We stayed at the Hilton on Wake Forest last spring ('09) while my husband had surgery nearby. The rooms looked fancy, especially the bathroom, but the underlying maintenance was poor and the hotel was rude to us to shorten our stay.
The A/C was dripping wet so you were either hot or chilled in icewater. The air wasn't really clean, it was dusty and full of air "freshener" fumes. In addition, the bathrooms didn't have fans and you could smell other people's bathroom odors while walking down the halls. Used food trays were left on the floor outside people's doors for hours, which looked and smelled bad. Plus, we got a very large nasty breed of roach I never saw before, which got into our bags, leaving antennae and such inside, and came home with us, requiring a visit from Terminix.
We were put on a floor with a noisy wedding party that ran in and out of each other's rooms 24/7 talking and yelling, but we were the ones who got the loud, rude "boardinghouse knock" on the door early mornings after we extended our stay because my husband needed more rest before driving back across the state. This despite the fact that we re-entered our credit card in a timely way every day. I felt that there was a racial overtone to this and to other events in the hotel.
In my opinion the Hilton is about image and a big lobby, and there's very little substance there of providing a clean, pleasant environment.
The Hilton also runs the suites nearby and we visited those thinking we'd make a move, and they were really depressing.
This year we stayed at the Courtyard on Wake Forest and although it was plain Jane, the air was dust-free and fresh smelling and the bathrooms were super clean. More about them in another review.
Pros: decent free breakfast and nice staff
Cons: wet cold air, vermin, smells, "boardinghouse knock"
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