Hampton Inn & Suites Columbia-Downtown Historic District

UPDATED REVIEW AFTER HAMPTON RESPONSE: Attached to this review are the 2 emails I sent to the manager the day I received the letter and one month after- I never received a response from either attempt. If you check the time and date of those emails, you’ll see the first email was sent hours after the letter was slipped under my door. So to clarify, I was still a guest at the hotel after the letter was slid under my door and I took action to immediately make contact with your manager. ORIGINAL REVIEW: stayed at this location for sales training as a part of my new job with Gray Media. My company has used this hotel for years to house their new sales trainees. It was a hotel that corporate trusted to keep their media sales executives safe as the completed the final round of the Gray sales training program. Unfortunately I did not feel safe during my time at this hotel. I was the only individual from my group of 30 people to be booked in the first floor. Every night I had to stay up late to rehearse my sale pitch for training the following day, and every night I had someone on the streets of Columbia bang on my window at least once. I took necessary precautions like layering the window by pulling down both sets of blinds, but that didn’t help. On my final night I had two instances back to back where a homeless person was banging on my window and yelling at me to come outside. I had gotten to the point where I felt physically unsafe and had reported it to the management staff the next day. While I appreciated the staff for informing me of the proper steps to take in the event it happens again, I did not appreciate that the manager promised me a free night at any Hampton Inn within the country and never delivered. I had received a hand-signed letter from the manager apologizing for the issues I faced, asking what they can do to make me feel safer while staying at their hotel, and lasting asking if I’d like to utilize a free night at any Hampton Inn within the U.S., I just had to contact the manager for next steps. I contacted the manager Danielle Sander several times during the remainder of my trip in Columbia and twice more after my trip had concluded and never heard back once. For the amount of money my company spends month after month, year after year, with this hotel I expected hotel management to make good on their promise to make-up for the uncomfortable and potentially dangerous experience I had at their hotel.

Don’t believe the pictures. Other guests have posted photos of this property, they no longer have a pool. There was a very large group staying at this hotel and hotel ran out of breakfast due to being so crowded. The person serving the breakfast blamed the hotel guests for taking too much food instead of being polite and apologetic due to the lack of planning on the hotel’s part. The day we arrived it was raining and there was water leaking all over the lobby. Half of our refrigerator was hot and ruined our food. While there is parking, the lot was very crowded and employees were parking in diamond member parking. Our room was street-side and it was very noisy all day and night. We stay at Hampton brand hotels often and would say this was by far our worst experience.

Google's public photos show a pool here - but there hasn't been a pool for 2 years, beware. I did report the photo so hopefully it gets removed. My daughter was very sad about the lack of pool. The weekend we visited, a large convention was taking place and the hotel was full. We came down to eat at 8:30 am to a nearly empty breakfast food area. An employee said we should have come down earlier... On the contrary, I believe the hotel should have been better prepared. Considering breakfast started at 7 and was scheduled until 10 am, I think that running out of food AND coffee by 8:30 am is unacceptable. Finally, our room fridge seemed cool when we put items it in but found in the morning it wasn't fully working. We had to toss several newly-purchased food items. Due to all of these reasons, we checked out early and went to stay at a different hotel.

Arrive at location. Cant park at tiny packed lobby area. Park in hotel car park. Prominent signs - all hotel guests must pay by parking by phone (no exceptions). Spend 15 mns in 100f heat paying by phone. Enter hotel and they demand another 60 bucks to pay for parking. Told i am rude for querying this because its obvious they are going to give me a validation code (not mentioned before this). Can’t make it up. Responding to very misleading hotel response. First it was impossible to check in without parking in the lot and thus paying by app first, since the lobby area is tiny and was packed with cars. Second even with the validation code you still need to use the third party app.

This is an exceptional location in the historic Columbia area. We have stayed here many times while our son was a student at the University of South Carolina! This location has completely updated their presence on Gervais and Lincoln. I recommend you explore. Rita provided us a wonderful breakfast experience and welcomed us to enjoy. ❤️

Very comfortable during our stay. The room was clean and the breakfast provided was fantastic. I've got to give a special shoutout to Valencia at the front desk. She was so nice and provided amazing customer service during our visit. I look forward to coming back again!