DoubleTree by Hilton

I’m a business traveler so more picky then most. **
Rooms in north tower on the Hilton honors floors were recently re done. They cheaped out you can tell but were clean and updated scheme. No real sitting area other then desk. There was some horrible odd fashion chair with no arms that had no ottoman so wasn’t much to watch TV from.
Lobby is very large and great lobby bar. That’s where I chose to be instead of room. Starbuck in lobby for morning was a plus.
Overall I will find another Hilton property to try next time I’m in that area.
Worth a try if your not as picky or expect more.

For an overnight, this hotel does its job.
Favorite part is the 24 hr gym. I wish they had a better gym lay out, the flow doesn’t feel good. They should keep cardio machines to one side and training machines on another side. I hate running on the treadmill and I’m facing the wall. Just weird and the television is behind you as your run, doesn’t make sense. Also, the treadmills aren’t connected to the television.
The rooms are nice, seems a little dated. Also odd that there is no fridge.
Staff was nice and check in was pretty fast.

Checked wearily in at 2:30 am after a long drive across Wisconsin, the lady at the desk was super sweet and bubbly offered us fresh hot cookies and toothbrushes. The room was huge, soft comfy beds. Only stayed a short time, had an early flight out but it was a great stay and easy drive to the airport.

Staff is incompetent, my key didn’t work three times only to finally find out that the room was occupied. The clerk had so what attitude and gave me room that has to be the no siesta room in the hotel, I guess as punishment for complaining about their incompetence. Really hurt their brand name if I have other choices this will never be on the list again.

Come here for meetings every month, and usually don’t have any problems. Today, I was standing at the hotel bar in between meetings with my credit card out for several minutes and was not acknowledged by any member of staff, of which there were 3, 2 servers/​bartenders and one member of what I’m assuming is upper management. Wound up going to my meeting hungry. Not impressed.

This review is for Crescent Kitchen, the restaurant located within the hotel.
My experience would have been a completely different one had our server not assumed my step daughter is older than five. The buffet is free for kids five and under and when I asked about it, our server gave me a very disapproving look and asked «Really?» In sarcasm. I get it, she’s tall, but I don’t appreciate my integrity being challenged, especially in front of a child. I found myself trying to explain something that doesn’t require an explanation because the child will continue to be five years old until February of 2016.
The food was sub par. My food came out with meat on it when I had mentioned I’m a vegetarian and asked for no meat. She graciously whisked my food away and offered to replace the meat with tomatoes. My food was returned in under two minutes. Cold. I have reason to believe they simply took the meat off and replaced it with a tomato.
Then the bill. We ended up going for an adult sized portion of pancakes for my step daughter, which wasn’t a part of the buffet, nor on a children’s menu. That’s fine. She really wanted pancakes. Unfortunately, they were real quick to charge us $ 4.00 for the chocolate milk I ordered her. Had we opted to do the buffet her meal would have been free, as her milk would (and should) have been, given her age. I didn’t dispute the charge as I don’t appreciate being nickel and dimed, thus I don’t do it myself to other people. I paid the $ 4.00 and went on my way.
I spent $ 14.00 on an adult size of pancakes and chocolate milk for a child that ate ¹⁄₈ of her pancakes. The buffet would have been free. I’m accustomed to more attentive service, and certainly better customer service. We won’t be eating here tomorrow morning, that’s for sure.

In general, the Doubletree is about what you would expect from an older full-​service hotel. But there are a few things it really should work on, particularly considering it just sunk $ 12 million into a renovation (2012).
The first thing to keep in mind is that when it advertises itself as newly renovated, travelers are thinking fresh and stylish, and that description really only fits the common areas. Furniture is old, which is fine, but the rooms just have a really old feel despite the lovely flat screen TVs. And the HVAC, at least in the north tower where we stayed, had some problems. Our room was dreadfully musty, as if it hadn’t been used all summer. The room next to us was just as bad so we did not go through the trouble of switching. It got better after a few hours of air conditioning, but it’s really not acceptable for a hotel that calls itself full service and won’t let guests use carts to do their own luggage.
The service level was similarly idiosyncratic. Our king deluxe room was spacious enough and had good needs but also had stains on the walls and an old hat in the corner, suggesting the cleaning was not at the level it should be. And when I called to discuss the condition of the room, the person at the front desk clearly did not feel empowered to help and handed me off to the manager. He was very professional in manner and offered us other rooms and said he’d have a technician come check the AC while we were out and then call us, but he never did call, at least not within the three hour window we left before we called back and said the room was better.
One more thing I have to pick on is the pool. My son loves swimming at hotels but we had to pass this time because everyone we talked to from our conference complained how cold the water was. In a 564 room hotel, an investment into a little heat in the pool can’t be unrealistic.
Restaurant and sports bar were nice and had some interesting beers, though the menu didn’t match what was online and we got the wrong order.
Overall feel of the hotel was good and professional, making it appropriate for a conference center.

