Friday, December 16, 2022

Is the King Dead?

The complaints are piling up against the King Edward Hotel online.  Check them out.  Apparently the hotel is suffering major staffing issues.  Posted below are some of the complaints. 


My stay was last weekend. The valet guys were nice and being guest of the hotel I don’t think we should have to pay for velvet parking. The room hadn’t been cleaned from the previous quest. There were dirty socks underneath one of the beds and price tags from clothes in the covers of the other. Very disgusting to know that we were laying on dirty sheets. This is the very reason I usually take my own but I forgot to grab them before I left home. There were ants in the bathroom and the room didn’t have a fresh clean smell. We had to call the front desk 3 times for towels just to be told that we would have to come down to the desk to get them. Very disappointed. Never again will I chose this hotel.

I was staying at the Hilton Garden Inn for Jackson State University 's homecoming. The biggest event that is held in Jackson, MS. I arrived before my original checking time and was met with a sign stating that a $75 charge would be imposed to check in early. This has never been a policy at this hotel and I've been staying at this hotel during Jackson State University 's homecoming every year for the last 8 years. I refused to pay the charge since the receptionist couldn't show me in writing where this policy existed. When I got to my room, the bathroom shower walls had black mold on them and their was no housekeeping service during entire stay. The bar & restaurant closed early because they ran out of food and their was only one manager on duty the entire weekend. The GM and all of the other managers were on vacation during one of the busiest weekends. The entire hotel was sold out! The GM should be fired! How do you go on vacation during the biggest revenue weekend for Hilton Garden Inn!
The highlight of the entire weekend was the valet service. Those guys were awesome! They was really working hard make sure that people didn't wait a long time for their vehicles.
I've been a Honors member for a very long time and I've never stayed at a Hilton Hotel as bad as this one. I WILL NOT BE PATRONIZING THIS ESTABLISHMENT AGAIN!

PLEASE DO NOT STAY AT THE HILTON GARDEN INN in DOWNTOWN JACKSON!!! I was there 6/3/2022 to 6/5/2022.
The line was long at check-in and the lobby was HOT although the rest of the hotel seemed cool!!! Near midnight, there was a bug on my bed the first night (I have pics). The front desk associate said they were booked so I couldn’t change rooms.
At breakfast early the next morning, there was ONLY ONE WAITRESS AND ONE CHEF!!!! Also, it was STILL HOT! The very limited cold breakfast options are not worth the ~$11.00.
Also, they ran out of clean towels that Saturday morning.
My room didn’t have a tub, only a shower, which was not clean.
I’ve called them multiple times, and I’m STILL waiting for the manager to respond to the extra charges on my bill, and the adjustments for the first night’s stay because of the bug on my bed. I keep getting the run around.
Overall, they are short staffed, and I DO NOT RECOMMEND staying there.

Horrible, don't waste your money. They over booked the hotel and don't have enough staff to clean the rooms so that they are available at check in. As a Hilton Honor member this is the worst experience I've ever had. I arrived at 2:30 and was told I had to wait until 4pm. The front desk staff was not friendly nor did they offer water after I asked about the AC being on. I was told the reason for the lobby temperature was due to the front doors opening, it was 100° outside.
Once 4pm arrived floods of people showed up to check in only to be told their rooms were still not ready after waiting for hours. After asking what was going on I was told they have been under staffed the past two days. They were over staffed at the front desk as the staff was staniding
around talking for the 2 hours I waited for my room.
For the price they are charging per night the service does is not measure up. Ultimately I canceled the reservation and booked the Hampton Inn which had professional staff and rooms cleaned and ready which I arrived. This was a huge inconvenience to change hotels due to being town for a wedding and that was the preferred hotel selected by the bride and groom.

This hotel needs serious work. Air conditioning in the rooms was shot. Moved from the first room because the unit stopped working. The night before check-out the unit in the second room began to fail. Water in the shower and sink ran brown, had to let it run an extended amount of time before it ran clear. The hotel lobby and restaurant were infested with flies. The hotel staff discussed internal grievances while I waiting to be served. The hotel was also short-staffed. Cleaning services were not offered, which I understand, but clean towels should have been offered.

