Hilton Hotels in Bellevue

I’ve stayed at this hotel whenever I’m in Bellevue, WA for well over thirty years. My earliest memories of this property were as a Red Lion Hotel. Then it became a Double Tree and finally, on its deathbed , it’s a Hilton. How the mighty have fallen… Not withstanding the property, which I’ll get into, I will say that the staff are generally kind and helpful. So this review is not to diminish their efforts. However hard they work, the reality is this property is beyond salvage and should be torn down and a new property should be built in its place. The bedrooms are grossly outdated, and when you look behind the doors, or in between the furniture, you’ll see how old this hotel is. While it’s sizeable in space and scope, the elevators are tragically slow, with two-of-four being out of commission when we stayed there recently. Sadly, the water pressure is so low it takes forever to wash and rinse. Our keycard failed three separate times, requiring a long walk and painful elevator ride back to the main desk where the staff reset the keycard. The pool is functioning, but there were never enough chairs and loungers. Add to this there were never enough fresh towels and you’re getting the taste of mediocrity this hotel delivers. One absolutely disgusting site is the swamp that lies just beside the pool (down the concrete foundation about twenty feet). I have no idea who thinks this is aesthetically pleasing, but it’s not. It’s home to a few ducks who clearly have poor taste in accommodations, as did we. This poolside unattraction is downright ugly. One thing I was interested to see were several staff members not wearing any type of formal Hilton uniforms. The breakfast buffet chef was literally dressed in Carharts with a t-shirt, work boots and a ball cap on. And one of the maintenance staff looked like he just walked in off the street. Management must have been on vacation at another property. Finally, the outside of the building, including the massive sloping glass facade, clearly hasn’t been washed in decades. And worse, yet, the parking area is filthy to say the least. Food containers, candy wrappers, cigarette butts and hygiene products lay a strewn for days with no effort to maintain a modest effort in appearance. This was the last time we will stay at this hotel. If you want to save yourself frustration and disappointment, I encourage you to stay at the new Marriott up the street. Literally blocks away, it’s a cleaner, nicer bet.