I stay in Hotels as my home away from home 20 weeks a year. While working out of town, I expect to be comfortable. While resting at my home, I have furniture that allows me to relax and put my feet up while watching television, reading the paper or drinking a cup of coffee.
I am a Hilton Hhonors diamond member because the Hilton chain typically offers me comfort while I am on their property. Unfortunately, the sleeping room at this Bloomington DoubleTree fall short in the comfort category due to their tiny postage stamp room size and a lack of basic amenities such as an ottoman.
The seating options are: The bed, a plastic desk chair or a cheesy recovered armless chair that does not have any area to sit in that is comfortable. This «convention» hotel is ideal if you are not staying in the room. (Reminds me of Las Vegas rooms) Unfortunately there are no casinos to escape to at the Bloomington Doubletree.
This Hilton property seems to be forgetting that their guests are paying a premium price for these second class comfort accommodations. The King bed was comfortable however, my 17^th floor room faced east and the poor fitting drapes did not block the early morning light. Due to the daylight lit room, I was wide awake an hour before my scheduled wake up and had gone to bed earlier than usual only because there was not a comfortable place to sit and relax.
The multi shades of gray paint throughout the room were done without good prepping and were chipped, globbed and blistered on the HVAC, walls and front door. The painted finish gave me the impression they had put a quick coat of lipstick on a pig! Bear in mind this room is still a pig!
Rubbing salt into an open wound, I performed an audit on my bill upon checkout and discovered they charged me $ 9.95 for my «complimentary» internet access and raised my room rate $ 10 for the second night over the check in rate shown on the top of the page. A phone call rectified the billing «errors» however, the extra charges should never have occurred!
My next visit to this area will be at another property as I should not have to upgrade to a higher priced suite in order to receive basic comfort to watch television! I received no upgrade or acknowledgement of my Diamond status from this property and see no reason to ever return.

Amazing hotel and service. Pool is located a little awkwardly in the center of a big dining hall but still with a little privacy. Spa was tantalizing to say the least.
Would definitely suggest staying at this hotel but watch out for a front desk clerk, possibly named John, wearing glasses. Just a real jerk to talk to. Helped us out greatly but made me and my family feel like idiots. Just seemed overworked and condescending.
Otherwise 5 stars.

This hotel knows how to throw a CONvergence!
AMAZING! As always.
Very accommodating to CONvergence. :D

Terrible experience. I was at the hotel for work with the Army Reserve, I’ve been doing these events at numerous hotels for the last 3 years and have never experienced this terrible costumer service at any other hotel. When myself and a co-​worker went to check in we were told that they didn’t have any rooms. We had a meeting in a few hours so we couldn’t just leave the hotel. We waited in the lobby to check in. After about 30min another coworker arrived and checked in with no problem. The two of us decided to go try to check in again as well. I spoke to a gentleman who really could have cared less if I didn’t have a room. He told me too bad, I could just wait for 3 more hours until a room would maybe be available. However, right next to me my other coworker was given a room, no problem.

Friendly checkin staff but downhill from there. They took good care of me at checkin and were super nice. However, checkin was about the best thing these guys have going.
Rooms are remodeled cheaply into a pseudo-​modern feel with comfy — albeit tiny — double beds. The ceiling access panels, closets, and bath fixtures leave a lot to be desired… rust through the paint everywhere and they look like other than a basic refresh, Jimmy Carter may have used them during his presidency.
Public spaces look like they’ve been left in 1981, maybe 1982. I think they’re just waiting for the era to come back in fashion and be retro chic. Intersperse that with a modern bar and coffee shop and you get an anachronism that is hard to describe any other way. I feel deep pity for the poor saps at a convention eating breakfast in a conference buffet area set up in the same open air space as the pool. I’m sure the chlorine goes well with scrambled eggs and toast.
Service at the lobby coffee stand was non existent one morning at 7:30. Workers were around but no one taking orders .
Rooms were dingy — got stuck on an inside room overlooking the pool area. Nothing more horrid than trying to get a good sleep with children running around the indoor pool making a racket until it closes at 11 pm. I get they’re using space as they can but no one wants to hear that noise. Top that off with almost no penetration of natural light into those rooms and it’s like being held prisoner in a dungeon.
Maid service sucks here. Towels kept diminishing day after day. Day one — full set of bath, hand, and washcloths for two. Day two — used bath towel and floor towel replaced but fresh hand towel and washcloth went MIA. No problem… one more set is there. Day three — zero washcloths and only the hand towel I didn’t use the day before. I can’t wait for day four when there will be nothing.
Painfully slow internet — measured it at 1 Meg — makes it hard to work productively from your cave. Seriously — at home I have 105 meg service from my cable company and I have neighbors at a gigabit over fiber. 1M bandwidth is inexcusable in 2015.
Location sucks for restaurants nearby. You have to drive. All that’s nearby is bad fast food or chains that no human should ever eat at (TGI Friday’s? Do they still amputate American’s tastebuds at birth?) Plan on a serious haul if you care about putting something other than month old reheated glop into your gullet.
The sloppy maintenance and lack of attention to the details just exemplifies why I usually avoid these guys and head to a Westin or a W where they know how to treat you right.
If you don’t mind paying for inattentive service and dated décor, this is the place for you… If you care, there are way better hotels.

