go buy a Roku.
The following morning, when my son woke up, he was absolutely covered in bed bug bites. I know it was bed bugs, they were clustered and painful. Again, back at the front desk to complain and was told I had to pack up and switch rooms immediately so they could get a team in to evaluate the room. I explained that wasn’t possible as we were leaving to drive my husband to his work meetings and didn’t have the time and was told I had to. I said I could do it when I got back around 5-6pm and was told that it was too late. I finally just walked off and went to grab some food and…..none left again so paid for breakfast for the second morning in row. I called Hilton Honors again to escalate my complaint.
That day, we decided that we were going to switch hotels but because of our stay being over the weekend and Pride going on in Manhattan we couldn’t find accommodation anywhere that could fit our group. We tried Holiday Inn, LaQuinta, Marriot franchises…nothing available. When we got back to the hotel, we talked to the lady at the desk (I had not seen her before) and she was aware of the situation so switched our suite. We packed everything up and moved floors and when we walked into the new suite, it was nothing short of feral. Absolutely disgusting. The sheets on the pullout couch had not been changed and were filthy, there was old tuna fish (I think) in the kitchen sink drain, the bathroom sink had a leak and there was water pooled on the floor, a light fixture pulled out of the wall and stained furniture with dead bugs.
At this point, I was almost in tears and back at the front desk with my husband and the lady was very nice and comped me my first 2 nights after I showed her the photos of the room and my son’s bites and put us in 2 double queen adjoining rooms for their base rate of $139 each and those rooms were fine. My husband, who runs, decided to go to the gym to burn off some stress and guess what? The running machines were broken and with the heat outside he ended up running up and down the staircases.
The rest of our stay was ok but lots of stuff like no towels in the pool, consistently low levels of food at breakfast, no one answering the phone at the front desk etc. On our last day there we were in Manhattan for the prode march and my kids were all hot and tired so decided they wanted to go back to the hotel early and go to the pool. We got back everyone changed, headed down to the pool and guess what? The pool was closed for maintenance with no signage or warning so on our last night of vacation we all ended up stuck back in NJ with nothing to do.
When we got home, I looked at my invoices for my stay and even at the base rate I was charged for the 4 nights in the adjoining rooms and the first 2 nights comped, my stay still cost me $207.24 more than what it would have been had we been able to stay in a suite plus I lost my points for the first 2 nights. I called Hilton Honors AGAIN and the person I spoke to was very helpful and said that this was all unacceptable and thought we should be compensated for our entire stay, but that was not his decision and that he was going to escalate my file. He asked me to send the photos, which I did and I got an email yesterday apologizing for my stay and that the Ecolab had tested the room and found no bedbugs so would only be compensating me for 2 full nights that would take 7-10 days to process and that the hotel would be contacting me directly. Still no word from the hotel and I don’t expect one and when I replied to this email asking if I was being reimbursed for both rooms or just one (because if it was for only one of my adjoining rooms the total amount I’d be saving is a whopping $111) and to ask about the points I lost and questioning the bed bug situation because my son went to bed perfectly fine and woke up with at least 70 bites on him, I don’t believe for a second that that bed was clean - he still isn't healed yet they were so bad and I got an auto reply “do not respond” saying that due to the high volume of requests that I would receive a response in 7-10 days. So after all of this I have no idea what I have been charged or reimbursed and haven’t even gotten a call back from anyone. Between my 2 rooms and my husband’s this was a $2000 stay just for hotels and it was abysmal. I am very disappointed in the hotel but even more so by Hilton Honors. So much for brand loyalty.
Long story short – DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL!!!!! I got stuck in Vegas once because of a flight cancellation and had to stay at an off strip Motel 6 and it was better than this dump.
