I am in town on a work trip, training new court reporters and I cannot believe the experience I had at this DoubleTree. Hilton should be ashamed to be associated with this hotel. Upon arrival the first person I encountered at the front desk was dismissive and told me I could just go up to my room if I have the digital key. She didn’t welcome me to the hotel or ask me how I was. It was a terrible first impression, but I just brushed it off and headed upstairs. The hallways upstairs were extremely hot and muggy as if they didn’t have the AC on.
Entering my room, I was very happy with the view but was soon to be disappointed upon finding dirty walls, hair in the shower, cracks in the ceiling, moldy grout in the tub. This is my first time in Philadelphia, so I just shrugged it off and thought “Well I guess this is Philly” and enjoyed the views from my room.
Two days later, I was downstairs in the lobby working with my coworkers. I went to plug my laptop in to charge and an electrical spark ignited! I was in shock… figuratively and literally! My fingernail was black from being singed. Two employees witnessed this and barely reacted. Neither asked if I was okay or apologized. One inspected the outlet and stated, “Oh, you see that piece of metal sticking out? That’s why that happened, just don’t use that plug.” Having zero disregard for the fire hazard, not to mention having no consideration for mine or other guests’ well-being. Given that I was tired from travel and working, I yet again, shrugged it off and went upstairs. However, this is a lawsuit waiting to happen, I have reported a fire safety complaint to the city.
The situation I would encounter later that night is one I simply cannot shrug off. I was about to go to bed on Monday night and before turning off the light I saw a MOUSE on my floor!!! I couldn’t believe this was happening especially because I was on the TWENTY THIRD FLOOR! I had a slight panic attack before making my way down to the front desk. The employee who was there at the time did take sympathy on me she apologized profusely and moved me to a suite without me asking. I accepted the key, but this suite is on the 5th floor and walking back to my room to pack up my suitcases I couldn’t stop thinking about how if there are mice on the 23rd floor they must be scaling the walls and infesting the entire building.
Sounds bad already, right? Just wait… it gets WORSE! I went back downstairs to let the front desk know I can’t stand to sleep there and need to check out. To which the man at the front desk replied, “Did you see another one (mouse) in the suite?”. I was completely taken back by this, so I asked, “Why does this happen often?”. He said, “Well we’re right next to the subway there’s nothing the hotel can really do about it.” EXCUSE ME?!?! Certainly, this is not Hilton standard to just allow an infestation in their hotels… IS IT?!?! He then told me I wouldn’t be charged for the night as if he was doing me some sort of favor.
To add icing to the cake, the following day I received a text from Khufu asking how my stay was on a scale to 1-5 so far. Obviously, Khufu didn’t check the system to see I checked out early.
After my experience and reading other Google reviews (which I didn’t look at prior to booking because I assumed the DoubleTree would be clean), I encourage Hilton Corporate and the Health Department to shut this establishment down. The GM, Jim Salvo, has been claiming for months via his response to Google reviews about mice that they are working with pest control to remedy the infestation…clearly it has not worked. Maybe I can help expedite that process, I have reported the hotel to the Office of Food Protection. I ate at the restaurant in the hotel twice and am now disgusted thinking about the amount of rat feces I possibly consumed and would hate for other patrons to do the same.