Not very recommended. When we entered the room the sink was clogged with dirty water still in it. Hairs on the bed, bedsheets didn’t seem clean. No towels. At least they brought the towels to the room after we asked the receptionist. We asked them to bring new bed sheets too but nobody came. We had to pick it up and put it on the bed ourselves. Also for toilet paper, we called about it but in the end had to get it ourselves from the reception. Tip for staff: just put a few rolls in the room during housekeeping.
When we checked in the receptionist seemed more concerned about us paying incidentals ($30 a night) instead of giving a nice welcome. A few pluses: nice historic lobby and close to the Amtrak station if you travel by train.

To start i am a diamond member have been staying at Hilton for YEARS. Front desk tried to charge me for an early check in. I declined know that is a perk of beimg diamond. I finally get a room and upon entry the room is DATED, sink is cracked, the bed sunk in the corner and I had 2 sets of towels...there were FOUR people on the reservation. I go down and ask for towels she claims she has none. I eventually get 1 set of what appear to be pool towels? I mean it was a step above a handtowel. She assures me she will bring new towels when they finish washing. The next morning still no towels. I go down and am offered again these pool towels and she tried again to only give me 2 sets for FOUR people. The ONLY positive was the bar. Those ladies made AMAZING drinks were SO kind and the Hilton could use more bartenders like them. This hotel as a whole does not live up to the Hilton standard that I have grown to know and love. And to think they wanted 140+tax a night! Save yourself and your family and do not stay at this location. And to Hilton you need to void this contract. This is how you lose loyal members.

There are more similar complaints online.  Hate to see this happen. 

 

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why does this surprise anyone?

Anonymous said...


Why would ANYONE stay anywhere in Jackson?

Anonymous said...

Mannnn, I got a bug on my bed...can I get a free room?

Anonymous said...

We recently stayed at the Candlewood Suites in Flowood and had a similar experience due to staffing problems. It is good to read reviews before you book.

Anonymous said...

Staffing issues are not uncommon in the service industry. Also the daiquiri bar really killed this hotel off. Sickening really how the mayor allowed it to happen. This mayor has really hurt Jackson in more ways than people can understand

Anonymous said...

This is the result of too much Katrina GoZone money and new market tax credit money. Economic incentives override the economic feasability of a project. Works great until incentives run out, then the true economics of the project come to light. This project was a bad project from the beginning.

Anonymous said...

who wants to bet these reviews are fake?

Anonymous said...

I'm shocked they have remained open as long as they have.

Anonymous said...

Forty years to get this hotel back to its original beauty.
Five years to crumble it back down.

Anonymous said...

What's this got to do with the King Edward. Half the posts only mention the Hilton Garden Inn? Is it the same place?

As to 'why would anybody stay in Jackson', this crowd is at home in Jackson.

Anonymous said...

@8:56am - The mayor does.not.care. This is all a grift to him until he leaves for something better in another state. The citizens of Jackson do not care that he is doing this and/or they’re too dumb to see through his lies.

Stop patronizing Jackson businesses. Let them fail. The smart ones have already left and the ones that are left need to fail in order for Jackson to hit rock bottom. Once that’s happens, maybe the citizens wake up and/or the feds step in. This is going to happen eventually regardless. The faster everything fails, the faster the adults will come in to fix things. The water plant fiasco was a small microcosm of what needs to happen to the city as a whole.

Anonymous said...

Not yet

Anonymous said...

I have no doubt the hotel staff is garbage. The majority of the citizens in Jackson don't want a job so it makes sense that the ones that bother to show up are not stellar or are over worked.

That said, I am often amazed at horror story reviews on a hotel when my experience was wonderful. Same for restaurants too for that matter. Some of them are no doubt warranted, but there really are a lot of horrible humans with impossible expectations so I take most of this drama with a grain of salt.

That said, in Jackson...its probably accurate.

Anonymous said...

I just returned from my annual bachelor’s tour of Asia.
I have never once had bad service in Phuket, Bali, Angeles City, or Saigon!

It is really depressing to come back and see what the Democrats have done to this great nation.

Anonymous said...

Lower y’all’s expectations, it’s all gonna get a lot worse from here.

Anonymous said...

@9:28 AM - Bachelor's tour of Asia (Translation: Sex tourism).

Anonymous said...

This is fake outrage.

While I want to encourage people to stay in Jackson and not in Madison or Flowood, is anyone surprised with shitty service and bad attitudes in Jackson?

