Hilton Times Square

Soaking carpet, dirty room and thick dust layer…… I stayed here with my wife and two daughters, it was our first family holiday in 10 years, so we booked two rooms. One was a corner room and the other was supposed to be an adjoining room. My daughter has a medical condition so were disappointed to see our rooms were not connected but on opposite sides of the corridor contrary to what the booking said and what was said when we phoned to confirm prior to arrival. I was also surprised that they could not give us Hilton points as we had booked through Booking.com, although we were given free Wi-Fi as compensation. My daughters' room was adequate, but we were extremely disappointed with our room. It was a corner room for which we paid extra ($1600+ for 5 nights) but we immediately saw that the room was not clean. It was as though we weren't expected. There were hairs and particles all over the toilet and bathroom, crumbs and food particles on the desk chair and a huge layer of thick dust all along the top of the wood panel behind the bedhead. This dust is a mixture of dead skin, linen particles and house-dust mite poop. SEE PHOTO .....There's nothing like breathing in previous guests' DNA as you sleep. The closet carpet was sodden and had a large wet patch which my wife trod in and ruined her socks! We immediately phoned reception and after about 20 minutes of discussion and some argument they called back and we negotiated a room change. One manager who joined the discussion in our room sympathised but said he was not responsible as he was front desk. I'm not sure why he came up in that case. To be frank the maintenance guys who came to fix the leak in the first room had more sense than the people on the front desk. Maybe they should be running the hotel. Hilton struggled to find two rooms for us and the whole saga took about 2 hours to resolve and completely scuppered our plans for our first evening in New York City. We didn't make our reservation and had to eat in the hotel. Again the dust problem was evident even in the new room so they arranged some deep cleaning whilst we were out. A guy turned up with a bright yellow feather duster which clearly wasn't up to the task! Eventually we were able to install ourselves in the new rooms, which were better than the original ones and connecting but not a corner room. However, the general feel of the decor was dated - everything was brown or cream and it all felt a bit tired. The view from the 41st floor, was, however, spectacular, and this made up for a lot. The bed was very comfortable and the bathroom adequate with free toiletries and plenty of towels and flannels. There was a hairdryer and an iron and ironing board in the room too. The tv was large and modern and my daughters were able to stream programmes from YouTube and watch Netflix. The people on the front desk seemed quite rude and wouldn’t say good morning as you were passing and were quite aloof. They couldn’t book a luxury taxi to the airport either. On top of the grubby rooms, there was only one bathrobe in our room and zero in my daughters' room. According to the front desk, they had run out. To compensate us for the room saga, they did give us one free breakfast (worth $100) and bottled water for 3 days, however, they never checked up on us to see if we were ok. Time to put the maintenance crew in charge! They genuinely seemed to care more about us than the front desk or housekeeping supervisors.

The Hilton Times Square has become our go to hotel since the Doubletree (which we loved) on 47th Street closed. We have been very happy with the location and have found our stays to be very comfortable. That is until the elevator nightmare. We were there in June and there was only one functioning elevator to take guests from the ground floor to the lobby. It is now August -- and still only one functioning elevator. Having to wait in a long line just to get in and out of the hotel is both time consuming and absolutely ridiculous. Yes -- I understand that the hotel is modernizing their elevators. How long is this going to take??? This is not some little hotel in the middle of nowhere. It is a Hilton in the middle of Times Square. We will not be staying again until both elevators are working. When we arrived this time -- both elevators were out -- and they were utilizing the service elevator to get people into and out of the hotel. The hotel can also have issues with breakfast. The breakfast buffet is very good. (And by the way -- ordering from the menu is included with the buffet -- which nobody will tell you.) We went to breakfast at 10 a.m. and there was a long line waiting to be seated. They do not have an adequate number of tables for the size of the hotel. I should also mention that -- unlike most Hilton properties -- being a Hilton Honors member (we are Diamond members) is barely acknowledged other than (sometimes) a "Thank you for being a Diamond member" at check-in. You will not even get water unless you remember to ask for it. The rooms at the Hilton are quite large for New York -- as are the bathrooms. The views are great. The housekeeping staff does a good job and we have found them to be very nice. The waitstaff in the restaurant are also very attentive and very nice. Some of the front desk people are nice -- some are not. All in all -- this is a good choice if you want to stay in the theater district -- or it will be once the elevator situation is resolved. If this were not an issue -- I would give the hotel 4-1/2 stars.

Good value and location in Times Square. Check-in and check-out quick and painless. Only one hotel working due to upgrade on other to and from lobby. However, never over two minutes wait. Would stay here again.