My wife and I stayed here in December 2004. We had such a great time in NYC and experience at the Hilton, we decided come back with our children for Spring Break.
Unfortuately our second experience at the Hilton was not as good as the first. We arrived just before 3:00 PM on Thursday afternoon and the line to check-in was huge. The NY State Teachers convention was being hosted at the hotel and everyone was checking in at that time.
After looking at the line (we were told by those waiting that the line was 1-2 hours long), we tried to self-check in based on the advice of hotel employees. However, the self-serve kiosk would not recognize our confirmation number. A roaming employee was checking guests using a hand-held computer and he tried to get us checked in - then our room was not ready.
Hilton allowed us to stow our bags for free so we took off for some sightseeing. When we returned to the hotel about 3 hours later - we were informed that they were "out" of non-smoking rooms.
One of my children and my wife have asthma and are allergic to cigarette smoke, so we complained that the room reservation was unacceptable. We waited another 30 minutes or so, before they were able to put us in a "non-smoking" room.
Once we got into our room, we felt like we had been duped. The room smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. We immediately contacted customer service who informed us that our room was a "non-smoking" room on a "non-smoking" floor and they would be happy to freshen up the room for us. Of course, freshen up meant opening the windows and spraying air freshener.
We requested another room, but they did not have one available until Friday. Plus an ionizer/air purifier was not available.
We were less than thrilled with their response to this matter as we felt as we were being treated as if we were inconveniencing them.
Plus the room did not feel all that clean. The color scheme was dark. The room overlooked the roof to the main entrance. The floor was wet by the bathroom entrance and the mini bar was open.
Not only did we have to sleep in the "smoking den", but the room next door featured a "late-night" drunken teachers party. They knocked on our wall repeatedly until about 2:00 AM. We contacted customer service to have them quiet down (about 12:30 AM) but we noticed no discernible difference in the volume level.
Once the main party died down, the festivities carried on a bit longer as a "party for two." Even though the woman was a screamer, we were fortunate her partner only had enough stamina to go about 4:28 seconds.
Nevertheless, my 6 year old woke up thinking "that the people in the next room are trying to break down the wall."
The next morning, Hilton said we could move to our new room anytime after 12:00 PM. This was correct and we were moved to the exact room promised when we got back to the hotel around 5:30 PM. The front desk staff explained that in the week before our stay, the two floors that they have reserved for smokers were closed for repairs/remodeling, thus some of the non-smoking rooms were used for smokers.
Our new room was much better. The colors were brighter. The room was much cleaner and there was a much better view. It did not smell like smoke.
The rest of our stay was uneventful, although they shorted us a towel on Saturday morning.
Check out on Sunday was a problem though. First, we were charged $13.00 in mini-bar charges for our first room - but as we explained to them when we moved the mini-bar was wide open when we first checked in.
Second, with the concierge, we arranged for a car to take us to the airport. It was to arrive at 11:30 AM. We ended up leaving the hotel for a little while that morning - there was a parade. When it looked like that we might be slightly later than 11:30 AM we asked the concierge to hold our car for about 10 minutes.
We got back to the hotel about 11:30 AM. My wife went immediately to the front desk to check out and clear up the mini-bar charges, while I went up to the room to gather our bags. I called the bell captain for a bellman to come assist me. 20 minutes later I had to call down again! 35 minutes after my first call, a bellman arrived to help with my bags! When we finally got downstairs, our car was gone! We had to arrange other transportation to the airport and almost missed our flight. The bellman claimed that he was sent up after my 2nd call
Only the bellman apologized. We complained to the bell captain and the concierge - but neither seemed concerned.
While we had a great time in NYC, we were disappointed with our stay this time. Our first trip in December, we were so impressed with the staff and the hotel. We wanted to come back soon.
It was a shame this trip was not like our first.
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