Anonymous said...

Four years ago we came to the metro area to house hunt. We are loyal Hilton Garden Inn customers, but one look at that location made the decision to not stay there easy. We stayed at a Marriott property in Ridgeland.

Now I won't even drive in Jackson. No thanks.

@9:17 AM is correct. Jackson needs to hit bottom before it can rise back up to its former greatness.

Downtown Blunt said...

Economic incentives override the economic feasability of a project. Works great until incentives run out, then the true economics of the project come to light.

BINGO! We have a Winner!

There's a reason why private capital won't touch these projects without what is effectively, when all is said and done, taxpayer funding.

Funny that none of the progressives and woke crowd call out these tax credits schemes when you consider that 'the rich' are neck deep in the benefits.

What's that you say? Many of the tax credit beneficiaries are rich white Democrats?

Shhhhhhhh.

Anonymous said...

This is why I sleep in my tent under High Street

Anonymous said...

The State should buy it and tear it down.

Anonymous said...

I know a guy who rented in the Standard Life and had his car broken into regularly next door at the paid King Edward "secure" parking, after he believed in the Boomer/Hipster Dream of urban bliss. He moved back to suburbia.

Open Google Maps. Go to Street view for Capitol Street across from the hotel. Look at brightly painted, "well maintained" (but closed) "shops" across the street.

Then go to Satellite view and zoom into the reality that those "shops" are just patched up store fronts in front of the entirely collapsed building of junk behind. Potemkin Village.

Any view out of the windows shows the decay of a broken city filled with druggies and homeless. Shelters just next door. Falling down buildings everywhere, to complement the potholes and potheads.

So, why does this environment, with only a partial hotel, not attract the "up and coming" in hotel management? It's a craphole city, and a craphole job, with "clubs" next door and burnouts and shootouts nightly. Duh.

Anonymous said...

99.9% of these complaints are totally legit. But a couple popped out to me as a little silly. I've worked in hotels my entire life. 1) Charging for valet parking is pretty normal in a downtown area. 2) Everybody overbooks. Most of the time it works out, sometimes it doesn't, nobody cancels. When I worked at the Crowne Plaza downtown there was many a night we paid for someone to stay for free at the Millsaps Buie House. It is what it is.

Anonymous said...

@9:28 has a point. Work ethic is gone. There are certainly some hard working folks out there. They are doing well and making money. They are constantly criticized and told they are a problem. Then you have too many freeloaders who won't work at all, or work in a lazy manner and then gripe about how society is holding them down and everyone should pay a living wage.

All of the government handouts created a large group of society with no incentive to produce or achieve.

Anonymous said...

I noticed the "reviews" seemed to be of the Google variety, and they're quite standard. I regularly patronize Hilton properties around the country, and it's no surprise to me housekeeping is an issue for the property. If anyone on this thread tried checking into a Hilton (or any other) property on the Coast this summer, they'd know. Saying that, you should always avoid booking through third-party sites like Priceline or Orbitz in order to be sure any complaints can be filed with the corporate entity directly.

HOWEVER, these complaints are ENTIRELY a function of the business--not Jackson. Seriously, not having towels is a HUGE problem for a hotel, and that's not Chokwe's fault no matter the dismal failure he is at governing.

Anonymous said...

So no one mentions the free Dodge Charger and Camaro drag races and burn outs as free entertainment? What about the free atv and dirt bike races? Both with free marksmanship displays. Glass half full I guess.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, this is par for the course with many hotels in modern-day post-pandemic America. In the last two years I have experienced bedbugs at the Peabody, uncleaned showers in two fairly new Hampton Inns, and blood stains on the sheets at Margaritaville. Hotel service is going the way of restaurant service. I basically gave up on getting my money back from Pizza Hut after they didn't deliver my food a few weeks ago. I called the store, filled out Pizza Hut's national customer service form three times, and called their national customer service complaint hotline. I'm still out $47.

I realize that many service workers work their asses off and do a good job, but the number of people in the industry that just don't care has gone way up and the number of folks willing to work in the industry at all has gone way down.

Anonymous said...

This summer I stayed at a so-called premium hotel in downtown Atlanta. The first room they put me in had no working air-conditioning. The second had wet stinking carpet. I left and went to a cheaper motel on the perimeter. It was nice. There was a time when you could count on brand name downtown hotels for comfortable lodging. Those days are gone. The name means nothing. Downtown is trash, the hotels are trash too.

