Tru by Hilton Sterling Heights Detroit

Sam’s phone manner has made me seriously rethink staying here, even though I’ve always chosen Tru by Hilton Sterling Heights Detroit when visiting Michigan. I’d booked two rooms, then got an email saying they were cancelled because the hotel couldn’t reach me. I was on a 22-hour flight from the UAE to Michigan and couldn’t answer calls. As soon as I landed, I called to rebook. I understood the new rates would apply and accepted them without arguing because I know hotel policies. What I couldn’t accept was Sam being rude, dismissive and unwilling to hear me out. He spoke down to me and demanded that I listen, with a “my way or the highway” attitude. That isn’t the service I expect as a loyal returning guest who stays here every time I visit Michigan. Hospitality should involve respect, communication and understanding, not arrogance. Management should seriously consider hiring and training people with proper manners, customer service skills and management qualities. This was very disappointing, and I’ll take my business elsewhere.

I won’t check in here again. The hotel asks for your ID to confirm who you are, then scans it without asking permission unless you notice and stop them. This happens after they’ve already checked your ID against your reservation, credit card and other details. When I told the staff not to scan it, they said, “It's fine, We'll cancel your reservation.” That’s a privacy and data retention issue, and a huge inconvenience. After the owner replied, I wanted to add that there are plenty of clean mid-range hotels that don’t scan IDs or threaten to cancel a reservation when you’ve just arrived. I have other options, and I suspect you do too. An airport scanning IDs is a completely different case. This hotel’s policy feels lazy: just in case something bad happens, they violate everyone’s privacy and threaten to cancel at the desk at the last minute if you don’t comply. Oh boy.

The rooms are always fresh and clean, and Arnelle was kind enough to help me print an important document when the lobby printer wasn’t working. I really appreciated it. One suggestion: please check that the soap dispensers are filled. When I went to shower, two bottles were empty and there were only a few squirts of body wash. Housekeeping eventually replaced them with full bottles, which was plenty for our two-night stay. 🌙

We’ve booked rooms at this Hilton Tru almost every month since May of 2023, and I’m devastated by what happened. The employee working that night appeared to profile my fiancé. She assumed he was a delivery person, dismissed him, kept telling him to go to the elevators to find out where the customers were picking up their food, and said she wanted him out immediately. That was the first problem. Then she double booked our room, and some guy walked in on us. That was another violation of our privacy. Afterward, she called our room to say she didn’t have my fiancé’s name on that particular room. Calling this an inconvenience or mistake would be a complete understatement. I’m extremely upset and feel this discrimination shouldn’t be allowed. It gives Hilton a bad look. I told her she should have checked our history and seen that we stay here all the time. How dare she. We will never stay here again.