Michael Roebuck's Blog

Apparently Conrad Hilton's Board of Directors saw it coming so they started broadening there brands. I say Board of Directors because his descendants are too busy being in the news helping degrade his name.

I'm fed up with Hilton Hotels. Usually when you hear the name "Hilton Hotel" you think quality. Expensive, but quality. Apparently, not any more! (Quality anyway. They are still expensive.)

As you know, I was in San Jose attending the Search Engine Strategies conference and past years have stayed at the Hampton Inn on Old Tully Road. The Hampton Inn was clean, large rooms, well lit, large bathrooms, Free Internet, Free breakfast, Extremely friendly staff (The manager himself drove us to the train station one day and picked us up later that night.)

This year, I figured with the savings in taxi fare and my Hilton Honors free breakfast upgrade, I'd stay at the Hilton next door to the convention center. (Denise.... Never let me do that again!!!! You continue making the reservations!) Well, I did save on taxi fare but apparently they don't do breakfast here in San Jose. Chicago does, but not San Jose. Huh?? I need to be a gold or platinum or some other member but my Hilton Honors wasn't good enough here for access. There goes my savings! At over $15 for breakfast my days are not starting off very good.

The rooms at the Hilton are not the best. I guess most everything. The beds are actually comfortable which is a major factor. I'm not only picking on San Jose here either. The rooms at the Chicago Hilton aren't any better, but also has comfortable beds. Here are a few pictures of the lap of luxury:



No vents in the bathroom. Well, they have a vent, but no fan.


You can't see it very well, but the water is spraying from all areas of the shower. Make sure the shower curtain is closed before turning on the shower! Very old shower heads.


Can you see the puddle of water? Maybe you don't need to worry about the shower curtain. It doesn't do well anyway! I make a point to move the shower curtain to prevent water from leaking everywhere. Sometimes it's just not good enough. That probably explains the nasty tiled floor.


Here is my room. It's hard to see with this picture but the room is very dark. They use these tiny compact fluorescent light bulbs that don't give off much light. I'm typing this in a dark corner of the desk area. And I can't leave the desk because there isn't any wireless Internet access. Since I'm complaining about dark hotel rooms, the only hotel I remember being darker than this room is the Luxor in Las Vegas. Those rooms were very dark.

Anyway, I'm sorry Hampton Inn for not staying with you this trip. However, you were priced a bit high which caused us to shop around. Next year, I may stay away from the Hilton Brand altogether. I wonder if there is a Holiday Inn Express around here?

Labels: express, hampton, hilton, holiday, hotel, inn, jose, san, ses