Meh. This hotel has seen better days.
I will start by saying that my room has been updated recently — so when new, it probably looked pretty fantastic. However, given the flat finish of the gray paint — the handprints on the walls and the marker on them show very well. However, it was still pretty decent.
The rest of the building — well. yes. Definitely seen better days in the 80s. Everything about it — the conference center (lobby, conference rooms, chairs, floors, wall paper, atrium, etc.) is very dated and well worn.
That being said — they need more space in the bar! This place has tons of conference rooms, and it appears there were many going on at the same time as mine. There were tons of people.
However, the service was great — every employee was on top of it — which I really appreciated. From the bell desk to our banquet captain, they were all very nice and eager to please.
If you are looking for fancy-​schmancy conference room space — this isn’t your place. If you’re looking for a good room at a reasonable price. definitely go for it.

The only reason this gets 3 is because of their failure to explain their park and ride situation for the airport. The rooms are otherwise ok with mold visible in the shower grout.
It’s a fixed time shuttle which departs on the half hour and returns on the hour, starting at 530 and returning at 10… they will let you change your reservation on site, but only if you don’t check in on advance or before they explain the difficult scheduling situation. Once your checked in, you’re in for a ride… we have only taken half of the travel thus far and on the way out, we were nearly left behind due to over capacity… let’s hope we don’t get left behind.

I stayed here when the Westin across the street got a little too uppity for it’s own good. And frankly, with its fitted sheets and lower prices, this is where I would probably stay all the time, if I wasn’t with Starwood snobs when I travel here. The beds were comfortable and it seems like the rooms were recently refreshed, although mine was across from a vending/​ice room with a very very loud fan that ran most of the time. It wasn’t loud when I was in the room, but gave me pause when I first got to my door. All in all, another comfortable but largely unremarkable stay.
Worth pointing out that it’s a big hotel with not the biggest parking lot, so the lot can be packed later in the evening. You’re probably not going to end up parking by the door you want, so it can be a bit of a walk.

I generally love hilton, but when ytou are at a conference and have no access to their wifi without a fee it’s time to have your conference elsewwhere.

Ok, So I stayed at this location back when it was the Sheraton. I’m thinking maybe this was like maybe 3 or 4 years ago. They sold it to Hilton, and decided to make it a Double Tree. Thinking back on when I stayed there three years ago it seems like they still have the same problems. Like on the high floors. (I was on the 16^th floor) the water does this funky thing where it kinda jerks out of the faucet out of the shower. And the drainage in the tub was weird.
They did do a few things to change the look of the inside. I wouldn’t quite call them upgrades, just changes to make it look more like a Double Tree Hotel vs a Sheraton.
Some of the things that the Sheraton I liked better, for example I liked the old restaurant better. It used to have that man’s den feel. This one, they tried to go with a more trendy modern look and kinda fell short a little. I didn’t dine at the restaurant, so I cannot write an accurate review on it. Who knows the food might be delicious.
The hotel is the same. No real upgrades, they just kinda changed the carpets and put cheap wood paneling behind the beds.
Oh and the night stands don’t have drawers. That is annoying to me. Or maybe I’m the only person who uses the night stand drawers.
Now don’t let all the negative things I said keep you from booking. It is a good location and there are several dining places in walking distance, including a convenient store. The staff was very friendly and the rooms were clean, just not as plush as I would like for the price. It is far from the worst hotel in the area.

