Historic Whispering Woods Hotel and Conference Center Olive Branch - Memphis — Hotel in Olive Branch

Please stay here for 2 reasons and 2 reasons only: It’s extremely cheap AND/OR It’s extremely convenient.

I stayed for the 2nd reason. My son was attending a convention at the hotel and I live an hour away, so I paid a big price for convenience. I would never pay that much for that room otherwise.

I’ll start with the service, which is incredible. The staff is so professional and helpful and accommodated my request to be near an elevator even though space was tight. I know they were so busy, but never too busy to answer questions or just to help. I asked a really stupid question one morning and the man at the front desk didn’t make any kind of face - he laughed with me when I realized my error.

My king room was spacious and the bed was so, so comfortable - I slept much better than I usually do at hotels. The air conditioner blows freezing cold, which was a perk; most of the active convention rooms were warm. There’s plenty of floor space for an air mattress although we didn’t use one. The WiFi was fast enough for me to do my work, which includes moderate downloads, but there’s no private or secure wifi; it’s fully public. The TV had most of the college football games I wanted to watch, and plenty of streaming apps which logged me out immediately after use. The fridge was nice and cold although the freezer compartment didn’t work.

A few marks against the rooms: -no coffee maker or microwave in the rooms. There’s one microwave per floor in the vending areas. -I suspect there were long-term residents in the room above me who smoked weed on the balcony. -If you want a fastidiously clean room, this is not the hotel for you.

My experience with the cafe was incongruent with other reviews.

The free breakfast was grits, sausage, biscuits, and eggs one day and grits, biscuits, eggs, and ham another; all of it was fine. A nearby case had dry toast and another had 3 kinds of cereal. No fruit, muffins, yogurt, or anything of the sort. There was coffee and juice. And you had to eat it in the cafe; no bringing a plate back to the room. And don’t sit idly to enjoy your coffee, the cafe closes abruptly at 10.

The cafe’s menu was basic bar fare and expensive for anything past apps, salads and sandwiches. $17 for a pork chop with two sides! The pork chop was overcooked and the $5 chocolate cake had seen better days although the ganache was delicious. I see other reviews mentioning curry? I didn’t see anything that exotic on the menu. The cheeseburger and fries were great though; a lot of food for $12. The bun was buttery and grilled and the fries were plentiful and crispy.

One last thing; I strongly suspect that the hotel is not ADA compliant with regards to handicap parking spaces. I saw two near the front entrance and neither were van accessible. There may have been two near one of the side entrances, but not the other. I saw a significant number of people with mobility challenges at this convention and I hope the hotel gets into compliance before next year.

Overall, I would stay there again, but only for the two reasons...

First impressions are deceiving. Upon entering the lobby you get a feeling of luxury and opulence. Even the walk through the property looks impressive with a mix of modern and vintage decor and furnishings. That's where it ends. The front desk personnel had an attitude of ambivalence. Check the boxes, collect your pay. After walking halfway through the facility to our room, the key cards were not activated. Return to the front desk. Cards activated. Walk back. Exit building to collect luggage, wife and cats. The parking is anything but convenient. Returned to the room to quickly unpack because we had to meet family. Thrilled to have a sliding glass door for the cats to look out and take them out in the morning. Pulled the curtain back to find the cooling system from the roof strewn in front of our door. Picture attached. Secondly, there was no evidence of a coffee maker. 2 coffee cups. No water cups but an ice bucket. The refrigerator has no freezer compartment. Furniture was a mismatch of styles and function. Shelves missing from the two door dresser. A nightstand table with 3 faux drawers. Upon returning my wife went to the front desk to get an additional pillow and blanket because we were given a king bed not two twins, as well as to inquire about the coffee maker and a box of tissue. The again ambivalent night auditor brought my wife a roll of toilet paper and then said 'Housekeeping be gone ' in response to the pillow and blanket. When asked where the coffeemaker was she said it's in the cabinet in the bathroom. There was neither a cabinet nor a coffee maker in the bathroom. The bathroom had been updated but not with any design in mind. The tub surround was yellow, like old worn and aged plastic, on top of a white tub. The hand towel rack was broken. There was no soap dish or even a space to put the hand soap. The vending machine next to the ice machine hasn't been in service for quite sometime. In fact, it was unplugged and the front was open. TV reception was poor. On a positive note the TV did include YouTube and was able to be cast to from your phone or computer. Room temp was comfortable and the bed was comfortable. The free breakfast was good and the woman manning the eggs and sausage was pleasant. In the morning, the young man at the desk was very friendly. This is the type of employee you need to be the face of your establishment. This property has historical significance to the area as well as the history of hotels. One should only show the good parts of your property to the paying public if you intend to continue having a...

MOST AWFUL SERVICE EVER!! Everything else was great. My family and I stayed a week and it was very quiet plus the rooms were really clean! The only issue with the rooms was the size of the refrigerator, and the microwave was shared with everyone on the floor you're on. The night before our last day, we decided to go ahead and book another week stay. We were reassured we could keep our same room since we were already settled in. OF COURSE!(makes since) However, the next morning, around 7am, we were woken by a lady who worked for their cleaning service!! She advised us that the check out time was 11 am. And that we needed to be gone before then. After explaining that we were paid up for another week, we were then advised to go speak with the front desk immediately. Upon showing the manager at the front desk our confirmation email she then told us we were more than welcome to stay another week however we would have to relocate to a completely different room on a completely different floor!! Needless to say, we felt if we were gonna have to pack up and move after being told we wouldn't have to go through all that trouble, we would just go somewhere else and we asked for a refund. But oddly enough, management isn't in charge of that type of matter and we were given a 1-800 number to call in which we sat on hold for an hour and a half before actually getting through to an actual human. We were given our refund only later to be told it would take 13 to 17 business days before we would actually receive that money. Around this time, it was well after noon before we had a chance to even start packing all of our belongings. After about 30 minutes of getting our things put together, we were advised we were not moving quick enough and that we would not be receiving our $100 deposit that we had paid. But we left the room completely clean and exactly as it was when we arrived. But to top all of this nightmare off, they called the cops because we had not left quickly enough for them. We were treated as if we were complete criminals at no fault of our own. The officers were very nice and simply advised us they were just doing their job. And that they were sorry. My family and I were recently evicted from our home of 8 years and, unfortunately, are homeless at this time. That was the only money we had, and now we're sleeping in our vehicle with our 3-year-old son and our cat because our refund would not be available to us for a whole nother week. This has been the worst experience I've ever imagined, and it was completely humiliating, to say...