Hampton Inn Seattle/Southcenter: Not the Best Stay

Recently Tim and I stayed at Hampton Inn Seattle/Southcenter while visiting the kids. We decided to get a hotel because we usually end up hanging out with the kids until around 9pm and then drive home. It gets hard sometimes because we drive 3.5 hours up, play with the kids for 4ish hours, and then drive 3.5 hours back. This time, we decided to get a hotel. We figured we could explore Seattle a little bit (safely, of course) and visit Pike Place Market before driving back home. We found a super good deal online and figured it was because of the whole Covid situation, that they were offering deals to get guests in the door. Ha. Not quite. Based on our experience, it made us wonder if guests were avoiding the hotel due to substandard cleaning procedures and bad customer service.

Arriving at the Hotel

When we first arrived at Hampton Inn Seattle/Southcenter, we were pleased with what we saw. The front entry was spacious, clean, and very well-designed. Plexiglass separated us from the front desk clerk and there were cups for sanitized and used pens. Checking in went smoothly and we found our room with ease. The only things we didn’t like so far were that the carpets in the hallway were in serious need of a cleaning and the hallway smelled very strongly of marijuana. 

We quickly placed our things in the room and headed out to drive around Seattle. Taking the stairs, we were blasted with an even stronger smell or marijuana. It was so gross. The room didn’t smell, so we felt fortunate for that small favor.

After spending the afternoon and evening with the kids, we made it back to Hampton Inn Seattle/Southcenter. A’s bed broke just before we were to leave, so Tim spent about 30-40 minutes trying to fix it. Because of the bed breaking, we were there a lot later than we usually were. We got back to the hotel after midnight and were super exhausted.

Room 202 Issues

Shortly after getting ready for bed and winding down for the evening, the room began to feel stuffy. We messed with the air unit under the window and on the wall, but neither of them worked. We called down to the front desk to ask if there was a trick to get the air unit to work. The gentleman who answered told us how to use it, which was exactly what we’d been doing. When we confirmed it still didn’t work,he offered to move us to a different room. He was very polite and apologized for this issue. We declined, thinking we’d be okay and that someone would come look at it the next day.

Upon returning to Hampton Inn Seattle/Southcenter the following day, we saw that the air unit still wasn’t working. Since the room had become too stuffy to sleep comfortably the night before, I called down to request another room. This female front desk clerk was a little short with me, but moved us to another room. 

When I went to get the key to the new room, the clerk asked that I call her after we’d moved to the new room so she could go take pictures of any damage to the room, which was super weird. In all my travels, I’ve never had someone tell me they were going to take pictures of the room. It made me concerned about whether or not they were going to claim we had damaged the room somehow.

Moving Rooms

When I called to let her know we’d moved to the new room, I let her know that I also took pictures of the room and had made notes about our experience. We were concerned about being charged for the broken air unit. She immediately started getting snotty. She told me if I’d bothered reporting the air unit issue on the first night instead of the second, all this hassle could have been avoided. That really irritated me. When I told her I’d called and spoken to a young man the night before, she retorted that there were no notes about such a phone call and that they always noted when guests called about issues. It was so ridiculous.

I AGAIN told her we called down to report the non-working air unit and let her know roughly what time. She continued being snotty and saying there were no notes about the call I’d made the previous night. I asked her to please make a note of the issue so it could be resolved for the next guest.

I was trying to be polite, but man, this was such an irritating phone call. Why on earth was she arguing that I hadn’t made a phone call about the broken air unit? What’s so hard about saying “I don’t have a note regarding your previous call. I’ll go ahead and make a note now to get the air unit fixed?” Why did she have to make it sound like she thought I was lying?

Before hanging up, I also let her know about a large pile of towels in the hall outside our room. It looked like housekeeping dumped towels from several rooms in the hall and just left them there.

Room 241

Getting Settled

After I got off the phone, we started getting settled into the room. While doing so, we started noticing things. 

• There was black gunk on the little shelf in the shower.
• A dead ant on the shower faucet.
• Black hairs in the toilet and sink.
• Residue on the sink.
• Dirt and black hairs on the floor. 

I called down to tell the front desk clerk about the state of the bathroom. She said she would bring bleach wipes up for me to clean the bathroom. No apology, nothing. Just “I’ll bring you some bleach wipes so you can clean it up.”

When the front desk clerk came to the door, I pointed out the towels in the halls and showed her the black gunk on the washcloth from when I wiped down the sink in the bathroom. She asked if we wanted to change rooms again and we said no. It had been a long day, it was late, and we were exhausted.

I’ve worked hotel housekeeping before. My guess was housekeeper had been interrupted while cleaning the bathroom and forgot he/she hadn’t finished when they came back to the room. I bleach wiped the shelf in the shower, the toilet, and the sink and we went to bed.

