Thayers Inn Hotel — Hotel in Littleton

My wife and I - we are from Northern Ireland - first set foot in Littleton in the mid-1990s. A Maine friend wanted to visit the Littleton Coin Company and we were happy to go along for the ride, going on to spend the afternoon looking around the many and varied shops and enjoying lunch at the Topic of the Town.|Some five years later, in 2000, after visiting a relative in hospital in Cornwall, Ontario, we were looking for somewhere to stay the night en route to seacoast Maine. Littleton was the obvious answer - and the hotel we chose was the Thayers Inn. A guided tour of the building, then a mere 157 years old (now 182), included the cupola, atop the fourth floor, which gave us a great view of the town and district.|That was the first of our overnight trips - over the 25 years since then we have stayed at the Thayers Inn each Spring and Fall, save for the two years (2020/2022) when we were unable to enter the USA due to Covid-19. We also had to seek alternative accommodation after the hotel was badly damaged by fire in March 2012 and had to close for several months, but it had reopened after the January 2014 flood (caused by a burst pipe on a bitterly cold night) when we returned that Spring.|I mention this detail because to us the Thayers Inn is more than just a place to spend the night before moving on. We steep ourselves in its history (did I mention we were there the day an old US flag was found in an unexplored attic area? I was able to date it to the mid-1860s and you can see it for yourselves as one of a number of historic items on display in the hotel).|We accept there is no elevator, leisure centre or any of the other facilities to be found in identikit hotels owned by big chains. Yet we know when we watch the Memorial Day parade from the second floor balcony, that speeches have been delivered from that very same balcony (or within the hotel) by many famous people, including Presidents Franklin Pierce, Ulysses S. Grant, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush.|Staff members, who quickly become friends, inevitably move on but we find they are always replaced by equally warm and friendly people who go the extra mile to make our stays (around 40 to date) enjoyable.|Finally, a word about Littleton itself. The town never stands still, but continues to grow and flourish. While stores will close, usually due to retirement, ill health, etc., they will be replaced by new businesses that very quickly attract customers, both locals and visitors. Much has been done along the River District in recent years, ensuring the town is particularly popular at weekends. |Both the hotel and the town are well worth a visit. We know we will be back.|Special thanks to Kat, Aimee,...

Let me start with that we own and live in a 113 year old house and we were on a tour of New England staying in other 120-150 year old homes and buildings, so we are familiar with old buildings, the care they need and how nice they can be with the proper care.

Thayer's Inn had extremely deceptive professional photos and flat out false room descriptions. They will say "all our rooms are unique", which means they photographed the best rooms and the rest are questionable at best. On their website it says "air conditioned rooms", but they rely on window air conditioners. So, if you arrive late in the season they will have removed the air conditioners, and if there's a warm spell after that, you're SOL. We were told we can open the windows and that they didn't even have a fan available for us. The bathrooms were dirty, the exhaust fan clearly hadn't been cleaned in months, if not years. Barely any toilet paper on the roll. The floors are extremely sloped. There's extension cords running all over the rooms because there's not enough outlets. The furniture is cheap. You hear every foot step from the floor above, and every voice in the halls outside because there's no fan to drown out sound. And with the windows open you just hear all the cars driving by outside. My wife also kept getting a smell of gas coming in from the windows. The rooms are extremely tiny, definitely not "superior" as their "superior king" room is titled.

We ended up leaving the hotel about an hour after we arrived. The woman and the front desk said "Leaving because we didn't have a fan for you?" to which I replied with all the other reasons above. She did say they do get a lot of comments on the photos being deceiving online. She wasn't able to give me a refund that night but said the manager would call in the inn keeper. Without knowing if we'd be refunded, we still booked a room at a near by down (Nootka Lodge in Woodsville).

The only reason I'm giving it a 2 star instead of a 1 star is that the inn keeper did call and was open to hearing my experience and did issue a refund because we left the same night and didn't stay overnight.

This place has such great potential but needs some serious work to get there. The town is small with little options, and there's only one chain hotel in town which seems to be aware there's no other good options as they cost double the price. If Thayer's in could remodel their rooms to better use space and have better bathrooms, rewire their electrical, add mini-splits, and just clean better, this would be a really cool place to stay. But as is, it might have been one of the worst hotels I've ever booked, especially for the prices...

First let me preface this review with this statement - one of the most historic properties in NH, now run by some of the most amazing women you’d be lucky to encounter. Littleton is a home base for our 2-3 times a year journeys to Colebrook - childhood home of my spouse. It is like our adopted hometown a place that is in the upper echelon of the few places in the US I feel really comfortable visiting and living (others being Los Angeles, San Francisco, the Berkshires, Hudson Valley and Maine). This year, on the cusp of a long term-ish permanent re location to Genova Italia we made visit arrangements in person this Spring and arrived in a balmy busy August toting nearly 5 gallons of Amato’s sour pickles from Portland ME. The next morning - the awesome staff presented us with a gift bag worthy of a Bette Davis birthday celebration (this actually happened many years ago). Along with the North Country goodies (more pickles) came stickers, a lovely handwritten card and the promise of lasting friendships. We’re taking that bag to the Mediterranean to star in its own special story - we hope some of these ladies will come visit us in Genova. Instagram marketing and special memories aside - you will not find a more comfortable and meaningful lodging than here. We hope the Inn has many, many more years of life and stories ahead. And now there is a very special human thread connecting two somewhat distant places. As a rather proud alumnus of a school that educated a colourful political figure Pat Buchanan - (not my politics, but undeniably a media star from a by gone era) - it is nice to know his name is on one of the room doors - all Presidents (or aspirants) make their way here if not in person, then in gesture. Looking forward to our return visits from Italia. Aside from the staff and vibe - the best surprises are the Ammonoosuc River and its amazing covered bridge, the musicality of the river bank park you can hear from the Inn’s back rooms, the Loading Dock music venue with its free books and the lovely mural on the side of the 23 Ammonoosuc Street building. And Wildbloom Beer’s tasting room and the multi hyphenate White Mountains Canning Company - the source of all that amazing taste in our adventurous recyclable bag that is going to many many...