This hotel stay started with high expectations, became a tiring ordeal, and ended in disappointment.
I arrived at the hotel around 1:00 AM on Saturday to check in. The front desk staff member was incredibly professional and thorough, clearly explaining all check-in procedures, hotel facilities, and membership benefits. As a cheap.com member, they proactively offered me a late check-out and showed great consideration in room selection – knowing I needed a quiet environment, they specifically arranged a room on a high floor (11th floor) and away from the elevators.
While riding the elevator up, the accompanying staff member further thoughtfully suggested, "If you find the 11th floor isn't quiet enough, you can always consider switching to a room on the 10th floor." At the time, due to travel fatigue, I didn't want to bother the hotel staff too much, and I wanted to experience the room first before deciding, so I politely declined the immediate room change. However, this initial goodwill and attentiveness were completely shattered later that night.
After entering the room (roughly the third from the end on the right side of the elevator), I conducted a preliminary environmental test. I specifically turned off the air conditioning to check if the indoor noise level was acceptable. Since it was indeed completely quiet with the AC off, I mistakenly thought everything was fine and didn't give it another thought.
However, the real nightmare began around 2:30 AM. Just as I was falling asleep, persistent low-frequency noise started to intrude – a continuous "humming" vibration sound from the top floor, similar to a generator or the central air conditioning system. This low-frequency noise was extremely prominent in the dead of night, piercing through my eardrums and severely degrading my sleep quality throughout the night. I was in a state of extremely light and disturbed sleep.
What was even more frustrating was that my travel plans had been disrupted the day before due to a typhoon, forcing me to return via Guangzhou from Shanghai. I was already exhausted and worn out from the journey, hoping to catch up on sleep at the hotel, only to end up with a sleepless night.
Around 7:00 AM, I could no longer delude myself into thinking I could "continue sleeping." I struggled in bed, trying to rest, but the relentless low-frequency noise persisted. Finally, I endured until the hotel's breakfast service ended at 10:00 AM. I decided to go for breakfast and then immediately head to the front desk for assistance, hoping to switch to a quiet room to catch up on sleep.
The male front desk staff member who assisted me at this point showed some skepticism and reluctance in his communication, even asking me, "There are only four hours left until check-out, do you really want to change rooms?"
After I explained twice in detail, describing how I had suffered from noise all night and hadn't slept, he reluctantly agreed to help. I clearly stated, "I have no other demands for the room; I just want a truly quiet room where I can get some proper rest." However, the staff member informed me that rooms were scarce and asked me to trust his arrangement, but I had heard several groups on my check-in day needing to take the hotel shuttle bus to the airport around 4 AM.
Full of hope, I received the new room card. I found that I was still given a room on the 11th floor. I entered the new room at the very end on the left side of the elevator. However, reality once again dealt me a heavy blow – as soon as I walked in, I could distinctly hear that pervasive low-frequency "humming" sound.
At this moment, my disappointment was immense:
Firstly, if the new room arranged by the front desk had exactly the same noise problem as the previous one, why wasn't this directly communicated to the guest before the room change? If I had known in advance that changing rooms wouldn't solve the noise issue, I wouldn't have wasted the energy and time packing and moving; I would have preferred to stay in the original room or simply checked out.
Secondly, this "change that wasn't a change" arrangement reflects a lack of basic understanding from the staff regarding the actual condition of the hotel rooms and a perfunctory approach to problem-solving.
I have always had high confidence and positive impressions of the staff training, service quality, and sound insulation standards of internationally renowned hotel groups (such as the Hilton Group). In the past, most of my stays at such chain hotels were booked by friends; this time, it was a rare occasion where I booked myself, only to experience such a disappointing journey.
After this experience, this hotel has revealed clear shortcomings in handling unexpected situations, empathetic communication from the front desk, and room infrastructure (sound insulation and noise control). This has directly and significantly eroded my trust in the brand multiple times. In the future, when choosing accommodation for travel, I will reassess and may not prioritize the Hilton Group, because when the hardware quality and service quality of the rooms can no longer meet expected standards, the brand's golden reputation loses its appeal.
Original TextTranslation provided by AI
