Hampton Inn & Suites Little Rock-Downtown — Hotel in Little Rock

We stayed here about three weeks ago. The staff was welcoming and kind, especially Jocelyn, Erika and the woman who handled breakfast (sorry I did not get her name). The rooms were fairly clean, except for the old carpet.

Despite their positive attitudes and attentiveness to our requests, I don't think we would stay here again. It seems this hotel is being poorly managed and run cheaply. Only one staff member works the front desk pretty much all day, which at times can be hard for them to manage all the needs of guests.

I will say, our biggest concern during our stay was safety. While unloading our bags, every adult in our party was approached by man who appeared to be homeless and asking for money. Since we were in a downtown area, we expect to see some people without housing, but it just seemed like there are an abundance getting too close to hotel guests.

The rooms were lackluster. In fact, the A/C was not working properly in my parents' room. I went down to the front desk with my mother as she requested a new room. While down there, we were standing side by side with a homeless woman dressed in pajamas holding a blanket and pillow trying to get the front desk clerk to let her stay in the lobby. My heart went out to the woman. While Jocelyn was trying to attend to my mother's needs, this woman was harassing her trying to convince Jocelyn she had a room reservation and asking to just stay in the lobby. Jocelyn did everything right, and once she confirmed the woman had no reservation, asked her to leave. Jocelyn called the police, while we were at the front desk, because the woman was trying to pry her way into the lobby through the locked sliding glass doors. We all felt unsafe at that moment. When the police arrived, they already knew about the woman because she had been to other hotels in the area. It is not safe to have only one person working the front desk at night. This is extremely unsafe. This location may want to consider a more secure front entry setup, perhaps where people have to be buzzed into the lobby or use their key cards to enter the hotel. Or, they should consider having a security guard stationed closer to the entrance to assist front desk staff in dealing with such situations.

Jocelyn was not able to move my parents the night we checked in, because the second room she was considering moving them too was experiencing a problem with the air conditioning as well. That room was even hotter than the one they were already in. Since it was getting so late, my parents decided to stay in their room that night and just ask to move the next day. After a few checkouts had been processed, Erika was able to move my parents to a new room that was more comfortable.

The pool was not in service during our entire visit, which was disappointing to our children who thought they would be able to swim on vacation. The breakfast options were VERY limited. The first day there, they were out of all juices and my daughter took the last box of Fruit Loops. After that, the only cereal available the rest of our stay was Raisin Bran and Corn Flakes, no kid friendly options. They never served just plain scrambled eggs and bacon, it was always those egg omelet patties and some other type of meat. One morning there was no syrup for the pancakes. I'm not sure who is placing the order for food, but that needs to be improved. The woman who worked the breakfast area just kept apologizing for not having items and did the best she could with what she had.

I replied to the hotel survey regarding our experience at the property, but received a message that looked like it was written for another guest and a promise of 10,000 Hilton Honors points. To be clear, we never received any type of compensation (in points or dollars) for our experience. And, I don't share my experience to be compensated, I share so this property can make changes and be better for future patrons. After being longtime Hilton Honors members, we have decided it might be time to stay with another family of hotels...

The facilities, management, and service need to be overhauled. The hotel does not represent the Hampton Inn/Hilton brand positively. We would not stay there again.

Check In/Out: I booked through Expedia for 5 nights, which was supposed to include all taxes, fees, and parking. But when I checked in, the clerk quoted me different prices. He claimed that whatever the computer said was correct. So, checking in was not what I expected and the amount I thought I would be charged was much greater. In fact, when I checked out, the final amount was the quoted Expedia amount. What happened? Who knows? Expedia and Hampton Inn need to get their act together.

Cleaning Issues: A small notice on the bathroom mirror read, “Customize Your Clean: For your comfort, we want your stay to be as undisturbed as possible, so we will only provide housekeeping upon your request. To schedule housekeeping service or to request additional amenities, please call the front desk and we’ll be happy to help.” Look, I understand that rooms may not be fully cleaned daily, but I really object to Hilton/Hampton Inn saying, “For your comfort, we’re not going to clean your room unless you ask.” Really? For MY comfort? No, it’s for Hampton Inn’s convenience and added profit.

