The Campbell House Lexington, Curio Collection by Hilton — Hotel in Lexington

I wanted to love this place. I appreciate the character, the identity, and the beauty of the old facility. I stayed here twice in a three week period for 4 days in each of those weeks. My first stay I noticed the worn carpeting, the old smell, and the loud air conditioner but I accepted it because of the character. I liked that if I was on a business trip they made up my room every day without acting like they were doing me a favor and that it had a decent in-house restaurant which meant I didn't have to leave the property if I didn't rent a car. I appreciated that there was a place that would meet my needs moving forward on a long term assignment.||Firstly, the desk staff was extremely helpful and courteous. I call out Brooklyn who was wonderfully helpful with getting my documents ready for important meetings and another woman who got me some ice because I was on a crutch with a bad ankle. In my first stay, I ate at the restaurants two nights. I had the steak and the Cajun pasta. It was good. I ordered the Caesar salad both times and loved it.||The second stay, however, completely disabused me of that impression. I was in a room where there was loud music playing near the hallway. I woke up in the middle of the night and could not go back to sleep. I don't understand why music was playing in an empty convention center.||Earlier that night, I went to the restaurant and ordered a cheeseburger. They told me that I couldn't get the fries that came with it because the fryers were down. Do the only have one? Are they all broken? ||So I went and ordered the burger with mashed potatoes. When it arrived I felt like Gordon Ramsey. It was raw. I took one bite of raw meat and sent it back. If it were remotely medium rare I would have eaten it but it was so raw that I didn't want to get sick. They said they would get me another. I kept the mashed potatoes and started eating them. I immediately got grit between my teeth because they weren't cleaned properly. In addition, while now and then, mashed potatoes have some lumps, there were large hard completely uncooked chunks of potato. I told the bartender I lost my appetite and asked her to cancel the recooked burger. She asked if I would like to order something else. I no longer had confidence in the quality of the food and was no longer interested in eating there.||The next night, still holding onto the desire to like the place because of needing a quality place to stay, I decided to give the restaurant another chance. As I said earlier, both nights, during my first week, I order a Caesar Salad and loved it because (as ridiculous as it sounds) it came topped with anchovies. I told the waitress my story from the night before and ordered a drink. The drink was good. I specifically asked her "the Caesar comes with anchovies on top right?" She enthusiastically said "Yes it does." I said, okay, I'll have the small Caesar and I'll see if I'm still hungry after."||She came out with the Caesar and said something like "we are out of anchovies because they used the last of them to make the fresh Caesar dressing, so you get fresh Caesar dressing, and the anchovies are in there." I shrugged and she walked away. The motivation I had to order the Caesar was based entirely on the anchovies. I confirmed they would be there before I ordered it. I started eating it, not enjoying it and thinking "am I being too picky?" But then I thought better of it. I specifically said I why I ordered what I did, they couldn't deliver it and they chose to serve it to me anyway rather than ask if it was okay. I would have said no. I didn't like it, so I stopped eating it and pushed it aside. I told the server I didn't want it, and asked to talk to the manager. She handed me the check for my drink.||I waited ten minutes and the manager came. I told him the entire story about the night before and what had just happened. He said he remembered. His body i was served a raw hamburger.... He then broke in and said "the fryers were down, there's nothing I can do about that" I asked "are you really making excuses? Not a good start. I told him I was completely dissatisfied and asked if the drink could be comped. He refused. He told me that they offered me "anything I wanted on the menu" the night before. They asked me if I wanted to order something else. They didn't "offer" me anything. Assuming I would have to pay for the replacement, did he think they were doing me a favor by taking disgusting food off of the bill? I wasn't interested in paying for another menu item so I left that night. He said he "appreciated the input" through gritted teeth. I was done. I gave him my room number and told him he could choose to charge me for the drink or not. I walked. ||This is a restaurant that had no one in the dining room at 6 pm on a Wednesday night. What does that tell you? It is a restaurant that has a manager who makes excuses and gives attitude rather than making even a lame attempt at keeping a customer satisfied. He didn't seem to care that I am someone who is coming back to this town almost every week for the next three years and was willing to give them my business even if they only proved to be mediocre. ||I hope someone from Hilton reads this. It is a promising hotel that will fail. There is a manager there who is discrediting the Hilton brand because he doesn't care. He defensively accepts poor food and makes excuses. ||Needless to say I am not...

