Hilton Des Moines Downtown

I stayed at the Hilton for business this past weekend. The location is excellent, the rooms are comfortable, and the food was good. However, the customer service could use improvement. There was an issue during my stay—something that was a mistake rather than intentional—and it was resolved. The manager personally came over, apologized, and offered our company four drink coupons for the bar, which I appreciated. On Sunday morning, Starbucks inside the hotel was closed earlier than expected, so we asked the bar attendant if we could use the coupons for two non-alcoholic cocktails. To our surprise, we were told that the coupons were valid only for alcoholic beverages or coffee. I explained that we simply wanted the same cocktails, just without alcohol, which would actually cost the hotel less. Still, the answer remained no, and we were told, “You can come back tomorrow when Starbucks is open.” Since we were checking out that day, that wasn’t an option. In the end, we returned the four coupons with our best wishes. I share this not because of the initial mistake—which can happen anywhere and was handled well—but because the bar experience reflected a lack of customer service and flexibility. A simple solution could have turned the situation into a positive one, but instead it left a disappointing impression.

We arrived after dinnertime to check into the corner suite, which does have great views of Des Moines. The room itself was comfortable. The living room area was nice and the bed in the bedroom was extremely comfortable. The pullout couch was extremely uncomfortable for the kids, but I guess that's what you get with a pullout couch. The shower was a little less than desirable. The metal drain plate was so loud with the water hitting it and the water pressure was not great. We also arrived in our room and found a reusable water bottle. I went to speak to the front desk about it because, as a guest, it makes you curious if it was the cleaning staff or if the room wasn't thoroughly cleaned. I was informed a different guest was in our room, but decided they didn't like the view so it was probably their water bottle, which gives me a bit of the heebie-jeebies that they were in there long enough to leave personal belongings and then turn around and assign the room to us. Security did come up and grab the bottle and he thought it was the cleaning staff's water bottle, which was a little better of a situation than a random guest who was in our room prior to us checking in.

Firstly came into the room with pee in the toilet still. Nothing is included also- like spirit airways- actually spirit gives u free water - here you have to pay for a bottle of water. There was constant whirring in the ac unit and electrical. Super annoying when trying to sleep. No little slippers for me to use in the room. Parking wasnt particularly convenient bc u have to walk 5 mins away for parking and YES you have to pay. I am pretty sure motel 6 gives u free breakfast but not the Hilton. Literally so many small attention to detail things were not good which add up in the end. The ice bucket is the smallest excuse for a bucket. Genuinely if this was a run down motel, I would understand but when you pay this much for so little- it deserves this bad review. The gym was good tho.