I did request daily cleaning, and sometimes the room was cleaned, but other times it wasn’t. You had to ask every day; you could not just say, “Please clean my room daily for the five days we are staying with you.”

Facilities Not Kept Up: Many guests park their car in the adjoining covered car park. To get to it, you walk into a courtyard and out to the car park. Guests have to walk by the hotel’s outdoor pool that is covered with algae and unusable. It is not clean and blue as in the picture. Three large planters in the courtyard are neglected: two have dead shrubs in them and the third contains weeds. The outside mat is worn and fraying. Someone could trip on it as they wheel luggage in and out. Doesn’t hotel management realize what a bad impression this gives to visitors? Don’t they notice or care?

Our room with two queen size beds had only one chair at the desk. There is clearly a space for a second office chair/arm chair. You can see armchairs in the website photos.

Breakfast: The first morning’s breakfast was quite good but for the next four mornings, the offerings declined severely, so that on our last morning, they basically ran out of food. For the last three days, the toaster was not working properly.

Depending on which workers were on duty, sometimes the breakfast area was cleaned up promptly, but sometimes it wasn’t. Garbage cans sometimes got overfull before being emptied.

It seems that supplies were not ordered in a timely fashion. You really don’t want to actually run out of food and beverages, which is what happened on our last day (a Wednesday).

Elevator: At the main elevators in the lobby, a paper sign was taped over a place where keys were previously inserted saying that the elevators would arrive automatically. The paper was sometimes torn and the tape didn’t hold it in place. It looked jerry-rigged.

No Recycling Bins: I was glad to see that the plates were paper and not plastic, but there was no attempt whatsoever to recycle them or anything else. There wasn’t even a bin for aluminum cans or plastic bottles. There should have been. This hotel should not be eco-certified.

This hotel's location is good, but for all the problems mentioned, the next time we come to Little Rock, we will...

I had read all the reviews and saw several complaints about the "alley" which one has to pass through from parking garage to hotel. It's not an alley, at all. It's a gated, wrought-iron fenced, landscaped walkway which passes through a courtyard between the hotel and a set of condos. I thought it was quite charming (see attached photos.) It wasn't that long of a walk and I would say if a person can't carry their luggage that far, they either have too much luggage or too little exercise. The parking garage is gated, as well, and restricted to hotel guests and condo-dwellers.||I didn't know how to rate this hotel so I'm just going to list the pros and cons (imo) and one can decide for themselves.||Pros:|- Staff were all very kind; always smiling and pleasant.|- Price is right.|- Beds were comfortable and sheets were clean; slept well.|- Room and bathroom were clean and pretty roomy.|- Carpet felt clean (didn't feel grungy like some hotels I've been in.)|- A/C worked great. |- On ground floor level, the elevators and all doors, and outside gate entrances, can only by accessed via one's room key.|- Check in was fairly quick.|- About 2 blocks from River Market District|- Breakfast was ok.||Cons:|- A bit lackadaisical in maintenance and upkeep.|- Although room was clean, there was "wear and tear" in the room; scuffs on the wall; stains on the carpet; a little grimy on the door around the door handle - needed a good, deep clean.|- The large shampoo dispenser in the shower was empty (not a big deal for us as we always carry shampoo.)|- Toilet very slow to flush.|- The spin cycle, on the washing machines, was set to only spin for a few minutes. When the cycle finished, the clothes were still so wet that they were just barely past the point of dripping. (That means they take longer to dry.) We dried them 2 times and they were still damp. We finally elected to put the damp clothes in a bag and take them to a laundrymat to finish drying. Cost of both the washer and the dryer is $1.50 per cycle. (Come on, Hampton; I expect this of cheap laundromats, but not an "moderately upscale" hotel.) |- No coin machine in laundry and front desk was out of change.|- Breakfast is 6am-10am. A large group (15-20 people) went thru the breakfast area and completely consumed several items (no problem); the problem was that those items were never refilled/replaced for other hotel guests, and just left empty. If breakfast is 4 hours, then there needs to be all items available for 4 hours. ||This could be a really nice place with just a little upkeep, management and...