TN Travel Guide
Hotel Woes / Hotel Scandal / TripAdvisor / Hotel Reviews / Tennessee Hotels / Cockroaches / → All Tags
TripAdvisor Names The Top Ten Dirtiest Hotels, Hotel Owner Gets Mad
Hotel owners, take note: when you're trying to build credibility for your brand, it might not be a good idea to let over eight years' worth of god awful customer reviews pile up on your TripAdvisor page without taking action. Kenneth Seaton, owner of Pigeon Forge Grand Resort Hotel in Tennessee, is suing TripAdvisor for $10 million for placing him smack at the top of their Dirtiest Hotels 2011 list, citing 87% percent of reviewers gave the place a thumbs down.
According to The Mountain Press, Seaton's lawyers are referencing "flawed" rating systems that "distort" the actual performance of the hotel—further, they accuse TripAdvisor of "contriving...to cause respected customers to lose confidence" in the hotel.
Um, right. We bet all of those "respected customers" were just clamoring to stay another night here after browsing through the pre-existing reviews and photos. Roaches in the door frame? No thanks.
Turndown Service / Tennessee Hotels / Delta Hotels / Memphis Hotels / HotelChatter Reviews / Free WiFi / → All Tags
The Free Port At The River Inn Will Get You Rolling On The (Mississippi) River
All this week, Julia Buckley will be taking us down the Blues trail in the Mississippi Delta and giving us the lowdown on the hotel scene. So kick off your blue suede shoes and get comfy.
Chocolate, schmocolate. Turndown service usually leaves us slightly cold – or rather, it did until our stay at the River Inn of Harbor Town in Memphis two weeks ago. Because there, turndown not only means a gussied up bed. It not only means posh, round, Ferrero Rocher-like truffles rather than a tasteless slab of sugar on the pillow. No, at the River Inn, turndown also means a little carafe of port.
Why mention Memphis in HotelChatter's official Mississippi Delta Week? Because if you’re traveling to the Delta, it’s most likely that you’ll start off (and end up) in Memphis. Not only is it the closest major airport to the Delta, but it’s a fitting place to top and tail your trip, seeing as Memphis was the town all the blues musicians wanted to get to.
We’ve been to Memphis a couple times now, but never had much luck with hotels, the Benchmark being the low point, and the surprisingly snazzy Motel 6 in Horn Lake the high – but it’s a 20 minute drive from town. And though we’ve hung out and watched the duck parade at the Peabody, it’s always been out of our budget or fully booked.
But this time was third time lucky in Memphis, and not just because of the port.
Cool Hotel Jobs / Hotel Employees / Peabody Hotels / Hotel Animals / → All Tags
Any Concierges Out There Especially Good With Handling Ducks?
There are all sorts of niche hotel jobs out there--we've profiled more than a few of them here--but being a duckmaster at the Peabody Memphis might be the most unusual hotel job out there.
However, taking care of the ducks is a full-time job and apparently a busy one as Head Duckmaster Jason Sensat is looking for an assistant to help him out. The Associated Press reports:
The assistant would help head Duckmaster Jason Sensat feed and care for the ducks. The new hire also would guide the four hens and one drake on their two daily walks from their penthouse suite to the marble fountain in the hotel lobby. The walk, a tradition for 78 years, draws hundreds of spectators every day.
Hotel Emergencies / Hotel Floods / Hotel News / Memphis Hotels / → All Tags
Downtown Memphis Hotels Remain Safe From Floods
While most people headed out to have pancakes with mom yesterday, Memphis battled flooding from the Mississippi River that's expected to reach 48 feet on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. However, downtown Memphis hotels are safe and open for business.
We called the Holiday Inn Select Downtown Memphis to see how it was faring, and the front desk said that downtown, which is perched on a bluff, isn't affected at all. "I'm not even wearing a swimsuit or anything," the front desk clerk joked.
Snapshot / Hotel Keycards / Nashville Hotels / Hotel Religion / Hotel Ads / → All Tags
Atheists Better Not Check Into This Hotel Anytime Soon
While it seems that bibles in the nightstand are on their way out--or at least hotels are leaning towards more non-demoninational spiritual texts--one hotel in Nashville isn't giving up on Christianity entirely. The Gaylord Opryland Hotel offers guests keycards with advertisements for GodTube.com which is exactly what you think it is--a Christian video sharing site. Um...okaaaaay.....
Hotel ads on keycards are not new. Vegas hotels have advertised their shows on keycards for years. Hilton Hotels recently did a crosspromo on their keycards for that movie, Up in the Air and down in Mexico, the Intercontinental Guadalajara even advertised help for sexual dysfunction on their room keys. (Yes, way!)
But advertising for a religious site like GodTube.com might be a first. We wonder what the American Atheists would have to say about this.
What do you think about advertising for GodTube on the hotel keycards--praise the Lord or should we just stick with YouTube? Let us know your thoughts in comments below!
