Lynchburg Grand Hotel — Hotel in Lynchburg

⭐ 1/5 — “A Crime Scene Disguised as a Hotel”

If you’re ever curious what it would be like to survive a horror movie on a budget, this is the place for you.

We checked into The Lynchburg (Not so) Grand Hotel for 3 nights to attend the wedding of dear friends at a near by venue.

Upon arrival later in the evening, we were greeted by a ghost town lobby that looked like it just hosted the local blood drive. After what seemed like ages, we found an employee surfing the internet in a corner of the lobby, completely unaware of our existence. While checking in, we provided a credit card & ID, noting that the room was part of a wedding block rate. The employee then asked if we knew what that rate was, to which we answered honestly -regrettable in hindsight. I was then charged out-right for the 3 night stay, based on the rate he took our word for. This should have been our first red flag, but alas, it was far from our last.

After unloading the car & stacking a bell-hop cart full of luggage, we encounter the first obstacle, which I will now refer to as “the tower of terror.” The elevator arrives & stops about 3 inches high of the lobby level, leaving us to maneuver the cart like an Olympic sport into the elevator cab. The cart fit with minimal clearance & the groans of the elevator to the 4th floor sounded like we might as well have maxed its 2,500 lb. weight capacity. We were unpleasantly surprised to arrive into a corridor that smelled like a mix of stale cigarettes, mildew, & despair. After pushing the cart to the furthest end of the corridor, we arrive at our room to find the door lever broken clean off, like an angry Hulk Hogan was the previous guest. I reluctantly tried our keys, mainly to bring some humor to our otherwise delirious state, but the red light confirmed we would have to reverse our journey. Rinse & Repeat.

20 minutes later….we arrive to our second room. Our keys work, we get inside, but still since this hotel hasn’t been updated since its inception, the only sources of light (outside of actual candle sticks) are 3 table lamps, scattered about the room, not connected to wall switches. As the room slowly illuminates, our hearts grow dark….

The carpet looked like it hadn’t been vacuumed since the Clinton administration, & the lounge chair had mysterious stains that I genuinely hope were from coffee—but deep down, I knew better. The lamp shades were dirty, and the one ceiling light (which we discovered too little, too late) donned a red splatter that we convinced ourselves was wine…Olivia Benson would say otherwise.

The bathroom? Oh, that gem was a science experiment in mold growth. The wallpaper was peeling and bubbling where moisture had lived for quite some time. Hair, dust, & grime were woven into the grout/caulk at every corner. The water pressure, while comparable to the Niagara Falls, was no match for the clogged & corroded pipes. This resulted in the next challenge of our Saw-inspired hotel stay…shower without overflowing the tub. You can tell by the many different layers of spackle on the ceiling that leaks are a persistent, and on-going issue. And the towels? Crunchy. Not dry crunchy—emotionally crunchy, like they’ve seen things.

Our friends, who were also staying in the hotel, had a bout of their own issues…Couple #1 managed the weekend with a toilet that overflowed, leaving standing water in their bathroom. “Maintenance” kindly left a plunger and mop outside their door to handle the flood themselves. Couple #2 was left to manage a broken shower that led to sponge baths only, while also dealing with a colony of ants in their bed. Couple #3 only lasted an hour after arrival, after finding black mold in the bathroom & dead roaches in the dresser drawers. They proved to be the only ones with common sense.

Not to mention the “pool” & “fitness” amenities look like a scene from a post apocalyptic fallout. The Restaurant you see online has been replaced by a very mid vending machine.

Do yourself a favor: sleep in your car, sleep on a park bench, sleep standing up in a...

