Checked out today and unfortunately our stay had many issues.
It all started with getting the reservations. We were here for a wedding so we called 3 months in advance to book a handicap accessible room. This was very important to us as we have limited mobility.
Fast forward to the day we were to check in, and we called ahead to make sure everything was all set. The person we spoke with on the phone couldn't find our reservation anywhere. We gave the name of the wedding party, and they finally found it under a misspelled name. The worst part was the room was not ADA!
It was stressed how important it was for us to have an ADA room after they said none were available. Ridiculous. They finally relented and "found" an ADA room for us that wasn't in the same block as the rest of the wedding party.
We got a little lost upon arrival later that Friday evening so we called the hotel for some directions. This was our first time in Omaha, and the guy on the line was very rude and curt to us. We had no idea where to go, and his directions were helpful, but his tone was condescending.
When we arrived, we encountered Eric at the front desk. I believe this was the same person giving us directions. He couldn't find our reservation, and started asking us if we were at the wrong hotel. We assured him that we were at the right place, and then he accused us of calling the wrong phone number. I gave the name of the wedding party and they found it with the name misspelled... Still. Nobody bothered to correct it when we called that morning to confirm. Good news is that it was the ADA room we requested.
This was just the beginning of our problems.
We had seen that the price of the ADA room online was $20 less expensive than that of the price we reserved it at. Also, there was a discounted parking rate promo. This was mentioned to Eric and he brushed it off saying we can go over this when we check out. We asked for an itemized printout of all the charges, but he said irritably that they wouldn't have it until the end of our stay. It seemed like he didn't want to deal with us anymore.
Upon exiting the elevator we find out that the Handicap Accessible Room was literally the furthest away from the elevator. This was an issue due to our limited mobility. We thought this was some kind of mistake, and we'd deal with it in the morning since it was already very late.
We were exhausted after a long day of travel, so we went right to bed. I woke up with excruciating back pain the next morning after an awful night of sleep. One bed was noticably more squishy than the other. Is was creaking underneath like something was broken. We called the front desk and they sent maintenance to look at it.
2 days later, I'm still feeling the effects of the broken bed. But it wasn't all bad...
Tommy the maintenance man came immediately to look at the bed. He inspected it and saw the frame was in fact broken. Without hesitation he offered us free breakfast vouchers whooe he fixed the bed.
During breakfast Saturday morning we were greeted warmly by the two waitresses. The mother-daughter team worked quickly and were very attentive to our needs and requests. We were cutting it close to the end of breakfast by the time we got there and the cook was also quite attentive to us. The food was great.
During our meal, Chad from the front desk came by and gave us an update on the bed situation letting us know that it was fixed. As we were finishing up, he warmly greeted us and asked if we enjoyed our meals. We did.
We inquired about ADA room availability and were told that all ADA rooms were nearest the stairwell. Unfortunately the stairwell is located far away from the elevator. I'm guessing this oversight is due to the building being older.
When we came back from our day out, Chad again greeted us with smiles and asked if he could help. I inquired about Happy Hour at Spencer's. He was unsure if we could order that from the room and he suggested we call down when the restaurant opens. Unfortunately, the Happy Hour specials are dine-in only. This should be more transparent online and in their literature.
On the Marriott website there is a "Primetime" menu that looked to be for room service. When I spoke with Spencer's, they told me this was no longer available and they wouldn't honor it. Very disappointed. This menu should not be on the website at all.
The next morning as we were checking out, we mentioned the various issues to the lady at the front desk hoping maybe she could do something on the bill. She didn't even acknowledge them as we checked out.
Regardless of the few bright spots, our Hilton Garden Inn experience was overall negative. Our short weekend stay was a lot more difficult than it needed to be. At least the view was kind of nice.
