A recent business trip took me to Scranton, Pennsylvania. This blue-collar city in northern Pennsylvania has several hotel options, except a Hyatt hotel. I typically try to stay at a Hyatt when available, but Hilton Hotels are my backup for their much larger footprint. The following is a hotel review of the Hilton Scranton and Conference Center.
Location
The Hilton Scranton is located on the edge of the downtown area. The hotel is located conveniently next to the Biden Expressway exit of Interstate 81. This means that if you are driving anywhere outside of the city you will have easy access to the interstate. Conversely, walking to any other places in downtown Scranton will take a little longer.
However, the Hilton Scranton is one of the few hotels in the downtown area. The only other major hotel present in the downtown area at the time of publishing is the Radisson Lackawanna Station. Because it is even further from the Scranton downtown, the Hilton Scranton is going to be the best option for staying in the center of Scranton.
Guest Rooms
The Scranton Hilton only has a few types of rooms available to guests. All rooms offer one king bed or two queen beds. The hotel offers standard rooms in both of these configurations. In addition, there are several king bedroom suites available for booking. These include a two-room suite, a two-room corner suite, and a two-room suite with a fireplace.
Bathroom
Upon entering the guest room, the bathroom is immediately to the right. The bathroom is fairly standard for a US hotel with nothing standing out. There is a very large single basin vanity and mirror anchoring one wall. The rest of the bathroom provides plenty of space to move around. Individual toiletries are provided for all guests. Their toiletries include shampoo, bath soap, conditioner, body wash, a shower cap, makeup remover, and mouthwash. The toiletries are “Crabtree & Evelyn” branded.
Bedroom
Moving past the bathroom brings guests to the main bedroom area. On the right immediately past the bathroom is the closet for the guest room. The closet is fairly large and includes an ironing board, iron, and in-room safe. Across from the closet is a full-length mirror. While functional, its location in the hallway means that you aren’t able to stand far away and use it to the full benefit.
I was booked in a queen room so the room was anchored by two queen beds. The beds were plenty comfy (although I don’t tend to be very picky about my mattress). Each bed came with three pillows. I tend to think this is an awkward number of pillows for the bed, but it wasn’t of any concern to me.
Immediately across from the bed is the chest of drawers and TV. The chest has several drawers for unloading clothes as expected. A mini-fridge is also located in one section. The mini-fridge isn’t stocked with anything; however, it is convenient if you want to keep bottles of water or any other beverage cold. The television was fairly large (approximately 40 inches) and contained a sufficient variety of channels. Unfortunately, the TV didn’t provide any internet connectivity options such as Chromecast or access to Netflix/Amazon Prime Video. While I know this isn’t widely common, there is increasing demand for that today.
Finally, the furthest corner of the room provided a desk and chair appropriate for getting some work done. Despite there being free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel, the desk also had a hardline connection available. A lounging chair was available in the corner of the room.
Breakfast & Restaurant
Breakfast
The Hilton Scranton has a couple of different breakfast and restaurant options available. First, breakfast is not an included amenity for Hilton Hotels. However, they do offer a mixed buffet and cook-to-order breakfast options. Everything (buffet and cook-to-order options) is included in one price. For $14.99 per person, guests get the options of the following items:
- Assorted Bread and Pasteries (bagels, English muffins, toast, croissants, danishes, etc…)
- Fruit (apples, bananas, oranges, and fruit salad)
- Scrambled Eggs
- Bacon
- Sausage
- Breakfast Potatoes
- Make-to-Order Omelets, Eggs, French Toast, or Pancakes
For Gold and Diamond HHonors elite members, the Hilton Scranton provides a daily $15 food and beverage credit. This credit can be used to cover the cost of this breakfast.
Starbucks
Also located in the lobby of the Hilton Scranton is a small Starbucks location. This small café was open from 6 AM to 11 AM each day. While it didn’t have the entire Starbucks menu, it did have a large majority of the basics. In addition to the coffee, this location also serves some basic breakfast items. None of the breakfast items seemed to be Starbucks branded from what I saw The breakfast menu consisted of items like bagels, parfaits, English muffins, breakfast sandwiches, cereal, oatmeal, etc…
If you needed a grab-and-go breakfast or something cheaper than the full $14.99 breakfast buffet above, this was a good option. Similar to the above, if you are a Gold or Diamond HHonors elite member, then the daily $15 food and beverage credit could be used at this location as well.