Lynchburg is a great city- so I'll start there. The hotel is fine from the street view, and the parking is located close by- those are the only good things I have to say about my stay. The bed was not made when we arrived, to which I was told "We aren't doing dress down service because of covid" as if that was reasonable logic as to why they simply threw the sheets and pillows onto the bed. Then honestly, if you're going to use covid as an excuse to not do your jobs, at least have your staff wear masks above their noses. I didn't even really mind that none of the guests were wearing masks (as I'm sure others would mind more than I did), but don't use that as an excuse to not do your job, then not even follow up by wearing appropriate PPE. The water was ice cold from both the sink and shower, and didn't once warm up- not that it mattered, as we had no towels in our room and couldn't find anyone at the desk nor with housekeeping when we went searching. The ice machine down the hall doesn't work, neither did the drink machine. The entire floor absolutely reeked of marijuana for the entirety of our stay, enough so that it smelled downstairs in the lobby as well. Again, lynchburg was nice- I would recommend visiting- but I would recommend staying at any other hotel other than this, I have never had more to complain about after a 1 night stay.

In relation to the comment below me, you all should have my contact information, so if you'd like to make it up to me, feel free to contact me. And honestly, I wasn't that worried about masks. the misunderstanding between housekeeping and the desk staff is the issue, if you're going to address anything I'd prefer it be that- I've never walked into a hotel room that hadn't been adequately cleaned (not even taking into account the current pandemic) and I'm honestly more upset now than I was before, as I had just thought it was just not fully dressed up- now I'm under the impression it was never cleaned and we stayed in a room that someone else had just stayed in, without any cleaning or sanitation. that's a major issue.

As an update to anyone reading this, after offering to "make it up", the hotel manager never once attempted to email me, or reach out beyond the flimsy excuses listed in the response to my review. If they actually cared about their guests, I would have gotten an email or phone call, as they have my information from check in. His response to my review was clearly only about making their image look better, and was not an attempt to actually rectify the issues during my stay. Stay anywhere in Lynchburg BUT this hotel, I would recommend...

See bottom of review for horrible update My family and I had the unfortunate opportunity to stay at the Lynchburg "Grand" Hotel for a weekend while attending a family wedding. It was without a doubt the worst hotels I've stayed in-- and I've been to some doozies. Upon our arrival, we learned there were no luggage carts available (we later learned there were only 3--4 for the entire 8 floor hotel). Then they told us the elevators were broken but we could use the service elevator if we wanted. Ok fine, we thought, we can rough it for a few short nights. The lobby looked nice enough so we thought "how bad can it be?" We dragged all our luggage and all our kids down the sketchy back room hallway to the service elevator and when we entered, we discovered a filthy toilet plunger stuck to the floor of the elevator. [Incidentally, I have photo evidence of everything mentioned in this review which I will happily upload in case anything is disputed in the comments]. In order to operate the service elevator you had to stick a penny into a keyhole and turn it. When we got to our room, it wasn't much cleaner than the elevator. There were crumbs all over the rug, spider webs in every corner, a random hanger right in the middle of the floor which made me think nobody had even checked the room and it smelled like pee and mold. Further investigation showed black mold in the bathroom shower base. The shower had clearly not even been wiped down and there was a previous guest's personal soap left behind. We had to call for a crib multiple times before anyone came through with bringing it up and we gave up on the blanket we asked for for the baby. The staff was pleasant but they were seriously understaffed. Our family members rooms TV didn't work. The wifi connection was non-existent. Our room key stopped worked a few different times and we needed to be issued new keys 2 times in 3 days. A Starbucks gift card was emailed to us for staying at the hotel. Upon redeeming the gift card, we were told the funds on the card had already been used.

Our family members and I occupied 3 different rooms on 2 different floors and all the rooms were in similar shape. At 10pm we all witnessed a shirtless man getting an IV in the lobby restaurant. I doubt he was receiving electrolytes. Very ghetto. 0/10 do not recommend ever visiting this establishment again.

HORRIBLE UPDATE: MY INLAWS WERE DOUBLE CHARGED FOR THEIR STAY AND ARE BEING REFUSED A REFUND. EVERY TIME THEY CALL TO GET IT RESOLVED THEY ARE TOLD THE MANAGER ISNT IN. LIES. Moving my stars from 0 to...