Stay Report for 10/1-10/3:
Location: The hotel is located on Bobby Brown Parkway, a block north of Virginia Avenue and less than half a mile off I-85. It's about 2 miles from ATL and the rental car center. Nearby is a somewhat questionable neighborhood with a few other chain hotels, gas stations, a Ruby Tuesday's and a dodgy looking restaurant. Do note that due to its proximity to the Hampton Inn ATL North, the two hotels share a shuttle.
Hotel: A pretty nice HGI, not one of the standard, out by the highway jobs. There is an issue with parking, the lot is too small and I think they sell park and fly packages because it can be hard to find spaces. Inside the hotel is pretty nice, the breakfast area is nicely designed with decent space and natural light, there's also a bar and the restaurant serves dinner. The lobby also has a small indoor pool and business center as well as a pantry (sundry shop). Do note there are only two elevators and they're really slow and get busy easily.
Check In: The agents on duty were very nice and in good moods, but like most employees at this hotel were a little unprofessional. Also, I had to remind them to give me Diamond breakfast vouchers, they just handed me a couple without bothering to fill them out. I did also get two bottles of water after I reminded the agents of my status.
Room: Fairly standard HGI room, though the seven year old TV was showing its age. The bathroom also smelled bad and the lone outlet by the bed didn't work. Still, the bed was comfortable and shower was hot. Wifi was also really spotty and dropped us a lot, and that was with taking the premium option.
Breakfast: Oddly, all food including the typical buffet items (scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon and sausage) were behind the chef counter. Food cooked to order was pretty decent and the service in the restaurant was very good.
Check Out/Other: I had to request the premium internet for Diamonds be removed from my bill. The agent on duty seemed a little clueless about this, for one he didn't realize Diamonds got free premium internet and he was initially resistant to helping. The employees at this hotel were frankly, not very helpful overall. At one point both my key and my friend's stopped working, instead of handing us new ones right away, the front desk employee chastised us for demagnitizing them. Also, when I came back to my room on Sunday, I found the maid sitting on the floor of the hall changing her shoes (?) and displaying her lovely socks with marijuana leaf designs on them. Another example off the odd service was that we had only two towels the first night and decided to deal with it, at 9 AM the next day a maid knocked on our door saying "here are the towels you asked for" except we didn't, so: (1) a lot of people were short towels; (2) they aren't sure just who it is who's calling.
My rate was $109 for the first night and $99 the second. This works well as an airport hotel but I've certainly had better HGI experiences.