Black Bear Inn & Suites — Hotel in Gatlinburg

This is the worst experience in my life. I booked 2 rooms for 2 nights asking for us to be next to each other and a handicapped accessible room for my friends. Our roo.s.were on separate floors and hers was not handicapped accessible and there not even the worst part our toilet wouldn't flush our air didnt work and there was mold and trash in our room I had asked the girl on shift if we could switch to a penthouse so we could be together because non of us could shower or use the restroom. She said it shouldnt be a problem and she would leave a message for her to reach out to us in the morning. Well no phone call came so I went to talk.to her and Express my xo.ceens and feelings. I explained to her that my friend could not shower due to safety issues and we had no toilet or air and she said that she wont upgrade us or switch our rooms she would send maintenance to fix the issue. It was never fixed I asked to speak to the GM and asked got his name and she said no. I then told her fine I will call the health department and BBB. We suffered thru because all other hotels were booked and we had already paid in full here. So the final.day check out day we get up ready to leave motel hell and my friend gets a phone call asking us to bring our cards they are refunding our rooms. Not the case she said I am refunding your card and you are to pay me in cash. I said o you are not I am paid and I am not doing that she said yes you are the GM Andy has called.and this is from him I said I would like to speak to him and was denied again and she then said if I didnt do what she asked the police would be called. I said that's fine you know what room I am in. Needless to say she did call the police and lied and told.them we owed her money and she needed to collect. I then proceeded to show the officer my receipt and he then told her she can not ask us to leave or pay another way since they have already collected their money. Her Name Is LENA and she is a horrible manager and does not care for the disabled or police.or military. So the officer sided with us and he left. I have. My receipt and my friend and I will be calling our attorneys. We were denied basic human rights to shower and have workable bathroom facilities. We we humiliated and dehumanized and I wouldn't let a flea stay here. DO NOT SUBJECT YOUR FAMILY.TO THIS HORRIBLE HELL HOLE. IF I COULD RATE THIS IT IS NO BETTER THAN PRISON FACILITIES AND NO I HAVE NEVER BEEN IN PRISON MY HUSBAND IS A RETIRED OFFICER AND I WORKED IN A JAIL AS A DEPUTY. MY FRIEND WAS IN THE BATHROOM SOBING BECAUSE SHE COULD NOT SHOWER. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE AND AS FAR AS GETTING THE GM TO CALL YOU THEY REFUSE TO ALLOW TOI TO SPEAK TO ANDY AND THEY ONLY.REASON I EVEN KNOW HIS NAME IS BECAUSE A WORKER WAS KIND...

This was my second stay at Black Bear. The first was a stay around Christmastime two years ago with a big family group in one of the penthouse suites. It was nice, if a little basic, but comfortable and fine for the price.

Then just this week, near New Year's Eve, I stayed in one of the basic queen rooms, and it was really amazingly terrible. Our room didn't't even live up to the standards of a modern budget 2-star room, much less what's supposed to be a 3-star property. And I must have missed the rest of the hotel two years ago, or maybe they stopped maintenance back then, because the rest of the place looks like it's at least two years behind on repairs.

There were broken tiles and wall panels in many visible places in the hotel. The door to our balcony had a broken door frame. And speaking of the balcony, their outdoor seats are molded plastic patio seats that would make a roadside motel look cheap. The elevators are old, very slow, and do not inspire confidence. The doors seemed confused about when they should open and close and honestly made me worry about whether they properly worked. The hotel interior damage extends to the elevators as well. At least one of them had significant unrepaired damage that was definitely not fresh.

The rooms are surprisingly dated, with the bare minimum of appliance and amenity functionally. The HVACs are standard in-wall motel units and are pretty noisy. The fridges are at least available and work, but are about the noisiest refrigerators possible, and there's no effort made to put them in cabinets or anything to minimize the noise. The furniture is really basic and old. The carpet was shockingly old, buckled, and had dangerous tacks exposed at the floor seams. I was shocked that the "LCD TV" was a tiny 21" model that was at least five years old and had zero functionality other than a cable input. At least it had an HDMI input so I could plug in a Roku, but then the hotel WiFi was useless too. It was so slow that streaming any video was impossible. The bathroom, in contrast to the rest of the room, was alright, but drop ceilings?? Overall, the whole property, and especially our room, was just appalling for what's listed as a 3-star hotel.

The staff is friendly enough and the breakfast attendant in particular was helpful and kind, but if this were my business, I'd be ashamed of charging people...

We stayed for three nights - Friday check-in, Monday check-out. The staff was incredibly friendly. The front desk folks were excellent, the people working the complimentary breakfast were also super-nice. Breakfast being included was great - there were tons of options and it was great not having to spend money on breakfast elsewhere.

Now for the bad - the elevators were insanely slow, we generally just took the stairs since we were just on the third floor, otherwise you'd press the button and have to wait several minutes for the elevator to make it to you.

On Saturday morning, I showered at around 7:45am. I started out with only lukewarm water. Had time to wet and lather my hair (about a minute and a half in the shower) and the hot water was entirely gone. The shower went fully ice cold. When I got out, I turned on the hot water in the sink and let it run for 3 or 4 minutes. The water never got warm. I thought it may have just been from so many guests at the hotel on a Saturday and not enough hot water, but I spoke to the front desk and they said they'd have maintenance come check it out while we were out that day. I spoke to a couple other guests that were staying (one from our floor, one from another) and they said they didn't have hot water that morning either.

That evening, the other guests in my room tried to shower and never had more than warm water. Sunday morning, my shower was warm - it never got hot. Sunday evening and Monday morning, as the hotel cleared out A LOT more, the showers were steamy hot. I checked later and several other reviews do mention the hot water issue.

The pool is separate from the hotel - you have to walk through the parking lot to access it and the hot tub is roped off and out of order. This wasn't a huge deal for us. It was cold and we hadn't planned on swimming.

The rooms are a bit dated, but clean. The mattresses were firm, but not uncomfortable. The AC/heat worked perfectly. The balcony was nice to step out on and be able to watch the foot-traffic on the main strip and see the tram and lifts going up the mountain. The location was excellent and you're within walking distance of everything in Gatlinburg. It was great being able to take a short two minute walk to Ober.

Overall, I feel like the cost of the hotel ($686 for three nights in November) doesn't quite match the quality...