Hampton Inn Atlanta-Northlake

The lobby doesn’t look especially modern at first, but the room changed my impression: it was clean and the beds were comfortable. The location is great, and breakfast was quite decent. I only wish the pool had been open. It’s officially spring, and the weather isn’t that bad.

We usually choose Hampton Inn when we travel, but this one was a letdown. On arrival, the sheets were stained. The desk didn’t offer to remake the bed, just handed us fresh sheets to put on ourselves, saying this crew never changes them as they should. The toilet seat was broken and loose, the shower curtain bar was pulling out of the wall, the bathroom ceiling had stains, and our window curtain kept breaking. The beds were very hard, and gnats were in our room all week. At breakfast there were gnats in the pastry container and on the pastries. The breakfast chairs were badly stained and needed cleaning too. The hotel says it’s newly renovated, but it looked more like fresh paint over areas that still need attention. Housekeeping took or threw away our whole bag of road snacks. When we complained, management questioned us like criminals and wanted to interrogate the cleaning crew as if we were lying, instead of simply covering the $15-$20 worth of snacks. We never heard back from management. Wouldn’t recommend it.

This is my new low among Hampton Inns. I usually stay at them almost exclusively, and about six months ago I wrote about the nicest one I’d visited. Here, I found roaches in my room after I’d settled into bed with the lights off. I killed one, then noticed several more. The front desk person was nice and moved me to another room, but seemed very relaxed about the complaint, as if it wasn’t a surprise. The replacement room seems free of bugs, but the Hampton Inn sign sits right outside the window. That wouldn’t be an issue if there were curtains, but all it has is a see-through shade. Apart from those two problems, it’s an average Hampton Inn.

The walls are thin, so I could hear people talking as they walked past during the night. Still, the bed was comfy enough and the bathroom was nice. Breakfast is free with plenty of choices, and there are lots of places to eat nearby. A decent stay.