Hampton Inn Norwich — Hotel in Norwich

I so rarely write negative reviews. I try to only write positive reviews because the world skews negative and that makes it hard for businesses.

But, here we go:

Maybe it is a perfectly nice hotel, I never found out because they booked me for the wrong dates so my party could not check it.

I booked over the phone because it was somewhat last minute and the website wasn't allowing me to book anything. I called and they confirmed availability for the correct date. They sent me a CC authorization form which I filled out. There was no information in this other the my name, and the credit card information. No policy, no booking type. Generic. But things seemed like they were going well. We confirmed the dates via email, everything looked correct. The person (presumably in the lobby) made the booking. Then I got the official confirmation (the auto-generated one) and they booked the wrong dates (2 months later than I asked for). When I called to rebook, they said there were no rooms for the dates we originally agreed on. Obviously, since the booking was fresh, and far into the future, I asked for a simple refund and cancellation. This had all JUST happened so it should be instant to fix. They told me it was completely non-refundable, despite me never being shown an agreement, booking type, or any other policy to speak of. The policy was only included in the confirmation email, at which point it was already non-refundable, so I had no opportunity to consent to a policy, implied or otherwise. I hung my head called the corporate number, and was greeted by a tired and seemingly overworked person in India. I was told that since I made the booking online, I would have seen the policy, but recall from 3 that the hotel employee made the booking, not me. Apparently they can't see the difference on the IT end of things, absolving their employees of any accountability. A deliberate omission of traceability designed to strip customers of their dispute options. I felt bad for this employee. It was bad. I remained calm and friendly but the phone agent basically said my only option was to change the hotel or date. Then I asked for the opportunity to show the email chain (with a Hilton email address) to them, and she said they had no way to do anything with that. Then I asked for an email statement certifying that they are not at fault, and have the information to prove that. Obviously, she said no. I told her I'd had to dispute with my CC company, and she said fine. I asked for a supervisor, and she said that she was the highest available person. At this point I politely ended the call, wished her well, and called my credit card company to open a dispute. I called back to maybe get a different person, and had an exact repeat of the first call.

I know that this is an edge case because the booking was handled by a hotel employee instead of me, or expedia, or something like that, but the completely and willfully uncooperative system set up by Hilton enables them to claim that their hands are tied, even when the problem is squarely their fault.

I am opening a case with the BBB, and will be posting this information on all major hotel booking platforms for this location. If Hilton management would like to contact me and do the ethical and legal thing, I am of course open to that.

In case anyone asks, I have the entire email chain which plainly shows where the fault lands. There is no subjectivity here. If the hotel wishes to reply and add some unverifiable information to help them save face, that is fine, but that won't change the fact that what they did is illegal, and that they aren't getting the money because my CC company is disputing it, and they have all the evidence.

The moral of the story is:

Never book with these people over the phone. Ever.

Nice...

I stayed at this hotel last night and my first thoughts about it was that it was nice and well kept. The lady that greeted me and checked me in was very kind, sweet, and helpful, all of the other staff I encountered since then were impolite and not properly trained in hospitality. I checked in and got my room set up then went to go swim in the pool and the hot tub. I enjoyed myself and had a good time but when I got out of the water immediately my throat was dry and course and my nose couldn’t stop running. This raised a concern to me because I have swam in several hotel pools and never have felt this way before. Due to my throat being dry and on top of that my room was dry because it seemed like the air conditioner was taking out all the moisture in the air, I didn’t sleep all night and was coughing and eventually threw up because of how dry the water and the room had made my throat. This had ruined my night and my stay so around 6 am I tried to go down and talk to the employee at the front desk. When I had came down to talk to him I kindly and calmly described what I have gone through to him despite how horrible and upset I was feeling. He said there’s nothing he could do for me and that I should reach out to one of the managers and speak to them, and that no one had ever complained about the pool before. Despite the demeanor of the man at the counter I decided not to respond to that and to just politely ask if the manager would answer my email if I sent her one, which the employee responded and said yes she would. Shortly after I left the hotel and the other people I was staying with checked out and left as well. I tried to call the hotel because I checked my email and it had been 10 hours and no response so I called and no one picked up. I called the second time and a lady picked up and she was very rude to me and had no manners or compassion whatsoever. All I said to her was that I had an issue that I talked about with an employee earlier and that I emailed Michelle the manger but had got no response. She responded that Michelle would be in on Thursday, I asked if she would respond to her email because the other employee led me to believe she would and she said shes not here tomorrow or the next day she will be here on Thursday and she will answer your email then. She said this in a very rude and disrespectful tone then continued to argue with me when I simply asked why she is speaking to me like that. I still have no response from the manager and after this I will never stay in any Hampton Inn Hotels ever again in my life. This was the worst experience I have ever had at a hotel and I will tell as many people as I can to not come here due to how unprofessional and unsanitary...

First off, Norwich CT has a major shortage of new hotels to select when coming to the area. This particular hotel is much older, likes 80s old. They are renovating but keeping the hotel open. This is also a pass through and tourist hotel. The good is that the hotel is not on the reservation so another option vs Mohegan or Foxwoods. The hotel does a decent job with breakfast. The bad and there is a lot. The hotel is dated. It's one of the only hotels around except a hilton garden inn and a Holiday Inn. The owner group also owns the HGI in Preston, which is also not very nice. Upon checking in, I asked if I could check in early. They said there would be an uncharge of 39.00. Strike one if you are a business traveler. If you have rooms, check in your Hilton Honors guests! The front desk staff is arrogant, like "we know we are going to sell out and we dont care if you dont like our policy" arrogant! The rooms are still dated, even with the upgrades. The carpet in common areas needs to be replaced. They still have the fall risk tubs in the rooms. They are 80s beige but everything else is white. Why not replace them or have walk in showers as an option. The toilet basically sits 14" off the floor. Hope you got great knees to get down that low. Every room needs taller toilets. Lots of older people stay here and I heard that complaint from many. The beds are the most uncomfortable i have slept on in a long time. No investment in better mattresses. The bed also sits on a metal platform with no box spring. They have a tight parking lot and it gets full quick. Lastly, this hotel is crazy expensive. Almost 200.00 per night. For this hotel, juice is not worth the squeeze. Would recommend Mohegan and foxwoods. I have stayed at both and rooms were nice with amenities. To developers, I would say this area is fertile and ripe for a few new hotels. Nothing fancy, a Fairfield and a home 2 or a Tru would be perfect and would...