Hilton Garden Inn Hotel: Everything But Respect

I recently traveled to my grandfather’s hometown to attend a memorial service for him and dispose of his remains as he’d wished. The whole family did the road trip to Illinois for the service, but in the interest of privacy, I am not going to say exactly which town we went to, only that it is a small town in Illinois.For our lodging, we selected a nearby Hilton Garden Inn hotel. The hotel itself was beautiful. It only had a 3 star rating, but I couldn’t quite figure out why as it was certainly comparable to some of the higher rated hotels I’d stayed in before.

We arrived in the evening, and there was a harpist in the lobby entertaining guests. It didn’t actually have a lobby, per se, but rather the restaurant surrounded a marble entranceway that led to the front desk. Fresh flowers everywhere contributed to a festive atmosphere.

I had a reservation, so check-in was easy, just a couple of signatures and I was on my way. However, my big issue with the hotel involved one of those signatures.

I was given a sheet of paper that disclosed that “Quiet Hours” in the hotel were from 11pm to 7am. Okay, fine. No big deal there.It also stated that there was to be no running in the halls and making lots of noise during those hours, and that if a complaint was received the guest would receive one warning, and if the issue continued after the warning they would have to leave.Okay, a little strict, but I can understand how that might sometimes be an issue. The final part stated that if someone else chose to leave the hotel due to any noise caused by you, then you were responsible to pay the hotel any lost revenue.

What? Hold the phone!

I looked at the front desk clerk and asked her what the heck that was, and she said it was “Standard procedure.” I mentioned that I’d never seen anything like it before, but I was exhausted from having been on the road for 12 hours, I had four hungry, cranky kids that needed to be fed and let off some steam, and I had already researched hotels in the area and knew this was the only one that we would be comfortable in, hotel snobs that we are, so I signed it and got my keys.

Other relatives of mine were staying in the same hotel, and when I saw them later I asked them if they were asked to sign something about the Quiet Hours. They weren’t. They also had three young kids, so the only thing I could think of that would have singled me out apparently didn’t apply.

Our room itself was fantastic. We had a suite room, which had 2 queen size beds in the “back” of the room, with one television, and then there was a small hallway past the bathroom. Across from the bathroom was a mini-fridge, a coffee maker, and a microwave. In the “front” of the room was a small sofa, an armchair, a desk with complimentary high-speed internet with an ethernet cable in case you forgot yours, and another TV with game console. The small sofa folded out into a bed.

The arrangement was wonderful. We put the kids to sleep back in one of the beds, and then hubby and I were able to sit up and talk without disturbing them. When I needed to do paperwork with some family members, there was more than enough room to do it and still have room for the kids to play around us. The beds were the most comfortable hotel beds I’ve ever slept in.

The bathroom was beautiful, spacious, and the hot water in the shower was hot immediately, no waiting for the water to warm up. I did have a couple of issues with the bathroom. I am short, under 5 feet tall, and I had a hard time leaning over the sink to brush my teeth without spitting toothpaste all over myself, as the sink was set back a bit from the edge of the (marble) counter.Also, I was too short to reach the shower head to adjust it without standing on the side of the tub, which is a bit dangerous when you are wet and the porcelain is slippery.

With four kids, young kids, we were concerned about that noise policy. Not that they’d be up running the halls and screaming between 11 and 7, because even my kids aren’t up then and we would never allow running and screaming anyway, but more that someone would overreact to normal child noise or the baby crying in the night and want to leave the hotel.As a result, we were rather harsh with our kids, and I don’t think our kids enjoyed themselves much at all the entire time we were in the hotel.We didn’t let them speak above a whisper, we made sure they didn’t leave our side, we took the whiny three year old outside to our van to deal with a fit of temper, because we were scared of what the hotel management would do.

I was going to speak to the manager about the noise policy and ask them why I was singled out, but frankly I was pretty rankled about it, and my family members asked me to let it go - I think they were afraid of retaliation in response to something I might say.So I mentioned it when I checked out, and asked why my relatives hadn’t needed to sign but I had.They told me that it was a mistake, my relatives should have had to sign it, too.They said that on weekends they have a lot of weddings there, and people get to drinking and behave poorly, so they had to institute the policy.I pointed out that in the first place, we were getting the bereavement rate so obviously there would be no drunken wedding cavorting going on, and secondly, my husband and I have both traveled extensively for both business and leisure and we have never, in almost two decades, been asked to sign something making us financially liable for lost revenue to the hotel due to noise.She mentioned that this particular hotel is independently owned, and she didn’t know if it was a policy just for them or with the entire chain. I told them that it was unfair to have had that sprung on me at the last minute, and that if they were going to have such a policy in the first place, they should at least mention it when you are registering for the hotel, so that other options can be made if a guest finds that policy unappealing.She thanked me for my suggestion while turning away from me in a rather dismissive manner and I went home before I went postal.

With that policy in place, I hesitate to recommend what is otherwise a glorious hotel. If the entire chain has the same standards, the accommodations are some of the best in the business. I just think that in a such a nice hotel, rules of common courtesy have to apply, and managing potential noise issues can be achieved in some other way that still maintains respect for their customers.I am willing to try the chain again, but I am now a wiser consumer, and will be sure to ask about any noise waivers when I make reservations.

Incidently, I was sent a survey from Hilton Garden Inn afterwards asking about my stay. I did detail the noise policy issue there. I will keep you posted should I ever hear back from them.