We went to San Antonio for Thanksgiving to see my in-laws, and have Thanksgiving with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, who have a brand new baby only 1 week old! Obviously, we would not want to have 2 screaming infants in the same house for 3 nights so Christian and I made reservations at a Hampton Inn right down the road from their house.

First of all, let me say that I really like Hampton Inns because they have great continental breakfasts, meaning that you do not have to leave the hotel super early. This was also important to us because Little Sir HATES riding in the car, and hates the car seat. So if we could eat breakfast without having to take an additional trip in the car, that would be great. Also, Hampton Inns are typically clean and well run.

Well, Thanksgiving Day night, after a heinous 6 hours in the car with a screaming baby and some time with family, Christian drove to the Hampton Inn Northwood from his sister’s house to check in to the hotel and set up the pack n’ play for me, then he would come back to her house and pick Little Sir and I and bring us back, everything would all be set up for us.

In theory.
It turns out that, although we prepaid for the room using Orbitz, the Hampton Inn Northwood completely forgot to have the room cleaned from the previous guest, so it was not ready. He asked if they could just put us in another room, and they said, no we are completely full!! They offered to put us in a Comfort Suites down the road, which of course does not have the breakfast. Meaning we’d have to pay for breakfast and also go through the ordeal of driving Little Sir in the car some more and dealing with him in a restaurant. I said no way.

So instead they sent us to another Hampton Inn really far away. The staff at the new place were very nice, but at 11 PM I was exhausted and driving across town was not what we wanted to do. Plus having to set up the baby’s stuff and put him to bed, we weren’t in bed before 1 AM.

What is the deal, Hampton Inn Northwood? It’s not like we paid less for the room because we went through Orbitz – it was exactly the same rate as the rate listed on the Hampton Inn web site, we just used Orbitz so that we could have the Price Guarantee. Ironically, Hampton Inn also has a Guarantee of Satisfaction, and I would say that we were not satisfied. However, Christian felt like we shouldn’t ask for anything in compensation so we didn’t. But I do wish that last night had been free, at least.

So if you’re staying in San Antonio and choose this hotel, I would recommend calling ahead to make sure the room has actually been reserved and CLEANED.