Hilton HHonors - Doubletree International Plaza Hotel Toronto Airport Trip Reports and Reviews

I stayed there bout a month ago. Nice place was only there 1 night. It is kinda close to airport so you hear planes quite a bit. As a Diamond I was put on the executive floor, ok room nothing really special. Not sure what else to say about it as I was only there the 1 night and left very early for my plane.

I have stayed at both the Hilton and DT Toronto Airport numerous times.

I prefer the Double Tree. Better dining options and the check in staff at the Hilton always seem overworked and annoyed. The Hilton also had fire alarm problems one night I was there, which meant almost no sleep.

The Hilton has free drinks in the lounge, which is nice. But there aren't many tables, so breakfast is a bit uncomfortable. The Doubletree has a brief happy hour with comp beer, but it closes for the evening earlier than I usually get there.

Both hotels have nice workout facilities.

The best rooms at the Hilton are nicer than the best rooms at the doubletree. But I don't think you can go too wrong with either hotel.

If you need an on airport hotel, neither of these qualify. There is a Sheraton attached to one of the terminals, but since there are three terminals, even that doesn't eliminate the need for a shuttle in some cases.

Hope this helps.

BJFly

I recently stayed at the Toronto Doubletree location over the holidays(12/26/04-1/2/05) and thought i would give you my recount of a pretty poor customer service experience. We choose the Doubletree since it was close to the Mrs' family, has a sushi restaurant we like in its complex and also due to the fact that it had a really nice indoor pool with 2 waterslides that we could take my wife's niece to. This hotel use to be the International Hotel but is now the Doubletree International.

When we drove up, it was raining freezing rain and snow/freezing rain was on the forecast. Since there was a sign for "valet available" and the guest parking was outdoor lot, we figured we would valet and let our car sit in some garage somewhere. we sat there for about 15 minutes with no valet around. we went inside to checkin and asked for a concierge. He finally came about 10 mins later and explained that for valet, they park in same lot we do and we would have to hunt down the concierge each time we wanted our car and they dont sit up by front so he basically was begging us not to valet. so we didnt and went to the gold check in line.

