I Can’t Believe This is Hilton! The Shocking State of Disrepair of Hilton Anaheim
Talk about bait-and-switch.
When I was looking for a hotel to stay in for our Disneyland trip, I decided to go with Hilton Anaheim for two reasons:
- The hotel is close to the parks.
- It is a Hilton property, and, since I am a Diamond Hilton Honors member, we would receive Food & Beverage credits to use during our stay, so we could save some money on breakfast.
I did read the reviews that were mostly unflattering, but I thought, “How bad could it be? It is Hilton!”. The pictures on the website look great plus it is one of the Convention Center hotels, so if business travelers are staying here, it sure will be ok to stay at Hilton Anaheim for a few days.
Spoiler alert: wrong!
Table of Contents
Check-In
I did the mobile check-in, and I had quite a few rooms to choose from. I chose a corner room that seemed larger than any other room and it possibly had the Disneyland view. I couldn’t tell for sure as I wasn’t familiar with the hotel layout if the room had the theme park view, but there were several other corner rooms in different locations that should have had the view.
When we got to the hotel, the front desk clerk asked if we wanted her to check if there were any upgrades available. Who doesn’t like an upgrade? We were offered a “private” balcony room upgrade for free (see Room section below on why “private” is in quotation marks) or a theme park view room for an additional $20/night. We were told the “view” room is usually $50/night, but, since I am a Hilton Honors Diamond member, I would get a discount. Apparently, Hilton Anaheim only offers one category upgrades for free. This is so strange as we got free suite upgrades at much better hotels with no issues, but whatever. What upsets me is that we could have chosen the Disneyland view room during the mobile check-in for free (one of the corner rooms). I just didn’t realize that at that moment.
We chose the “upgrade” to the “private” balcony room. Another bait-and-switch (along with the decent-looking lobby and a shabby room). Definitely a downgrade from the room I chose during the mobile check-in.
Room
I think the elevators take you through a secret tunnel to a Motel 6 or some other beat-up roadside motel where you would only stay if you had some kind of car trouble. To be honest, I’ve never stayed at a Motel 6, so this comparison could be very unfair to the motel.
You go from a nice lobby to a room where all furniture is completely worn out, the fridge is cracked, the air vent in the bathroom is absolutely nasty, the bed is the hardest hotel bed we’ve ever slept in, mystery stains EVERYWHERE, and the bathroom door doesn’t even close all of the way.
The “private” balcony is anything but private. Make sure the balcony door is locked all the time because absolutely any of your neighbors can easily climb over the divider to visit your room.
There is zero shade. Also, a carpet? On the open-air balcony?
On the second day of our stay, I sent a message to the concierge line describing the room condition and wondering whether all rooms are like this, or we were just unlucky. We were told to stop by the front desk so they could find us a different room. When we did, we were presented with two options: an equally beat-up room (same size and no view), or a beat-up room with the parks view for $30/night (discounted from $50, what happened to $20/night that was offered to us during the check-in?). In the end, I decided to keep the same room – if all of them are in rough shape, why pay more?
Pool
The pool area gave me an abandoned property vibe (have you seen the abandoned hotels videos on YouTube?). It wasn’t particularly bad, just very unappealing.
Final Thoughts
While we have encountered some hotels that could use a refurbishment, none of them needed it so badly as Hilton Anaheim. This is the only Hilton property I would not recommend. It is so bizarre Hilton would allow this property to be in such horrible shape. There are so many other hotels nearby and most of them are priced on par with this one. Why would anyone want to stay here?
Once the business conferences resume, I would love to sit at the lobby bar having a drink and watching a stream of businesspeople checking in and then swiftly exiting after they see what condition the rooms are in.
To end the review on a positive note though, they did apply Hilton’s Food & Beverage credits properly (unlike The Gabriel Miami Downtown).
