Tru By Hilton Kalamazoo

Room 305 was huge, very clean, and comfortable, so we'd stay here again. The breakfast spread had the usual choices, including sausage links, waffles, pancakes, eggs, potato cubes, sandwich fixings, fresh whole fruit, cereal, oatmeal, juice, milk, coffee, and tea. Staff were welcoming and friendly. There was lots of lounge seating in the lobby, plus work pods, a pool table, games, and a small convenience store. It was a good stay.

Will the Chef is a real king of his kitchen. I stayed three days, and on the second morning I asked if there was anything besides pork sausage because of my religious beliefs. He was so kind that he made two chicken patties just for me. Great service.

The first problem was the front walk, dangerously covered in snow and ice when we arrived. Nobody cleared it during our four-day stay. Then the shower handle broke during our very first shower and wouldn't shut the water off. We were told there were no other rooms and maintenance would come at 8 a.m. After a long day working an event at the Expo Center, we came back to find the shower still running. The second-shift desk staff had no idea about the issue. They said they'd move us to the fourth floor soon and bring a key card with the room number, but after nearly two hours we went back to the desk and found they'd forgotten. The new room smelled strongly of animals. It had empty tissue boxes, a dirty fridge, and broken soap dispensers on the shower floor. We made do. The hotel is brand new, only eight months old, and has an attractive layout, so it was disappointing to see it already in crisis. The desk staff seemed pleasant but stressed. The other staff we encountered didn't seem to know what their jobs involved. Management and training were poor, a very disappointing stay for a Hilton, and we paid dearly for it. Breakfast was a mess each of the three days we saw it being set up. An employee walked from one task to another with his nose in his phone, and the counter was disorganized. The food was poor quality, containers were empty, and there were no napkins. The dining room floor and tables weren't cleaned during our stay, and the trash was taken out every other day. On the second morning, I used tissue and water to wipe my table and swept up most of the dirt and crumbs under it. The dirty tissue and grime stayed there for the rest of our visit. What is going on, Hilton?

We were in room 211, facing the west sun, and it stayed hot like a greenhouse all night. The air conditioning was lousy, and the thermostat wouldn't go below 65. We sweated through the night, and I got to the point where I just wanted to drive home. If you're staying here in summer in a west-facing room, expect a long, hot night. They need to let those rooms cool further. I rated the service and location well, but the room itself was terrible.