I was truly looking forward to this hotel. I was in Lexington for a nine hour licensing exam and wanted to stay somewhere nice to relax the night before and to celebrate when it was over. Walking in the foyer is beautiful. Everyone at the desk was lovely and told me the easiest way to get to my room. Initially the room was just okay, but only had one night stand, a mini fridge just sitting on the floor, and the desk and tv as advertised but so other seating or side table. When I opened the window I had a direct view of the roof and duct work, and there was a large stain on the side of the mattress (covered with the protector and sheets, but so dark you could still see it). However, all of these things were just minor inconveniences/disappointments as my expectations were that it would be much nicer, but other than the pretty head board, was probably comparable to a Red Roof Inn. I went down stairs, splurged on dinner at the rackhouse and came back up to shower and sleep before the most important exam of my life. This is where the biggest issue of my stay began, because when I opened the bathroom door, there was a rancid smell, like standing water and decay. I finally realized it was coming from a water heater mounted under the sink, which must be malfunctioning. I ended up covering it with a towel, spraying it with perfume and keeping the bathroom door closed. I should have asked to move rooms at this point, but was so exhausted, it was already after 9pm, and I had a very long day of testing the next day. When I woke up the smell had permeated the whole room and I had a terrible headache. Really disappointed when I spent money on a room at the top of my budget so I wouldn’t have to worry about anything before the most important exam of my life. When I returned, I didn’t even go back to the room before stopping at the desk and asking to please be moved anywhere else. The employee was very kind and immediately moved me before even asking questions, but when she did, she seemed to already be aware that people have complained about the smell in the room. To my surprise, the room I was moved to (also a Colt King) was much nicer. Two night stands, a big arm chair with a side table, a different layout and a view out the window, and no smell. I should have asked to move the night prior, but didn’t want to be a bother or complain, and assumed the rooms were the same. However, after seeing the difference, they really should not let anyone stay in room 2021, especially not for over $300 for 2 nights. We did get a free breakfast voucher for the inconvenience which was a nice gesture. We sat on the patio in the evening and ordered a drink from the bar, and the outdoor seating was beautiful. I do wish there was an area around back with a few seats where I could have enjoyed a drink from my own room, because there’s a “no outside drinks” on the patio rule. If I had gotten that room from the start, I would have just rolled my eyes at the other poor reviews, given 4-5 stars and moved on. The last thing I will add, is that I was aware of the parking fee from other reviews and totally understood that a garage may have tolls.. except there’s no garage and it’s the buildings open parking lot you’re paying for. There’s no way for the hotel to know if it’s a guests car or someone at the restaurant. Charging an additional $25 on my stay right at check in just to park in your open parking lot is actually pretty ridiculous and unnecessary. Again, just disappointed at the sheer cost of this stay for the quality I received, and to be charged extra fees just to park my car is silly. It just seems like a way to post the rooms for lower rates, without changing the total income from each guest. I was looking forward to a charming stay at a hotel with character and unfortunately that wasn’t my experience. We will...

This was a repeat stay at this hotel. We stayed at the hotel prior to their major remodeling, during their remodeling and this stay was our first following their remodeling. And, we were very disappointed.

We paid for the breakfast/room package. Even though there were breakfast buffet offerings for our previous stays, even when they were remodeling and had a limited kitchen and dining area, there was only one day with a breakfast buffet during our week-long stay. On the other days, there was a grab-n-go counter---but they closed it early with no notice on three days and had it completely closed on Thanksgiving with no notice to guests. We could not get a refund for the extra expense, even for the day when there was no breakfast offered at all.

For the grab-n-go counter, while the coffee was good, the breakfast sandwiches are pre-made and of very low quality. They have some bottled juices and packaged breakfast bars that are stale and crumbly---and overpriced.

The breakfast/room package is just not worth it.

Every time we asked about the breakfast buffet, we got a different answer--from "it's open every day" from our first inquiry to "it's open every day when we are at least 30% full" to "it's open every day we are at least 50% full" to "it's only open on Friday and Saturday". The reality is that it was only open one morning during our week-long/7 night stay. The grab-n-go is also posted as being open daily from 7am to 10am every morning. The reality is that it is open from 7am to around 9-ish am and is closed on Thanksgiving (and possibly other holidays) with no notice for early closings or closures to guests.

We were charged or an oversized king room with a sofa, which we had requested. But, we were in a regular king room. It took several requests to get the bill corrected.

Despite the remediation and remodeling done, some of the hotel STILL has a mold smell in the hallways.

A few members of the hotel staff wear masks correctly and respect distances and the safety of guests. Those staff members not wearing masks also observe respectful distances. We encountered one staff member, who wore her mask under her chin and then pushed herself too close into our personal space, while we were eating and could not wear our masks. She wanted to take our plates, but we were obviously still eating and we had to signal with our hands to leave our plates and then also tell her we weren't finished eating to get her to move out of our personal space. We are in the at-risk group for Covid and appreciate that most places are considerate of safety. We do not consider a mask worn under the chin, especially when the person presses herself too far into our personal space. She seemed very nice, but clearly did not understand the purpose of a mask or consider our safety.

The hotel is still very charming and the staff, in general, is very nice. The beds are quite good and so is their coffee.

But, there is a lot of miscommunication occurring between staff members and between...