Hampton Inn Cortland — Hotel in City of Cortland

I booked and paid in full for two rooms three weeks in advance to accommodate four guests. However, the front desk clerk advised that the hotel was overbooked upon our arrival at 11:15 pm.

We traveled to the hotel at night for six hours in a snowstorm and were tired. Unfortunately, we did not receive the courtesy of a phone call or email from the hotel. Further, the clerk said there were no available hotel rooms within a 30-mile radius due to snow.

I asked to speak to the General Manager, but the clerk advised Sam Ferro refused to talk with me because he was home, in bed, off the clock, and dismissed us and our predicament. Further, the clerk admitted Mr. Ferro canceled our rooms to accommodate a utility company's last-minute bulk booking for their workers due to the snowstorm.

As a Hilton Honors member, I called Hilton customer service for relief and filed a complaint. The customer service rep agreed what the property did was wrong, but because it was a franchise, they could not force the hotel to refund our rooms because the booking was through Hotels.com and not directly with the hotel.

The night clerk did find one room and offered to provide two rollaway beds at no additional cost. But unfortunately, she could not fit even one rollaway bed because the room was too small.

The following morning, I confronted Mr. Ferro, who again dismissed our issue. Further, Mr. Ferro tried to cover his action by lying and claiming without proof or backup that "someone (other than him) called the hotel and canceled the reservation." Again, this was to avoid refunding our rooms.

Mr. Ferro focused on the larger utility company booking prize, refused to refund our rooms, and continued his lies to Hilton customer service. Hilton Customer Service dismissed our issue too and was not helpful.

Thankfully, Hotels.com was able to convince him to refund one room. Thank you, Hotels.com, for stepping in where Hilton should have.

General Manager Sam Ferro and Hampton Inn/Hilton advertise a 100% satisfaction guarantee stickered all over the front counter. But unfortunately, it's false advertising because they do not honor it.

The General Manager, Sam Ferro, is a liar, not qualified to service guests satisfactorily, and both he and Hilton dishonor their advertised 100%...

I have never been disappointed by a Hilton or a Hampton but I had a terrible experience here. My room was “ready” early in the afternoon. When I checked into my room much later that night, the deadbolt was open to prop the door open and the bedding was scattered all over. Front desk said it happened two other times that day but luckily no one was IN my room like the other instances! She was very apologetic but just blamed it on housekeeping. Said I can wait until she makes up the bed (no thanks, how do I know housekeeping even cleaned the room??) or “luckily” they had one room left, and that it was an ADA room and considered an upgrade (why is an ADA room more expensive??) but that she wouldn’t charge me the extra. She was kind enough to escort me there to make sure no one was in the room already LOL. I could see under the door to an adjoining room, so I had to stuff a towel underneath as pictured. There was one thin shade on a large window that did not even cover the whole window. Being on the first floor and facing an empty lot, it felt like someone could be peering in so I hung some towels to cover the gap. That didn’t solve the problem of the parking lot light gleaming into the room at 2 am (as pictured). The room itself was stuffy and dirty. Someone’s hair in the bed and on the shower walls. A dead grasshopper and ant in the bathroom. Bed was messily made. The tile floor was just dirty throughout the whole room and lobby. It was late and I was alone so I did not want a maintenance person or housekeeping coming in to help and see that I’m alone so I stuck it out but I felt terribly unsafe the entire time, like someone else was going to be given a key to my room. Definitely skipped breakfast over cleanliness concerns. Checking out, the gentleman Ken calmly listened to my problems and apologized. He refunded me a small portion but I told him my greater concern was the safety of another solo female traveling there, and that they really need to address some of these clear issues. I DO NOT recommend...

The experience of the trip was really nothing compared to the treatment following. On June 28, 2024 Cortland must have had a baseball expo in or close to the college. The hote allowed a group of fathers to drink directly outside the hotel doors blocking access to vehicles loading and unloading. This went until well after midnight. I'm all for having fun, but families come to rest. That Saturday my son suffered a football injury and we had to leave immediately. I called the front desk and advised Sam, the hotel general manager (it may have been another clerk, but Sam certainly remembered the call), that my son was injured and we would not be staying for June 29. I purchased insurance and knew I would have to handle the refund situation through Expedia. He advised me to call Expedia for the refund. Despite notifying the general manager, Sam, I checked out on June 29 he still marked the account as my having stayed the extra night. On July 11, 2024, I requested his help and all he could give was a robotic "handle this through Expedia" response. He also advised I can only check out of a Hampton Inn through Expedia, which of course is a lie. He does not want and ceratinly cannot handle his job. Hampton Inn is a destination one thinks of for business and profesisonalism. Sam was good enough to tear down all expectations. Why wouldn't the manager of the hotel want to assist in the recovery of a client's fees? Why not offer some assistance? I doubt Hampton Inn cares about my business, certainly the Cortland general manager Sam does not. They are woefully understaffed and you can expect between 10 and 15 minutes wait time on the telephone. Avoid this destination. I am floored Hampton Inn has a person like Sam in charge of anything at all. Maybe that explains...