Getting Ready to Leave

In the morning, we were in for a bigger shock. Due to the limited light in the room the night before, we hadn’t realized just how dirty the room really was. It wasn’t a case of housekeeping forgetting where they were, it was a case of “we only changed the bed and put up new towels.”

• There was exploded soda residue in the fridge.
• The air unit had gunk oozing down the side of it.
• The top of the air unit had gunk on it.
• The dresser and desk had a layer of dirt on them.
• The dresser had gunk on it.
• The light switch was super dirty.
• The night stand had gunk on it
• The bedspread had a stain on it.

It was hard to get photos of some of the dirtiness. Here area couple before and after to show it wasn’t just our imaginations.

While I got ready to leave, Tim started inspecting the room a bit more. There was gunk and dirtiness on every surface. Even the “Cleaned and disinfected for your comfort and protection” sign was dirty.

AND…….the pile of towels was still in the hall across from our room.

Checking Out

When we went to check out, we definitely complained about the lack of cleanliness. The front desk clerk, the same one from the night before, brushed it off like it was no big deal. Seriously? There was no “I’ll bring your concern up with the head of housekeeping so they can look into it.” What we got was “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it now.”

We asked to talk to a manager and she said a manager was there, but that her last day at the hotel was in a few days, so she had no authority to do anything for us. The front desk clerk repeatedly told us the general manager was there, but that she was on the phone and couldn’t help us because she had no authority. Taking a peek at the phone lines showed none were lit up. It was so infuriating.

Eventually, the front desk clerk called the team lead, who apparently has more authority than the GM? The front desk clerk let me talk to the team lead after she got ahold of her. The team lead said that until they get a new manager, she’s the acting office manager.

Dirty Hall Towels Explained

During the phone call, I was telling the team lead about the dirty room and the large pile of towels sitting in the hall that was there all night. The front desk clerk said “yeah, that’s a long-term guest. He does that often.” When I expressed my surprise that this was a known issue that keeps happening, the front desk clerk said “that is none of your business and it’s not your place to report it to my supervisor.”

When I repeated this to the team lead, the front desk clerk then began mocking me, saying rude things, and then laughing at me when I told the team lead how she was treating me. The team lead apologized, said she could hear the entire exchange, and offered a full refund due to the poor quality of our stay, both for the unclean room and the rude treatment by staff. I had wanted to ask for a refund, but hadn’t gotten there yet, so it was nice she offered one to us after how insanely rude the front desk clerk was.

Refund Hassle

Several days later, I called to check the status of our refund and was told that it had been declined by the general manager. You know, the one we’d been told didn’t have authority to do anything for guests. Apparently she had enough authority to deny the refund the team lead had offered us. The team lead sounded surprised when she told me and said that since she was the one who offered us the refund, that she would honor the refund. She said it would take about a week to show up on our account.

Imagine my surprise when instead of a refund, there were TWO additional charges for our stay.

After I saw the two additional charges for the stay at Hampton Inn Seattle/Southcenter, I called the hotel and was surprised that the same unpleasant front desk clerk answered the phone. I declined to give her my name after she told me the team lead wasn’t in and instead emailed the team lead to let her know there had been a mistake. I asked for her to please send me a printout showing the refund of all three charges in case I needed to dispute the charges with my bank.

Soon after, even though I’d been told by the front desk clerk that she wasn’t in, the team lead called me back, apologized for the issue, and explained what I would be seeing on the printout she was emailing to me. She said there was a glitch in the system and it had auto-charged us when she had processed the refund before. I thanked her for her help with all of this and hoped for the best. Several days later, there were three credits for the three charges on our credit card.

Final Thoughts

I have stayed in a lot of hotels, hostels, and resorts in Europe, Asia, Mexico, Canada, the US, and the Bahamas. I have never once had a hotel room that was as filthy as the one at Hampton Inn Seattle/Southcenter, nor dealt with staff as rude and unhelpful as the front desk clerk. Both my husband and I have 10+ years of customer service each and would never dream of treating a customer the way the front desk clerk did. 

Imagine being told a genuine sanitation issue in a hotel isn’t a guest’s place to be concerned about or tell anyone about after being told that a long-term guest regularly leaves large piles of dirty towels in the hall for 24 hours. And then being laughed at when you tell the supervisor that this same person is mocking you and being rude to you. It’s abhorrent. 

My husband and I have decided that due to our experience at Hampton Inn Seattle/Southcenter, we will avoid staying at another Hampton Inn. He doesn’t even want to stay at any Hilton hotel because of how awful this experience was. If they’re okay with a hotel smelling the way this one did, don’t follow basic room-cleaning procedures, don’t clean their rooms as stated on their pandemic response sheets, and allow staff who was witnessed being rude to customers to remain employed there, we do not want to give out business to them.