Spark by Hilton Savannah Midtown

I stayed at Tru by Hilton Savannah Midtown and found a live cockroach in the bathtub shortly after checking in. It was roughly the size of my thumb, plainly visible, and not a small insect. I reported it right away and showed photo evidence. This was a serious sanitation concern, not a minor inconvenience. At first, I was told there was little they could do because I'd booked through a third-party site. No one offered a room change proactively, so I had to contact the booking platform myself before anything happened. When they finally arranged a move, it was to the room right next door, and it was noticeably smaller than the one I'd booked. I'd seen other reviews mentioning similar sanitation problems before booking, but assumed they had been addressed. It doesn't seem that they have. For a property operating under the Hilton brand, I expect basic cleanliness and professional handling of hygiene issues. Having to escalate through a third party just to get moved after finding a large live cockroach in the bathroom falls well short of what I associate with the Hilton name. I rarely leave one star reviews, but this was unacceptable.

The room was decent and the stay itself was nice, but while I slept someone unhooked the tire straps on my vehicle from its tow in the parking lot. The property isn't responsible for the lot, but when I told the man at the front desk, he seemed not to care. He said the hotel doesn't have cameras in the parking lot. I'm glad I checked before pulling away, or my car might have ended up on the interstate.

The staff stayed nice and professional through every problem, and the amenities were good. We appreciated the hot breakfast, gym, clean rooms, and the lobby where we ate takeout. Housekeeping was around often, and the location was handy, close to lots of places. Still, our room experience was uncomfortable, and our money was meant to give us a home away from home for the time being. On day one, within the first hour and a half, we had to change rooms because our keys wouldn't work. The replacement room had no air circulation and a broken thermostat, so it felt like a sauna and had a stale smell. We kept having to get keys reprogrammed, both physical and digital. At 1 a.m. on the second night, the heat was too much to sleep through, so we asked for a fan. The staff member who brought it felt how hot the room was during the quick handoff and commented on it. These problems made the stay unpleasant and inconvenient, even though it wasn't the worst experience.

It's a long drive from the historic district, but the price helps make up for that. The rooms are quite small, though very clean, and the front desk attendants were great.