I was very disturbed to find what appeared to be minute blood stains and several dessicated bedbug carcasses on the bedding when I opened the curtains in the morning. I hadn't noticed them the evening before, probably due to the low lighting from the room lights. Neither my wife nor I had any bites, but we did discover several more carcasses around the edges of the bathroom floor. Since neither of us had any bites, I suspect they have an active control program. Follow up should include a more thorough inspection of the room. If management wishes to look, it was room 738.

When traveling for business or pleasure, I prefer Hilton properties. The Ithaca Hilton is superb. Terrific, helpful and caring staff. Top notch hotel! Good restaurants.

The Hilton Garden Inn has the best location of all of the Ithaca hotels: just across from the Commons, an outdoor pedestrian shopping/dining destination. The hotel was constructed in the 2000s in a mixed-use office/hotel development right in downtown Ithaca.

The lobby is completely barren; everything is white. You aren't expecting much as you enter the elevators to your rooms. However, once you arrive upstairs, you'll find your standard, clean Hilton Garden Inn rooms that you expect from the brand. Flat-screen TVs, full bathrooms with individual bottles of soap, dresser, and complimentary coffee and tea are among the amenities included. Some rooms have beautiful views of Ithaca, while others overlook downtown areas. A small seating area can be found at the end of each hallway.

The hotel is one of the few that features a fitness center as well as an indoor pool. There is an onsite restaurant, and, depending on what kind of mood reception is in, sometimes it is included for Hilton HHonors members, and sometimes it is additional. Likewise, HHonors guests typically receive bottles of water for free as well. There is also a Starbucks in the building.

This is the only hotel in Ithaca that offers indoor parking for free at the garage next door. Some people complain about the location of the garage because you must drive around the block to get to the entrance; however, this is truly not an issue. Valet parking is also available for an additional cost, and, in our opinion, is not worth it.

Many great shops and restaurants are within walking distance. Ithaca College and Cornell are each a 10 minute drive away.

This is my second review of the property based on our second visit. While I still stand by my earlier review that this hotel is adequate and convenient, in light of the shortcomings we had experienced during our first visit last summer and how poorly we were treated this time, I would not recommend this hotel and leave so much to chance. I find it especially ironic that the general manager has posted here several times saying how much he appreciates people's comments and cares about their comfort, yet he never responded to our unfortunate experience.

We arrived to an overbooked hotel and were put in a room which was filthy with smoke odors. This in spite of my having advised them at the time of reservations that I had extreme allergies and would need a non-smoking room and was told it would not be a problem. They did explain that the hotel was very full and they could not guarantee bedding, but the non-smoking would not be an issue. When we asked the front desk for a different room, we were told that there were only a few rooms left to be checked into, and the manager had left strict instructions that none of us be moved. The best they could do was try to find us a room at another hotel - no easy feat in light of it being Parents Weekend at one of the colleges and everything having been booked for several weeks already. As it is, there are very few hotels in Ithaca and nothing else in town where we were. It was also getting quite late into the evening and we had to be some place and did not have time to deal with this. When we asked to speak with a manager, we were told there was no on there and we would have to wait until morning.

We found it terribly rude that a manager would leave specific instructions not to move us and not even have a manager with any authority on duty on a night they knew they would encounter problems as a result of being overbooked. Most disturbing is that I contacted in writing both the General Manager and Assistant Manager at the hotel, as well as Hilton Honors and after more than two weeks no one has had the courtesty to even respond. I did get a "standard" reply from Hilton Honors customer service saying that they like to give their hotels the chance to respond directly and I would hear back in three business days. In all fairness, I thought I would give them a chance to respond before posting my review here, but after waiting for more than two weeks for a response, it seems pretty clearl that they don't care.

We did manage to make other arrangements for ourselves (at great cost and inconvenience), but with service like this one would have to worry about depending on this hotel. Aside from the convenience of the location, the hotel is fairly mediocre in terms of the comfort of the rooms (bare bones with problematic HVAC) and the food offerings (which were awful). Unfortunately, this hotel seems to count on the fact that the lodging choices are very slim in Ithaca to maintian its business rather than to care about providing its guests with a good product and service.

Even if I could put up with the mediocrity of the hotel, the fact that they are so unreliable and indifferent would make me vary wary of booking a stay with or recommending them.