Search This Blog

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Niagara Falls, Canada - Hilton Niagara Falls / Fallsview Hotel & Suites

April 2016, Weekend, 2-nights, King tower 2-room suite #5054

Sunrise from guestroom 5054
Falls visible if you click on the photo to enlarge it

We considered several hotels before choosing the Hilton Niagara Falls. Other hotels we considered were Embassy Suites, DoubleTree, and both Marriott hotels. The Hilton was offering a couples package, which is what we booked for one night. I redeemed points for the other night's stay. The Embassy Suites is located closer to the falls; however, I had read several negative reviews about the property. Many guests reported waiting in line forever for breakfast and for the elevator. The DoubleTree has a fabulous inside pool area, although the hotel is located a bit farther from the falls. The cost at the DoubleTree was less, if you are not interested in a falls view guestroom. Both of the Marriott properties looked great; however, the guestroom cost and value was not as good as the Hilton, and I did not have enough Marriott points for a free night.

You can find more photos and information for this property and the area in the Hilton Niagara Falls album on my Facebook page.

Arrival and status perks

We had booked one of the best room types available online, so I am not sure if there was opportunity for a guestroom upgrade. Maybe, if this hotel has a presidential suite or invisible room that is not listed among the guestroom types! I wish I had seen the corner suite photos online before our stay, because the corner suite photos I saw after our stay looked fabulous! It seems like guestroom 5050 on the corner would have a much better view than guestroom 5054. I am not complaining about the room we had. It was comfortable, and we had a good view, although it was also expensive. You can see more detail of our room location in the Facebook album photos. Cost and package details are at the end of this post.

I thought about checking in and choosing our room before we arrived; however, it was difficult to tell which room would best meet our needs. Since hotel staff is usually more knowledgeable about this, and a representative I had been chatting with online, told me she had set a room aside for us, I decided to wait until we arrived. Check-in time is 4:00 p.m., and we arrived shortly after 3:00 p.m. The line at the front desk was very long. There was no one in the Hilton Honors line located at the right end of the counter, and there were about 20 guests in the regular line. Three or four agents were working at the front desk, and I was assisted as soon as the next agent became available. Even so, we waited in line several minutes. I cannot imagine how long it took other guests to check-in!

The agent assigned us guestroom 5054, and he provided all of our coupons for the package night we had booked. For my Gold on-property perk, I chose bonus points for one night, and breakfast for the other night.
View from guestroom 5054

Guestroom 5054

This guestroom is located on the top guestroom floor near the center, just to the left when exiting the north elevators. A photo in the Facebook album shows the room location from the outside. There was actually one more floor at this hotel, floor 51, which could not be accessed from the elevator. I did not see a key slot in the elevator to allow access to floor 51, and I do not know what is on that floor.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Port Huron, Michigan / DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Port Huron

April 2016, Weekday, 1-night, King suite #364

Sunrise from suite 364

This was our second stay at the DoubleTree hotel in Port Huron. You can find pictures and details of our previous stay in my review from March 2015, and there are more pictures from both stays in the DoubleTree Port Huron album on my Facebook page.

Arrival and status perks

Check-in time is 3:00 p.m., and we arrived around 3:30 p.m. The front desk agent offered a cheery greeting and two warm chocolate chip cookies. She found our reservation, and said she had given us an upgrade to a suite. I also received the 1,000 bonus points I have chosen in my profile for my on-property perk. I did not receive two bottles of water like I did last time I stayed in this hotel. I did not ask about the water, as I had thought maybe it would be in the guestroom. I imagine they still provide this, and the front desk agent just forgot when we checked in.

Guestroom 364

This is a fabulous suite on the top/HiltonHonors floor. I did not realize or recall that I had not been on the Honors floor when I stayed in room 218 during my last stay. I saw the Honors sign in the elevator when we entered.