Complaint Review: Hampton Inn - Chattanooga Tennessee

I am very unhappy with the way the Hampton Inn Downtown Chattanooga has treated our company in the past. I make travel arrangements for my entire company located in downtown Chattanooga. I also make in-town reservations for those employees who are not located in TN. The most recent problem with this establishment took place on Nov. 14th, 2005. I had made reservations over the phone the day before (Nov. 13th) afternoon for 3 nights for one of our employees. The gentlemen called late the evening (the Hampton Inn), he was scheduled to arrive and said that he probably would not be able to check-in that evening. He wanted to see if it was possible to cancel the first night's reservation but keep the other 2 nights reserved. Before he could say anything else... the lady on the other end told him that she had two other lines ringing and four people at the counter and told him to hold. Then she placed him on hold before he could respond back to her. Did not ask to hold and actually interrupted the caller before he could say anything else. When she came back to the line (6 1/2 minutes later), her EXACT response was "What do you want?". Is this the way your establishment treats its guests. Is this the special TRAINING that managers have to go through before they can be a manager at a Hampton Inn? When the gentlemen guest FINALLY got to speak he asked if it would be possible for him to check in a day late due to traffic and his own personal safety, causing him not to arrive on time. He still wanted to keep his reservation with the hotel but would not be able to check in that evening as planned. The lady replied with that she had already cancelled his entire reservation and he would have to give her all the information again if he wanted to re-reserve his original reservation. He argued with the lady for a moment or two that he did not request to cancel his entire reservation but just the first night. She argued back and said that she did what he asked and cancelled his entire reservation. At this point the guest is pretty furious at this whole situation and at the Hampton Inn. He then asked to whom he was speaking with (Rebekah Sisk Assistant Manager) so when he sent in a formal complaint that he had the name of which he was speaking with. At this point, he has realized that he would just give on this establishment entirely due to previous problems with this particular Manager. He hung up the phone and found an establishment that WANTED HIM TO STAY THERE.

This is not the first complaint I have had with your establishment. In fact, I have had two other complaints from different guests I have placed in your establishment. Another complaint is from the same gentlemen as above and with Ms. Sisk approximately two months ago. He came in from a long drive to check-in at the Hampton Inn Downtown Chattanooga late one weekday evening and as he was trying to check in (Ms. Sisk was the attendant at the check-in desk) Ms. Sisk let him know that she did not have a reservation for him at that particular establishment. He then asked Ms. Sisk if there were any other Hampton Inn near the area to see at which location his reservation was at. Ms. Sisk called the Hampton Inn located on Lookout Mountain and verified that he did have a reservation at that establishment. He then asked if that (Downtown) Hampton Inn had any rooms for the time he would be there and she looked up some information and found out that they did have some rooms available. He then asked to see if he could cancel the reservation at the location on Lookout Mountain and just stay at the Downtown establishment since he was already there and it seemed closer to his work location. She then let him know that they were not allowed to do that and he would have to go stay at the Lookout Mountain location. Could she not just have cancelled his reservation to the other location while on the phone with them? Is it that much of a conflict? You would think that she would want to help this gentlemen who is wanting to stay in HER location rather than another. I thought the purpose of a business was to draw people IN not push them away?

The third and final complaint to the Hampton Inn Downtown comes from a different gentlemen who use to work for us. He was staying at the Hampton Inn, Downtown location for his stay in early August of this year. One weekday evening he was preparing to go to bed and was extremely startled as he was brushing his teeth. As he was brushing his teeth, a Hampton Inn male manager just opened his door wide opened and he too was startled to find that there was someone occupying the room. He then saw the guest and immediately shut the door. No apologize for the surprise or inconvenience, it was at least 11:30pm. Just a slammed door in the guest's face. Needless to say, the next day the guest let me know that he would not be staying at that establishment EVER AGAIN. I would imagine that Hampton Inn employees would know which rooms that would be used by guests. I can not imagine that they do not keep up with that. And what I still can't figure out is why was the manager evening entering the room at 11:30pm at night? The guest checked out of the Hampton Inn the next morning and vowed not to ever stay there again.

This particular establishment has definitely given many headaches over the past six months. I am writing to let you know what kind of business you are losing to your employees and to let you know so that you can fix it. Every business has problems but until you identify them and fix them, the problems will continue on. I am writing in hopes that your company does something with the information I am giving them and tries to better itself.

Kimberly

Chattanooga, Tennessee
U.S.A.