Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco Airport North, South San Francisco

My traveling companion and I decided to stay here several days during the New Year’s holiday, booking two rooms after calling to ahead to verify availability. We were quoted a “manager’s special”, which was about $10 off of the web rate. How could we pass? We arrived early and greeted by a very friendly professional front Office Manager by the name of Marks. She proved to be helpful, answering our questions, inquiring if we wanted newspapers in the morning (we both declined), etc. And, every time I returned to the hotel, she would greet me by name, an incredible personal touch. The rooms were comfortable, typical for this type of hotel. The hotel was ideally suited for our needs. Several days later, the morning we were to check out, I received a bill under my door, showing a higher room rate and charges for newspapers (which I hadn’t received). I found out that my travel companion had received a bill with the same discrepancies. As I approached the front desk, I greeted the young man with “Good Morning”. He asked if we were checking out, I said yes and politely brought the discrepancies of my bill to his attention. He began typing on his computer, watching the screen and advised me that the price reflected on my bill was correct. I provided him with the names of the people we spoke with on the phone at the time we made the reservation and reconfirmed the price we were quoted prior to making our reservations. He proceeded to pound keys again and then informed me that my “quoted” price was wrong and I was mistaken. Wrong - mistaken? I’d didn’t pull the rate out of my….well anyway, I suggested that his information was wrong and further informed him that I had never received newspapers (my bill reflecting newspaper charges). He went back to pounding keys and after about 5 minutes, handed me a new adjusted print out of my bill showing a price correction. A few minutes later, my traveling companion received a corrected bill. Not once during this time, did he apologize for the misunderstanding or inconvenience or offer any explanation beyond I was wrong. My friend and I travel have traveled the world and have had all kinds of experiences, good and not so good. I think what’s important here isn’t the pricing discrepancy, mistakes do happen. We weren’t holding him personally responsible, nor were we aggressive or impolite in our effort to correct what we thought was a simple mistake. What’s really important here was his rude smug attitude. Prior to our check out, I would have highly recommended this hotel because of the friendly staff, accommodations and location. It’s unfortunate that our check out experience left us with a negative impression.