Terrible hotel, terrible experience in ~30 hours here, I would never give even a single star…read more..
When you book it looks like a nice clean hotel, but in reality, it is not even "hit or miss" - it is just "missed once, missed twice, missed one more time"
At first Jacuzzi has no bubbles, it has a slow water flow, useless, only good looking on the hotel photos. And the only reason I have picked up this hotel was a pool and jacuzzi!!!
I spoke to maintenance person about jacuzzi and he told me that pump is broken, but as I see other reviews it was broken for over a year!!! And management doesn't care about fixing it! Actually, on the morning they placed "Out of service" paper on the jacuzzi rail"
6th floor rooms are kind of on the high end but so outdated as all the entire "Hilton" chain. Room 606 - to flash the toilet, you need to flash 10-15 times, terrible, they try to save the water, and they have low water setup, some flash cartridge, but it does not work. Had to spent 10 minutes trying to flash out the toilet!!! Where is the "American Standard" 1 gallon per flash??? Your economy toilet cartridge cost you 10 gallons of water in 20 small water portions flashes!!!!
Hot water, I understand I got to my room after 2:30 AM, so I went to the shower and had to wait at least 10 minutes until some warm, and finally hot water reached my 6th floor...
Not very clean... I mean exactly what I say, I have already changed 3 rooms in 1.5 days, Monday morning, and Monday to Tuesday night, as each room had some kind of problem, and each!!! of 3 rooms had some "cleaned issues as well". Room in 606 had some "leftovers" in it on the walls and floor in the shower... Another room, I think room 526, has some hairy leftovers. Next room 402 had a terrible celling in the bathroom, mold covered with multiple repair patches, instead of to paint the entire celling, there were like 5-6 patches, looking terribly bad.
Nest issue - No early check in!!!! Even that it looks like less than half occupied hotel - they don't give an early check in!
I had to pay extra night as my flight got to Austin at 1:15 AM and I got to hotel after 2:10 AM, night from Sunday to Monday, but check in time was Monday at 4PM, so I had to purchase additional "Sunday" night for 3 hours of sleep, between 3AM and 6AM... My original reservation was for 3 nights done by company with over $780 for this period, I called hotel at night before arrival to make sure that I will get a room, and Hilton agent make all this even more complicated, instead of adjustment, he made a double booking for the same night. Initially, on the checking at night, nice lady at the front desk told me that I will not be double charged for Monday 2AM to 6AM early check in. However, as a result I got billed 3 times for 30 hours in Austin, I had to call a few times afterwards and explain how all this happened, got one charge refunded, but still ended up with two bills for June 15 check-in thru June 16 final check-out.
Bar is a dead spot, with only 7 to 10 bottles of alcohol and nothing appealing. I know it is a Southwest, so here are commonly no top shelf brands, but at least a simple Spiced Captain Morgan and regular Coke, or something better than a cheap Tito vodka distilled from corn, so alcohol in overall is "get a worst headache tomorrow even after one drink"... Overall, the bar seems to exist only as a checkbox to claim a 3-star hotel standard, while in reality, the hotel falls below that level.
The omelet was the only positive aspect of this visit. Although breakfast is included, which is not particularly important to me, it was good. The kitchen and front desk staff were also very friendly.
On Monday around 5 PM at check-in, I was given room 526. I had specifically requested a quiet room (as noted in both my AMEX travel profile and Hilton profile), away from elevators, HVAC, and vending machines. Ironically, after moving just one floor down, it ended up being even worse.
When I first got into the room, I just dropped my bag and went out for dinner and to explore downtown. But when I came back around 10 PM, I realized there was a massive HVAC system right outside the window. At first, I thought I'd just deal with it for the night and switch hotels the next day, but within about 30 minutes I had a bad headache. I even recorded a video showing the noise level at around 70 dBA--it was pretty unbearable.
Around 10:30 PM, I went to the front desk and asked to move rooms, and I was relocated to room 402. That room was much better, and I was finally able to get a good night's sleep. I checked out early the next morning at 8 AM and moved to the Hyatt Place, where I stayed for the next two nights and had a much better experience (great pool, too).
What else about Embassy Suites by Hilton Austin Arboretum - the WiFi was extremely slow... in our 21st century companies as Hilton could already have free WiFi with fast access without EXTRA FEE!!! :)