I travel often and am a Hilton Honors member, but my experience at Embassy Suites Temecula Valley Wine Country was absolutely appalling.
From the moment I walked in, the front desk staff treated me with open hostility. I asked a simple question about price matching, and rather than answering politely, they immediately became defensive and dismissive. Then I was told the hotel was “100% booked” and that even if I found availability on a third-party site, I’d be turned away.
Minutes later, I booked a room through Expedia from the parking lot—proof that their “no availability” claim was false. When I went back in, suddenly a room was available. The staff tried to claim a cancellation magically occurred in the 5–7 minutes I was outside. That excuse was laughable, since I had already seen the Expedia room listed before I booked it.
When I pressed for an explanation, one agent flatly told me, “Sir, I don’t have to tell you anything,” and called over a supervisor. Instead of resolving the issue, the supervisor doubled down on the hostility, talked over me, and threatened to refuse me service entirely, despite my Hilton Honors status. Another staff member outright denied saying things I had just heard with my own ears—gaslighting at its finest.
Eventually, they grudgingly handed me a room key but informed me it was a subpar room with a portable AC unit—no choice offered. To make matters worse, the supervisor threatened to place me on a “do not serve” list, permanently banning me