"First off, we picked this place because we’re traveling with two dogs and their dog policy is great, even though the price was higher than we like to pay for a family stay-cation. The staff person I checked-in with was very nice. They forgot to tell me how the parking worked, though, so we ended up going through the parking ramp and looping back around the hotel - my husband had to hop out to ask how it worked before we went through parking ramp again to find a space. To get from the parking ramp through the skyway (3rd floor) is a little ridiculous, requiring you to go through several doors to get to the elevators. Safety seemed pretty good -a key card was required to basically go anywhere but the lobby. After we found our room, we had to go back down to the first floor from the 7th (where our room was) to get a cart to bring all our stuff in from the 3rd floor parking to our 7th floor room. My daughter had been looking forward to the pool, but she only got in for about 5 minutes because it was too cold. She said the hot tub’s cleanliness was questionable. The hallways all smelled weird and were extra humid for no obvious reason (the weather was cool outside). The rooms were absolutely nothing special for the price we paid. The tub was tiny - definitely not big enough for an adult to even soak in. The bathroom mirror had weird spots on it that made it look dirty. The lighting in the main room was really poor even with every light and lamp turned on. We got two queen beds, and the one I slept in had me in pain all night long. When we got home later that day, my husband and I had to lay down in our own bed for the rest of the afternoon because both of our lower backs and hips rippled with pain due to the terrible hotel bed. The view from our room was really pretty, and our dogs loved the beautiful green lawn across the street from the hotel. We had a good time thrifting in Mankato, but I would not recommend this hotel to anyone."

Tori Flores

"I stayed here recently for my friends’ wedding, and while my individual room was decent, the experience for the bride and groom was absolutely unacceptable, and no one planning such an important event, like a wedding, should ever have to go through what they did.

My friends reserved the event center and a block of rooms a full YEAR in advance, including a suite for their wedding night. But when they arrived, the hotel first claimed they had no record of the reservation, but then later admitted they had actually double-booked the suite. Instead of doing the right thing, and honoring the original reservation for the couple who had booked their entire wedding at this location nearly a year in advance, they gave the suite to a “regular guest.”

What followed was a an absolute nightmare of back-and-forth communication that lasted until the early hours of the morning, the same very morning as their WEDDING day. Despite repeated promises from the staff, nothing was ever resolved. The bride and groom ended up having to find another hotel in the middle of the night, around 3 or 4 AM, just hours before their ceremony. Leaving them with little to no sleep the night before their wedding.

To make matters worse, the Hilton staff never genuinely apologized or offered to make things right, they only made excuses and empty assurances they never followed through with.

While the wedding event itself eventually went smoothly in their event center, the stress and frustration caused by Hilton’s complete lack of accountability, completely overshadowed what should have been a the best and most joyful time to the start of their marriage.

If you’re planning a wedding or large event, go ahead and save yourself the stress, and book somewhere else, like the Arch + Cable hotel a minute or 3 down the road. The lack of professionalism, communication, and empathy we witnessed from this hotel was beyond shocking. I’ll never recommend this location to anyone again."

Lonnie Terry

"⭐ 1-Star Review — Hilton Garden Inn, Downtown Mankato

If you’re planning any major event—especially a wedding—do NOT trust the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Mankato. We had a contract for their suite and a room block, and they still created one of the most stressful, chaotic experiences of our entire wedding weekend.

When we arrived to check in, the front-desk staff acted visibly nervous but said nothing about what was actually happening. I was told “the hotel is fully booked” and that “the system wasn’t letting her check me in.” She never explained why. Instead, she walked away, hugged and chatted with her friends, and delayed things even more—while I was already supposed to be getting my hair done in the suite we had contracted.

A supervisor eventually came out and told us they had a regular guest staying in the suite that was supposed to be ours. They said they’d “get him out,” “clean the room,” and get us checked in, and they put us in a junior suite “for the time being” so I could start getting ready.

Hours went by. Nothing happened.

By 1am, we still hadn’t received the suite. At 3am, I woke up in a full panic attack because I knew Hilton had no intention of following through. I went downstairs, and staff told me to “just wait until 7am” for the manager—even though my entire wedding party was scheduled to get ready in that suite in a few hours.

When the manager, Ryan, finally showed up around 3am, he made it very clear he was annoyed he had to come in. His tone was dismissive, irritated, and he acted like I was the problem. He gave us excuses instead of answers: one suite had been out of service for “over six months,” the conference room was “too dirty to clean in time,” and he offered no solutions. No accountability. No urgency.

We left at 4am and called Arch + Cable, who immediately stepped up and saved our wedding day—something Hilton should have done but never did.

And the issues didn’t stop there.

At checkout, since we were still in the junior suite, the staff gave me attitude about cancelling the suite they never provided. The older red-haired woman even said she “couldn’t promise we wouldn’t be charged” for canceling a room we never received. Every staff member claimed they “couldn’t do anything without the manager.”

I left voicemails for three managers at 3am. No one called me back. I had to call again on my honeymoon just to get a response. The general manager finally told me he didn’t call because he “thought his staff handled it,” even though the staff said repeatedly they couldn’t fix the situation. So how could he assume anything was taken care of?

And all of this doesn’t even touch on the condition of the hotel:
– small rooms
– cracked lamp shades
– worn, dingy spaces
– and the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced

The GM eventually offered some compensation and paid for our stay at Arch + Cable, but that doesn’t begin to cover the business they made from our room block or the chaos they caused. Our schedule had to be shifted on the fly. Our new hotel wasn’t connected to our venue anymore, so after the ceremony we ended up standing around the reception space with nowhere else to go. Our caterer panicked and thought they needed to start dinner early. I had to comfort my caterer on my own wedding day because Hilton’s mistake set off a chain reaction.

And the final blow? My decorator told me Hilton had done something similar to her friend on their wedding day. This wasn’t an isolated incident—it’s a pattern.

Warning:
If you have an important event, do not book the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Mankato. They will not communicate, they will not follow through on what they promise, and they will leave you scrambling to fix their mess.

After everything we woke up the day after our wedding to an email stating we would be charged for a late cancellation on a room they never had available for us to check in.

Go to Arch and Cable - they are amazing! Customer service was the best I have ever received. They are better in every way. They are modern, clean, friendly and chic."

Bethany Williams