Hilton, Disgusting Facility! March 29, 2025. We wish to bring to your attention the dismal performance, our dissatisfaction with how we were treated, and our utter disgust with the facility of one of your allegedly premier locations: Hilton Phoenix Tapatio Cliffs Resort. Our stay that was to occur March 26 through April 1. When we registered online, we called ahead to the Hotel Reservation Desk to request a ground floor room in the main building. As returning guests we found the hillside layout was difficult for Claudia to navigate following recent surgeries, thus our request for this year’s stay. We were to visit our grandchildren, including a recently born granddaughter, for our in-person introduction to her and to attend her brother’s third birthday party. We were advised a note would be made of the ground floor request. When we arrived, we called ahead as we were early and asked to check in. We were advised no rooms were available, call back in an hour. Sixty minutes later, the same response. As we entered the campus, we parked in an area that was incredibly difficult to walk across as it was on a steep incline. Many of the parking spaces here are similar in nature. It would not be difficult for a young person, let alone two seniors, to fall back and crack a skull trying to get out of the car. Those spaces and many others should be reworked, made level and made to safely function as intended. They are potentially a liability. When we arrived inside for the regularly scheduled 4:00 PM check-in we were advised there were no longer any rooms available on the first floor, so we were booked into an interior room on the second floor overlooking the family pool area/courtyard. We were unable to easily access our room as two of the nearby elevators were disabled or malfunctioning. A third elevator took me so far from our room that I walked the hotel for 30 minutes looking for a path to our room. There was no bellman on duty at the desk and we were forced to carry our own luggage to our room. It was at best an inauspicious start to our visit. We were exhausted, perspired and tired before we even unpacked. Once inside the room we determined the 1 King bed Suite Main Building room was incredibly small. At nearly $400/night we anticipated something of higher quality. The closet was small, really made for brooms not travelers. The balcony was tiny, barely three feet wide and made for little people. It overlooked the noisy parking lot. The bathroom was bare bones, water closet style with just enough room to turn around. Pitiful. At this point your AI/automated phone attendant started peppering us with welcome text notes: How’s it going messages. We advised we were underwhelmed by our accommodation. It was suggested we could move to a bigger room (unspecified as to what that would have cost) and we declined as we were unpacked, clothing soaked to the bone with perspiration having tried to even find the room, and in no mood to move so we agreed we would make the best of where we were. The first morning we awoke to bug bites and wrote them off as a minor nuisance. We showered (the tub did not drain properly and backed up as we did so, BTW) and headed out for the day. The next morning (Friday) we awoke to a small puddle in front of the refrigerator/coffee bar area as the fridge had apparently shut down, defrosted overnight and restarted. We mopped up. However, for the second night in a row we awoke with bug bites, voluminous this time as we were overrun while asleep. Our arms and torsos were covered with bites, my wife was bitten everywhere including in her groin and woke up with blood in her garments. The bites were sore, oozing, blistering and bleeding. We inquired via text message (to the Hotel bot) what was going to be done about the bed bug infestation, making us comfortable and remunerating us for the incredibly disgusting inconvenience. At this point, the hotel manager became involved and apologized, offered again to move us to another building and room, ordered an in-depth inspection of the room and sent security to our room to document the reported issue. Interestingly the security guard would not enter the room and opted to stand outside rather than come in, look for himself and ask questions (likely because he was fearful of being infested by bed bugs himself). To placate us, your manager then made the insulting offer of “a complimentary breakfast for the remainder of your stay.” We had had enough. Our vacation was ruined, we were violated, more than dissatisfied with the venue and wanted out. We asked the manager for help in finding a nearby hotel we could move to since we did not wish to risk another room at Tapatio that might also be infested. We were provided with an online link to another Hilton property and told to reach out on our own. Minimally a call on our behalf to the other venue by the manager would have been in order if excellent customer service was the standard. We were done, we had it and now ready to go home and miss the time we will never get back with our young grandchildren. We asked for a full refund which allegedly will be provided but yet to appear on our bank statement. We also asked for the hotel to cover the additional costs associated with having to return home early and purchase a $700+ airfare charge. We were denied. We asked for the hotel to cover the cost of our rental car which was prepaid and subject to loss of fees with an early return. We were denied by the hotel manager.
As the former Director of Customer Service when I was working, I would think your organization would want to do whatever it could do to facilitate the departure, accommodate the aggrieved customer’s requests and provide some reasonable level of compensation to help cover charges incurred due to your broken down, infested property where a customer had been traumatized, violated, in pain and suffering and found to be bleeding due to zero mitigation of a problem of which your facility is well aware. Interstngly Enough A Quick Web Search On Google Of Tapatio Cliffs And Bed Bug Infestation Serves Up Innumerous Reports/Complaints About Bed Bugs And Other Insects, Dissatisfied Customers, Dating Back To 2011 At This Facility. As an added insult to physical injury, your automated AI/chatbot wrote me as we were leaving, “We hope you enjoyed your stay at Hilton Phoenix Tapatio Cliffs Resort and hope to see you again soon! Have a perfect day! –Gabriela.” To which I replied, “I’ve had colonoscopies that were more pleasant than staying at your hotel.” We intend to notify the AZ Attorney General, the AZ State and Phoenix Department of Health Services, the Tourism Bureaus of both governments as well as local and national media consumer advocates about how poorly we were mistreated, how ineffective if anything at all is being done about the infestation at your facility and the lack of basic concern for a returning customer. We have incurred close to $1,000 in additional costs, a ruined vacation, and forever lost time with our family. We’ve spent the past 20 hours cleaning, fumigating and laundering clothing to preclude the spread of your bed bugs in our home. We are dishonored to be paying customers of Hilton Hotels.
Sincerely.
