Hampton Inn & Suites Williamsburg-Central — Hotel in Williamsburg

I recently stayed at the Hampton Inn on Bypass Road in Williamsburg, VA, and I am deeply disappointed with my experiences during both visits.

During my first visit from June 21 to June 23, 2024, we traveled almost three hours to reach the hotel, looking forward to a pleasant visit to Busch Gardens. Upon arrival shortly after 3 PM, we were disappointed to find that our room was not ready, despite the check-in time. We waited in the lobby for over 20 minutes, which was particularly challenging for me due to my disability that makes it difficult to stand for extended periods.

Once we were finally able to access our room, we encountered several issues. The water temperature was not as hot as expected, and there were no pool towels available, forcing me to navigate through the hotel wet and cold. Additionally, the WiFi frequently failed to log me in, and my mobile data reception was poor. The breakfast on Saturday morning was cold and not up to standard, leading us to seek breakfast elsewhere on Sunday, incurring additional expenses.

I always stay at Hilton-branded hotels due to their reputation for accommodating guests, especially those with disabilities. My previous experiences with Hampton Inn, such as at the Fort Lauderdale location, have been positive. The staff at Fort Lauderdale even allowed me to use the pool at night to accommodate my sensory issues. However, the Williamsburg location did not accommodate my request to use the pool at night, despite offering to use the indoor pool to avoid disturbing other guests.

Despite these issues, I decided to give the hotel another chance and booked a second stay from July 05 to July 07, 2024, for another trip to Busch Gardens. Fortunately, this time we received our room almost immediately upon arrival. However, this visit was even more disappointing.

The WiFi connectivity in our room continued to be unreliable. Both nights of our stay, we encountered issues with the TV. Many channels did not work properly, displaying a pixelated screen that I documented with photos. When I informed the associate on duty, she suggested that weather conditions might be affecting the signal, citing the presence of clouds. However, the hotel uses Cox Cable, not satellite TV, and weather should not affect cable service in this manner. Despite attempting to use my streaming box, which utilized my own mobile data due to improved reception in my room, I was informed by the associate that I was not allowed to use it. This left me confused and frustrated, as I was willing to use my personal data network instead of the hotel's WiFi, which should not have posed any bandwidth issues.

The associate provided a different remote, but it did not allow me to change to HDMI. She then informed me I could not use my streaming box, even with my own data, without providing a clear reason. She assured me she would follow up regarding the TV issues but never did. Upon returning from Busch Gardens on Saturday night, I informed her again that the TV was still not working. She said she would look into it but never got back to me.

We were forced to watch a random channel to fall asleep as I cannot sleep with the TV off. Several times the TV's picture would get stuck, but the audio would play. Attempts to turn off the TV using the remote were unsuccessful, and pressing the power button on the TV itself did not work either. Ultimately, we had to unplug the TV to reboot it.

Although the hotel accommodated my request to use the pool on Saturday morning during my second stay, this does not mitigate the numerous issues we faced during both visits.

Given these circumstances, I am deeply disappointed with my experiences at this location. I hope that the management takes these concerns seriously and makes the necessary improvements to ensure a better experience for...

