Home2 Suites by Hilton Eugene Downtown University Area

We like staying here because it's downtown Eugene, just around the corner from the Mcdonald Theater. We saw Floater on New Years eve. Check-in was at 3.00 pm and checkout at noon, which worked well. We often pick Home2 suites for the kitchenette, and you can ask for a portable stove top and pans. The place still smells new and is clean, including the pool and weight rooms. Staff were friendly and efficient, and the outdoor garbage was emptied often. It's dog friendly, though there's not much space for dogs to do their business, just bark-dust flower beds or a grassy patch by the street. Always clean!

The staff were super nice and apologetic when I reported the state of the room, but it hadn't been cleaned properly before I arrived. The trash was still there, the toilet had urine and hair on it, and the sheets had hair and smelled like the previous guest. Breakfast was okay. Parking was a nightmare. It's the hotel's lot, though the parking isn't affiliated with the hotel, and you pay per night through a confusing, inaccurate website. I accidentally paid three times instead of once, and neither the website nor hotel showed a payment, so I got a pay-for-parking note on my car every day. They refunded the extra charges, and staff were nice about not towing my car.

The hotel itself was clean, the staff earned five stars, and the location was great. The decor was four-star, modern and a bit IKEA-ish. Management wasn't available to review. Parking, though, was minus five stars. The voucher codes don't work, and I spent an hour one morning sorting it out with the parking company before trying Hilton. The person I reached didn't understand or seem to care. Without a general manager on site or employed by the company, local staff apparently aren't authorized to help. I still have to pay a $20.00 ticket from the hotel's own lot. Just adding parking to the room price would be fine. I booked through Amex travel and I'm an HH honors member, but got no help. Next time I'll book with Costco travel and use my Citi Visa, and I won't stay at a Hilton. They're totally useless to deal with.

For one night, the room had no hot water. We were told maintenance was on the way and it should be fixed in an hour or two, but we had a highway to hit and couldn't wait. The gym also had no wipe-down towels, so who knows how long the machines had gone without cleaning. In the lobby restroom there were no soap dispensers, just a tiny bottle of Palmolive dish soap for washing hands. Breakfast choices were a joke, so we walked five minutes to an excellent bakery. Before the stay, I got an email saying our room had been 'upgraded' after they had already offered paid 'upgrades' we didn't want. They changed our king to two queen beds. I emailed back and forth with staff, but they didn't acknowledge that it wasn't an upgrade, offered no price reduction, and said the general manager had made the decision and it couldn't be changed. Do yourself a favor and stay elsewhere. This isn't the service or professionalism we expect from a Hilton property, and someone needs to look at how it's run.