Spark by Hilton Redlands

They are charging my card 25 USD for stained towels from a herbal shampoo, will get a refund from the Diamond Desk. However, California hotel owners aren't transparent, be careful if you ever get there, there are all kinds of hidden shady fees.

During the fire evacuations today friends booked to stay safe for tonight at this hotel in Redlands. We assisted the wife in bringing in their two dogs and several bags for their evacuation and stay. Her husband was still at their home with fire encroaching rapidly. The lobby was chaos as we entered but fortunately she had an electronic check in and key. We dropped her off and left to get some waters and dinner for her so she could stay put. Upon re entering we encountered “Jennifer” at the front desk. She asked if we were staying there. I told her no just dropping off food. She wanted the room number which was reasonable. I was a bit taken back at her demeanor and tone but attributed it to the chaos we say an hour earlier in the lobby. She then aggressively accused me of having three dogs and not registering them. I reiterated we were not staying but our friend was evacuated and had two dogs with her but her husband was coming to get one. Minutes later we arrived at our friends room to find her in tears. She told us the front desk yelled at her and was so aggressive telling her they watched her on film and she has three dogs unregistered. She said she indicated dogs on her reservation and showed me. We quickly left and I stopped by the front desk to speak with Jennifer— again she was simply rude, attempted to be condescending and was not interested in hearing why there were two dogs. She lied and said she saw three dogs on film when I told her there were two she said she didn’t see film but was told there were three. I attempted to explain the evacuation and show her film of our friends home with flames in the back yard. She stated “I don’t care why she’s here”. “I don’t care” and then wanted to argue about the number of dogs. When asked her name and her title she answered her cell rather than answering my question. I tried to tell her that the husband was coming to get one of the dogs as soon as the fire was out in his back yard. Quite frankly I’ve never been spoken to with the tone and demeanor of this woman.

We stayed at the St Augustine Spark. Rooms were clean and large and staff was excellent. Beds were comfortable .Great location. These are the issues...rooms are extremely humid, everything is constantly damp. There are no cups in the room to use in the bathroom. We had to go downstairs to the breakfast room to get cups to use. Should be called the Sparse hotel not Spark. This is Hiltons low,low economy hotel

Horrible, Horrible Place. They were kicked out of Choice Hotel Chain under the name, "Country Inn & Suites by Radisson". Renamed "Spark by Hilton". I tried to warn Hilton of Awful management who is Araceli. After checking in, I smelled cigarette smoke, was not offered another room, and checked out within 15 minutes. They refused to give me a refund, threatened to call the police, calling me names, and lying. As I was leaving, there were other guests (two different couples) outside the door who were trying to figure out what to do as they had a very similar experience as mine. Some of the reviews online sounded a little over the top and unbelievable. Since my experience, I totally believe them like the person who was kicked out in the middle of the night for posting a bad review. I have never had such a Horrible experience as this with any hotel. I filed a report with Choice Hotels, my Credit Card Company, and even the Better Business Bureau. The BBB twice reached out and no answer, the hotel I'm sure has dealt with these things many times and has the formula down to thwart everything. When reviews show 1 star and 5 stars in between, you know there are nefarious business practices being conducted. They are probably trying to scrub the awful reviews and offset them with fake ones. No matter how much they are doing upgrades, this place is still a pig stye with degenerates running the place. Homeless people set up camps all around. Scary! I'm a Hilton Honors Guest for 25 years. This definitely is not up to Hilton standards. Hopefully they will take this into account and send Araceli GM packing.

Rooms need to be up graded. Hallway carpets were dirty and stained. The common areas need to be cleaned. Very close to shopping, there are some good coffee shops and small restaurants, that offer outstanding service.

The manager and staff went above and beyond to accommodate my requests. They made our stay so much better !! Double Queen rooms was large , property clean and convenient to the east and the west. But better than that , Great Staff.