Element Huntsville — Hotel in Huntsville

This is our 2nd stay at this hotel. We usually stay at the Westin but have been giving the Element a try.

Our first stay we were highly impressed. Everything was clean, plenty of items for 4 people (towels, washcloths, pillows, etc), a very well equipped kitchen (lots of silverware and basic cooking supplies) and the suite was very spacious. Plus, the staff was exceptional. Extremely friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. Our floor was very quiet and it seemed most who stay here were either families or people on work trip.

The second time. My how fast things change. The suite was not clean when we checked in. We found a plastic bag with garbage in it in one of the kitchen cabinets and the small table had food crumbs all over it. We later found gum stuck to the couch. That was a fun discovery. The kitchen only had enough silverware for 2 people, and nothing to cook with (no spatula, stirring spoon, etc). The bathroom only had 2 towels and a couple of washcloths. No mat for the floor. We called and requested more towels and silverware and was only given towels. I had to personally go downstairs to get the silverware. The front desk acted confused but gave me a few forks and spoons. But nothing to actually cook with.

There was also few places to sit in the room. Only one small couch and two barstools for four people. If you want to relax and watch TV, not enough seating. Again last time, there had been a lounge chair in addition to the couch. However, this room in general was smaller even though it was the same type of suite as before.

Last time our floor was very quiet but this time our neighbors were very loud. It sounded like they were constantly slamming doors. We could even hear them on their phones. As another reviewer mentioned, lots of drunks roaming the halls, especially on the weekends. There was a group of young men (6), maybe 18-20 years old, who used extremely lewd language in common areas. In fact they hung out in the lounge area by the front desk being very loud, saying disgusting things (especially about women), horseplaying around, etc in front of families with small children and not once did any staff ask them to keep it down. Unfortunately, they were on our floor and we ran into them a couple of times. The conversations they were having were absolutely disgusting.

Do not get a room by any staff area/storage or you will hear slamming doors all day and night.

Speaking of staff, they are extremely understaffed. Our rooms were not cleaned in timely manner. If we wanted them clean we had to call down and sometimes they still didn't clean. We never had our room fully cleaned and we stayed several days. They would only do mainly the bedroom and bathroom. The complimentary breakfast often ran out of plates and the staff refused to restock. This happened several times with at least one more hour of supposed breakfast. Some days they ran out of breakfast all together and refused to restock certain hot items. I will add the cleaning crew is very nice and some days there were only 2 crew members working for the entire hotel! That is several floors plus common areas for two people!! No wonder nothing was ever clean. (The hallways stayed dirty and smelled like trash).

I really am surprised how fast the quality of the Element has gone down. It maybe cheaper but i think we will opt for Westin next time. The service there has always...

This is the email I sent to SPG regarding this facility:

I worked in customer service for years, so I have empathy for those in hospitality. I always try to approach issues gently and with respect. Which I am going to try to do in this email. But please don't miss how shockingly disappointing our visit to your property was.

The room we were checked into was not properly cleaned. The floors and side tables were dirty. I called guest services who said they would send someone. When no one had attended to our room after a few hours, I mentioned it to the gentleman at the front desk as we left for dinner. He assured me he would have it taken care of. When we returned two hours later, nothing had changed. I got some paper towels from the kitchenette and cleaned the sticky bedside table myself.

In the morning, I returned to the front desk and spoke with Lionel. He immediately offered to move us to a new room. I appreciated his response and his recognizing the need to make things right.

This morning, we checked out and wanted to enjoy a little breakfast on out way out. There had been several ball teams in the hotel the night before, so we waited to let the crowd filter out before we went down. The state of the breakfast area was indescribeable. There was hardly anything left to eat. Probably more upsetting was the mess. Dirty dishes, spills and sticky floors everywhere. There was even a half eaten plate of eggs on a side table by the front lobby couch that sat there the entire time we were loading our car and then were back in to try to put something together for breakfast. Staff seemed oblivious and the employees were in no hurry to bus dirty tables or wipe up the spills left on the counters.

