2019 Southern...no room at the inn?

[Kent Nickerson]

I just tried to book a room for next years Southern and was told the hotel was fully booked, no rooms available. PGCA member...still no rooms available. Does the PGCA fully book this hotel a year in advance, completely filling it up...or is there a secret password that I didn't have? Any clarification will be greatly appreciated before I book a room elsewhere. Thanks KN

[Kevin McCormack]

Kent, advance reservations in that locale have proven to be exercises in futility, varying only by degrees of ad notoriety of the hotel/motel. (Think Hampton vs. Hilton vs. Econolodge vs. Motel 6, etc. We have stayed at the same motel for 6 years now and always book well in advance (e.g., 6-7 mos.), and each time have specified that we want 5-6 rooms on the ground floor vs. having to climb stairs (we're all old now) and fumble with luggage & cased guns up and down.

It has never done any good - when we get there invariably they have us booked into a 2-up/3-down layout in different buildings. This makes for some interesting conversation at the desk when we check in. I see it as a toss-up of either learning Urdu or Hindi, or laying on the certain destruction on the Internet posts offered by all the chains under "Please comment on your stay..." Imminent threat of savaging by electrons has proven very effective over the years......

[Ed Blake]

Making reservations a year in advance? I might call 60 days ahead and have had no problem getting a room.

[Bill Murphy]

Similar to discussions about gun without pictures. These guns don't exist. Discussions about hotels without names, don't exist. Name these hotels. I believe Kent's problem was that calls to the hotel are rerouted to a reservation contractor who has no clue about how to access group blocks or whether group blocks even exist. That is what happened to me until I finally asked the person on the phone where he was located. He was not in Sanford, North Carolina.

[Josh Loewensteiner]

- I am booking the entire Hampton for our PGCA member group and haven’t set the details up yet. I’ll post when it’s ready.

[Kent Nickerson]

Thanks all....it was the Hampton. I'll stop in there next time I'm going north and get it done.

[Gary Carmichael Sr]

Kent I had the same problem this year and last at the Hampton, You call they take your name and say they will callback with a conformation but it did not happen I called two or three times each time they had no record of my previous call, very slack on there part. Finally I got a room but not a double had to take a king. When I checked in they said it was a computer problem My friends that came with me had to stay at the Comfort Inn, probably where I will be next year, gary

[Bill Murphy]

My totally negative experience with the Hampton staff, including the manager, Antonio, makes me very suspicious about Josh's attempt to book the hotel. Antonio was hard to locate, was not in the hotel the several times I attempted to talk to him, and was no help when informed of staff shortcomings. As is Gary's experience, employees promise to call back, promise to enter your information and give a confirmation number, none of which happened. When it all shook our for me after days of calling and lies about returning calls, I found that John, the person who lied to me so many times, had been fired, no confirmation existed in my name, and all of the blocked rooms were gone. I was offered a reservation at $200 a night, and my requests to talk to the manager, Antonio, were still being diverted. The day before the active date of the reservation, I called to cancel and was informed that there was a 48 hour advance notice requirement and I would be billed for the first day of my reservation. There is something in Hampton advertising that "guarantees satisfaction". Good luck with that.

[George Lander]

I stayed at the "America's Best Value" due to low price. It is a total dump and not even worth the low price. Hampton Inn has always been my favourite but they seem to need a new staff, especially one that speaks fluent English.

Best Regards, George

[David Dwyer]

Hampton Inn is also my lodging chain of choice. I am some kind of premier member, designated parking etc. I refuse to stay at the one in Sanford!
The property has been allowed to deteriorate and the service in non existing. I moved down to Econolodge and was very happy with the room and rate.
David