Hampton Inn & Suites Buffalo Downtown — Hotel in Buffalo

We have always enjoyed our stays at the various Hilton properties over the years, and I am rarely one to make bad reviews.

But we were so unimpressed with our stay at the Hampton Inn Downtown Buffalo that I therefore feel it necessary to share our experience to warn others.

From start to finish I would describe this experience as mediocre at best. Mediocre being a very generous assessment.

I had checked in online a day in advance and pre-selected our room.

However upon our arrival from Canada we noticed our digital key wasn't yet loaded.

It turns out the online check-in was for naught and I had to re-check in at the front desk. This wasn't a problem, but it became off putting when I realized we were given a dingy room on the third floor, beside the ice machine room.

In room 330 our lamp shade was cracked, mirrors were dirty, wallpaper ripped in the washroom, the kleenex box saturated with water and the grout on the tub needing a good scrubbing.

Needless to say, I made sure to wipe down surfaces with hand sanitizer for good measure.

I should note, there was also a missing do not disturb sign to be found which will be more relevant later.

Moreover, despite having the curtains drawn at night, bright flood lights poured into the room.

We definitely felt like we got the short end of the stick with this room.

Our room aside however, I should note most everything seemed dated and dirty at this hotel. The stairwells had a dank odour, the elevator worn down, and hallways appeared to need a good scrubbing.

Seeing as we were visiting for a hockey game and not the hotel, we decided to overlook the accomodations.

But based on the cleanliness, we opted not to make use of the complimentary breakfast, and dine elsewhere.

The hotel stay clearly wouldn't be a highlight of our trip, but we also weren't going to let it ruin our getaway either.

On the morning of our checkout, it happened to be a time change, spring ahead day. At 10:45am (which would have been 9:45am the day before) the cleaners knocked to gain entry to clean, though we had yet to check out. Seeing as there was no do not disturb sign, we didn't have the opportunity to warn them to stay away.

I am unaccustomed to hotel staff attempting entry before check out, and so didn't even think it necessary to request another 'dnd' sign.

For those of you still willing to stay here, be forwarned.

I am also unsure what the rush to gain entry to clean here is, because as noted above, nothing here appears very clean.

To add insult to injury, when I arrived to pack up our vehicle. I found an orange sticker stuck to our driver side window. Not just a notice where the top of a paper has adhesive, but a full on sticker stuck to the window. And fyi we had paid for parking for two nights.

When I spoke to Aurora at the front desk afterwards to ensure I was not going to incure a charge, she mentioned how security shouldn't be sticking these stickers to vehicles, and that people had been sneaking into the lot. She was sweet enough about it, and clearly they need a better system as we were not the only vehicle with these stickers stuck to them.

Apparently I was to have put something on my dash, and can concede a possible error here on my part. But even still, the sticker was overkill and totally inhospitable.

May I add it was an especially fun treat to try to scrape off this sticker in freezing cold temperatures. I was left with a goopy mess that blocked my vision on the drive home. It also required my washing the vehicle and using goo gone when back home in Canada.

Thanks again for the great memories and hospitality Hampton Inn Downtown Buffalo.

We will definitely be back to your city for another stay in the future, but definitely not to your hotel!

To anyone who does attempt to stay here, bring you cleaning supplies, make sure your room has a do not disturb sign, and absolutely make sure you have the required signage for your dash. Either that, or bring your goo gone... and most definitely, unless they do some serious upgrades, prepare to be...

What an absolute disaster of an experience with this place and their management group. For anyone getting married in Buffalo, I DO NOT RECOMMEND. We booked a "room block" through Buffalo Lodging for this hotel and others in the area, during the weekend of our wedding. Not too many issues a year in advance, however, leading up to the weekend everything fell apart. First, we tried to get a head count of our guests and who was staying at each location, no one at the front desk was able to give me this information at either of the 3 hotels we provided. They did not have a wedding room block with our name but had multiple other wedding room blocks, with names associated, for the other weddings that same weekend. Not to mention, they more than doubled the price of the rooms after we had scheduled our wedding room block for that weekend. Being the bride and groom, we didn't even know if we had a place to stay ourselves! The front desk was extremely rude to us and our guests, so we asked the out of town guests where they were staying to get gift bags counts and locations, because the front desk and our sales rep with Buffalo Lodging were unhelpful. After the gift bag issues, we called every day for a week to make sure we had a room to stay in and dropped the gift bags for our guests off to the Hampton and other locations, with instructions and last names associated with the guests.

