Hampton Inn & Suites Memphis East Germantown Area — Hotel in Memphis

Title: Extremely Disappointing Experience and Unacceptable Treatment at Hampton Inn – 962 S Shady Grove Rd, Memphis, TN

I am an African American professional originally from Memphis, though I moved away years ago. I still have family in the city, and I frequently visit. Whenever I traveled to Memphis before 2023, I always enjoyed staying at the Hampton Inn located at 962 S Shady Grove Rd. It became my go-to hotel for both business and personal stays, as I trusted their service and hospitality.

However, in October 2023, my perception of this hotel drastically changed following a deeply disappointing and stressful experience. I had an unexpected family emergency that required me to rush to Memphis because my father had been hospitalized. Given the urgency of the situation, I was unable to reserve a room in advance. Upon arriving in Memphis, I searched online for a room and, due to the last-minute nature of my trip, prices were extremely high. After searching through various third-party booking sites, I found what appeared to be the best rate through Traveluro—$387 for a night’s stay at the Hampton Inn.

I promptly booked the room and received a confirmation number via email from Traveluro. Confident that my reservation was secured, I headed to the Hampton Inn. Upon arrival, I presented my confirmation number to the manager on duty, who happened to be an Indian man. To my shock, he informed me that there was no reservation under my name and, furthermore, that they were fully booked with no rooms available.

I was bewildered. I had just paid $387 for this room and received a confirmation. Yet the manager insisted that they had no record of my booking. In my attempt to resolve the issue, I repeatedly tried to contact Traveluro but was unable to reach anyone from their customer service team. With no options left and feeling helpless, I started to believe that Traveluro might be a fraudulent company. How could they charge me for a room when Hampton Inn was telling me that no such reservation existed and that they were out of rooms?

In my frustration, I contacted my credit card company to report Traveluro for fraud. However, Traveluro disputed my claim, asserting that a reservation had indeed been made on my behalf. As a result, I was still charged the $387, even though the Hampton Inn manager claimed there was no reservation and refused to provide a room.

To make matters worse, I had just driven three hours to Memphis after learning my father was ill, and I was exhausted. It was late in the evening, I was emotionally drained, and I desperately needed a place to stay. Yet, instead of being offered help or compassion, I was told I had no reservation and that no rooms were available. This forced me to find another hotel at the last minute, incurring additional expenses. Meanwhile, I was still stuck paying for the room at the Hampton Inn—a room I never got to check into.

I’ve been a loyal patron of this establishment for many years, but after this experience, I will never stay here again. It’s apparent that, under new management in 2023, this hotel now caters to a specific clientele, as if we are living in the 1950s. The way I was treated during such a distressing time felt discriminatory and incredibly disrespectful. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this hotel to any African Americans.

They may have taken $387 from me, but they have lost my respect and future business, and I am sure they will lose more in the long run. African Americans do not need to stay at an establishment that operates with such outdated, racist attitudes. I hope this review serves as a warning to others who may be considering...

For the first time in my life, I am writing a negative review. I cannot and will not recommend any one stay at this hotel. The inconveniences, lack of communication, lack of concern when issues were brought to attention, inadequacy of facilities, and more were all contributing factors. The hotel was under renovation, which was not communicated prior to arrival. I was unable to find an unlocked door to even enter the building upon arrival - after dark - in the rain. "Front desk" was moved to a room off a hallway with a small table set in the doorway - not well marked, nor could you even see the person sitting behind the computer screen. No amenities, snacks available either. My room was a suite with a kitchen as my stay was 12 days for work. Kitchen/microwave/inside of frig were dirty. There was no cookware and only 2 knives for cutlery. Also had only 2 hangers. on the 8th day of my stay at 8:30 pm (after a very long day at work) I stopped by front desk to request housekeeping the next day. The person at the desk said "Oh - I was supposed to email you to tell you the fire marshal said the smoke detector doesn't work and you have to move rooms tonight." First - no one notified my that my room would be entered/inspected and Second - they made me move rooms that night! I asked what they would have done if i hadn't stopped at the desk and the response was "Well you did stop by." The first room I was moved to (9 pm now) was occupied by a very large man who was quite dismayed when I attempted to unlock and open the door. The second room had dishwasher running, despite housekeeping staff being gone for hours. The bed was disheveled and upon closer inspection, had not been changed - simply pulled covers messily over rumpled pillows and sheets that had hairs and bits of debris under the covers. The shower also had hair and other debris in it. The next room provided was not a suite but it was cleaner - upon returning to my original room to move, found the key had been deactivated, so I was unable to get in to move my items. Finally got a new key for that room and moved into my less-than paid for room at 11 pm - sweating and exhausted and furious. At no time did anyone offer assistance. I emailed Hilton customer support during my stay of some of the numerous challenges I had encountered - their response was that because my stay was still in process, I would have to email them after it had ended. They like the property manager to have a chance to resolve issues. I cc'd the General Manager on my reply so she could see my initial complaints, but she has never responded to that, not was any price reduction offered. I then completed a customer survey AFTER my stay, enumerating all the same things and have received no response from Hilton whatsoever. I have long been a Hilton loyalty member - and I travel for work roughly 50% of the year - but you can be sure i will seek other hotel options whenever possible moving forward. So disappointing. Avoid this property if you are looking for basic courtesy, cleanliness and responsiveness in resolving any...

If I could give it NO STARS, I WOULD!!!

I've been a Hilton Honors member for years and reach Gold or Diamond status annually, and I’ve never been treated so rudely. The LACK of professionalism and customer service was over the top. It was so bad, I will never do business with Hilton or any affiliated properties ever again.

There was apparently an error in the booking. We were to be there two nights but their system had us arriving the night prior. When we did not arrive on the date they expected us to arrive, they considered us a “no show,” cancelled our reservation, and charged us for one night’s stay.

We did not discover this until we arrived the next afternoon when the front desk clerk could not find out reservation.

We asked kindly to have the reservation reinstated as the front desk clerk had already confirmed that they had plenty of rooms. She had to call the manager, Ms. Jourdea Record, who was not on the premises at the time of our checkin to get permission to apply our charge for one night to the current night and reinstate our reservation.

Ms. Record conveyed that this would not be possible since we had missed our reservation. They would keep the fee of one night’s stay for missing our reservation but would be more than happy to sell us two more nights.

I asked to speak to Ms. Record who refused to talk to me because she was off until Monday. I requested that she call me on Monday. As of the writing of this review, I have not received a call. And for those who are wondering, I waited until Wednesday to send this.

Now, as a business owner myself, what doesn’t make sense is to lose revenue all because you’re trying to stick to a policy and make a point. If we were only staying one night, I could understand her stance. She had vacancies. We had a need for two nights. We could have met in the middle.

She could have applied the one night’s charge (late fee) to our stay and we still would have paid for two nights. Instead, because of her lack of professionalism and arrogance, she lost a sale… and not just for one night but also for future nights. We will never darken the door of a Hilton property again.

Kudos on a job well done. Your policy is amazing at keeping customer’s at...