Complaint Review: Hampton Inn Landfall Park - Wilmington North Carolina

Below is a letter we sent to the General Manager of the Hampton Inn Landfall Park Hotel, regarding our dissatisfaction with our stay. To date, we have not received any response at all from the General Manager or anyone else at the hotel. This hotel supposedly has a "Satisfaction Guarantee" and advertises itself as "Award Winning" and "Service is our ultimate amenity." It is clear to me that in addition to false advertising, this hotel is only out for people's money, and could not care less about guest satisfaction. We encourage you to read our letter below, and to keep this experience in mind when choosing a hotel in the Wilmington area. There are many, many other choices out there, and NONE have ever been worse than this one. Our letter follows ...

General Manager

Landfall Park Hampton Inn & Suites

1989 Eastwood Road

Wilmington, NC 28403

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing in regards to our recent experience with your hotel. In early March, we had met with your sales department and reserved a block of rooms for our wedding guests from July 17 to July 21. Hearing nothing but fabulous things about your hotel, we felt confident that we had selected a nice place for our out-of-state guests to stay. Unfortunately, however, our actual experience was quite negative.

When we arrived on Friday, July 17, we paid an additional fee to be upgraded to a suite with a fireplace and whirlpool tub (room 300). The fireplace was not operational until maintenance came by on Saturday morning to fix it, and so we were not able to use it for half of our stay. Some of the jets on the whirlpool tub were also not functioning properly, and when we turned the knobs in an attempt to get the jets working again, the knobs fell off into the water.

Overall, our suite was quite dirty. It was obvious that our bathtub had not been cleaned in some time, and certainly not before our arrival. Also, there was a great deal of mildew forming on the showerhead and whirlpool jets, and the caulking around the tub was peeling off. The kitchen was also unclean. We noticed dried food stuck all over the bottom of the breakfast bar area, as well as on the floor between the refrigerator and countertop. Also we found dirt and hair on the inside of the refrigerator.

Despite these maintenance issues, we remained hopeful that your hotel's fine service would more than make up for everything. After all, your literature boasts that service is your ultimate amenity. The first evening, we visited the bar in the lobby to relax with friends, and Jean was our bartender. Jean treated us as though we were bothering her, and making drinks for us was a major inconvenience. Every drink order was greeted with a sigh, and Jean prepared the drinks in small plastic cups so as to not have to bother washing any glassware that evening. When we requested some snack mix that we noticed behind the counter, Jean would not let us have any, and our only option was to buy our own snack mix from your sundry shop.

Still confident that good service existed in your establishment, I encouraged my aunt and uncle to take their small daughter to the pool, but they had to quickly leave due to rowdy teenagers throwing rocks and other items into the pool near where they were trying to swim. When reporting this to the front desk, no one asked the perpetrators to leave, and so my family was unable to use your pool area for their own safety.

On Saturday, July 18, your hotel staff listed our event on the sign in the lobby to welcome our wedding guests who had reserved rooms. Interestingly, however, your staff removed us from the sign on Sunday before the majority of our guests had even arrived in town for our Tuesday wedding.

Upon checking out, we informed your desk clerk about these issues. Having been informed about your 100% Satisfaction Guarantee when we booked our reservation, we felt that your hotel would at least care enough to listen to our concerns. Surprisingly, this was not the case. We simply received a blank stare and an insincere sorry bout that as your desk clerk charged our credit card for five nights (two nights for us and three for a special family member staying in another room) and sent us on our way.

We feel very deceived by your advertising. From our experience, your Hampton Inn is NOT Wilmington's best hotel and service is certainly not a priority by any means. Over the years, we have stayed at many Wilmington-area hotels, ranging from the Comfort Inn to the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort. Even the two-star-rated Comfort Inn was cleaner and friendlier than your facility. We are embarrassed that we encouraged family traveling from California, Oregon, and New York to stay at your hotel after traveling such long distances, only for them to receive similar poor service as we did.

Sincerely,

Unsatisfied Customer

North Carolina, North Carolina
U.S.A.