Hanover Inn Dartmouth — Hotel in Hanover

I absolutely love the Hanover Inn, and I will always try to stay there when visiting Dartmouth. I rated them a 5 last year after our stay in 2021. I do have a "why" and a "but" regarding our stay from this year to offer to pet travelers. Why do I love it? They are both dog and people friendly. The location is perfect off of Dartmouth's Green, right in the heart of the campus life. It is the ideal hotel facility for its clientele, the right mix of lovely but not ostentatiously perfect. Their Pines Restaurant is expensive, but the food and drink are excellent and the service is beyond exemplary. All of the staff there is friendly and sweet. There is a very handy self serve coffee station ready for guests in the morning. The beds are comfortable, the rooms are quiet, and the bathrooms are appealing. But... My disappointment with this year's visit is hopefully just a side effect of the COVID travel ramp up surge, a moment in which so many hotels and restaurants have had staffing issues. Hospitality has been stretched too thin with low personal levels during the sudden slam of high demand. We checked in to our carefully pre-booked, dog friendly room with our well behaved and freshly shampooed Australian labradoodle. My husband and I have mild dog allergies plus we really don't like intense dog smell, so we chose that breed and we keep her very clean. As soon as we opened our room door a reek of dog stink combined with a touch of cigarette smoke hit our nostrils. It was gross to the point I had trouble sleeping that night. It was the kind of smell that is intense enough to taste. The Hanover Inn is deservedly hugely popular; and so every room was booked. There would be no room switch available for us. The cleaning staff should have taken the time to steam clean that room or whatever they do when a guest has fouled the room. That is what those pet fees we pay are for, to cover the extra time and effort the staff needs to put in for a deep clean now and then. I don't like to whine, but we did let the front desk know about the smell and asked if there was a remedy. I felt sheepish complaining about dog smell when I have a dog, I do know how ridiculous my complaint could sound to someone else. But, this was some serious reek. They sent up the head of housekeeping, a nice man. He set us up with an ozone generator and a spray bottle of deodorant. I went to town pumping the nozzle and it got a little better, but the improvement went only so far. Anyway, once things settle down and they staff back up enough in the housekeeping department, I hope the Hanover Inn gets more diligent. It is too good of a hotel to let things like that slide. The previous guest in that room had been a jerk and smoked in a non-smoking facility, and their dog(s) needed a bath. That isn't the Hanover Inn's fault at all, but housekeeping should have given the room a proper carpet and curtain shampoo, or whatever they do to fix things when there is a potent stink left behind. Honestly, they should have offered to give our room a clean over while we were eating dinner at The Pines. But I am guessing housekeeping wasn't at ideal staff levels, and so the head of it didn't have the full energy to really care as much as he should have. I am very grateful that such a wonderful hotel even allows dogs, and I am aware that is a privilege. But... If I stay there again, if I got stuck with a room in that condition again, and if it wasn't remedied, I would be pretty upset, and that would be my last stay at the...

I recently spent the weekend at the Inn. I was greeted warmly, my check in was effecient and informative, and my room was great (overlooking the Green)!

I had a suite, which included two separate spaces, a king bed with memory foam mattress, an arm chair, two dressers, two TVs, a couch, and a small round table with two chairs. A coffee maker and tea, hair dryer, robes, and small stock of hygiene essentials we're also available for use. The bathroom was a good size with marble looking (sorry, I'm not aware enough to know if real) counters and standing shower with tile flooring. The shower had great temperature, great pressure, and voluminous water flow!

Again, my view was outstanding! I had two large windows with excellent sun shades, if needed. Also, I easily could adjust the temperature of my room.

Food: Pine restaurant is there. I did not eat there. I was served hor d'oeuvres and two meals by the Inn in banquet capacity. The staff was attentive and professional. The food was especially creative but ranged in delish factor. Try the pistachio brittle, scallops, and caramel cupcake! The single bite chicken and waffle cone was so cute and creative, but it was sweet. I'd have rather crunchy with hot sauce (but that's just me)!

I used the gym and was happy with what it offered! Pretty extensive, I think! Medicine balls, weighted balls, mats, free weights, machines, elliptical, treadmill, bikes, water jug, scales, TVs, etc.

There are many meeting rooms, and the Inn connects conveniently to the Hopkins Center!

Drawbacks include a pervasive stench/odor. It seemed to be of dried sweat. The shower also drained poorly and quickly became a small pool that came over my feet but not to my ankles. The location of my room also alerted me to whatever was being cooked at restaurant, as I smelled bacon and eggs in the morning and whatever dinner in the evening, which is not so bad, but unwelcomed in my case, especially with the underlying aforementioned sweat odor.

The mattress was welcoming and super comfortable. However, I awoke in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. It made me wonder, if prior guests had the service experience as I, which may have contributed to the odor. (I hate to say! Sorry!!! It also just could have been the old food smells lingering!)

Please note that I said nothing about this and did not give the Inn a chance to remedy the issue. I was there on someone else's dime and just grateful for the experience.

Everything was clean! Front desk, valets, and even maintenance was accommodating and QUICK to respond/serve and did so with more than a smile. They did so with cheer!

I would recommend, as my room was one circumstance that again I did not give opportunity to correct.

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When I learned that the venue for a major family event hosted by my younger son and daughter-in-law was to be held at the Inn, I decided to book rooms there for that weekend for myself, my siblings, and my other son and his family. Even before our arrival, the hotel took care to confirm the various arrival plans and room configurations, and so check-in was seamless for each party. The common areas were extremely comfortable and inviting, and over the course of the weekend when we weren't busy with the main event, we and other friends and family members staying at the Inn enjoyed getting together there to share a drink from the hotel bar and catch up with each other. After the event wrapped up late Saturday afternoon, a number of family members expressed the desire to gather informally with some pizzas and sandwiches rather than dining out. The front desk very graciously agreed to our using the common area (lobby and vicinity) to continue socializing and snacking (fyi: I ought to note that we were extremely careful about cleaning up after ourselves and made sure to keep the volume down to that no other guests were inconvenienced). ||||When it was time to leave on that Sunday morning, I learned from the valet that one window in my rental car had inadvertently been left partly open, resulting in a very wet front passenger seat. He gathered several towels to try his best to mop up the water and then returned with more dry towels for the person using that seat to sit upon. Of his own accord, he asked the front desk to remove the parking fee from my bill because of this inconvenience. That was not necessary but was appreciated, and is yet another example of the staff of Hanover Inn doing all they could to ensure a very pleasant and...