Hilton Garden Inn Hickory

Great place to stay.

Liked: Friendly staff, ease of check in and out, choices of breakfast, location.

Exceptional

Good

Liked: Great staff and location
Disliked: We are sensitive to air freshener and chemicals; prefer a facility with windows that open.

Superb

Exceptional

Disliked: n/a

Exceptional

Exceptional

Objectively quite pleasant, but the...

Liked: Walking into the lobby was pleasant and immediately made me feel like I was on vacation. The entire building was clean and inviting. My room was spacious and comfortable, the fitness center had mats provided and enough room for me to practice yoga even with other people using the equipment, the pool was small but pleasant, the hot tub was clean and big enough for strangers to comfortably share. I had a lovely evening sitting by the fire outside and a very pleasant morning sitting downstairs drinking my coffee and working on my laptop. The staff were all quite friendly and hospitable and went out of their way to ensure I had a pleasant stay, going into the kitchen to get us extra cutlery and plates for our take-out even after the restaurant was closed. They normally refresh rooms every other day, but when I asked to have housekeeping come by and tidy up for me on a specific day they did so without hesitation and my room looked very inviting when I got back from a long day. Overall a very enjoyable stay.
Disliked: I do not appreciate the nickel-and-dime business model, like putting water bottles in my room for a dollar each and telling me they could have been free if I were a platinum member. Same thing with wifi, "you might be charged if you don't sign up," and trying to tempt me to pay to upgrade my member status by throttling the wifi speed for "basic" or "silver-tier" guests. Breakfast was good enough but absolutely not worth the extra $15 they charge for it. Complimentary coffee was adequate but unremakrable, and they didn't have any real half & half, just a bunch of flavored tear-offs and pump-jugs of artificial creamer like a gas station. In fact that whole section of the hotel was reminiscent of a truck stop, full of overpriced drinks and bags of chips. Coming back to my room and seeing those two up-charge water bottles just felt insulting. So here's my message for the upper-level management of Hilton Garden Inn: how about I keep my two dollars, and I'll tell you where you can shove your 20 cents worth of bottled water.

Very good