The Remington Suite Hotel & Spa — Attraction in Shreveport

The Remington is gorgeous!!! (It’s definitely too pretty for what we dealt with) When we booked the Remington there was a different girl there not the one that’s there now. We booked the ballroom ceremony with rooftop reception, cash bar, drink package, bartender, the American tower garage for the day, bridal suite, men’s locker room. We paid off our Venue in March of 2022Never knew that event coordinators had changed was never contacted by the new one I had to contact the hotel and was made aware therewell we were still too far out to go over seating and setup stuff.. so we made an appointment to go this March to get that arranged. When I got there the new event coordinator asked me if I wanted to go upstairs and see everything we sit down to finally go over floor plans even though she knew nothing about our wedding and didn’t even try to know what we wanted and she says oh by the way you owe like 500-600 more dollars… I said no we’ve been paid off for a year now. “Oh we now require a police officer at all events and he’s $300 and there wasn’t a cleaning charge on the original contract” I asked when the police officer requirement began and she said some time in 2022. I was fine with having one there but what I wasn’t fine with this was incorporated after already having paid off and my original contract was now gone and changed to this one. we were NEVER notified!!!! We paid it and moved on. So now wedding week! She said that she would be at our rehearsal which was Saturday as long as she didn’t have any events come up that day but at the time no events were scheduled nor did any become scheduled so she was available, then she said she would be there… 15 mins before our rehearsal time she said she was with a client and wouldn’t be able to make it. I had to call and ask her what on earth we were suppose to do then because we had no clue we’re new to this! She said timing the bridal party and that was about it and she would be there Sunday to help the dj with my music and cue us in.. LUCKILY my photographer was there. Because the Remington is going under so much construction on their 5th floor the bridal suite and locker rooms were no longer available. Was told we would have to pay for rooms and it wasn’t guaranteed that we would be able to get in there. Some how we were able to get the Spa locker room for the girls and had to buy a room for the guys to get ready in…. We arrived at 10 because that’s when we were allowed to start getting ready. The man at the lobby desk was a complete douche! We needed a cart for us to haul up our decorations we were told we couldn’t have it because it was for guest only. The garage was closed so we had to park on the street. Apparently instead of the day they changed to an hour prior and an hour after for opening and closing and it wasn’t his problem HA. The event coordinator said she was going to be at the hotel at 11 to let us into the spa she didn’t show up until 1:30! We had to have someone else open it up. Luckily my new MIL came in clutch and got the GM to let us use the music garage for the guys who were coming at 2 . Then at 3 everyone else should use the garage we paid for… the garage didn’t up until 345 the wedding is at 4…. Half our guest missed the ceremony because they were driving all over downtown trying to find parking… the coordinator didn’t cue anything my photographer and mil did ALL the work that someone who was suppose to be getting paid to do!! While she’s MIA. Reception started went great! We had the place from 4-8 at 715ish my decorator asked if she could start packing the decorations up because people were leaving Absolutely! I had 12 linens that the decorator put on the tables herself. The coordinator had 1 in her arms throwing a fit saying it was hers. It wasn’t she wasn’t even there when they went on and my MIL had to put the ones on the tables that we rented from the Remington….. the coordinator got into it with my decorating vendor and her girls for cleaning up and taking...

The rooms at The Remington are gorgeous and spacious. I've stayed in the VIP Suite (green, with brick walls) and standard double suite ("men wearing bowlers" wallpaper).

My low rating is because of the racist treatment I received.

While driving to town, reception called to say my room was ready. I booked a spa service and confirmed that the pool was open (some hotels hadn't re-opened their pools due to covid). I arrived an hour later and was told it was not possible that I had a reservation. The receptionist refused to look up my confirmation number, insisted she knew each client staying there and there was no way I could have a reservation. She walked away.

While I was trying to figure out what to do next, another receptionist came out and said I could take my 5yo son up to the rooftop until our room was ready. We played on the rooftop (which was still set up from a previous party) and the room still wasn't ready. This was "early post-COVID," so I didn't take it personally.

Receptionist #2 said it would be ok to swim while we wait for my room and spa appointment. She gave us 2 ways to get to the pool (main door and through a locker room). I'm glad she did because another employee refused to let us into the pool through the main door. She said we would disturb her other guests who were getting massages. She didn't care what Receptionist #2 said, she would NOT allow us to disturb her spa guests. She said to come back when they were done.

I didn't want to swim after a manicure, so we went through the lockers and discovered there were no clients there getting massages. We had the pool and massage area all to ourselves until time for my manicure.

Which I never received.