The day of, we show up early hoping to drop off a car off and they do not allow us to park because we need a room key and would need to check in. They do not allow early check in, so myself and others had to park elsewhere, temporarily, when there were plenty of spots available in the parking lot and we all had rooms for that night. We come back around 1p, hoping to check in and move our vehicles to the parking lot before heading to ceremony. The computer system is down and they wont allow us to do so. Luckily they allowed us into the parking lot. Now we are being told we have until 2a to check in or we lose the room and are charged. We come back after the wedding, attempt to check in again around 1130p, and they have some guests names and rooms for them, and others they don't. The front desk attendant is frustrated again, we finally get it squared away after they tell the Bride's parents they are not allowed to park in the parking lot overnight for some reason. The next day, we check out and are wondering where our gift bags are as we were expecting to receive them upon check in, as were our guests and they are no where to be found. Finally an employee finds them and no one received their gift bags.

I cant explain how much stress this unnecessary inconvenience added to our wedding day/week. Not to mention, we spent hundreds of dollars on gift bags that no one received. We were the first wedding to book that weekend with Buffalo Lodging and they never had our "wedding block" associated with our name and our guests names. The bride and groom had a room and it still wasnt associated with the our own wedding block! The absolute disrespect we were treated with by front desk employees was unlike anything I have ever seen, and I have worked some years in hospitality for Marriott brand hotels, of course this a Hilton brand. I will never recommend this hotel or Buffalo Lodging to anyone and have emailed all of their local and regional representatives expecting a full refund and apology, after this absolute mess of a weekend. What an embarrassment this company is to Buffalo and the city of...

Free breakfast is sub par. Weird tasting, stale, off. The rooms are nice,but the addition of a book explaining the hotel and its services would be a good idea. I've never been in a hotel that doesn't have anything like that. There was only a hardcover book with ads for local businesses. Housekeeping issues -you have to let them know that you want service, or they will not come, according to a sign in the bathroom. That was fine with me, we didn't want service the first day, and so I didn't ask for it. Yet they knocked on the door in the morning and asked if we wanted housekeeping. (We declined). It was actually annoying, because we did not want to be disturbed. So already they were not following their own policies. The next day I did need housekeeping, and I thought that the housekeeper would come by like she did the day before, since apparently they come by whether you ask for it or not. To be on the safe side, as we walked to breakfast I asked the housekeeper in the hallway if she could please do our room today. She said, oh your room isn't on my sheet... you have to go to the front desk. I go to the front desk and ask if is it possible our room could be made up today. She hands me a form and says I have to fill out the form a day before, to request housekeeping. I said "OK, the sign in the bathroom doesn't say anything about a form; also the housekeeper came by without us even asking for it the 1st day." (And if they want the guest to fill out a form for housekeeping, then why not have the forms available in the room? The guest has to come down to the front desk and fill out a form for towels or housekeeping? Are you kidding me?)

I was leaving the next day so I said, well, can you just give me some more towels and make up the bed? Don't worry about cleaning the bathroom or the vacuum or anything else. She said sure, that should not be a problem. The clerk at the front desk by the way was very obviously irritated by my very polite requests. No interest in helping a guest whatsoever. I came back to hotel that night and there were no towels and the bed was not made up. I was not surprised. So first of all, if you say housekeeping is not going to come without me asking, then don't come. Also, if a guest is standing in front of you at the front desk asking for the room to be made up, don't hand them a form. You can certainly relay this information to housekeeping and add it to her "sheet". I don't work here...you do! And if you tell the guests you're going to give them towels, then give them towels. One solution is maybe to do what millions of other hotels do, which is give the guests a card that they can put on the outside of the door handle to indicate whether they want housekeeping or not. Seems to work...