Hilton Garden Inn McAllen Airport

The comfortable bed, full-size fridge, and roomy suite were real positives. It had two rooms, with two double beds in one and a king in the other, plus a living area with couches. There was plenty of closet and desk space for working. The bedrooms were fine, though the bathroom wasn’t fully clean and looked neglected, with rotting baseboards and loose fixtures. The fitness center was mediocre. It had a large weight rack, but most of it was empty, and the only dumbbells were 25-50 pounds. There wasn’t any kind of cable machine, and the ceiling had serious water damage. Near 11am, as I was getting ready to check out, I turned on the shower and got no water, just noises. The room phone didn’t work, so I messaged through the Hilton app. A few minutes later they apologized and said maintenance was working on a water outage that should be fixed in 20 minutes. It took about an hour and 15 minutes, after checkout time, for water to return. It came out filthy brown and left visible dirt in the tub. I was in a hurry and nearly late for a company event, so I let it run until I ran out of time and showered anyway. The front desk people were polite, but offered nothing for the delay or dirty water. Disappointing. Breakfast was good, especially my omelette, and my Hispanic waiter was attentive and took good care of me and my food.

I’ve stayed at a lot of Hilton hotels and never run into this. They told me free breakfast was only for guests who checked that box when booking, but I didn’t see any breakfast option at all. If you stay here, look for the free breakfast box and select it, if it’s even available, or you might get up early for nothing. The owner seems to run this franchise very differently from other Hiltons, and could damage the @Hilton name.

The place across the street, Panchos restaurant and bar, had some drunk patrons blasting music from their vehicles, leaving cans and bottles in the lot, and at 2:30 am someone was firing weapons in the parking lot. Inside, the hotel was in rough shape too. Water damage on the fourth floor smelled moldy under deodorizer, so I had to move to another floor. Rooms need updating and the water pressure was poor. The lobby chair pillows and the restaurant tables and chairs were worn and dirty. Avoid this place at all costs, it’s the skid row of Hilton hotels.

The staff here are attentive and capable of handling groups, and the rooms are cleaned with the kind of special touch you get on cruise ships. This Hilton is one of the few in the country that goes above and beyond for guests, much like the service at a Hilton in Asia, which is saying something. You can’t go wrong staying here.