Home2 Suites by Hilton Battle Creek

I have stayed at this Hilton property several times, on my drive from Toronto to Chicago, and plan to stop by again soon. I hope John is manning the front desk when I come by--he puts his heart into helping everyone and goes above and beyond in customer service. Home2Suites is a great concept; until it came into being, I used to stay at the Homewood Suites in Kalamazoo because I usually carry coolers of food when I am traveling and Homewoods have a full sized refrigerator in their kitchen area. Kalamazoo is a stretch for me; Battle Creek is an hour's drive closer. The Home2Suites features a full sized modern fridge and freezer, which is the big draw. It has a microwave and one can request an induction burner. The room is modern in decoration, all clean lines and bright colors. There is a lot of storage space and both a desk and a pullout dining table. Lots of outlets for charging your tech stuff. The linens are good quality, the mattresses very comfortable and everything is clean. The thing I do not like is the shift from quality shampoos and conditioners in small bottles to wall mounted dispensers. The emphasis is on being environmentally friendly, but the quality suffers. The body lotion, in particular, is thick and not very lotiony. I tend to have to drag along my own shampoo, conditioner and body lotion. MY Garmin GPS has a hard time finding the address of this property, even though I have updated the GPS. The flip side is that this is a property off the beaten track and not near traffic sounds. There is good shopping nearby.

This was our first time here. We were attending a barn wedding 20 minutes south. Get the Hilton App if you haven’t already. We checked in with the app and we picked our room and the app was then my room key, and checked out with it also, very convenient. Our room had a full size fridge, microwave, and a dishwasher. There was a pull out table under the desk. There is an indoor pool, workout center, and even an outside seating area with a fireplace. The complimentary breakfast was typical and adequate. There is also a small store by the front desk. There is also (4) EV chargers available in the parking lot. It was very quiet at night, it is close to the freeway but far enough away not to hear it. The price was decent, we paid $132. for a Saturday night. I highly recommend this place, it is just outside of Battle Creek city center. .

So, the good news is that the rooms are decent and the beds are incredibly comfy. Easily the comfiest hotel bed I've slept on in memory. However, I had an abysmal customer service from one staff member that cancelled out some very good customer service from others. I stayed for two nights back to back for business. One night on my card, and one night on the company account. When I checked in, the guy at the desk said that there was no issue with keeping the same room. After 3 hours of driving, he was upbeat and I was really pleased with everything. When I left to head to meetings in the morning, another gentleman was also very nice wishing me a nice day. However, when I returned to my room, my keycard didn't work. A number of my colleagues were checking in as well, so I waited in line with them. The woman at the desk was impatient with all of us. When it got to me, I tried to explain that my key didn't work. She then blamed me for not knowing I was supposed to check-in again, as she had no one in that room. She then tried to stare me down because clearly I was the problem. AMAZINGLY, the room I was in was available. Almost as if the guy had put it in last night. I spent 20 minutes on hold with Hilton. They gave me a case number. No idea where things are going from there. I will update this review as it develops.

The hotel property was very clean and quiet hotel. The employees were very friendly and helpful. The beds and pillows were very comfortable. I did not have any breakfast, but it smelled good. Close to shopping, gas stations and restaurants.

So, the good news is that the rooms are decent and the beds are incredibly comfy. Easily the comfiest hotel bed I've slept on in memory. However, I had an abysmal customer service from one staff member that cancelled out some very good customer service from others. I stayed for two nights back to back for business. One night on my card, and one night on the company account. When I checked in, the guy at the desk said that there was no issue with keeping the same room. After 3 hours of driving, he was upbeat and I was really pleased with everything. When I left to head to meetings in the morning, another gentleman was also very nice wishing me a nice day. However, when I returned to my room, my keycard didn't work. A number of my colleagues were checking in as well, so I waited in line with them. The woman at the desk was impatient with all of us. When it got to me, I tried to explain that my key didn't work. She then blamed me for not knowing I was supposed to check-in again, as she had no one in that room. She then tried to stare me down because clearly I was the problem. AMAZINGLY, the room I was in was available. Almost as if the guy had put it in last night. I spent 20 minutes on hold with Hilton. They gave me a case number. Edit: They told me to talk to the general manager who was not in that night. I spoke to her and she told me she had read my review, but she had not seen the case number in the Hilton system. (So apparently, tripadvisor reviews do have an impact). She promised that she would address the issue with the employee. That said, I did not get a sense she was invested in the outcome. I hope I am wrong about that.