Kimpton Aertson Hotel — Hotel in Nashville-Davidson

This was one of the most disappointing hotel stays of my life, and I would say that I travel a decent amount. The lack of attention to detail compared to the price was simply terrible. |1. Parking: I knew ahead of time about the insanely priced parking, but I have to call it out. $50/night for self park and $55/night for valet. I have never heard of a hotel without free parking and clearly they don't want anyone self parking considering the closeness in price. That was just ridiculous to me, especially in Nashville where I would assume more than half of its visitors are driveable distance. |2. Linens or LACK thereof: The bedding was absolutely horrendous. The sheets were scratchy and awful, and there was no down comforter or even a thick planet, just fitted sheets and 2 flat sheets on top. Every single pillow was paper thin, you could feel your fingers when you pinch it. I slept with 7 pillows and it still was not enough. We also purchased a suit (loose term) that did not have one single linen in it. We had to ask for bedding and i asked for a blanket to lounge in and they gave me a scratchy terrible thing that I would have never wanted to touch my skin. The "bedding" was also just a fitten sheet and 2 more flat sheets, no pillows. We also go no extra towels during turndown, we had to ask for some.|3. The "SUITE" we paid a significant amount for: So many things wrong with this. It was essentially an old conjoining room that looked like a doctor's waiting room. There was nothing in there except a hard couch (not sure you can even call it that) with a scratchy small throw pillow. There was no coffee in the whole room, and the doors between the suite and the actual room will lock you into whatever room you are in if you shut them, which they AUTO shut. Our room key did not open that door from the outside, so essentially if you found yourself locked into the hotel room, you'd have no way of getting to the other side of the room you paid for. We had to be diligent about propping them open, and the door stoppers barely worked. It was a serious chore to keep these open. Also, the whole reason we did the suite is to give some of the adults flexibility while the kids were sleeping to come and go, but we couldnt even do that because there was no way into the suite without going through the main room. I have stayed in plenty of hotel suites and this is NOT normal.|4. The bathroom: This is what really set me over the edge. There was 1 bathroom in the suite, and the door was a rolling door made of essentially all frosted glass, meaning if anyone had to use the restroom during the night and wanted to see, they had to turn the full lights on (there was not a dim option) which shines super bright into the hotel room waking up anyone who might be trying to sleep. Especially with toddlers, this was a nightmare. I cannot fathom who would have ever designed a bathroom door that cannot be closed shut for both sound and light purposes, not to mention privacy. There was none. The door didnt even shut all the way!!!|5. A/C: The thermostat did not go below 68, which I seen in an AirBNB but for a hotel that is unacceptable. I paid entirely too much money to not be able to set the temp where I want it. I prefer cold when I sleep, but even at 68 i am positive that the room never got below 70. |6. Our TV remote in the main room did not work. I probably could have called but with small children we weren't able to sit around and wait for someone to come fix it, and we didn't discover it until bedtime.||The only reason I didnt give them just one star is because the staff was mostly pleasant. The reception desk was my first clue that this was not going to be a luxery hotel, but the rest of the staff including the valet and the Henley waitstaff were all very nice and accomodating. I can guarantee that I will not be staying at another IHG, it was no better than a Hampton or an Embassy and those would have been a fraction...

I stayed at the Kimpton Aertson Hotel for my 40th birthday weekend with my best friend during a trip to Nashville. As an IHG Diamond Elite member, I had a lot of points saved up and wanted to make the weekend extra special by booking one of IHG’s luxury properties. These hotels typically cost double the points of a standard property—but for such a milestone occasion, it felt worth it.

One of the great perks of Diamond Elite status is access to dedicated service lines and complimentary room upgrades when available. I called the Diamond Elite help line a few weeks ahead of the trip and explained that it was a birthday celebration. They were kind, helpful, and confirmed an upgrade to a suite for me. Upon arrival, my friend and I were welcomed warmly, checked into our suite, and surprised with a complimentary bottle of wine and a handwritten “Happy Birthday” note—such a thoughtful touch that truly made me feel celebrated.

Because of that, I really hate to share anything negative, but I also believe feedback is a gift—and I hope this helps improve the experience for others.

The suite itself was spacious, essentially two separate rooms with a connecting door between the bedroom and a shared common area with a sitting space and mini fridge. However, we encountered a few issues during our stay:

Locked out of common area: After closing the connecting door while changing, we were accidentally locked out of the common area. We couldn’t access it from the room or hallway and had to call the front desk. Engineering arrived to help, but the delay caused us to miss our dinner reservation and lose our table.

