Hotel Coolidge — Hotel in Hartford

I wish I could give Hotel Coolidge more than 2 stars, but, to be perfectly honest, 2 is generous. Our 5-day stay was disappointing from the start. We arrived after booking a room on Booking.com, excited to enjoy our stay in Vermont. As soon as tried to check in, however, the front desk manager told us that Booking.com had made a mistake by charging us less for the room we booked. She informed us that we needed to pay $100 more for the room we'd already chosen and paid for. Even after showing her the Booking.com listing and receipt, she insisted on charging us more. As the reservation had already been considerably expensive, we told her that we'd rather just cancel our reservation and stay somewhere else. She said that in that case, we would be charged a cancellation fee of one night's cost—she also didn't hesitate to disparage other local hotels in her reply. We finally got the issue sorted out after a call to the hotel's owner, but the entire experience—both the payment issue and the attitude of the front desk manager—left a very bad taste in our mouths. While the error may indeed have been caused by Booking.com, the hotel should take responsibility for working out issues with the site instead of demanding more money from guests at check in. Unfortunately, the rest of our stay did not get any better.

We knew coming in that the hotel was "quaint" (maybe even, as described in the owner's replies to more critical reviews, "like a trip to Grandma's house), but we did not expect that "quaint" would be synonymous for "lack of amenities." The space heater was ineffective, the shower quite dated (it took nearly 10 minutes for it to heat up), and the furnishings less than pleasant. Both my friend and I were woken up multiple times during the night by the sounds of the train passing. The biggest issue, however, was the abysmal wifi. We were told upon reservation and check-in that there would be strong wifi, but this could not have been further from the truth. The networks were slow and would connect for 5 minutes at most. My friend and I ended up needing to use hot-spots for the entire duration of the stay to get work done or even to relax at the end of the day. Leaving the hotel after our stay was the best part of the trip.

I am glad to see that some other guests were able to enjoy their time at the hotel, but I would definitely not recommend it to a friend and would most certainly not stay there again myself. In the future, I will plan to stay in one of the "chain hotels" thoughtfully recommended by the owner in her replies to other reviewers—my stays there have always been lovely, and most definitely exceed the–admittedly low—bar set by...

If supporting a local business and staying at a place that definitely has character then this might be a good choice. If you're looking for an environment with conventional comforts and settings then maybe not so much. The parking is a problem, at no fault of the hotel however. There's a small area behind the hotel designated for it, if it's a busy time there then many residents will be frustrated as the next allowed place to park is quite a walking distance away. We were quite struck by the lack of snow removal near the front entrance and in the parking area which made getting in and out a little adventurous, especially with our one year old granddaughter. There was a space heater and a cheap box fan sitting in the room which was a little strange. Low quality extension chords were used for powering things. Couldn't watch any tv while in bed as the tv was in a location that was not practical. Our cafe experience was a little odd; don't ask for coffee in the conventional cup with cover (like you get from most places serving coffee) as an awkward declaration about going green will follow (we just wanted our morning cup of coffee, not a feeling of disapproval). Another thing that we thought was a little strange was that we were told to bring our tray and utensils back down from our room when we were finished, apparently not something seen as a housekeeping task. I will say that food was good, fairly priced and the woman who served us was very nice. Probably the biggest problem we encountered was an extremely loud noise coming from pipes connected to the old radiator style heating system in the room. When I say loud, I mean like the sound of a sledgehammer hitting pipes right next to our heads, it scared us right out from being sound asleep. A train regularly goes by very close to the hotel which adds to the noise. And finally, when we mentioned the pipe noise to the front desk it was clearly not a concern from the staff as it was just laughed off with no apologies or explanations given, this particularly was what made me decide to write this review. Over all, the staff were very nice so I find it a little hard to write the mostly negative review, but just thought I might help someone else out with choosing a place to stay. We were in the area for a not so fun occasion (our daughter needed surgery at Dartmouth Hitchcock) and were hoping for a little bit more of a comfort stay, which wasn't so much the experience. Again, the place does...

Unfortunately, this was not a great experience but it was not the hotel's fault. I first reviewed this as a one star because of what happened:

"Wednesday, October 5th, a major sewer project is underway outside my hotel room. It is 10:30 pm at night and this will be going on for a while yet. It is loud, and it is vibrating the room causing nausea. I am considering forfeiting my wasted payment here and heading to a different hotel. This is completely unacceptable and one of my worst hotel experiences. Due to the overnght flights and delays to get here, I have had about 3 hours sleep in the past 36 hours."

I was exhausted and only wanted to sleep, intending to go to bed at 8:30pm.

They worked until midnight. At 4 am, just 300 feet across the lot, the railroad began using a switching engine to re-arrange railway cars, with lots of engine revving and rail cars banging. That went on for 30 minutes. Then at about 7:30 am, the construction project began running heavy equipment again, ran until 9:30 am, then finally stopped. Great timing - not.

What happened: The city of Hartford, VT (which includes White River Junction) is doing a utility project. They are behind schedule. They gave the hotel just 2 days warning that they would be working on the street directly outside the hotel rooms, over night. This was an extremely loud construction project. The Hotel Coolidge is pretty much the #1 tourist draw for the small town - but apparently city staff do not care and are not business friendly. In fact, they were doing this work right at the peak two weeks of fall color "leaf season" - this is the height of tourism here.

I emphasize there was nothing the hotel could do about this - this was the city that did this project in the middle of the night, at the peak of tourist season. Unfortunately, due to past traumatic brain injuries, I am super sensitive to low frequency sounds and vibrations that it causes me to become nauseous and vomit. The manager was extremely polite and understanding and made my stay no charge for which I am very grateful

Hotel Coolidge is fine but the city of Hartford is not fine and I don't see myself staying in that town again (was not here for leaf season but to visit a family member).

I tried to contact city staff but never got a reply, again suggesting that Hartford city government is neither business nor...