I am a frequent traveler (about 5 trips a month) and my hotel of choice is the HGI brand. I love Hiltons and their loyalty program can't be beat.
I find the consistency and quality of HGI hotels across the nation to be the best around- which is why i will go out of my way to stay at them over any other brand.
This particular location, however, leaves much to be desired. My arrival at the front desk was a bit sloppy- the printers were out of paper. I asked for a room on a high floor, away from the elevators (which is in my booking profile), she gave me a room at the back of the hotel- yes, far from the elevators- but also surrounded by smokers. Apparently, this is also the forgotten hallway as frequently I would return to my room to solicited material having been slipped under my door. (One day, I had as many as 4 flyers littering my doorway.) The staff uniforms were frequently wrinkled and dirty. Usually I find most employees have a personal standard of excellence that I just did not find here.
Just a note- the elevators are extremely slow. Often times, I found myself waiting at least 3 or 4 minutes for the elevator to come to the fourth floor.
When I arrived in my room, there was a box cutter sitting open on the bed, and after having pulled out my laptop to work at the desk for a few minutes, I discovered that the edging of the desk was covered with some sort of sticky adhesive, which got all over my clothing. As I was leaving, i mentioned this to the front desk and asked them to fix it- which they did while I was away... And I returned to this note on my desk- see photo. The intent was good... The staff should be trained to not leave notes unless they're spelled correctly and professionally. I did appreciate how quickly they responded in this one instance.
Also, the lid of the toilet in my bathroom wasn't even the right lid for the toilet- so it sat crooked and was an eye sore. The toilet handle was loose, so it wouldn't stop the water from running. More than once I asked the front desk to have it worked on while I was out of the room and there was no work done on it. The lid was replaced- with another ill-fitting lid.
The fridge in my room did not have an adjustable setting, so my fruit was not kept cold- it was just slightly cooler than room temp.
The room thermostat did not cool the room to the setting I prefer. I set the temp to 65, and it never fell below 73 despite several attempts at readjusting the very old thermostat.
Since I prepaid for my room, I couldn't leave the property. And changing rooms wouldn't have made my experience any better. Repacking my stuff and moving to another room was more of a headache.
Overall, not even close to a Hilton property standard that I've come to expect.. The Lake Buena Vista property blows this one of the water.
Lots of small things add up- I would not choose this venue again for my next trip. In fact, I would go out of my way to avoid it.
Disappointing for sure.