Broken chair incident: There was a chair in the common area that broke the very first time I sat in it—gently, not forcefully. I ended up falling and hitting my head on the wall. Thankfully, I wasn’t seriously hurt, but it was surprising and concerning.

Temperature issues: The room was uncomfortably warm at night. We set the thermostat as low as it would go, but the temperature never dropped below 72°F. While that may not sound too hot, both my friend and I like to sleep in a cool room, and it was just too warm for comfort.

Lack of trash cans: There was only one trash can in the entire suite. I had to go looking just to get one for the bathroom—something I’ve never experienced in any IHG property.

Bed frame design: The beds were comfortable, but the low-profile bed frames jutted out, and we all hit our legs on them multiple times due to the tight space around the beds. We actually left with bruises.

Feather pillows only: All of the pillows were down/feather, which aggravated my allergies. A hypoallergenic or synthetic pillow option would be a welcome addition.

Now, to the positives—the breakfast was outstanding each morning. We also thoroughly enjoyed the rooftop pool, and the bar by the pool was a fantastic bonus. The bathroom in our suite was gorgeous, with dual sinks and a spacious shower that made getting ready easy and comfortable.

Overall, it was a memorable weekend and I truly appreciated the thoughtful touches and kind staff. However, given the number of issues we experienced, I can’t say I feel like I spent my points wisely. This was a special occasion, and I had high expectations choosing a luxury property within the IHG portfolio. In hindsight, I honestly wish I had saved my points for a future family vacation and just booked a reliable stay at a Holiday Inn Express instead. With a few key improvements, this hotel could live up to its luxury designation—but unfortunately, it missed the...

Upon arrival at the Kimpton/Aerton hotel for our long weekend in Nashville, we pulled into the front area and went in to check in. After being given our room keys, we went back out to park the car. The valet was nice enough to explain to us where to head around the building to enter the ramp.

At the ramp entrance there was a ticket machine, with two options; press button for ticket, or "scan card". We tried the scanning the room key first, on the assumption that our keys probably allowed us into the ramp which is attached directly to the hotel. No dice. After a few attempts I punched the ticket button and figured we would sort it out later.

We parked and discovered that the only way back into the hotel was to go down to the ground floor, exit out across a driveway, and take the sidewalk back to the front door of the hotel. Not ideal, but I guess we can make this work (it would have been nice to know, though -- a theme which we would encounter more than a few times over the weekend).

Back to the front desk: "Is parking covered here?" "Unfortunately, no - it's a regular public ramp at $25/day. Or, for $35/day for valet, you have in/out privileges all day." I guess we can swallow this - it would have been nice to know, though!

We went up to our room, started unpacking and settling in. I pulled out the iPad to figure out where we are going to go first. Hmm. There's a WiFi signal but I'm being presented with two options at the portal: Log in as a rewards member, or use a credit card to pay by the day. So I call the front desk: "Is WiFi included with our room?" "Unfortunately, no. It's $12.99/day for your room (up to 6 devices), but FREE if you are a rewards member." "How much to becomes a rewards member?" "Oh, that's free - you just need to stop by the front desk and sign up". It would have been nice to know this before having to go down to the front desk AGAIN.

After a pleasant evening exploring the neighborhood bars, we head back to our room for a good night's sleep. Searching throughout the room, we could not find any "Do Not Disturb" signs. Oh well, maybe that's just how they roll here. This resulted in an 8:30am (seriously?) wake-up call from housekeeping. Sigh. Upon checkout we let the front desk know that there was no "DND" sign for our room. "Really? There should be one in there, did you look..." "Yes, I know what it would look like. There isn't one in the room - could you please just add one so the next people will have it?"

Other minor issues: Our room was on the front side (2nd floor) and the sounds from the street came into our room pretty easily - and the door didn't really block much noise from the hallway side of the room either. The thermostat worked well and silently and we were never uncomfortable as far as temperature was concerned. The bedding was comfortable, with plenty of pillows.

SO, in summary - this is a relatively-new hotel (opened in 2017) which has the outward appearance of being somewhat of a luxury/upscale hotel, but it is actually pretty far from that - SO many things we had to pull out of the front desk by asking questions when it could have been easily explained with a sign, a flyer, anything. I would not recommend this place over what I'm sure are dozens of more-competent and well-organized hotels in the...