DoubleTree by Hilton New Bern Riverfront, New Bern

The hotel brings bands in during the summer on Friday and Sunday nights to promote their outdoor bar, 22 hours worth the weekend we were there. Our original room was less than 40’ from the amplified speakers; our room window rattled with the noise and we had to raise our voices to hear each other. After too much effort on our part, we were able to get a room in a building away from the bands. The hotel has spoiled their peaceful waterfront setting and invaded the guests’ rooms with noise. There were several other problems which made the stay less relaxing and enjoyable than it should have been, not even close to Hilton’s usual standards. What appeared to be mold in the bathroom; asking guests to not use their cars during the stay because of crowded parking, room doors slam shut instead of closing gently, for examples. In my opinion, the management is more concerned about an extra buck than the comfort of their guests, rather than the other way around. Although this hotel is not in great condition, the primary reason I would not recommend staying here is management’s attitude. Even when they remodel and rebrand this hotel by January of 2012, management’s poor attitude towards its guests will still be present. I took the time to locate the head of operations of this particular Hilton franchisee and send him an email explaining my concerns. He did not even acknowledge receiving the email but just passed it along. It ended up with the front desk supervisor responding to my concerns. While she was very nice to talk with, she does not have the authority to make any of the needed changes, not a decision maker. The lack of response from the head of operations is very disrespectful towards a guest. This Hilton is rated 7th out of 9 hotels in New Bern on Trip Advisor, I think it should be at the bottom of the list. If you do decide to stay here and the noise from the band is bothering you too much, try the New Bern police. The City has a noise ordinance in addition to the standard disturbing the peace laws. Something we wished we had thought of when we were there.

Tried to go to the pool on Sat afternoon -- was denied access because I had a drink I did not purchase at their bar. My drink was in a plastic cup with lid & straw but that did not matter. The hotel management was totally unhelpful. The only access to even sitting by the "riverfront" are the hard benches provided by the city of New Bern. The Hilton didn't have any places to actually sit & enjoy the riverfront. Totally dissatisfied. Will never stay there again.

Have to agree with reviewer M.E. Turnage, who shows a stay here in Sept. Very good location, close to the nice, but rather limited, downtown shops and restaurants. Good view. We, too, experienced the noise issue, but did not check out. Room was OK, nothing really exceptional as they had us believe when we made our reservation. Restaurant was mediocre, there are better ones in walking distance. The big reason for our low rating of the place, though, is price relative to quality. At over $200/night including the local 13% (!) lodging tax, you expect something exceptional. We felt that what we got was about a $100. room for double the price. We travelled from VA. to FL on this trip, and stayed in similar rooms for less money, on several occasions. So, not bad, but not a good value for $$ spent.

We booked a river view room using our reward points since we stay at hilton hotels so much...30,000 points. Tired and ready to relax we looked forward to a comfortable evening in our 4th floor room...Never Happended ! Hilton had a live band playing outside on the river walk and informed us they would be playing until at least 9pm, possibly later due to it being a Friday....beginning of their weekend rates. We turned the tv volume up to 32 and still could not clearly make it out because the music was so loud. Needless to say, within 20 minutes of checking in, we checked out.....drove 2 miles down the road and stayed at the Marriott. Mind you...we were not the only ones complaining about the noise. The front desk staff also did not offer to give us our points back. So, if you want a comfortable, quiet, relaxing stay...Do Not Go To Hilton New Bern Riverfront on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

The beds were so comfortable. The view was very nice. The place was very clean. The restaurant there was excellent....food was very good and reasonably priced, I thought. Everyone there was very fiendly in the rest and the hotel. I would defintly go back here and would recommend this place to friends and family. It is within walking distance to alot of places.

Too much money for everything not to be at 100% (renovations, dining area unclean, inadequately prepared for seatings) 7/4 Holiday stay: Made reservations via travel website; paid more for the room than what the hotel offered for directly booking their holiday special and still could not receive the benefits of the special. The pool was closed due to renovations, but they tried to compensate w/ a deal to use the pool at the YMCA---- no thanks. The smoke alarm kept going off (3 times), the third time was 3:00 a.m.! They did, however, compensate with complimentary breakfast tickets. The restaurant needed to use a "quick vac"... too much food on the floor in the dining area. First Time Visit to the area... great historical town

Inadequate parking, untrained and understaffed reception. Remodeling is going on, but right now that is more of a nuisance than a plus. Part of the place is grungy from before the remodeling. The remodeled areas are OK, but there is ongoing noise from the work and from construction next door, condos which we were told the hotel owns. Bad attitude on the part of management when we called to complain, also. The only plus is the location, convenient to shops and cafes, and on the water with a good view. For reasons unknown to us, though, the marina is nearly empty, while one across the river looks full. Marina would be a lot nicer with more boats in it,but that may not be within the control of the Sheraton. We would not advise anyone to stay at this hotel until AFTER all remodeling is done, and it may still be questionable based on the service we received.

New Bern, NC. is a very unique and interesting town. The plus info. The negative info: Sheraton Hotel and Marina are in the process of being extensively renovated and should be closed until the project is completed. Construction on the property has made the Sheraton Hotel dirty, noisy, and a very unpleasant place Locating a parking spot on the w/e is next to impossible. Extremely disappointed in our stay

The location is great, beautiful marina, great view (which might have been better if we could have gotten a room higher up). It was nice looking at the boats, talking to some of the sailors about their travels and so on. But that is where the good ends. When we arrived, there was no place to park in the hotel's lot, which is too small. We took our bags in, I left my wife to check in, then went to find a place to park, which was over a block away. When I got back, we were not checked in yet, due to not enough people on duty. Those who were there were pleasant, but there were only 2, and one was on the phone with other guests or taking reservations almost continually, with a nmuber of people waiting in the lobby. The room was old, a big wine or blood stain on the carpet, mold and mildew visible in several spots, a damaged lamp, and the TV system was one of the poorest I have seen in a hotel. We complained, and were basically told there was nothing they could do, but that they were remodelling. There was indeed all kinds of work going on, but that did us no good in the meantime. Until the work is done, I really can't see how Sheraton can even justify having their name on this run-down, inadequate, overpriced hotel, although I don't know how hotel franchises work, or whether Sheraton has any control over it.

The location of this hotel is great. It puts you within easy walking distance of most of the historic locations in New Bern. The view of the river is beautiful. But for the price, I was less than satisfied. The hotel is undergoing a complete remodeling; it needs it. Our room was clean, but very dated. Knobs were falling off of the furniture, the phone worked "sometimes", the lock was broken on the outside sliding door, the water in the shower was warm at best. The food in the resturant was ok but expensive. The service in the resturant was sloooooow. The parking is free, but the lot is small. If you leave in the afternoon, and do not return until after 8:00 pm, good luck on finding a parking spot. It seems that the nightclub at the Sheraton is very popular, so the parking lot is taken over by people going to the nightclub. Once the remodeling is complete it will no doubt be a nice hotel, but until that takes place you are apt to be dissappointed with your stay.