This hotel has huge problems everyway of operation and management.
1. I checked in after the housekeeping manager's inspection. That means the condition of the sofa bed has been met the hotel's standard. - HOUSEKEEPING MANAGER FAILED
2. The front desk manager lied to a customer that they cannot give any refund on a pre-paid reservation at Hilton.com. They simply lied to push us to just take the room. - FRONT DESK MANAGER FAILED and UNETHICAL.
3. They do not have even a single extra sofa bed for a 100+ room hotel. I'm not sure they just lied me again or not but FACILITY MAINTANANCE FAILED.
4. There was an operation manager on site and he gave me a refund(not full) which means he was involved in all of decisions above - OPERATION MANAGER FAILED.
5. I noticed that this hotel is not owned by Hilton and Hilton does not care about the management quality or the standard of the hotel meets Hilton's policy or not. I am a long time Marriott customer and tried Hilton for the first time in last 5 years since Marriott Teaneck, NJ does not have a pool. That was a biggest mistake.
All the details explained below.
We arrived hotel at 3pm on 09/03/22 for two night stay on a King 1-bedroom suite with Manhattan view. I was told that my room is not ready and it will take about 15 min to be ready by Kim at the front desk. After 15 minutes, Kim told be that the room is ready but it will take another 5 minutes since the room needs to be inspected by the housekeeping manager before check in which is their protocol. The room 915 was ready around 3:40pm for us so we headed to the room.
Even before I unload a single suitcase from my cart, I noticed the sofa bed in living room looks like someone just got it from a junkyard. It was disgusting, yellowish staining on everywhere and liquid spill marks on the front. I immediately called the front desk and asked them to send a housekeeping manager to my room. The housekeeping manager saw the sofa bed and was apologetic for the condition of the sofa bed. She gave me an option to swap the room or replace the sofa bed - I told both work for me. She said she will report it to the front desk manager and find out what options they have.
Front desk manager(May or Mei) called me in a couple minutes and saying all rooms are booked for the weekend and they do not have an extra sofa bed. (Yes, they do not have a single extra sofa bed...) They offered me three options - 1. cover the sofa bed with a sheet and just deal with it, 2. they will remove the couch and put two roller beds since my two kids needs a sofa bed to sleep, 3. change the room to a king bed studio and receive 20k Hilton points.
I said we need both a sofa and a bed in the living room so the option 1 and 2 is no good for us. We could not let our kids sleep on the disgusting sofa bed covered by sheets or cannot loose a sofa from the living room. Also cannot take the studio since we need a space for me and my wife after my kids go to bed at 8:30pm.
Then I asked them back that I need a refund if they cannot change the sofa bed. The front desk manager said NO they cannot since I purchased in advance at Hilton.com. So I asked them to swap the sofa bed from the king bedroom studio where they want us to change the room but answer was NO. I asked why then she said they just can't. I told her that I non of the option works for us and we cannot stay in the room with that disgusting sofa bed. Then she said she will call me back.
While I was waiting her callback, I called Hilton.com - their customer experience department confirmed that I can get a refund directly from the hotel and what I've been told from the front desk manager is not true.
I ended up leaving the hotel around 4:45pm without a full refund. I paid $519 but I only got $500.xx refund since the difference is taken out by Hilton.com.(explained by the Operation Manager)
We came back home since we cannot find any alternative hotel at the last minute during the Labor day holiday. This hotel just ruined our family trip and waste our 7 hours from home to the hotel and back to home.
