Hammetts Hotel — Hotel in Newport

Let me preface this by saying I normally don’t write reviews, but only when I am extremely satisfied or dissatisfied. My stay at the Hammetts is best characterized by the latter, and would recommend anyone considering a stay here to look elsewhere.

Before booking my stay here, I was a bit skeptical as the hotel had just opened and there was very little information/photos posted online. I had contacted them several times to obtain more information and left several voicemails, but could not get in contact with anyone to get more info. Nevertheless, my stay at the Hammetts hotel was nothing short of subpar between the rooms, service, and amenities.

First off, the rooms are very small. As i mentioned prior, the lack of photos posted online should have been a red flag - the rooms have extremely limited space, and feature two small pullout drawers for clothing storage. This made unpacking very difficult as my girlfriend and I weren’t able to fit everything (for a 4 night stay) into the provided drawers.

Apart from this, I have a variety of miscellaneous complaints which exacerbated my experience.

1.For some reason, our window couch/seat is facing away form the water and towards the entrance of the hotel. Having glanced into a room identical to ours, it is clear they incorrectly installed the seat in our room as the identical rooms’ unit was facing the water.

2.Room service was extremely sparse and I was left with overflowing trash/recycling bins for the majority of my stay. I understand that circumstances may have changed due to COVID-19, but we were never offered nor received room service until the day before checkout. To add insult to injury, room service left a dirty rag directly on our bathroom sink countertop.

3.This is a rather minor complaint, but the parking situation is less than ideal; I stayed during the 4th of July so it was understandably busy, but I often found myself squeezing into spots that were razor thin and I could barely step out of my car after parking. The “valet” is also a poorly designed system - whenever you leave or enter the premises, you are stopped by a valet who asks you every time if you are checking in/checking out, going for the day, when you will be back, your parking reservation #, etc. What they should do is catalogue each vehicle to the corresponding reservation so they can figure out the check in/check out dates properly.

4.As I mentioned prior, the service was nothing short of awful. The first night I arrived, I requested a wine opener, a relatively basic ask. I was told they “just gave out their last one”. I figured no problem, it can wait and kindly request to be given one when it becomes available. I wait until the next day around 2pm, and go down to the lobby to ask for one. Guess what? They allegedly “just gave out their last one” again. The evening comes around, and I call down to the lobby to ask a third time - I am told I will receive it right away. Two hours later, nothing. I call down again and am told they had to go out to the store and buy one, which wasn’t said to me very kindly. If I had known they were lying to me about not owning a bottle opener all along, I would have just bought one myself.

5.Lastly, I was under the impression my card would only be charged the deposit once checking in. Unbeknownst to me, I was charged for the duration of my stay on night one. This most certainly should have been made clear earlier on and I would have been a lot more comfortable being charged after my stay was over.

There are a variety of other reasons not to stay here, but these are just some of my thoughts and experiences that should help you make a decision. All in all, I strongly recommend...

Stayed here for 2 nights in August 2020 when the hotel was maybe a month old. Received a fairly good rate booking direct on their site under a hotel opening promotion that included parking, which is huge savings as it’s $50/night normally. With that said, for the price we paid I enjoyed our stay and felt it was a good deal, but as this hotel will probably look to command top dollar in the future, there are still some kinks to work out and some that may be unable to fix.

Overall, the hotel was lovely and modern, the decor not overdone and fit the wharf perfectly. Can’t beat the location and was a quick walk to all the nearby restaurants, bars and shopping. Nice back deck to watch sunset or the boats while having a drink.

As for the room itself, it’s SMALL, but we knew this going in based off past reviews, but the hotel provided rendered photos are deceiving and the hotel was so new that there were limited traveler photos. Room size is good for a couple and tolerable for a few nights but definitely wouldn’t do an extended stay here, unless you plan to rarely be in the room as it’ll feel cramped. We traveled with an infant and they provided a nice pack and play but we had to squeeze around it and the stroller the entire time just to get from the bed to the bathroom.

The room is well designed, akin to being in a cruise ship, but obviously done to maximize rooms on the property for the prime location. The narrow day bed is really a cute sitting area and a way to sell the room as able to accommodate 3 people but most will use it as a place to put their bags as there is no dresser (just drawers under the day bed) or dedicated closet, not even a luggage rack as most hotels have.

The bed and pillows were plush and comfy. There were usb charging ports on the outlets that handled charging my iPhone 11 Pro well. The TV was nice and large for the space but the room size isn’t built for staying in much. WiFi was free and quick (speed tested to about 60/60 mbps). Aside from those amenities, don’t expect much else. No fridge in the room. No ice machines on the floors — you need to get ice from the main desk — and luckily we had a small cooler.

While I don’t have a problem with the bathroom configuration and the sink situated in the entrance of the room, the absolute worst part of the stay was the shower. Water pressure was horrific. I’m normally take quick showers but it’s literally impossible to do so as you’re just standing there waiting to get wet. Making the experience worse is that they didn’t put a light above the shower — just above the toilet — so you’re practically showering in the dark begging for water to come out and it’s overall just depressing.

Parking was great with spots under the hotel. Valet service was suspended due to COVID so we were able to self park, which made it easy to come and go. Loved being able to go straight from the parking level to your room floor, especially traveling with a baby stroller.

Despite the small room and terrible shower experience, had a good stay and would consider staying again...

I NEVER leave bad reviews on anything but I feel like I have to for this terrible experience I had at this hotel. I was a part of a bridal party that was staying at this hotel for the weekend and the bride and groom did a 30 room block for all the guests of the wedding. Close to ALL of the guests who stayed at this hotel were treated extremely poorly. The staff at the front desk were extremely rude and impersonal able. Felt like they couldn’t be bothered by our presence. Even when we were just simply checking into our room (our room which was not ready WAY past the check in time) it felt as if we were bothering the staff just by simply checking in. Again, we were a part of a wedding party so we tried calling down to the front desk for extra towels, pillows, and hangers and no one answered the phone each of the 4 separate times we called. I was a bridesmaid in the wedding and in the bridal suite where we got ready, the temperature got up to 78 degrees and the air conditioner was not working. Again…. we tried to call down to the front desk and got no answer. Finally, the bride herself had to go down to the front desk to address this issue and and we were greeted by a VERY rude maintenance man who rudely laughed at us and told us it was hot in our room because we had a ton of people in the BRIDAL SUITE. Yes there were a lot of people in the suite but we were told they were a very accommodating hotel to host wedding parties in. WRONG. Maybe you should make sure your air conditioners are working properly before you allow wedding parties to book with this hotel. One of the other bridesmaids tried checking into her room and was told her room was not ready and that they would call her to let her know when it was ready. This bridesmaid walked away to greet the other guests then came back to the lobby to use the restroom in the lobby and was told she was not allowed to use the restroom because it was not available to the public. Keep in mind this lady who yelled at her for trying to use the bathroom was the same lady at the front who told her that her room was not ready just 10 minutes before this bathroom encounter. She felt so embarrassed and ended up going up to the brides room to use the bathroom. Terrible environment and terrible customer service. The only good thing about this hotel is the location and how close it is to the shops, bars, and restaurants. Highly recommend getting a hotel elsewhere in Newport. Rooms were extremely small and not accommodating AT ALL to a wedding party. The guys working at the valet parking was the only positive experience and the hi light of our trip here. They were so so so nice, extremely accommodating and personable. Maybe you should have the valet guys working in the actual hotel itself and you might get more positive reviews. I’m hoping these issues will be addressed so that no one else has to endure the negative experience that 30+ of us had...