NCIndependent
March 8, 2024
Since November 2021, my brother and I have stayed at this hotel five times when we come to Sarasota to check on family twice a year, and plan more trips to the area in 2024. We loved this hotel because of its convenient location to good restaurants and shops. However, we are having second thoughts about booking this hotel again because of our last stay. First, we had requested (several weeks prior) two King Studio Suites on the first floor where we had stayed the last two trips. As senior citizens using handicapped parking, it is easier to maneuver our luggage, etc. This time, however, we were placed on the second floor and although they were the same room category, only one elevator was working during our ENTIRE six-night stay. In addition, the production company crew that was staying there in a block of rooms (presumably working on one of the nearby holiday shows) left their food garbage out each day on the carpeted floor outside their doors. The corridor was strewn with it. It was like a college dorm. It wasn't once, twice, but EVERY day. Why not leave it in the room for housekeeping or better yet, bring it down to the trash cans by the breakfast area as we have done when our room trashcans overflow?! Why is this unsightly sometimes odorous display now even permitted,especially in this caliber hotel where some of us are paying top dollar out of our own pockets?! BOTTOM LINE: With its constant change in general management (three that we know of since November 2021), it now seems like the hotel atmosphere is not up to its prior Hilton quality standards (except for the excellent maintenance, breakfast, and housekeeping staffs who recognized us and made us feel welcome and were helpful during our stay, unlike the front desk staff, none of whom we recognized and who seemingly couldn't care less about our room location preference request and the broken elevator). Disconcerting to say the least.