AVOID at all cost! If I could've written this review with 0 stars, I would most definitely have done so. This was absolutely the worst nightmare of my 40 years of travel experience! Came into town for our daughter's family weekend at her college, in Worcester, MA. Unfortunately, closer lodging to the university was booked far in advance so due to limited choice, we ended up in Auburn, 14 miles away at the Hampton Inn--of which we're Hilton members so we are not new to Hilton properties. Our flight arrived late, so we were unable to check in prior to midnight (I believe it was 12:15) however we'd called 8 hours in advance to let them know we'd be arriving late. The woman on the phone said it would be no problem at all, and that our room would be waiting which was of immediate comfort knowing we were traveling 5 1/2 hours across country and would be making an hour and half drive from Boston, late at night. Needless to say, we were exhausted. Upon arrival we waited TEN minutes for someone to show up at the front desk. I even called the hotel's local number while standing there waiting for someone to come running to answer the incessant ring of the phone but to no avail. Walked around to the hotel's "office" where patrons can utilize their printing services for boarding passes, etc and it was locked. Walked back to the front and magically, the night desk clerk appeared. As we were checking in, I handed him my husband's ATM, received the keys, and proceeded to the room. Albeit, a bit annoyed, but nonetheless, we were happy to get to the room. We weren't in the room 5 minutes before my husband started receiving notices on his phone from our bank that the card was charged THREE times for our two night stay--totaling over $1200.00! He promptly went back to the front desk, again, waited for the gentleman to appear and explained the situation. "You must've inadvertently swiped the card 3 times." He insisted he hadn't, so my husband called the bank only to be told he needed to call back in the morning to the claims department. Frustrated, we went to bed and the next morning, my husband noticed his card was accessed by the hotel just after 4:00am as well as just after 5:00am only to be given the notice that there was insufficient funds for the transaction. NO KIDDING! They'd taken ALL of our 2-day visit funds x 3 just for the check-in process. When approaching yet another front desk clerk during the following AM shift she insisted they'd only put a "hold" on for ONE of the charges. We explained that clearly, there was an error somewhere on their end because the card was fully charged for THREE different 2 day stays! The funds weren't "held" they were fully charged. Obviously frustrated by their insistence that the card charge was on the BANK'S end, my husband continued to show them written proof that the card was charged and not "held" as they repeatedly claimed. By now, he's agitated, but still not raising his voice, he requested to speak to the management and she informed him that the manager would not be arriving until later that morning. He expressed that there was an obvious error only to be met by the desk clerk's request to "please don't argue with me." Really, you expect us to just accept on your word, that an over $1200 charge doesn't exist on my ATM, which should've only been "held" for a little over $400???? Needless to say, this doesn't affect her or the hotel, however, it's wiped out just about ALL of the remaining funds we'd planned on using for our trip! After several minutes she finally agreed to call the manager and he now informed her that he wouldn't be arriving that day AT ALL and wouldn't return to work until Monday--a full day after our departure. My husband explained that if she wouldn't allow him to speak with the manager (he refused to take our phone number to call us himself) there would be an "issue." She immediately jumped to--"I'm going to call the police because you're threatening me." Mind you, no voice was raised, no gesture was made--she immediately went there. In frustration, he walked away, called the bank again and asked them to speak with her. She spoke to our banking agent who explained the charges that were made and she STILL insisted it had to be a banking error. My husband then asked her if she called the police. She said, "no" so he informed her that he would be calling them, because this is clearly victimization. After all, THEY HIJACKED OVER $1200 FROM US!!!! She said, "please don't call 911 sir, because all of our alarms will go off!" UGH, this is rich. So he called the police station, and an officer came to take his statement and speak with the desk agent. He agreed, that clearly they'd made an error, but because they weren't willing to acknowledge it, our only option was to write up a statement for his report and turn into the bank for dispute. Needless to say, we couldn't exit the next day fast enough.
RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!!!! read more