We actually witnessed an employee tell some guests to , "Ignore the signs...all I have left are scrambled eggs." When they asked about cereal for their kids, he then answered, " I have corn flakes, but you are probably going to have to put them on a plate."

I'm not sure who I am writing to, if you are versed in customer service or not. You might wonder if we asked for any kind of management. But, there were two persons who appeared to BE management present. One in the kitchen/breakfast area and one at the front desk. They appeared oblivious to what needed to be done.

What makes me sad is that noone was taking a lead. Everything in me wanted to say, "Ok, let's make a plan", and give those people some directions. But, I am not employed there. I just sat there, sad and shaking my head. Someone needs to be teaching this staff a sense of urgency and how to approach customers/guests in a positive way. Someone needs to tell these young, teachable people that dirty plates and spilled food on serving counters and suggesting a customer put cereal on a plate is unacceptable. Someone needs to show housekeeping staff how to sweep floors and wipe tables, and look at their lobby for appearances. Someone needs to teach them to remove overflowing bus tubes from guest view and to move with a sense of urgency and not to push the problems of their poorly managed breakfast set up onto the customer's "plate". Customer service is work, but it is not hard if it is first taught and then executed well. I wish your location luck in the future, but I will not be back...

This is an updated new visit.. checked in Oct 25th.. checked out 28th. Had a relative visiting from Scotland and we have used this hotel 3 times in the past.. always been amazing... NOT ANYMORE! 2 months ahead and planned this trip for a ladies getaway. Service at bar and restaurant was very slow.. one server and bartender Jasmine had attitude like we were bothering her.. waited over 35 minutes for another drink. But it all started at check in.. After paying for valet and getting stuff brought up to our rooms.. they gave me..(I reserved a 2 bedroom 2.5 Executive Room with Jet Tub) a 1 bedroom Jet tub Executive room.. would have been fine if there wasn't 4/5 of us. My relatives room was good. Then wait for another 2bd 2.5 ba to get ready for us.. second room they give us is the room they already have my relative in..ugh that won't work... then we wait again but it's going on 3pm and we had dinner reservations at local restaurant close by.... hey back at almost 5pm.. say the room they were gonna give me isn't available but they are gonna upgrade me to the Westin Side Presidential Suite .. so now we are in opposite hotels opposite elevators.. but then..trash wasn't emptied in kitchen.. top part in fridge broken..door knobs don't work right on bedroom doors..3 tvs only 1 remote.. call they don't have any more but tvs can't connect to stream.. so send someone up.. they come with extra remotes (which they said they didn't have) and he even set up my firestick..kudos to Micah or Michael I think his name was. But then no jet tub..I was really bummed..but room was clean other than trash (which they came and took can but never brought one back) So I let them know I really wasn't happy I wanted the room I booked. Said they could get me in one next day so at least I'd have for 2 nights. OK deal. Next day... the room they put me in... stained lamp shades .. torn lamp shade.. broken fridge that was disgusting.. dirty inside and outside Ice machine didn't work. Torn curtains ragged and dirty.. toilet seat that was loose and moved when you sat on it.. missing light bulbs.. no fitted sheets and not large enough so sheet kept coming up and only the real mattress under neath. Plus the wood cabinets in kitchen were dirty no one has wiped them down good. Then end of day I go to get in Jet tub and it doesn't work. I can get again and they send a man up that checks fuse and tells us.. well fuse is good but I don't know anything about these things..I didn't even know we had these tubs... so again no jacuzzi tub. All I heard al weekend was.. I'm sorry... I'm really sorry your experiences aren't good.. I'm so so sorry... We are so sorry.. over and over. I'm paying good money and they did offer to give me a free night but I needed 3 nights before end of month to make Gold member and it was already end of month.. oh and for my troubles they sent up a cheap 10 dollar bottle of red..I left it there in room untouched. That was an insult when I know they had better wines. Something has happened to that place and it's not good. They just stopped responding to my chat messages.. keep saying sorry we will get back with you.. then they deleted all my messages..but I screenshot all of them and I...