Hilton Garden Inn New York/Central Park South-Midtown West

I am a Hilton Honors Diamond member. I stay at Hiltons every six to eight weeks. This has been the worst experience I have ever had at any hotel — not just any Hilton. At 9:48 am today, we called the front desk to ask that they fix our faucets. There was brown water coming out of every faucet. We were told that they would send an engineer. We had to leave our room to go to an appointment, so we never did see an engineer come up to fix the problem. We returned to our room at 11 pm and found that the problem had not been fixed. Still brown water coming out of everywhere. We asked for a new room. We were told that the hotel is sold out and there are no other rooms. So here we are at midnight, waiting for the engineer to return and fix the problem. We are so tired. We just want to brush our teeth, wash our face and go to sleep. We can’t even do that. This place has made me question why I have been so loyal to Hiltons. Read less

Hilton Garden Inn Central Park South 237 West 54Th Street 10019, NEW YORK The hotel wasn't as good as we were expecting it to be. The location was amazing but on arrival I needed to pay $700 deposit and was bluntly informed if I used any tea, coffee or water bottles, this would all be deducted from my deposit. I found it strange not to have complimentary tea / coffee in the room. Needless to say, we didn't drink the tea, coffee or water. The 'shop' in reception was very expensive. I get that it's the centre of New York but the only bottle of water we could find in the shop was $11 or $12! No thank you! I'm not sure whether they had run out of cheaper water but we couldn't see any. A small packet of crisps was also around $5! The room was quite dark, only one ceiling light as you walked in, and two lamps at the end of the beds. No other overhead lighting so this made the room feel very dark, especially when tryingto use the mirror. This was probably not helped by only being on the 6th floor and the view looking on to a court yard so there was very little natural light coming in. There were 2 double beds in the room (as requested) but the mattresses didn't come to the end of the beds so for the first few days we kept hitting our legs on the wooden corners of the beds every time we squeezed past them. At check-in, the person (Jordan) wasn't particularly friendly or helpful. He told us that there had been an incident and only 2 out of 3 lifts were working so if we weren't happy we could leave and find somewhere else to stay and get a full refund. I really don't know where he thought we would go at 6pm after travelling for 12 hours and not being familiar with New York! He said if we decided to stay, there would be no compensation for the lift issue. I appreciate he was fed up of repeating himself but it wasn't a great first impression of the hotel. The rest of the staff were pleasant, friendly and helpful so maybe Jordan was just having an off day! The air con was very noisy in the room, especially during the night. The cleaners let themselves in to the room TWICE (after knocking once) the day BEFORE we were leaving and asked us if we were checking out. I can understand maybe making a mistake once on their paper work but twice in the same day was strange. This was 2 different cleaners at different times of the day asking if we were checking out when we weren't due to leave until the next day. The lifts were all working after a few days and although we sometimes waited a few minutes, it wasn't really any sort of problem. The disappointing thing is that Virgin Holidays were not made aware of the lift issues in advance so were quite surprised when I informed them of it. They did offer to try to get us moved but this was on the day the 3rd lift was finally fixed so the hotel didn't seem too keen on any refund for moving us. As I've mentioned, the location is amazing and something I definitely can't fault. Literally 5 minutes from Central Park and just 6 or 7 from Times Square. We had breakfast included, although this was not mentioned by Jordan at check-in so I had to go back later that evening and ask about where to go and what the process was for breakfast. Breakfast was at The Empire Steak House attached to the hotel and I can't fault the food and staff. The waiters explained everything on our first morning and were always friendly and helpful every morning. Breakfast was fairly simple but absolutely perfect for what we wanted. The coffee was amazing too! They were quick to bring the receipt each day for the tip! All in all, the hotel was OK but I would probably choose a different one next time as our experience definitely didn't have any 'wow' factor which I thought it would have being a Hilton Hotel. Read less

