Hampton Inn & Suites New Castle — Hotel in Union Township

Last March 2, 2018 my power went out and I stayed here a day and a night. It could not have been nicer, decent room and very helpful, friendly staff. Last Friday, 11/16/18, my power went out again, so i returned. It started out ok, but I noticed the front desk person, Brittany, was not overly friendly and slow to get me checked in. Little did I know it would go downhill from there. When I needed a room for a 2nd night, she did not seem to be able to determine on Sat morning if she had a room because others due to check out had not left yet. After standing there a while I finally asked if I could have a chair to sit down due to my back problems. No chair, would have to go sit in breakfast area, which was pretty full with no seats near the front desk. I told her I would be back shortly and ran home briefly. When I came back later she said she had a room , but no room number yet. She said she had to move me out of my King Suite to another one, would be same room but just not that one on the 1st floor. So ok. I came back before 10am, checkout is noon. At 10 am without a new room yet, I had a maid knocking on my door to get in because I apparently needed to be out right away so the room could be ready for a potential 11am check in. I finally got my new room number, with difficulty moving, and not a lot of help despite the maid running to get me a cart when I said I needed some help. They moved me to a room on the 2nd floor at the end of the hall, to which I had to drag my cart up the elevator and down the hall, bad back and all. Not a King Suite, not a room without issues -- a broken window shade, dirty bathroom floor -- and you take your life in your hands sitting in their worn out desk chairs that lean and this one was worse. There was no tub in this room just a rather worn out looking shower. Someone finally fixed the window shade after I went back to the desk immediately after "check in" and just asked to cancel the extended stay. When I complained it was not a King Suite, I was told she never said it would be the exact same room. Apparently Brittany can't cancel reservations, only the non-existent, unavailable manager can do that. When I complained about the move, she said "why didn't you ask for help?" I did. Believe me, you are not the customer here. You are the person at fault for every service you did not get, and for every courteous effort that was never made--it's all your fault. So when I checked out, I then noticed the 2nd night price went up $6. I asked why. Brittany said she went over all that with me before and explained there was a rate increase. Well for one she absolutely did not and I told her so. She argued that point and said I was wrong, she said she showed it all to me. And for two I also never got a receipt for the first nights room. When I asked where that was, she said I gave you that yesterday. Well, no she did not and when I said so, she strongly argued that point also, and was not willing to do anything but continue to defend herself and make her point. I looked at her and said, look I am not going to stand here and argue this point further. I asked if I needed to sign anything, she said I was good to go. I put my paper away, and then nicely told her she was rude and that I for one would never be back again.

The only real positive here was that on Friday night the desk person, who was not Brittany, allowed my two visiting grandchildren to use the pool. The breakfast bar Sunday morning had good food, albeit the cheese omelettes in a closed hot food server were barely warm. The place needs some new furniture and updates for sure, but a courteous more helpful staff like they used to have would help it out a lot. I was in enough of a mess and upheavel with no power and no water at home with temps in the 30's. I did not need the aggravation of people who seem more interested in making a buck...

I try to be fair to businesses as well as interested clientele when writing reviews and not just whine and complain, so let me be thoroughly fair when discussing the property. Staff were professional and appropriate in their behavior, not necessarily kind and polite, but not rude and indifferent either. The hotel was clean and rooms were dated with some items needing attention, but no major issues or disrepair. I am not a motel snob that believes everything must be perfect and in the condition that we keep our house. Morning breakfast was typical and reasonable in quality, selection, and appearance. Price is high for this area per room imo. Location is acceptable with some shops and restaurants within a very short distance. This is a pet friendly property, and from that comes the major issue. The property was not full either night. The dogs were left unattended through the night both nights. When I called the front desk they told me no one was in the room to do anything about the barking. Interestingly enough someone who worked midnight shift was supposedly staying in the room and leaving the dogs unattended. So every night by 2:00 a.m. they were yapping incessantly. I called as well as use the texting app to contact the front desk. They said there's nothing they can do since the owner is not there. Later in the day through the texting app they sent out a blanket apology to people who had complained over the noise issues and apparently there were several. We were out for the day and returned to our room late afternoon. Everything was quiet. We made the incorrect assumption the issue was resolved after the apology and multiple complaints, but no the same thing happened. The second night by 2:00 a.m. the dogs were yapping incessantly. So the motel solution was to transfer us to another room at 3:00 a.m. as opposed to transferring us immediately upon the issue that they never resolved the first night. I am not against dogs. But when there's an obvious issue, a dog owner should be placed at the far end of a hall and people should be warned if they have to stay next to unattended animals and given the option for another room or a whole other property. No one offered us another room until 8 hours before our final checkout, a discount, any type of compensation. This will be our last stay with the Hilton properties. We travel extensively and stay in motels over 90% of the time By far, the worst stay we ever experienced. We have had other issues in the past with Hilton properties but continued to try to give the chain the benefit of the doubt. Both Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Country Inn& suites, etc. many others are far superior in cleanliness, repair and customer service. Two nights for well over $300 in a mediocre location, maybe 4-5 hours of sleep for 2 nights with the issues....

I booked a room this past weekend at this hotel specifically to use the indoor pool. By the time we got there Saturday night, ate and got settled the pool was closed for the night. No biggie as we had some time in the morning to use it before checkout at noon. I brought my fire stick (as I do with EVERY hotel I stay at) so we could watch movies, but the internet would not connect. I finally got it connected on my phone, but even then it ran really slow and kept saying no internet connection. It wouldn’t connect to my daughter’s MacBook either, so I ended up having to use all of my hotspot data to be able to use the internet. The front desk told me the pool opened at 8am which is a little early to swim so I waited until 9:30 and brought my kids down. Wouldn’t you know the pool was suddenly closed for “maintenance”! They decided to put the chemicals in to shock the water, during the day instead of at night (or early morning) when the pool is closed. The front desk told me it would only be an hour, so we should be good to go around 10:30. I started calling at 10:30 to check the status, and waited until 11:30 before giving up and leaving. They were aware we had every intention of using the pool but never told us it was going to be closed all morning. I asked if I could check out of the room at noon but stay to use the pool for a few hours, but was told that isn’t allowed and I would need to pay for another nights stay.

So, we had no internet and couldn’t use the pool at all, which was literally the only reason I booked the room in the first place! The room itself was ok. The bathroom had an awful musty/stale smell like it hadn’t been cleaned and/or the towels hadn’t been washed in weeks. There were hairs all over the bathroom floor which indicates to me it was not swept or cleaned properly since the person before me checked out. The beds are VERY hard making it difficult to sleep comfortably. The first time we left the room it took me over a minute to get the door open because it was stuck shut. I was getting panicked and almost called the front desk but was eventually able to muscle it open. I hope management will take these reviews seriously and start putting more emphasis on clean rooms as I see uncleanliness is a common issue in most of the lower rated reviews. I also suggest performing maintenance & adding chemicals to the pool at night when it’s closed. It doesn’t seem right to advertise an indoor pool as an incentive and then close it during the day when your guests could actually use it. The price was extremely high for such a poor experience. Needless to say, I will never book at this...