Hamilton Inn Bessemer, AL - Birmingham

A front desk guy named Jeff tried to come into my room at 8 a.m. Thank God the door was latched. I heard it catch, then he closed the door again. He didn’t knock or introduce himself. I’m thankful I’m safe. I’ve contacted the property about it, but haven’t had a response yet.

The room was so loud that you could hear everything from the other rooms. The floors had heaps of dust and debris, the nightstand was covered in thick sticky liquid, and the other surface had food residue. The mattress had rust stains. It was gross, and I wouldn’t stay here again even if they paid me. Avoid it.

The manager’s response is what finally made me decide to leave this review. He took no responsibility and blamed Bryan, the old owners, and the booking website. When I mentioned the pool, he blamed the site we booked through, even though I’d also checked their own website and it showed the pool. He said he’d look into it and seemed glad to see us go. I was polite and would have forgiven the problems if he’d apologized, but he didn’t. We left a day early and won’t stay there again. The only reason I’m giving two stars is Bryan, who worked overnight, and the breakfast. The confirmation said check-in was allowed until 1 a.m. We arrived at 12:15, but Bryan couldn’t find my reservation because apparently the computer clears it at midnight. He found our printed paperwork and got us a room. I was exhausted and really appreciated his help; the booking problem wasn’t his fault. While we checked in, another guest left because the gym equipment wasn’t working. In the morning, the elevator stopped working too. The AC barely cooled the room, and we shouldn’t have been sweating at 70 degrees. We chose the place because of the pool photo on the website, but the area was just concrete. The manager said Bryan was mistaken about the check-in issue, but I was there and heard Bryan call him about it.

BEDBUGS! We checked the beds and found huge ones before we’d even been in the room long. It smelled like a feed store, and everything was stained and sticky. Absolutely disgusting. We told management right away and left for another hotel. Zero stars across the board.