The Sessions Hotel, Bristol, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel — Hotel in Bristol

Terrible service with a touch of arrogance.

We are a military family on a permanent move traveling west to head across the water.

We stayed at the Sessions a few years back and we were excited to come back.

I should have noted the warning sign with my initial call when I asked about the advertised Presidential Room and the front desk was unable to tell me anything about the room or availability. I was also given attitude about wanting that specific room since other lower priced suites were known to be available. After we called back the next day, we were able to book this type of room which I think is their most expensive at almost 400 dollars a night. I wanted this room to celebrate the start of my retirement journey from 30 years active duty in the Navy.

It's the little things right? When I checked in, the front desk lady just gave me my keys. Didn't tell me anything about check out, where my room was located, where the the elevator was, if there was breakfast (which there isnt), she didn't say anything. When my Wife asked her where the elevator was, she told her the wrong direction. Some more little things that add to a big thing: Our fridge didn't work, and the main lamp that lights the living room had both bulbs out.

The response to the fridge from the front desk was:

"All the other fridges work". We had to resort to using the hotel staff fridge to keep some of our perishable items from our road trip safe.

For the light, they had no one on staff that day that repairs anything. So one huge side of our room was in darkness during our evening.

To add to the flames, the BBQ place 50 feet from the hotel was understaffed and overwhelmed. We waited well over an hour for our food to be ready.

We told the front desk clerk about our issues one more time at check out. She said she would leave a note to the manager who would call us. Of course no one did.

Look, I'm just an old sailor. I've slept in worse. I have been through worse. But for 400 dollars a night, my military family deserves better. A little goes a long way and in this case, a little is just too much work for this staff. We felt ridiculed for asking to have things fixed, and also mistreated and judged when know one seemed to care...

I would rate this hotel four stars. The staff is very friendly and accommodating, and the rooms are comfortable. However, some design elements should've been considered when the hotel was built. Even with these little annoying ticks, nothing could downgrade this hotel. It’s quality from stem to stern.||The rooms look distressed, as they were built out of old flour mill buildings of a candy factory, and the grocery store combines three buildings into one hotel. From my understanding, country singer Jim Lauderdale has part ownership of this hotel, and you can see our touches throughout the grounds, starting with the Lauderdale stage that’s between the two buildings, where bands deploy.||The annoying little things I have to say that could be easily avoided at any thought than paid to him, such as the smoke alarm could’ve been placed farther away from the bed, for it has a flashing red light indicating it’s an operation. Still, when the room is dark, the television set right in front of the bed also has a red light that stays on even after the TV is turned off, and the radio has a very bright, white light on it. We figured it out after the second day, how to turn that light off, but it says local things that assist the traveler, I am a myself have traveled so many times that I carry a spool of electric tape so that I can cut it and cover up those red lights as long as I know they’re working the other thing that I think could’ve been done. A little bit better was the room that faces the elevator has a large factory style window that they’ve black in the window pains, but all night long you hear this elevator door opening and closing, and the dingdong without the elevator makes as is getting ready to close the door. It echoes right into your room. They could’ve done a better job of soundproofing and can still correct this even after the building has been in place for a couple years to me that would be the biggest issue but by far don’t pass this hotel up for those little noises cause you’re gonna find a little noises like that in every single hotel, you visit.||All in all, I can only give four points if I could give five points for the sessions hotel I...

Husband and I spent 2 nights here as we wandered around Eastern TN. I really wanted to love this stay and give it 5 stars, but honestly the hotel/staff need work. Pros: Location is awesome. You are walking distance to some great restaurants, bars and unique shopping. The king sized room is very spacious and there are actually 2 chairs you can sit in rather than sitting on the beds to watch TV. Bed was very comfy, though the mattress was kind of sagging on my husband's side. Cons: The room is pretty dark. We were given a first floor room which I never ever request. You have to look upwards to see outside and the view is the other building. We were in room 101 which is right by the entrance to the building. So starting at 6:30 AM all we heard were noises of doors slamming. Not pleasant. Staff was not overly friendly. Certainly not what you are used to at other Marriot Brand hotels. There was no acknowledgement of being a Marriot's Reward member, no offer of late check out or upgrade. Since we were not planning on spending a ton of time in the room, I let it go. There were 3 different people attending the desk during our stay. One young lady was very pleasant, but the other 2 really need to brush up on the customer service skills. Walls apparently are thin because our neighbor had their TV on all night long and that's all I could hear while trying to sleep. The cosmetic mirror in the bathroom was hanging off the wall. The shower wasn't very clean (hair and soap residue) so I ended up hosing it down with the shower wand. The ice machine is located in the lobby so you either have to call to have ice delivered (not sure how long that would take) or go get it yourself. It wasn't a huge deal for us since it was a short walk. If I ever return to the area, I would probably stay again. It wasn't a horrible experience, but could have...