Hampton Inn & Suites Dallas-Arlington-South — Hotel in Arlington

First, the background. My party of 3 were on a road trip from GA to AZ, with Arlington being in the middle. I had booked the room in advance. I am a white male who was dressed at the time in road trip clothes (aka didn't look fancy). This is important later. Now onto the worst experience, I have ever had with a business.

We arrived at Hampton Inn and Suites at 11 PM. Upon entering, I observed a black woman in front of me. She was clearly distressed but at that point, it was none of my business as to why. The receptionist, Praxedis, asked how he could help me. I told him I had a room booked, and we proceeded through the normal check-in process. At the point where they ask for a credit card, I handed him my credit card.

Now, it is important for me to tell you that I always make sure to notify my lenders when I am traveling to ensure there are no hiccups or payment denials. I hand Praxedis my card, and he notifies me that the card has been rejected. Given the very large unused limit I have on the card, I am taken aback, but proceed to give him another credit card. Rejected. Again, large unused credit limit. At this point, I call my party into the reception area (who are also dressed as I am, in ragged clothes including pajamas). They proceed to hand over their cards with the same result. Rejection.

I had already told the receptionist multiple times by that point that there must be something wrong with their system. I was assured every time that there was nothing wrong with their system and that, in fact, I was just unable to provide a valid payment. At this point, I start talking to the black woman there, and she informs me that her payments are being rejected as well. I tell Praxedis that it is no coincidence that every single person before him is having their payments rejected. He tells me that there is no way there is something wrong with their system.

At this point, after being on the road for 11 hours, I just want to go to bed after taking a nice shower. Instead, I have now spent an hour trying to convince the receptionist that the issue is on his end, not ours. Now onto the worst part, in order to convince the receptionist that I indeed do have the funds and that there is nothing wrong with my card, I have to get my credit card company on speakerphone, with them saying there are no issues with my card AND, here is where your skin may crawl, I have to show him my bank accounts in order to prove to him that I more than have the funds necessary.

Think about that for a second, having to show a hotel your bank accounts in order to check-in. It was only at this point that the receptionist called whoever he needed to in order to confirm that, indeed the system was faulty and needed to be restarted. Once done, everything worked swimmingly.

Now here is why I bring up race and the way we were dressed. I am absoluetely confident that the receptionist would have taken an old white couple seriously if they told him that their system was down. But because a black woman and a group of people who were dressed poorly were telling him that, it must be due to insufficient funds.

The remediation? Praxedis bought IHop breakfast for us. Ask yourself if you would be willing to endure public shame in order to score a free breakfast. I reached out to both Jesus Chavez and Lacie Verner, managers, at the time of the event and heard nothing back from either of them.

Avoid this place at all costs, especially if you don't...

Edit* the manager did comp one of our rooms which we appreciate very much. Thank you for taking care of the situation and acknowledging it, unlike your front desk employee did (she was very rude). Thank you!

I never write reviews on businesses because I like to give chances and understand that things happen. I stay in hotels multiple times a month and only use Hilton hotels. I left Marriot, because I preferred Hilton. however, this stay has been awful. We checked in yesterday and got into our rooms where we noticed an awful smell. The rooms are run down and dated, but we had to leave to go out with family in the area. We came back and noticed just as we were getting into bed that the sheets were filthy when you pulled the duvet back. It looks like someone checked out, and housekeeping just left the sheets from a previous stay on the bed. The bathroom was filthy, with hair all on and around the toilet seat, and pee on the toilet seat. We called down at to the front desk and was very rudely spoken to by the person covering. I told her about the sheets and her response was “ you will have to come down and get them as I can’t leave the front desk”, I went to get them and she mentioned she was going to give us $25 off our room.I said, I really feel like that is not enough for having such a filthy room. She told me that was all she was doing and I could wait to speak with the GM on Monday, She then said she would have housekeeping clean the rooms tomorrow.

Fast forward to today where housekeeping was supposed to clean the room, and they only cleaned one of our rooms, which wasn’t even the room that needed it. I had my daughter let the front desk know while housekeeping was still there, and they told her they would make sure to get it to the other room. They came in and changed the garbage (which had nothing in it), and did not clean the bathroom, change the sheets, AND THEY EVEN LEFT THE DIRTY SHEETS ON THE FLOOR!!!!

I just went to the front desk and the same girl from the previous night on 5/30 was there, and I explained what happened. She went in the back and called someone and came out and said “we can comp one night for you”, I mentioned that we not have to deal with filthy rooms for two nights and she said I would have to wait because she doesn’t want to bother her manager on a weekend. AND THEN PROCEEDS TO YELL AT ME AND TELL ME THAT THE REASON HOUSEKEEPING DID NOT CLEAN OUR DIRTY ROOM WAS BECAUSE THERE WERE THINGS ON THE BED!!! They left their PAJAMAS on the bed. Which usually in every other hotel I stay in, they fold and move. SO THEY DIDN’T CLEAN THE BATHROOM, THE BED, OR TAKE THE DIRTY SHEETS BECAUSE OF PAJAMAS BEING ON THE BED???????? Marriot is looking really...

My family and I checked in into the hotel expecting a wonderful stay and it was anything but that. When we arrived, on 8/1 I met with the very nice front desk receptionist I went to swipe my card and he stated that my discover declined. I advised him that I didn’t have a discover. But I showed him where the transaction went through on my phone. I stepped to the side, called my CC company and they reassured me that everything went through. I relayed the message to the attendant and asked do I need to call my card company back. Have the transaction dropped he reassured me no. He advised me that tomorrow he would be in after 3pm if it was still and “issue”. I was given the keys to the room. We went upstairs to the room. The room was super spacious and clean. They have the Lysol seal at the door that you break, to reassure you that the room has been cleaned. Unfortunately the room temperature wasn’t cold. We turned it down to see if it needed time to kick in. We then stepped out to shop, came back a few hours later, but it still wasn’t cold. No problem we notified the attendant/receptionist downstairs and were placed in another room. The follow day we left to sight see and shop. When we returned to the hotel “mysteriously” the room key didn’t work. We proceed downstairs and explained the issue to the Asst General Manager, Daniel Avina. Daniel stated oh “that happens sometimes” but in the same breath, says your card is still declined. I call my cc company they reassure me, It went through. I was advised that the hotel would have to call and release the hold. Mr. Avina stated that won’t occur until we check out. But by this time, we’ve put another card on file. There was never a call or an email to me to please come downstairs and rectify the issue. How rude and disrespectful to lock us out of the room and then lie and said oh it just happens. But then magically when we get back upstairs now “all 3 of the keys work”. We checked out on 8/4 and the General Manager, Jesus Chavez checks us out. He never once says, “how was your stay”. Now what hotel have you stayed at and they don’t ask you that question? What hotel never sends you a receipt? And never sends the follow up survey about how was your stay. We had to call and ask for the receipt and “magically” the hold on my card is released 2 days after we depart. So just to sum it up, horrible customer service, due to COVID they only clean if you stay over a week and only provide a grab and go breakfast, not all employees wear masks, and guests who hang out in the lobby at night don’t wear masks either (pull the tape from 8/1). We will never patronize this...