I reserved a "King Size Deluxe" room from the website for 12/26/04 thru 12/30/04 back in early nov. I have the confirmation email to prove that I did indeed get a King Size Deluxe room confirmed. on xmas, we decided to stay longer and extended our stay thru 1/2/05 and got a follow up confirmation with rate and King Size deluxe. On morning of 12/26 before flying to Toronto, i logged into website and saw my reservation listing both the duration, the King bed, and the rate i had booked at.
All was good, until that is we got to the hotel.
I waited in line at the Gold Check In Line. A Mr. Mxxxxxx Cxxxx checked me in. He told me we were to have a Queen size bed. I asked if that was the reservation as I was quite sure I made a reservation for King size bed and he said that the computer said Queen size bed. I asked again and told him that I would check upstairs once I got to my computer as I thought this was most definitely wrong(i should have printed out my confirmation). He rolled his eyes at me, stared at his computer and asked if I wanted a mini bar key. I found that to be extremely rude customer service. I asked again and again he gave me no answer which just made me a bit more put off. Finally after asking a third time and reminding him i would confirm upstairs on my computer, he said that was all that’s available and the reservation was for Queen bed. At this point, he began typing ALOT on his computer and didnt look up at me. He didn’t give me any of the benefits of Gold(breakfast coupons etc).
I got up to our room, connected online and checked my reservation. I found indeed that we had made King size Deluxe reservation. I also checked the Doubltree Reservation website and found that somehow between 12/26 morning and 12/26 afternoon, somebody changed my reservation in the system to Queen Size Bed. I believe that this is what Mxxxxxx Cxxxx was doing when I told him I would check. On top of that, our rate had gone up by $9 Canadian.
I called the front desk and a "Joe" answered the phone and was VERY helpful. I told him that I had a copy of my reservation confirmation and that I wanted to know why it was changed. He said who did I hear my confirmation from. I told him I booked online as well as I had spoke with central reservations. He said they don’t know anything there. I replied that Doubletree is just one doubletree to me and I don't buy that argument as to who I talk with. I also told him I wanted the room I booked. He said he would work on it and get back to me.
He called about 5 minutes later and offered me a king size room on 3rd floor. I took it. Went down to front desk and he showed me a printout he had had from the morning where I was indeed booked in a room on the 12th floor but somehow it was changed.(I saw a pen cross out my room) This infuriated me and I asked to speak to the manager. I was told there was none on duty till next day and that the supervisor in charge was Mxxxxxx Cxxxx(the man who checked me in). Mxxxxxx rolled his eyes at me again and said there was nothing that he could do as that was how it was in the computer. I asked about the printout but he just stared at the computer and rolled his eyes. I told him fine, I would write his name down and speak with the manager in the morning. All he told me was to "Make sure you spell that last name correctly - Cxxxx". I told him I would be sure to do that. (Mxxxxxx and the person who replaced him after his shift also gave me incorrect parking information(place had free parking but he didnt give me the parking pass although i had asked and he told me to use my room key which was just false - i am in complete shock at the manner of professionalism shown by the "supervisors on duty")
When I went to turn in my old room keys to Joe, Joe offered me breakfast vouchers and access to the club floor. I told Joe that I am Gold VIP and should be offered that when I checked in. Mxxxxx was standing next to Joe and rolled his eyes and just glared at me. UNBELIEVABLE that this guy is a supervisor. Joe did a great job and certainly knows more about customer service than Mxxxxxx. I paid for a Deluxe room and am certain that I did not stay in one.
We then got to our new room. The bathroom toilet was filled with cigarrettes(about 5-8), no soap in the bathroom, towels looked soiled. The bed is a king but it is not the deluxe room I ordered on 11/20. Clearly this hotel has only remodeled the 12th and the 8th floor as the 3rd had an older bed, an older mattress, an older bedspread and dingier carpet. We called housekeeping and got our bathroom cleaned as well as new tools in about 30 minutes. The room was very cold when we came in and we cranked up the heat to max. It was still cold 1 hour later, so we called maintenance. The thermastat hadnt moved and read 19 degrees C but seemed much colder than that. When the engineer came in, he said wow this is cold. He worked on it for about a half hour then asked to come back in our room if we had left. That was fine with us as we had some family events to go to. He assured us he would fix before evening.
We came back to our frigid room at 9:45. no note and clearly the heat had not been fixed. I then got the most amusing phone call of my life. The person from guest services was calling all the Hilton Golds and asking if their stay was "perfect". I started laughing and said EMPHATICALLY NO. She had a "manager" call me right away and i explained my situation. This gentleman was very nice and told me he would get me a room with heat. When asked if a queen(with heat) woudl do; I told him that out of principal, it would have to be a King since i was now very angry. He "found" one available on the 8th floor back where I started but still not on the 12th floor where my original reservation was for. We walked in the room and since the heat was working, we took the room and ignored what looked like a big dried up cum stain on the bedspread.(removed the bedspread like we usually do). Was so good to have heat in our hotel room.
Later, in the week, they sent up a fruit/candy basket along with an apology. I didnt make it down to ask for a manager since we were too busy with family events and the whole process just made me angry and i was trying to enjoy the holiday season. The hotel experience on sunday had ruined my entire day and the time spent moving to 3 different rooms was ridiculous enough already. I sent an email into Hilton but they havent answered it yet. I will call the gen mgr of the hotel and see if we can have a discussion about his hotel and customer service.

Anyways, for those of you heading to Toronto - FYI and good luck.

Any UPDATE or RESOLUTION???

Very disappointed to hear of your troubles.
I had gone to the Japanese Restaurant(Ginko's) on the 20th of Dec.I wanted to p/u a paper to read over lunch.The small store was closed for the holidays.The hotel looked very empty.

There is no excuse for your treatment.Will be interested in any communication you receive.FYI, I avoid this property and stay at Hilton or Hampton when in the airport area.