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Central Park South as part of a Virgin package and arrived just after midnight on a Tuesday. After a long journey, this is the time you hope for a warm and welcoming check-in – unfortunately, the reception was curt and unhelpful. We were also surprised by a hefty $100 per night deposit taken on our credit card. What followed was a series of frustrations. We were told there had been flooding in the hotel and the lifts were not functioning normally. To get a lift from the 27th floor (where we’d been placed), we had to send a text message so someone could manually operate the elevator. The wait times were absurd – 15 minutes on one occasion, 17 minutes on another – which made even the simplest outings a hassle. Our room, a king executive, felt dingy and uncared for. There were no USB ports – something you’d reasonably expect in a modern NYC hotel – and the general atmosphere was more neglected than executive. It was hard to feel comfortable or relaxed. Breakfast was equally uninspiring: served in a joyless dining room with minimal service. A waiter brought coffee and immediately dropped a bill for a tip, while everything else was self-serve from a very average buffet. Perhaps the most frustrating part of all was discovering that Hilton had apparently not informed Virgin of the state of the hotel. Once we contacted Virgin, they were quick to help, and we asked to be moved at the first opportunity. All in all, this was a disappointing experience. We expected far more from both Hilton and a Central Park location. Until the hotel resolves these serious issues, I would not recommend staying here. Read less

Upon check in I was informed that due to a water pipe bursting there was only two elevators working for the entire 34 level hotel. Guests were required to ‘call’ elevators via a WhatsApp group to the floor when you wanted to leave. There was no apology for this situation upon checking in. I totally appreciate that situations happen that are very much out of the control of the hotel but basic customer service communication was completely absent. The hotel should have contacted guests prior to checking in advising the problem. I enquired as to when this incident occurred and it was 6 days prior. The first error in customer service. Secondly, there was zero attempts made by hotel management to try and assist with smoothing over the situation. No compensation for any inconvenience caused. The elevators were being operated by attendants (whom I felt very sorry for having to go up and down with hotel guests that were frustrated with the situation for 8 hour shifts) Multiple times during my stay I waited 15-20 minutes for elevators to arrive at my floor. Sometimes they didn't arrive and many times I walked down the 34 flights of stairs. It was also very clear that during my stay there times when only one elevator was in operation. To top things off a fire alarm sounded at 2:30am one morning and multiple other times during the stay. The shower water pressure also questionable along with a banging sound when flushing the toilet and turning taps on. I placed a complaint with the 3rd party company I booked the hotel through and was told the hotel would directly speak with me which they did not. Upon checking out I politely offered some feedback and the staff member stated that a manager would be in contact with me. I am still awaiting said communication. I will not be staying at a Hilton property in the future. Read less

Hands down, the worst expereience I've ever had at a Hilton. I arrived to find that two of the three elevators were not working. According to staff, a pipe had burst earlier the week which caused some electrical issues with two of the elevators, and disruption in phone service. The line to the elevator was quite long, and I was told a minimum 15-minute wait. I ended up schlepping my suitcase, backpack and other luggage, up to the sixth floor. It was a tense situation for staff; I think they had been yelled at by a lot of disgruntled customers, even though they weren't at fault. Who was at fault? Management. They should have told guests in advance of the situation, letting the guests know what they were facing, and giving them the option to look for another hotel. That was the first thing. But it gets worse. When I went to take a shower, it sounded like a jack hammer going off behind the wall. (This is not an exxageration. I walked by a sledgehammer later in the day and the noise was directly on par.) Thinking it was air in the pipe, I tried to ease the flow, turn off the flow, change the showerhead, and everthing in between. I was bit nervouse about turning on the faucet because it was not seated firmly against the tile (a colleague renting another room had the faucet handle fall off in his hand, and spent several minutes trying to put it back on). I showered as quickly as I could, the noise deafening and disconcerting (I do not do well with loud noises). After getting out of the shower, I went to dry my hair. The haird dryer plug had one prong tilted to the side and it would not going into the socket. I had to go down the six flights of stairs to pick up a new hair dryer, which arrived after a 10-minute wait. I was scheduled to stay for three nights, but on the day of the third night I told the front desk that I couldn't deal with all the issues they were having, that my stay had been riddled with issues since I arrived.. I had to go through a manager, but he finally agreed to allow me to leave without paying for my third night. When I talked to him it was about 11:20 a.m.. I asked him if it was possible if I could stay until 1:00 pm to avoid sitting in the lobby until my next meeting. He told me, "oh know. If you are not out of your room by noon, we will have to charge you for another night." And that friends, was my tipping point, and why I am writing this review...which is very rare for me. Bottom line: You have many choices in NYC. Don't stay at the Hilton Garden Inn/New Yorth/Central Park South midtwon West. I usually stay there two to three times a year, but going forward I will avoid this hotel, at all costs. Sadly, my last few experineces with Hilton have not been good which leads me to believe that he Hilton is going downhill. Fast. Read less