We were so excited to find this hotel as it looked pretty new and very upscale to start our (very) hard earned (and rare) family vacation. The front desk area is very open and beautiful and there was very helpful handouts laying out on a table regarding restaurants and attractions. We encountered several other guests coming in and out of the front of the building during our stay and they were dressed nice. Most smile, some spoke and all were very nice to interact with. I sincerely hope the following was just our unfortunate experience: Our six year old Daughter was scraped badly on her outer thigh on the ladder or something nearby in the 5' section of the pool. My wife took our daughter to the front desk and all the clerk said was "sorry" and smiled politely. I see now that this was most likely a training issue. In our opinion, the pool should have been closed temporarily and maintenance should have checked the ladder and the area surrounding it for whatever was sharp enough to cause the injury. Unless they have found it on their own, this problem most likely still exists. As far as the room, because it was getting late and we still had to find dinner somewhere, we did not check the room first. This is a personal policy for my wife and I as we work in a similar industry, however we have always had good experiences with the Hampton product. We relied on this too heavily in this situation: The bathroom floor in our suite was incredibly sticky right in front of the tub. The mirrored door to the closet was off-track and the mirrors were grossly dirty and a drink had been spilled up the wall nearby This apparently was not noticed by housekeeping. The coffee table and desk tops were streaked and looked like they had been wiped with a dirty rag. The room felt "icky" and "sticky" during our stay. I cleaned the bath floor myself with some window cleaner from my car and we avoided the closet. The hair dryer was missing the piece that holds the filter in the back and the water reservoir on the iron was cracked and leaked water. The refrigerator also rocked badly. Ironically, there was a curling and totally unfresh looking (sticky looking) post-it note in the room stating something about how fresh and clean the room was and that it had been prepared exclusively for our stay (this WOULD have been a nice touch). We noticed a housekeeper working on our quadrant of the floor and she seemed to be completing tasks in a somewhat lazy manner. The bathroom light has a strange new-type switch/nightlight and the light would not come on sometimes. Though I should not have listened, my wife insisted I not to say anything due to the reception at the front desk regarding our Daughter's injury. I agreed only if she went along with checking out the next day and finding something else. I tried to explain to her, being a manager in a similar industry myself, that I would want to know if a guest had this type of experience. Happy wife = happy life won out at the time, however I still regret not going downstairs the next morning and asking to speak with the GM. I could have gotten this corrected for the next guest as I am sure some of the issues with the room still exist. I give the hotel two stars only because of how nice and new the hotel looks overall and how nice and respectful the other guests were. I have to believe this is a suite that is not used very often. I also can't bring myself to believe the other guests we saw would have put up with this or that the other rooms have this many problems. We were in a...

July 2023 Vacation Stay: 5 days/4 nights Good Stuff • The hotel inside and out is very clean and landscaped beautifully. No litter, lots of flowers and fauna. Very good appearance. Two pools, one inside, one outside, and a hot tub. Convenient parking and lots of it. Attentive front desk folks. I felt safe here. • The breakfast was always top notch. Very good. Coffee available 24/7 from the lobby. Very clean and nice exercise room. This bears repeating because it’s important to me: The breakfast was always great. • The room A/C was very good. Outside, it was 93°, room temp was a nice 70° • Our room was large and had plenty of towels in the bathroom. There was also an iron and ironing board for use in the room. • Available: Room Service. This is rare. • Location to the Williamsburg tourist areas was excellent.

Bad Stuff • OMG. The entire hotel temperature outside of our room was in the 90°s. This was INside, not outside! Breakfast room included, at 8am. No building A/C. What? Try eating breakfast at 7am when it’s 90° inside the dining room - terrible. This was every day, all week. This single thing would prevent me from every going back there. • NO room mini fridge, no room microwave. I have never stayed at a Hampton Inn without both or either one. I just expect it. This was almost a deal breaker, but fortunately we got through 5 days with a cooler and lots of ice. So noted – the 3rd floor ice machine never failed. • The bathroom sink needed to be running a FULL10 minutes or MORE in order to start some hot water. No kidding. The shower did not seem to have this problem. Very inconvenient. Also, about the bathroom, there was no air vent/fan. When you took a shower, the steam just collected – no where to escape. I have also found this same thing at other Hampton Inns. I just don’t understand why there is no way to suck out the hot, humid air. • This is just me I guess, but the showers only had large bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash for all guests to use, glued to the shower wall. Nope, not for me. I prefer my own personal bar soap and shampoo instead of sharing with everybody. • No daily housekeeping service. This is the new Hampton/Hilton policy. The maids cleaned and tidied rooms every 5 days. We could call the front desk if we needed fresh towels, but otherwise, nope. I guess this is the sign of the times. I could excuse housekeeping every other day, or even every third day, but not a full five days there. To me, this is just not acceptable. No housekeeping for us at all - for a full FIVE days.

Conclusion • Clearly, this was the worst Hampton experience I’ve ever had. Knowing what I know now, I would not have picked this hotel, with so many other choices in the immediate area.

• Out of 10, I would score this...