Very disappointed to hear of your troubles.
I had gone to the Japanese Restaurant(Ginko's) on the 20th of Dec.I wanted to p/u a paper to read over lunch.The small store was closed for the holidays.The hotel looked very empty.

There is no excuse for your treatment.Will be interested in any communication you receive.FYI, I avoid this property and stay at Hilton or Hampton when in the airport area.

Hilton Honors was also somewhat surprised at never hearing back from the property manager here. So they offered to take 1 night off my bill by faxing my bill to them. I took them up on the offer but everytime i drive by this hotel, i think back to that annoying front desk "manager"...

p.s. I do enjoy Ginko's for Sushi and unlike the front desk; they have good service.

I recently stayed on a Priceline stay and as a HH Gold member, DT upgraded me to a suite, exec floor and excellent treatment. They sure know how to treat top tier Hilton members. I'm impressed. Plus I got miles and points for this stay on a priceline stay.

Was upgraded as diamond to a jacuzzi suite despite making reservation that very morning. Breakfast was marginal on the executive floor, so I asked for a portion of the breakfast downstairs to be covered, and they just picked up the whole thing.
The free shuttle from the airport was not right on time, so I would leave a little extra time.

I had an issue recently at the DT in Toronto - the room I was staying in did not have any heat. I was staying with other individuals who managed to sleep, however, I could not. Going to the front desk at 3AM, I advised moving rooms was not an option but that I wanted the room for free b/c of the issue. The night manager said his authority was limited to a 25% discount. Long story short, I took the 25% discount at the time but the night manager told me I could follow up with the day manager later on to get the rest of the room comp'd. Problem is that I was leaving the hotel at 7AM for a vacation and only returned yesterday so no opportunity to phone and follow up until now (and calling today, the day manager is away).

Question: Should I bother to follow up - will the hotel do anything now that it is about 2 weeks after the stay? I wasn't really statisfied with a 25% discount although I took it to show that there was an issue. I've never had problems with other Hilton hotels where they comp'd the room immediately if there was a problem. Any advice/comments would be appreciated. Thx!

If you haven't resolved this with the manager by this evening, send your story to "gold@Hilton.com" - no heat in Toronto in Dec is inexcusable. Have Hilton look into this for you.

Any recent reports from this DT???

Any recent reports from this DT???
I "park and fly" there regularly. The on-site Italian restaurant is very good, the regular restaurant isn't (food and service), parking is expensive if not included in your rate, they treat Diamonds well (always a suite IME), the airport shuttle is unreliable (same contractor as most YYZ airport hotels) and the chocolate chip cookies are warm. If I've missed anything, just ask.:)

Stayed here earlier this week before flight back to ORD - upgrade to Exec Floor - room decent enought, free Wifi is a bonus and nice robes in the closets.
Staff were polite and separate HH check-in desk.
Excellent Italian restaurant on site - Alfonso ?(think there are three restaurants there). Shuttle every 30 minutes and runs on time. Would stay there again without a second thought.

:td:From the 30 minute wait to check in to the room service that didn't show up (and then being told that they came to the room and we were not here), rude service across the board, I much prefer the airport Hilton.

Oh well.

Bumping this to get recent experiences especially for Diamonds. I will probably stay at this property as I am seeing saver awards on the dates I need and is pretty cheap compared to the room rates of the other properties on the nights I need. I stayed here on a short one night stay right after it became a DT but honestly don't remember the stay at all since it was like a 8 hour stay. :)

Any restaurants within walking distance?

Any restaurants within walking distance?

Good Italian and Chinese on the property. Both take the Entertainment card if you have one. They also have a Japanese teppanyaki (have not tried) and the hotel coffee shop which is very mediocre. There are dozens of restaurants within a few blocks, but signage is not always the best as many are in industrial-type plazas. The Tony Roma's and The Keg are best nearby for dinner. Most others should be within a $5 cab ride if you don't have a car, and some are walkable - although the area is not really laid out for walking.