I watched the manicurist play on her phone, then start serving newly arrived clients. An hour past my appointment time, I asked the spa cashier if I should reschedule or if I would be served soon. She went to the nail station and both ladies got into a heated argument (in front of the nail client). I couldn't hear why, and thought maybe they'd overbooked her. Regardless, I didn't want my nails done by someone who was so angry. I walked over to cancel and overheard her say that she would not touch that black woman.

The spa cashier saw my reaction to hearing that and was embarrassed as she canceled my appointment and gave me a coupon to come back (as if). That's when I realized the other inconsistencies were also probably due to racism. I have a global phone voice, so they may not have realized my race from the initial call that my room was ready.

By now we get the room. It's nice. Unfortunately, at breakfast, we were harassed by other guests about "not belonging there" and when I asked a staff member to confirm the breakfast was for all guests, they, too, didn't believe we were guests (where else would this key come from?)

I wasn't going to complain: I've learned from 3 military assignments in the South that just 1 person complaining rarely changes the racist behavior, only reinforces the "angry black woman stereotype." I just wanted to get my food, pack up my kid, and never return.

But as we were leaving, the manager came out and asked how we enjoyed our stay. I was once stationed at Barksdale AFB, and still maintain a Shreveport-based business which qualified me to remain on the Shreveport Mayor's Commission for Race and Diversity after I moved.

So now that he asked, and because I was considering including this experience in my report to the Commission, I felt duty-bound to tell him what happened. He was apologetic, said Receptionist #1 was struggling w/a personal matter, and showed me other rooms. He asked me to give the hotel another try.

I did, and was treated the exact same way: The phone call "your room is ready." Arrive. You don't have a reservation ("that happened last time please check this confirmation #"). Can't find you. Wait for hours. Yes pool. No pool.

They know who they want on their property, and it isn't women who...

We were making the trip from Georgia to Dallas Texas decided to stop here for a night so we could refresh and then drive on into Dallas Texas the next morning when I called to make the reservation, the gentleman who answered the phone was very polite. He stated that there was a pool table where we could hang out And recharge, and there was also a pool and a hot tub, which I let him know at that time, we would definitely be using that upon our arrival so we arrived at the motel and the valet gentleman was nice. He was able to help us get our bags we got checked in. Let them know. We will be back down in about 30 minutes to definitely use the pool hot tub we get up to our room. The pool table course is closed with a big bucket on it catching water that was dripping from the ceiling. I was like that’s not good. It’s not raining or anything. It’s just dripping so we get into the room, the room is very pretty But the walls are so thin. We mainly heard the dog barking next-door that people talking and the TVs again we just changed real quick because we have been on the road for hours. We went downstairs to use the pool and hot tub. We walk in is completely pitched dark in the pool and hot tub room. The gentleman working at the motel did turn the lights on for us and said he turned the hot tub on which I’m automatically thinking the Jets however, when we went to enter the pool in the hot tub, we noticed it well it’s very dirty, but we still chose to try to use it Until we touch the water and realized it was ice cold. Yes that is correct. The hot tub was ice cold so needs to say we cannot use either one of those amenities and we could not use the pool table so we were still optimistic thinking well maybe we use the outdoor patio so we went to the “outdoor patio there was two couches no cushions so that was not an option either so we decided just to go back to the room and hopefully get a good night sleep, but that didn’t happen either because somebody upstairs literally sounded like they were fighting a horse all night and so we woke up multiple times that the dogs barking next-door to the gentleman upstairs doing whatever he was Doing so of course we got up early to check out to get back on the road. I gave all of my concerns to the front desk. He was very dismissive gave me a email I had asked for a phone number. He said there was not a phone number I can call but there was an email so I sent a long detailed information email. I definitely have left parts of it out in this review whereas we went to the front desk to ask them to please let us know when DoorDash got there. They did not do that. They just let DoorDash up on the elevator, which is a huge security risk cause it’s a small boutique hotel And he obviously just left our food on the floor in front of the door. The staff never even knew he was in the building and then the staff also had family members. They are along with their child having conversations when I asked for certain stuff and acted like I was interrupting their social time but anyway again I did obtain the email address. I wrote a long detailed email. I heard absolutely nothing from the owners or the management, I am still gonna work with my credit card to see what we can do on our end but this was a horrific stay but wait there’s one more thing while we were checking out the front person when we complained about the noise upstairs proceeded to tell me either the owner or one of the managers got super drunk in the bar And went upstairs to pass out and that’s what we were hearing so this is the type of motel that we spent almost $300 for one night and can’t even speak with the owner or the manager to make this right so be very very cautious when...