Hilton Newark Penn Station

This was one of the worst hotel experiences I’ve ever had. The positives: the bed was comfortable, the room was spacious, housekeeping was consistently kind, and the employee who handled luggage storage downstairs was wonderful. Unfortunately, that’s where the positives end. 1. Check-in was a mess. Earlier that afternoon, I used the chat feature to ask if my room was ready and was told that it was. When I arrived at the front desk around 5:00 p.m.—well past the posted check-in time—I was suddenly told my room wasn’t ready after all. I had a work meeting at 6:15 p.m. and needed to get settled. The trainee at the front desk was kind and genuinely tried to help, ultimately putting me in a smaller room than the one I had paid for because it was all that was available. I explained that I had already been told my room was ready, but the trainee seemed unsure how to handle the situation, and the more experienced employee repeatedly brushed him off instead of helping. I appreciated the trainee’s effort, but the overall experience was unacceptable. 2. Parking was outrageously expensive, and the customer service was worse. I booked through my employer’s travel portal for a business trip, so I had no indication that parking wasn’t included or that it would cost $70 per day. When I called the front desk to ask why parking was so expensive, the employee’s response was, “It’s on the website. You obviously didn’t read the whole page.” That level of rudeness was completely unnecessary. It was not listed on my company’s booking portal, and there was no reason to speak to a guest that way. For anyone reading this review: use SpotHero. The exact same garage cost me $36.40 per day through SpotHero instead of the hotel’s $70 rate. **3. **The airport shuttle was the final straw. This was, without question, the most frustrating part of my stay. After returning my rental car, I decided to use the complimentary hotel shuttle instead of paying for an Uber back to the hotel. I arrived at the airport shuttle pickup area at approximately 2:34 p.m. The hotel’s automated recording states that the shuttle runs every 30 minutes. By 3:25 p.m., no shuttle had arrived, so I called the hotel. That call alone took 14 minutes. The front desk employee attempted to reach the driver by radio without success before transferring me to a manager Keith or Chris—I honestly can’t remember. The manager placed me on hold for six minutes while he called the driver’s cell phone. When he returned, he told me the driver was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic and would arrive in 15 minutes. While I waited, I checked multiple navigation apps. None showed traffic between the hotel and the airport. Every app estimated a 15-17 minute drive with clear roads. Twenty minutes later, there was still no shuttle. I called back and spoke with the same manager. This time he insisted the driver “should definitely be there.” I told him that either he was being misled or he was misleading me because the traffic explanation simply didn’t add up. I asked him to call the driver again. He initially refused and only did so after I repeatedly insisted. When he came back on the line, he suddenly said the driver was only five minutes away. At this point, I had a 4:00 p.m. virtual work meeting that I planned to take from my hotel room. Because of the shuttle delay, I missed that plan entirely and didn’t get back to my room until nearly 4:30 p.m. I asked for my complaint to be escalated to upper management and requested a follow-up. The manager didn’t even ask for my name or phone number until I prompted him by saying, “Aren’t you going to ask for my contact information?” To this day, no one has reached out. The most frustrating part wasn’t just the delay—it was the complete lack of accountability. I had to repeatedly call, demand updates, and push for answers while standing outside in extreme heat waiting for a shuttle that was advertised as a hotel amenity. In hindsight, I should have just paid for an Uber, but if a complimentary shuttle is offered as part of the hotel experience, guests should reasonably expect it to function. 4. Even simple maintenance requests were met with attitude. The bathroom light continually flickered throughout my stay. When I called to report it, I made it clear that it wasn’t urgent because I would be gone all day and maintenance could address it whenever convenient. Even with that, I was met with an irritated attitude on the phone. The light was eventually fixed, but there’s simply no reason to make a guest feel like they’re inconveniencing the staff for reporting a maintenance issue. Overall, this experience fell far below what I expect from a DoubleTree property. I’m a loyal Marriott Bonvoy member but chose this Hilton because of its convenient location connected to the train station for my work trip into New York City. That convenience wasn’t worth it. Between the disorganized check-in, the outrageous parking fees, the dysfunctional shuttle service, and the consistently rude interactions with much of the staff, I will never stay at this property again and would not recommend it to anyone. I’d rather stay farther away at a Marriott and pay for transportation than be treated this way. Hotels get busy—I understand that. But being busy is never an excuse for poor communication, dismissive attitudes, or treating paying guests like they’re a burden.

Arrived for late check-in with three people. Room only had towels for 2, called the front desk and were told we had to wait until the next day to get any more towels. Not really what you want to hear after a full day of traveling. Ok, so get ready to crawl into bed, pull back the sheets and there is a literal drink wrapper in the sheets. So gross… they did not clean the room. Well with no shower and pure exhaustion, no choice but to lay down,,, right onto the fresh mildew smelling pillows. Total F for this hotel. The only plus so far is the location to Penn Station, which is across the street.

When we first arrived all seemed well. Tim at the guest services desk was super nice, helpful and professional. Things took a turn when we arrived into our room and the bathroom was dirty with hair all over the floor and the bathtub/ shower looked unclean. We returned to the guest services desk and Tim once again was very helpful and apologetic and assigned to another room. We were in a hurry to catch a train to New York, so we dropped our stuff off in room two and left. Upon returning some hours later, we went to use the restroom toilet but when we lifted the toilet lid there was blood left on the toilet seat! This is not acceptable at all. We called down to guest services and asked if someone could possibly come up to clean the toilet and was told by a different guest services attendant “NO”! I was taken a back by his response and restated “no”? He responded “No” again and said there is no one that can clean that you will have to change rooms. So I said we would be right down, again. When we reached room number 3 for this trip there were 2 sinks in this bathroom and all appeared to be well BUT, no! My husband was in the shower and the two sinks both began backing up. At this point I picked up the phone to call guest services again but only to let them know the situation with the sinks so hopefully they could at least have them fixed before the next guest checked in to this room but they would not answer at this point. Long story short, for the amount of money they charge per night I expect better cleanliness from a Hilton brand hotel. We frequently stay with Hilton hotels but we were extremely disappointed on this trip I’m sorry to say.