Hampton Inn & Suites Buffalo

We won't stay here again. I run a six-person field maintenance crew for a frac company. We have a couple of frac crews nearby and spend about five days in the area. The beds were somewhat comfortable and the rooms were clean, but those are the only positives. After we checked in, I learned that three of my guys had rooms without refrigerators or microwaves, and two others had no microwave. We work 12-14 hour days and bring groceries so we don't have to go back out when we're exhausted. I managed to move two of the three men into rooms with fridges. I had to share a fridge with another guy a couple of doors away. The front desk woman said management had decided the rooms didn't need fridges or microwaves. She also said I should've booked a king room, since those have the appliances. That's useful to know after the fact. It sounds to me like management is being cheap and refusing to replace equipment as it breaks.

The daytime staff are great, and we've been coming here with a very large group for an event for three years running. This is the group's host hotel, and most attendees and their families stay here, often for four nights. I feel like our group brings in at least half, probably more, of the hotel's yearly income. That is a lot to risk losing over one employee. The night desk clerk is unbelievably rude, and people in our group who've stayed here longer say it's been going on for quite a while. She seems to want total silence so she can sit alone in the dark lobby watching TV. Our respectful group of adults, ages 50 to 80, meets in the early evening for a friendly card game and is always done before 10 p.m. She complains that we're too loud. There's a meeting room that has never been in use during our visits, but asking to use it is treated like we're asking for a $5,000-per-hour presidential suite. We've only been allowed in twice across the 12 nights my husband and I have stayed over three years. On this trip, she even fussed at about eight of us just talking in the lobby at 4:30 in the afternoon. Asking for two extra washcloths is a problem too. She wants your room number before reluctantly handing them over, like a towel cop who thinks we're immature enough to steal cheap towels and are cutting into her paycheck. A couple of years ago, when someone asked for extra towels, she rudely asked what they needed them for. Something needs to change before this hotel loses a major source of income.

Fine for one night. The air conditioning worked well, the breakfast was good, and the location was convenient. The water was hot with good pressure, and there weren't any strange stains or hairs on the towels or bedding. The room had an odd smell, kind of mildew mixed with cheap cleaning products. There was mystery gunk on the walls, the shower looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a while, and the floors were sticky, even in the bathroom. It looked like they hadn't mopped for a while either.

The hotel was responsible for the reservation problem, not Expedia, even though the front desk employee told me not to book through Expedia again. I’d made the reservation there and still couldn’t check in. A really awful experience.