David Young

Review of Double Tree by Hilton Berkeley...

I will never stay in a Hilton again after this exp...

I will never stay in a Hilton again after this experience. The one star I give is for a deep bathtub and comfortable bed, or else it would get 0 stars.

1 - They charged a previously undisclosed $30 a day plus tax for parking. For my stay this was $100 extra not planned for in my budget - thus I was unable to do the things I had planned to do on my trip because of the unexpected expense. I stay at hotels almost every weekend and have never had to pay for parking above and beyond my hotel price before. Nor will I again.

2 - They put me in a room as far from the lobby as possible. This would not be a problem, except that their luggage carts are in the lobby, in this case 2/5ths of a mile from my room, making me walk nearly a mile (to the lobby and back) just to get a luggage cart to bring my things into the room. When a hotel has multiple buildings over a large area of land, they should have carts available near each entrance.

3 - The first room key stopped working the first day. The second room key stopped working by the second day. The third room key never worked at all. The fourth room key worked. I was only there for 3 days. They said "Don't put the room key near your cell phone", but I keep my cell phone in the opposite pocket than the room key, and did not place the room key near anything electronic at all.

4 - When I first discovered the extra parking charge, I attempted to cancel the room. They agreed to verbally, but when my booking company asked for the on duty manager to confirm that he was canceling my reservation, he refused. I ended up staying because without his confirmation, I could not get a refund, so I would be wasting $300 for the canceled stay instead of $100 for parking by staying. So I ended up staying, very unhappy with the management.

5 - The parking lot was full of cracks and potholes and as unkept as the extremely bumpy road that leads to the hotel.

I will never stay at a Hilton again.