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile, just down the street in front of the Mayflower around 12:30 this afternoon, a young, no doubt drugged-out vagrant was pissing into the street.
As if that weren't enough, a JPD patrol car passed right in front of the urinating youth, and the officer was either unobservant or just didn't give a damn. The Mayflower had been our destination for lunch, but after seeing that, we decided to elsewhere. It's no wonder the King Edward is struggling.

Anonymous said...

It’s sad what liberal voters have done to this City, while they flee to the suburbs and leave the ruins behind for the poor they supposedly care so much about.

Anonymous said...

I’m a longtime Hilton Honors client with Hampton Inn being my first choice from recent stays at Garden Inn in Rochester, Mn, Hampton in Tn, Ms, NC & Al- all superior properties with excellent staff & management. I’ve learned that many travelers have faulty expectations & treat employees badly.

Anonymous said...

Went downtown briefly a few weekends ago for my granddaughter's event.
First time I had been in the city in over a year.

Broad daylight, two (methamphetamine fans) vagrants (one male, one female) got into a fist fight in the street and and I guess since she was winning, he tried to push her into oncoming traffic.

Not denying crime and mental health is a complicated issue and there is enough blame to land on many, but I can't imagine what folks that live in Jackson see on a daily basis.

Anonymous said...

These Jackson residents who are urinating in the streets...It's too bad they can't contribute to the artistic reality of downtown by at least writing their names on the concrete. (In cursive)

Anonymous said...

It's radical......and yes, crime is just a perception!

Anonymous said...

The left always says if you want better employees pay them more. So I’m expecting King Edward to be giving big raises to its employees soon to improve their service.

Anonymous said...

@3:04, I have lived in Jackson since 1978. I have never witnessed a fight or a crime of any sort. Nor has anyone ever threatened me or my family. Nor have we been victims of a crime. There is crime in Jackson, but it is not the place you describe.

Anonymous said...

@8:19 AM - Safiya, thanks for checking in.

Anonymous said...

Who would want to work there? The employees are at risk of their cars broken into, carjacked, robbed, etc.

Anonymous said...

I usually stay at a Hilton brand hotel because they do a good job of keeping them well maintained. Because of that, I wonder how much of this is true and how much of this is an agenda for certain hotel guests.

Anonymous said...

@8:19 what part of Jackson do you live in? Because I’ve seen that in all 3 counties.

Anonymous said...

8:19 is a marxist troll working for the mayor. Simply put, and we all know this, the socialists and marxists continually monitor this blog to keep check on how the people who abide by Rule of Law react to crime and “other” issues caused by inept leadership. I am a mid 50’s business owner who will NOT perform any business inside the city limits of Jackson ever again. The cost of doing business in the city is not worth it.

Anonymous said...

Velvet parking?
Someone travels with their own sheets?
A "diamond member" who books 4 to a room? Hate to think how long it takes you to all use one bathroom.
High room rates? You expect 5 star accommodations for their room rate? Been to a Trump hotel?
Valet charges are not uncommon these days for secured parking.
The staff can't read minds? You can't ask for water?
Cleaning issues and maintenance are legitimate complaints. Staffing is no doubt a national problem but given the comments, I suspect the "approach" to the staff who showed up didn't put the tired and overworked in the most helpful frame of mind.
I find being sympathetic and leading with " I hate to bother you when you are so overworked today but...and a bit of patience and friendly attitude gets me what I need everytime! Indeed, sometimes, more than I ask to receive!
But, y'all just keep putting people on the defensive...that just makes them happier to see ME!

Anonymous said...

As a former business owner in Jackson with multiple locations I can attest that December 16, 9:17 AM’s “Stop patronizing Jackson businesses. Let them fail” is absolutely correct.

Left Jackson 2 decades ago and it was one of the very best decisions ever made.

Democrats destroy everything. Problem is they end not wanting to live in the cities they destroy, so they move to a red city/state, then start destroying it.

Anonymous said...

8:19 called me a liar and backed it up with his/her/they/them own anecdotal experience.

I guess we will just have to believe you are the truth teller and I am the liar.

Goodness...How on earth did Jackson get such a bad rap when you and your experience of a crime free life since 1978 is the factual truth?



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