Hampton Inn Lexington-Historic District — Hotel in Lexington

We were traveling across Virginia and stopped for the night with no prior reservation. The city of Lexington itself is a must-see for history buffs, and this hotel fits right in. The grounds are beautiful, with the hotel sitting back from the road in a quiet estate setting. The registration building is an estate manion from the 1700s - beautiful! In this building you'll find registration, public areas such as a business area, breakfast (typical Hampton fare), and some hotel rooms upstairs. (We didn't see these, but from other travelers' pics here, they're beautiful!) This building has been kept in its 18th-century decor and charm. Most of the hotel rooms are in the L-shaped addition, and these rooms are typical, modern Hampton rooms, clean and well-kept. There is a fitness room, meeting rooms, and an outdoor pool. (Be advised that the circular pool is very small - only 4 1/2 feet deep and maybe 15 feet in diameter - good for children to play in, but you won't be doing any lap swimming.) Behind the hotel is an original 18th-century log cabin that has been maintained along with the mansion. This hotel has one more very special feature: its own hotel cat! "Colonel" lives in the main building and will appear from nowhere and jump right into your lap! We found this charming, but folks with allergies may want to use caution. ||Unfortunately, there was a major problem during our stay. As I said, we didn't have a reservation and just stopped in during our travels. When we checked in, we were told there was no running available, due to a maintenance problem, but it was expected to be repaired by 7 pm. We checked in anyway and went out to dinner. When we returned just after 7, we did indeed have running water. In the morning, around 6:30 am, we took our showers ... and just finished in the nick of time because the water was shut off again, with no warning. Apparently there were leaks reported in a room in the old mansion building. When I checked out at the desk, the desk clerk was very apologetic to me and the other guests (some angry) who were lined up. When I told her we had come in the night before with no running water, she was embarrassed that the night crew hadn't communicated that to her. Happily, the situation was settled to our satisfaction. (Thank you to management!) And if we find ourselves in Lexington, VA again, we would not hesitate to...

Overall, not too bad. My boyfriend and I stayed here because it was the halfway point of our roadtrip from TN to NJ. The hotel is located nearby the interstate and is adjacent to a lively downtown area with a rich history. Although we made the most of our stay and ended up enjoying our time, there were some things that weren't ideal:

For starters, the bathroom in our room was dirty. We found hairs, yellow grime, and dust everywhere. Also, the toilet was broken. There was a puddle in the bathroom near the toilet (not huge, but substantial). When we sat down, the whole thing wobbled (and, no, I do not weigh THAT much). When we flushed, the toilet spit water OUT of the bowl and splashed our legs/feet with our own dirty water. That was disgusting.

The parking didn't seem like enough on the far side of the building. Every spot was taken and so we had to park all the way around and walk far to get to our room.

The deadbolt on the door locked us out. Yes, you read that right. I thought my boyfriend played a prank on me when I left the room and came back to being locked out, but no. He didn't touch it. The next morning, we went to load up our car and when we came back to grab the last of our things we were locked out by the deadbolt again. Like, we could swipe the card to open the door but somehow the deadbolt came out and prevented the door from opening anything past a crack. We had to walk all the way around the building to get to the front desk to ask for help but the lady just gave us some makeshift tool and sent us on our way to figure it out. I ended up getting the door open.

Lastly, we needed to get back on the road and were going to leave at 5am until we saw that the breakfast didnt start until 6. So, we decided to postpone hitting the road so we could get some breakfast. We got to the kitchen area at 6:10 and the lady cooking apologized to us because the food wasn't ready. All good. We had coffee and played with the cat. But... more time goes by. I would say the food wasn't ready until about 6:45 and so we didn't leave until 7:30. 2 and 1/2 hours past the time we wanted to leave originally.

Highlights of our visit include the nearby town, the pool and hot tub, the cat in the main house/lobby, and the friendly spider living in the bathroom.

Next time, I do not think we will stay here but I do not regret the stay...

We really liked the charm of this Hampton Inn. Check in went well, and the gracious lady gave us several options on things to do and places to eat. She provided foam pillows, as I am allergic to down. The room was pleasant and clean and we discussed spending the rest of our 3-night stay here.

Unfortunately, we could feel every coil in the mattress on both sides and down the middle; we didn't sleep well. We wanted to stay another night (with a different mattress), so I went to checkout and waited in a line of 4 people who were checking out. Each one of them had a complaint. One lady said their second room was good, but the first room had vomit on the floor and the bed had been slept in. The manager was short and indifferent with every person in line. The next man wanted breakfast and was told they ran out of the bag breakfasts. After more questions, the manager finally got up and got some frozen muffins and started bagging up breakfasts which were given out between customers checking out. One man said there was a terrible noise in his room. Without looking up, the manager said I'll let maintenance know.

When it was my turn, I started out by telling her how much we liked the place and that we would like to stay another night but needed to be moved because of the mattress. Her response was "that's odd, we just got new mattresses in the spring." She then quoted me a higher rate than the check-in lady gave me. Because of the way she handled the customers in front of me and the indifference she gave all of our concerns, I decided to check out instead. A manager can make or break a facility, and I waited a month to write this review to cool down because we really wanted to stay here in the future. This woman is clearly not customer-oriented. I wonder how many others have decided not to stay here due to her rudeness and indifference. Had she handled the situations differently, we would have probably spent two more...