Hampton Inn Cookeville — Hotel in Cookeville

Understaffed...rude and ineffectual front desk agent...We booked a room for Friday night before our son's TTU graduation well over a month in advance. 2 weeks before the event, we learned of another person coming in that would need a room. Knowing rooms would be at a premium that close in, I called the hotel directly at 521pm and explained to the front desk that we needed another room. He said he was going to place me on hold, then the line went dead. I immediately started calling back, and the phone rang with no one answering 11 times, then disconnected. No person, no machine, nada. This happened 4 more times, then on the 5th time he answered the phone. I asked what happened, he told me he tried to transfer me to "reservations", and didn't answer the phone the other times I called because he was "busy". When I told him again what we needed, he asked for our last name, he brought up the rez and confirmed the first name, and said no problem, he added another room to our reservation, everything is fine. Sooooo, we get there tonight, go to check in, and lo and behold there was only one room on the reservation, and there is nothing he could do, he didn't remember talking to me (even though I remembered him quite well.) Luckily I had my phone with me and showed him the calls and times to the hotel. No apology, just"we are sold out". I asked to speak to the manager, he just pointed at the wall with her contact information on it. I called her cell number, and left a message for her to call me back. We were standing around trying to figure out what to do, and the manager called the front desk, spoke with him for a few minutes,and the agent handed the phone to me. She was apologetic, unlike the desk clerk who never once apologized, and said she would fix it, either by finding a room there by giving us one that was reservedbut not guaranteed by credit card, or by putting us up in another hotel if the front desk clerk couldn't find one. She also told me that she had instructed her agent to also apologize ( which NEVER happened). After hanging up, the front desk agent picked up the phone and called a couple of hotels, unsurprisingly that were fully booked. A few people trailed in looking for a room and were turned away by the desk agent. He seemed gleeful with a look of mirth plastered on his face with some of the folks. I mean, he should have have some help on such a busy night, but his total lack of customer service skills was unbelievable. But I digress. After the second attempt to call other hotels failed, I called to his attention that other properties was plan B, plan A was to find a room there. He was unable (or unwilling) to do that. In the meantime my wife, seeing how this was going, got on her phone and managed to find a room in another hotel 1/2 mile away. She told him the name, and he called and made the reservation.

Now, we get home and find they have double charged us, and the manager won't return my phone calls.

So long story short, be careful with this property. I've happily stayed at dozens of Hampton Inns in the past, and this bad experience has really put a bad taste in my mouth...

Upon booking our reservation, a month out, the only 1 of 2 rooms left was king/handicapped. We are not handicapped, and I didn't feel 100% comfortable taking a room that someone else may legitimately need, but at least we had a room.

Tennessee Tech had fall graduation and, between that and Christmas holidays, most everything was booked solid.

The GPS is misleading, trying to send you up a huge hillside with no driveway where it says it is. You simply have to have common sense to see where to enter. The location is ideal, close to Moses everything in town, but the steep driveway may be an issue to others if the road conditions were frozen.

The lady that checked us in, seemed to appear new, and struggled a bit, taking entirely too long to get us our room keys, so I allowed her some grace. That's why when only 1 of the 2 keys worked, I didn't go back to the front desk to bother her.

The AC/Heat in our room was noisy, and had our room so cold, that we went to get an additional comforter. The Hampton already knew of this issue in our room. The bed was amazing, as always. The handicapped shower has 2 heads, so thar was really indulgent.

Cookie service. We're thankful that afternoon cookie service is back. However, it would be nice, if you have tea out for your patrons that there is some sort of hot water.

My husband went to the trouble of microwaving water for 10 minutes to bring me warm water. Next time, we ultimately went to Starbucks nearby.

Breakfast. We're thankful that Breakfast is back. However, I would like to note two things. Other than eggs and yogurt, no one know what may be gluten safe to eat. Two, there was not a coffee urn in the kitchen. There was only one in the foyer, and the line was ridiculously long for most patrons, who simply skipped the coffee, and maybe went to...

The tub was very slippery and smooth, which made baths for our littlest unsafe and impossible. The window ac unit pulls in smells from outside, especially chlorine from the pool side. There is not a thermostat to adjust the AC/heat; adjustment is below knee level on the window unit. We were surprised that side doors are open and only require a room key 11pm-5am. All other hotels we’ve tried in the last couple weeks have required room keys on all doors but the main lobby door. The front desk personnel were rarely available and the one time I found them present, they were in the office oblivious to the line of people waiting for service at the front desk. After waiting a long time, one customer walked into the office and the representative was surprised to see us all there. There is a pull-down window shade but no curtains to pull in front of it (the decorative window panels do not move), so more light comes in than in other hotels, although the shade is better than standard curtains for blacking out light. Our room was clean and smelled fine (we switched to the interstate side due to the pool side smell in the first room we tried — thankful they had another room option). Breakfast was sparse (Monday morning halfway through the allotted breakfast hour)— far fewer options than photos suggested. The kitchen area had to take out trash during the breakfast hour unfortunately which spread a reek throughout the food station and...