Natchez Grand Hotel — Hotel in Natchez

Where to start? I wanted to like this hotel; the building is so beautiful and the decor is well put together! Nonetheless, here's what made our experience quite suboptimal: 1) The water from the shower came out full of dirt and/or rust even after we let it run for over 15 minutes, so we just had to skip showering. 2) There was a "nice" smell of talcum powder or something throughout the hotel; while this may be interpreted as good by most people, to those who are chemically sensitive it's really obnoxious and may even cause nose itching and just an overall unpleasant feeling. 3) The carpets felt musky and/or dusty in comparison with the roach motel we had stayed at the night before in Hot Springs where most everything decent was sold out due to the eclipse; this judging by how our nose became stuffy as soon as we enteted the room; 4) we thought "no biggie, let's just open the window to ventilate", but lo and behold!: the window could not be opened; the receptionist confirmed the widows are not openable. 5) The blackout curtains did not close fully either to shield the bright light from the parking lot, leaving a central crack of light in between the panes. 6) There was no microwave in spite of ample space to accommodate one. 7) The little on-site convenience store was suboptimally stocked. 8) The swimming pool was a farce, being extremely small and completely dry in spite of the weather being warm already in mid-April. 9) While they did kindly accommodate our request for a 1-hour late checkout (and this is the reason I'm giving the hotel 2 stars instead of 1), we had to repeat ourselves three times: we preemptively called to request this the night before because we were very tired and knew we'd want to sleep in. Yet someone still did try to walk in promptly at 11 am. In spite of clarifying with this person that we had been granted a late check out the night before, someone still called us yet again on the phone a few minutes later to remind us that checkout was at 11 am, so we had to request/clarify a late checkout for a 3rd time. 10) The TV didn't seem to have access to modern streaming services such as Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, etc. 11) The bathrooms by the lobby close at 10 pm; why do they close at all? 12) It sounds nice that they include breakfast, but it's only served from 6:30 am to 9:00 am, preventing one from fully utilizing the room's value; one would tipically want breakfast/brunch on their way out; thus, to fully be of value to the widest possible set of customers, breakfast should run through 11:30 am. 12) The fan unfortunately coupled with the light in the bathroom, such that one cannot leave the fan on for ventilation without also having the light on. 13) Even though we couldn't even shower due to the dirty water, the shower handle fell off quite easily during our...

We ended up at this hotel b/c the one we wanted was booked. We checked in on a Friday & out Sunday ($236 total plus the $20 for getting to check in early so $256 total). We arrived 3 1/2 hours early & plans were to park & walk until check in (4pm) so we went inside to make sure we didn't need something to place in our window. Desk clerk offered to check & see if a room was ready for us early. Thought the gesture was nice but he charged us $20 which we were fine w/ just to get our stuff in & not have to worry about coming back to check in. This is where the adventure begins.

1st Room: We booked a room w/ a King bed. We were given a room w/ two double beds that had a running toilet, black toilet bowl, standing water in the tub, trash from the previous guest in the dresser cabinet & a VERY dusty end table between the beds. My husband went back to the front desk to be switched to the higher priced room we paid for

2nd room: We opened the door & didn't bother to step in. It was a king bed however the furniture was piled on top of one another, there was a blower on the floor & the room smelled musty

3rd room: Was a king bed and no complaints except for the safe that didn't work so we had to carry our valuables out everyday to stay locked in the car & heat while we were out

Saturday night there was a wedding on the 1st floor. We were on the 2nd floor a few feet from the steps where kids from the wedding ran up & down the steps, the hall screaming, laughing, yelling, knocking & running. Before I could say anything someone else must have called the front desk b/c minutes later you didn't hear them again

Staff: Very very nice, friendly and helpful especially Bill (front desk) w/ all of our room issues

Location: Great location. Walking distance to everything, restaurants (must try Pig In & Out, Fat Mama's Tamales, Pearl Street Pasta), shopping (lots of antique, bedding, rugs, furniture), carriage rides (Guy was great), Rosalie & Stanton homes (the other's are about a 5 to 15 minute drive away), river, casino & coffee shops (2).

Natchez itself: Quiet, laid back, clean, friendly city. No one is in a rush. We were told this was a retirement community. The stores open late in the morning (10 / 11ish during the week & on Saturday) and shut down early in the afternoon (anywhere from 4:30pm to 5:30pmish depending on the foot traffic). Just about everything is closed on Sunday's except for the coffee shop, restaurants & the Antebellum homes for touring. Around 6pm it is like a ghost town except for a few people out in restaurants & the few local bars / hangouts where you can also grab a burger & a beer. If you are into relaxation & touring the old Antebellum homes & learning the history Natchez is a great...

We booked a room online, before paying we decided to swap the room over to a river view instead of a city view room. We did this by simply clicking a river view room and clicking off of city view room. By doing this, it automatically changed my dates of arrival for that day.... Upon arrival, I was informed I did not have a reservation because it was for two days prior, and they tried to contact me. (1) I did not receive a phone call from the hotel when I did not check-in, when I told the supervisor this, she said I see a note in the file where we called you. I told her I have all the history on my cell phone and did not have any calls from the hotel (2) Why would their website automatically change the date when you simply switch room type (3) They informed me the manager was out and would be in possibly the next day, three days later and no manager (4) We had to move rooms during our stay and were not able to get into a room after the first night until almost 5pm (although, they did hold our luggage for us and I understand why this would happen due to the circumstance), the supervisor I finally spoke to 3 days later, stated that we cannot guarantee you a place to move into, that is only a courtesy. I understood that, but please show compassion and understanding for your guests. During this quick packing of our room, we left a charger in the room. We asked front desk to contact housekeeping to see if they could get the charger for us and we never heard back from the hotel staff about this. Once we got into our new room we called and asked for housekeeping to please bring us a crib to the room. After at least an hour, we had to go downstairs to remind them (we did not bring ours, because the hotel supplies them, so that was less we had to pack) and (5) When I talked to a front desk supervisor, she said "yes, that is how our website works, you receive a confirmation and should check dates." They must have had this problem prior, and do not care to address this issue.

As for me and my family, we will not stay here again after lack of help from front desk supervisor and lack of knowledge of having a manager on duty for numerous days without having someone fill-in. We understand sometimes we can forget about things, so forgetting the crib and the not checking on charger were not too big of a deal for us. We travel to Natchez quite a bit, and normally stay at a B & B or other local hotels, we will now continue to do so. I really hate we had this issue with the hotel because it is a great location and we would have definitely booked again for future trips if they would have helped us...