I am a Hilton Honors member and have traveled the world. The Hasbrouck Heights Hilton, compared to other Hilton's, is above average. They are going through transitions with the building itself right now. I've been coming to this hotel for over a year and I've seen good progress. For me, the convenience of the hotel location and the service, especially in the mornings, is top-notch.

On the 28 th of March, 2019, my sister-in-law, myself and our four children arrived at about 10.30pm. She had reserved two double rooms for us for the 3/28/19 to 3/31/19 via hot wire,we always lodge in Hiltons around the country and around the
world. However, this was not going to be business as usual. There were issues with the reservations which took over 30 minutes to resolve.The staff at the front desk
had not only been rude, but had seemingly thrown the papers at her after the issues were resolved. She specifically said, “for the first time in my life, I checked into a hotel and did not hear the words, “welcome”, “I hope you have a nice stay”, “let
us know if we can do anything to make your stay more pleasurable”. THAT, WAS the best part of our stay.We were all so tired, we just chose to overlook that. Then she went back to ask for a luggage cart, she was ignored. She finally got one herself, by this time, our children, aged 5 to 12, were already crying and gripping from travelling all day and still being kept in the car. We loaded up the luggage cart and tried to get into the hotel lobby. It was just the children and I struggling to push this heavy cart, weighed down with luggage and threatening to tip over at any second. No help from ANYONE standing by. Not the staff, not the front desk and definitely not the other guests. There were over 20 people standing around, no help. When I finally got through the door, I looked at the front desk to see if anyone would help. They looked at me, (a male and a female), and did not blink an eyelid. I looked around and realized that WE WERE THE ONLY BLACK PEOPLE. Could that be the reason for the indifference being shown? We got up to our rooms on the 2nd floor and it was a whole different story, or should I say a continuation of the horror story. The rooms were not properly cleaned. One bathroom would not flush. Both bathrooms had leftover toilet rolls and the list went on and on. The children who were really tired and sleepy were scared to lie on the beds. And we finally had to do a bit of cleaning ourselves to settle down. My sister-in-law called hot wire to complain about the service, the hotel and the reception. They in turn contacted the manager. No one called us, no one asked what was wrong and no one gave a damn.
From 12am to 4am, a man sat outside our rooms reading a newspaper. I know this because, I noted him there when I went from one room to the other. At first, I thought he was waiting for the elevator, but each time I came out, he was still there with his newspaper. The hotel told us NOTHING about him and I stayed up all night peeking out constantly to see if he was there, and he was.This filled us with so much fear and terror, (one has watched enough horror movies to know what happens to a certain group of people in them), but we tried to hide it from the children.
First thing that morning, my sister-in-law called hot wire to let them know that we were leaving. They could not believe that no one from the hotel had reached out to us. They called the manager twice again. Still nothing. And we checked out without anyone even bothering to ask us why we were leaving so soon, after reserving two rooms for four nights. No one bothered and no one was interested. It seemed more like good riddance to these Black people, how dare they sully our doorsteps.
Well, we left the Hilton Hasbrouck, located at 650 Terrace Avenue, Hasbrouck Heights and checked into the Comfort Suites at 1348 McCarter Highway, Newark NJ.
Big difference, right? Yes, big difference. It was like night and day. From the check in, to the suites, to the services, the overall cleanliness of our accommodations. It was like we escaped from hell to heaven.
I was shocked. I’d thought hotels like the Hiltons are the better places to lodge, rather than Choice Hotels, but I have learned my lesson in a big way. And I’m terming this “the great escape”. I guess being small-fry guests mean nothing to giants like The Hilton and this would probably not make any difference, but we have purposed to let EVERYONE we know and EVERYONE THEY know, know about our experiences at the Hilton Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. It was money wasted, time and an experience from hell for ALLLLL of us.
Our children didn’t even want breakfast, all they asked was for us to get them out of the Hilton. My five-year-old nephew who loves nothing better than to eat, was asked by his mom if he wanted breakfast before we left, and his answer was, “this is not time to eat. This is time to get out of here. I will eat after”.
It was an experience THEY will NEVER forget. And being between 5 years to 12 years, hopefully, that’s a looooooong loooong time ahead. Another generation that will remember this sour, horrible experience.
We would like to thank Hilton hotels for introducing us to Choice Hotels and confirming that bigger isn’t always better.
We thank Hot wire for being there for us and doing the best they could in the situation that arose, it was due to no fault of theirs, but they did try to rectify it as much as they could.
As we try to put this bitter, horrendous experience behind us, we pledge that NEVER a Hilton Hotel again. And as we write our reviews, we give Hilton Hotel, Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey an overall score of -20/5. (I’m sure our children would have a lot to write about this experience too if given the opportunity to also write THEIR reviews).
THANK YOU,
Susan Johnson,
Benny Anoms
&Children
(Disappointed, Horrified and Exhausted Travelers)