P.J.’s 1910 Pub
The final food and beverage option in the Hilton Scranton is P.J.’s 1910 Pub. This restaurant and bar is located in the Hilton Scranton lobby. If you are looking to eat dinner or have a drink at the hotel, this is going to be your main option. The P.J.’s menu includes many regular pub items as well as some more unusual offerings. Some of these items include:
- Wings
- Mac & Cheese
- Poutine
- Flatbreads
- Salads
- Soups
- Burgers
- Cheese Steaks
- Chicken Melts
- Grilled Tenderloin
- Seared Salmon
- Cheesecake
- Chocolate Mousse
The food is good and the service is quick. When I went, the pub was actually very full and busy. They were still able to offer good service despite the number of people present. This is a great option for those wanting to stay in the hotel and not go out for dinner. Similar to the above, guests are eligible to use the daily food and beverage here as well.
Amenities
Gym and Pool
The Hilton Scranton offers both an indoor pool and a small gym.
The indoor pool is located on the lobby level. The pool is fairly small at three lanes wide, but it would be sufficient for swimming some laps for exercise if there aren’t too many people using it. The pool is a fairly consistent 4 to 4.5 feet deep throughout. There are some loungers and sofas around the pool. These are appropriate for storing your belongings while you swim. Obviously, since it isn’t an outdoor pool, the usefulness of the loungers is limited. Located in the same area is a jacuzzi for those interested. As with many indoor pools, the atmosphere of the pool room is hot, humid, and full of a chlorine smell. I don’t say this to detract from the Hilton Scranton’s pool as this is normal; however, I spent limited time in there because of this.
Located immediately adjacent to the pool is the hotel gym. The hotel gym is located in a small room, but it has been packed with a surprisingly large amount of equipment. The gym provides personal towels to all guests. A water cooler and disposable cups are also available for use. The equipment available is a mix of cardio and strength equipment.
The cardio portions of the gym include one stationary bike, two ellipticals, and four treadmills. The strength equipment includes two adjustable benches, a rack of dumbbells (ranging up to 45 lbs), and a tower/cable machine that could be used for a multitude of different exercises. The tower/cable machine included several different attachments that allowed it to be used for pulldowns, chest presses, triceps extensions, and rows, among others. Finally, the gym had some mats, medicine balls (up to 10 lbs), and two large fitness balls. Overall, the gym was sufficient for a maintenance workout while I was there. However, I wouldn’t want to try to work out in the space if there were more than two or three people in it.
Parking
The parking for the Hilton Scranton is located in a parking deck next to the hotel. There are two parking decks in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. There is a parking deck located directly across the street from the hotel entrance. This is not the parking deck that has a partnership with the Hilton Scranton. Another parking deck is located further down Adams Avenue located on the same side of the street as the Hilton Scranton. This is the parking deck to enter for the hotel.
The city of Scranton owns and operates the parking deck. However, the Hilton has an agreement with the city. The hotel provides you with a key to the parking deck upon arrival. This key can be used to enter and exit the parking deck as many times as you want per day. Parking costs $12 per night. This amount is charged to your room each night that you are at the hotel.
Service
In the post-COVID era, there is relatively little housekeeping or service provided. The Hilton Scranton is no exception to this as I didn’t receive any housekeeping services during my three-day stay. I don’t mind this as I didn’t get too much value out of housekeeping normally.
The service that I received at the lobby desk during check-in and check-out was professional, expeditious, and nice. While nothing about this service stood out, it also didn’t create any negative emotions. However, the Hilton Scranton did have a “Guest of the Day” program going on while I was there. Under this program, the check-in staff selected one guest checking in each day and designated them the “Guest of the Day”. While I do not know how this is selected, I ended up being the “Guest of the Day” when I checked in.
While everyone obviously won’t get this, some recognition above and beyond normal elite benefits is nice. The “Guest of the Day” provided a choice of three benefits: 1000 HHonors points, a free Starbucks coffee at the café, or 20% off a P.J’s Pub bill (excluding alcohol). While none of these are earth-shattering, it’s a little unexpected gesture that goes a long way in customer service.
Cost
Over a wide sampling of dates, the Hilton Scranton offers their base rooms for about 33,000 points/night. Those same rooms are bookable with cash for around $129. This was an HHonors member rate, but it offered full cancellation up until the day before arrival. This combination of points and cash price represents an HHonors point value of $0.004/point. This is roughly in line with normal HHonors points value so it represents a good redemption value.
Bottom Line
The Hilton Scranton shows its age in some areas but is otherwise a great hotel for Scranton stays. Due to the limited options available in downtown Scranton, it’s nice that one of the two options is a full-service hotel. The hotel provides several food and beverage options that can be nice for HHonors Gold and Diamond members. Overall, I would stay at the Hilton Scranton again if I needed to stay in downtown. However, if the location wasn’t a primary concern, there are several cheaper options on the outskirts of Scranton that can you save some money.