Have to give the staff 5+ stars!
Our flight was diverted, and we ended up here after midnight. They took care of a plane load of people very quickly, all the while handing out chocolate chip cookies to hungry travelers.
The staff was assisting handicapped and elderly to their rooms, giving out toiletry items to all the travelers — they really did a great job!
The room was great too :-)

The best way to describe this hotel is by the words of the strange lady I met in the elevator:
«Well, this place has the ambiance of a bowling alley, doesn’t it?»
Couldn’t have said it better myself. The retro modern style took a crap on itself and this hotel looks and feels like a gloomy day.
The walls are various shades of grays and blues and some dirty, cold shade of brown. The furniture is up to date but uncomfortable. It felt like a community center more than somewhere to have a relaxing night which is the spiel they are puking all over the TV commercials, is it not? I was here for a work conference and I donned an awesome badge with my name on it, and yet the valets, security and other door staff still made me slightly uncomfortable as if they were waiting to usher me out by the arms.
The rooms are like small dismal caves. The bed I laid on was uncomfortable but according to a friend, out of the two beds one of them is supposed to be soft. The rooms were clean, sans the dirty walls by the doors. One big disgusting mention is the extra blanket we pulled from the closet. There was a coffee stain on it and I could tell it was coffee because it smelled like coffee. That means they didn’t wash the blanket after the last potentially crab infested, bed bug ridden compulsive masturbator used it.
On volunteer day we were offered pizza for dinner and not being able to choke down pizza, a friend and I bailed and chose to dine in the hotel restaurant, Crescent Kitchen/​Lounge.
The food was a pathetic attempt at being slightly upscale but was comparable to the quality of Applebee’s or even Perkins. We ordered the warm pretzel sticks with beer mustard and cheese to start. The pretzels were unbelievably salty even after knocking off the salt boulders. The beer mustard was so tart and abrasive that it wiped out your palate. The cheese was basic and unappetizing.
The penne pomodoro was a bastardization of anything Italian. The broth was astringent and there was nothing to tone it down. I ate only a few bites. The chicken and gnocchi was equally disappointing in that the chicken was dry, the sauce was minimal and the gnocchi had the flavor of pizza dough.
Remember: You have to pay for everything here from the breakfast to the coffee.
My biggest gripe with the entire hotel is the pool area. I’m not one to trot around all willy nilly with my goods hanging out for everyone to see and that’s the feeling I got when I was trying to relax with some friends in the hot tub. The pool and hot tub area is smack dab in the middle of a large community room that is surrounded by «pool side suites» which makes it a Creeper’s delight. The second floor is open to looking over and down at the pool area and it’s a continuation of the an open room from the lobby and the restaurant. Privacy is non-​existent.
It’s not all bad; though we pretty much agreed across the board that we didn’t like the place in the least. Here’s a few highlights of the good so we have all our shit in one sock:
The staff I talked to walking around the hotel were very nice and helpful.
The bar poured generously.
They really do give you a warm cookie.
There is a Starbucks inside the building. I can’t decide if this is a bad thing or not. I spent $ 3 for a normal cup of coffee that tasted like ball sweat and gerbil poo. But plenty of people like Starbucks so it’s a give and take.
In the end it’s appropriately mediocre for a work conference destination and that’s the main appeal here, but it doesn’t justify the draw backs. If you’re looking for a trendy relaxing stay, this isn’t it and I wouldn’t recommend it. I don’t want to say I’m picky about my hotels because I’m really not. I will say that no matter where I stay I don’t want to be sleeping on someone else’s pubic hair if they didn’t buy me dinner and a drink first.
BYOBlanket.
And some Lysol.

Just spent 5 days here for a working conference. Everything about the stay was very enjoyable.
a) The shuttle from the airport– exactly was on time at the top of the hour.
b) The shuttle from the Mall of America back to the hotel– right on time.
c) The check in process was fast and painless
d) I had a great room –very spacious, good closet space, nice bathroom with good water pressure and temp in the shower
e) Great fast wifi
f) Very comfortable beds.
g)Food was excellent– conference lunch and dinners were of good quality and varied. We had a plated lunch of chicken and pasta for one day, a Mexican buffet for a second lunch, and a buffet dinner withs lots of good choices. The Mexican buffet was very good.
h) Very nice continental breakfasts for our group — pastries and muffins and some healthy choices like low fat yogurt and lots of fruit. I appreciated seeing that
One annoyance we had on a consistent basis was the noise level in the conference area. Our convention group shared space with many other conventions, we were next to them during mornings, lunches, and evenings. We were consistently overwhelmed by the noise from the other groups –at breakfast, at lunch and during our evening programs.
I had a few drinks at the Crescent Lounge Thursday Night and saw the second quarter of the Pats-​Jets. Shot the breeze with John the bartender, a real nice guy with 20 years on the job.
So what more can I say? Its a very nice hotel with a great staff and lots of nice touches everywhere. My convention rate was $ 142.