Parc Soleil By Hilton Grand Vacations Club

This hotel is a great example of a mix of "the good, the bad and the ugly". The good: the room was clean, the common spaces including the pools were very nice, and the bathroom had been renovated to be a little luxurious. The suite itself was fairly large for a one-bedroom. The bad: the towels we were given were very old, scratchy and discolored. When I called down for new ones, I was given towels that were damp, smelled bad and were stained. In short, thery were disgusting. I ended up washing them myself in the in-suite washer/dryer. They also gave me a blow dryer that was so old all the writing for settings was worn off and it smelled like it was about to catch fire. The hotel has only security at the front gate; you do not need a key to enter the buildings or pool area at any time of day, even night. They gave us vouchers for daily coffee or "San Pellegrino" water and then substituted with the cheapest possible bottled water instead. The ugly: We were given the literal worst balcony view in the hotel after my husband specifically called and asked if we could have a room with a nicer view because it was a special trip (my 50th birthday). We had specifically looked for a hotel with a nice balcony. The guest services person stated that they would forward the request to the general manager. Upon check in we were told that we were lucky that our room was ready because many people were waiting for a room to be made up but that ours had been "assigned". We were reminded that we booked third party (AAA). We were sent to a desk to be pressured to attend a timeshare presentation which we declined. Upon entering our room, we saw that the balcony overlooked an open parking deck and the top of a building. Only approximately 4 rooms in this hotel with hundreds of rooms had this view. Were we being punished for requesting a room or using a AAA rate? It felt like it. The noise from the parking garage made sitting out on the balcony unpleasant as people revved engines, honked horns and talked loudly throughout the day and evening. The following day, I called guest services about the towels, the blow dryer and I also included my disappointment about the balcony. The agent promised to share my concerns with the general manager but I never heard anything back. Disappointed, we went on with our trip. On the Saturday I received a text message asking me to rate my stay and if lower than an 8 out of 10, to explain. I did so, and received a standard "drop down" message that my concerns would be forwarded to the general manager. This made a total of 3 times where I'd been told my request/concern would be forwarded to the general manager. I was pretty sure they were not being forwarded or being ignored so I texted back that I wanted to be contacted to be informed of any response to my concerns. The general manager then did call me back an hour later. I was in the car and we were on the highway driving to Epcot which I informed her of immediately. She proceeded to tell me that she would offer me a $50 credit for my troubles. I didn't want the $50. I wanted to know why they stuck us in the worst room in the hotel. She told me that they don't take "view" requests because the hotel was fully booked. I do not believe that to be true: we only encountered one guest on our floor our entire stay, elevators were almost always empty, plenty of parking spots were always available and plenty of pool lounge chairs; the hotel showed no evidence of being fully booked. I stated so and that I believed that she was not being truthful. She just kept repeating that the hotel was booked up so she couldn't have taken a request. If view requests weren't taken, why wasn't my husband told that when he called? Why were we told the general manager would receive the request? Why didn't she call before our trip to say that she couldn't accommodate requests or inform us at check in? At that point, I would her that I was ending the call-it was my birthday and I didn't want this unpleasant conversation to spoil my day; I felt like she was arguing her point rather than listening at this point in the conversation. I've attached the pictures of our balcony view to demonstrate that I am not exaggerating. I still believe that they put us in this room on purpose, whether because we asked or because we paid the AAA rate and I do think AAA should contact Hilton Grand Vacations to ensure that their customers are not being treated like second class citizens-because we felt like we were. We will never stay at an HGV property again which, as Hilton Honors members, is sad to say.