Dirty Hotels / Tennessee Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
America's 'Dirtiest Hotel' Already Trying to Clean Itself Up
Your first clue that this is a dirty hotel is that they use a bedspread like this. The second is of course, the rip.
What, is this opposite day here? We're just not used to this sort of news. Apparently, America's dirtiest hotel, as determined by TripAdvisor, The Grand Resort Hotel & Convention Center in Pigeon Poop Forge, Tenn. has vowed to overhaul the property and has even taken immediate steps to do so.
CBS News reports:
CEO and General Manager Nicky Darrell Chaney said he has already fired one manager, hired a new maintenance manager and new head of housekeeping, and is in the process of using a new sanitizer to clean the rooms.
That's certainly very encouraging to hear although it's gonna take a lot more than sanitizer to clean those rooms (and fix the broken furniture and ripped bedspreads.)
Meanwhile, The Hotel Carter in New York is on the list YET AGAIN, this time at #4. If only the owners or managers of the Carter had the same sense of shame as the Grand Resort.
Four Points Hotels / Hotel Hype / Hotel Openings / Nashville Hotels / → All Tags
Four Points To Open in Nashville (and Many Other Places) Next Year
With so much of our energy and attention going towards Aloft Hotels and Element Hotels and even the rebranded Sheraton Hotels, we've kinda forgotten about Starwood's other brand, Four Points by Sheraton.
But today, Four Points has saved us from a slow news day caught our eye with this announcement about their new hotel in Nashville (in the Brentwood area), opening in August 2011.
The new Nashville hotel will feature 208 guest rooms, a conference room of more than 4,000 square feet along with other amenities. The project marks a milestone in the hotelier’s brand expansion policy in key markets across the U.S. not only through new-builds, but also through conversion opportunities.
Hotel News / Hotel Restoration / Nashville Hotels / Gaylord Hotels / Holiday Hotels / → All Tags
The Gaylord Opryland Resort Reopens Today and is Ready For a Country Christmas
The holidays are starting early in Nashville, where the Gaylord Opryland Resort reopens today, six months after massive flooding closed the hotel for extensive restoration work.
We love a good comeback story, and in this case it's even sweeter, since the Opryland is one of the biggest fans of Christmas we've ever seen in hotel land, and they're reopening just in time to launch their big Country Christmas holiday tradition.
Hotel News / Hotel Restoration / Nashville Hotels / Gaylord Hotels / → All Tags
The Gaylord Opryland Hotel Dries Out and Will Re-Open on November 15
We're only halfway through and already 2010 has been a banner year for Hotel Emergencies. The headlines today may be dominated by BP oil spill news, but we are heartened to hear this good-news followup to another of the year's disasters, the Nashville floods of May 1st weekend: the Gaylord Opryland Resort will re-open on November 15.
The grand hotel suffered considerable damage and was forced to close indefinitely in the aftermath of the floods. (Thankfully, guests were evacuated before the floodwaters reached the property.) But restoration has been in full swing and is on schedule for a triumphant return in November.
Hotel Emergencies / Hotel News / Nashville Hotels / Gaylord Hotels / → All Tags
The Gaylord Opryland Hotel Closes Indefinitely Due To Flooding
If you're planning a stay at The Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville in the near future, you may want to double-check on that room reservation. Severe rain storms over the past few days have put most of Nashville under water as its Cumberland River continues to overflow and the grand hotel got hit hard as the floodwaters are one story deep around the hotel.
As you can imagine, the hotel--which has a massive atrium and retail shops on its lower floors--has been closed indefinitely while they recuperate from the damage. Here is a snippet of the message on their website:
As a result, the hotel is not taking any incoming reservations at this time. The guests that were in the hotel this Sunday were evacuated to a nearby shelter for the evening where they were provided with food, drinks and bedding. As of today, most have left the shelter, and have been picking up their luggage from the hotel with the assistance of Gaylord Opryland's bell staff and other leaders who are on site to assist these guests with obtaining their luggage.
Memphis Hotels / Elvis Hotels / Hotel Booking Tips / → All Tags
Three Memphis Hotels to Fit Every Budget
There's a lot that lures travelers to Memphis: the city's rich music scene—it was the birthplace of rock 'n' roll and soul music, after all—the finger-lickin' good barbecue and the jumping nightlife on Beale Street are just a few. If you want to go South for the winter, here are Memphis hotel options for every budget.
See our three hotel picks after the jump.
Twitter / Gaylord Hotels / Nashville Hotels / Plug Panels / → All Tags
Gaylord Hotels May Need To Invest in Plug Panels
We have a love-hate relationship with Twitter. The constant RT-ing, the abuse of hash tags, the "Top That!" and "First!" mentality of Twitterers and their cringe-inducing overshares have us threatening to quit Twitter on a daily basis. But today, we love Twitter again. That's because Twitterer DShelleny tweeted about his woes with too many gadgets and not enough outlets in his room at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. He writes and TwitPics the frustration saying:
Hey @gaylordhotels..great hotel, here's a quick suggestion for you though... http://twitpic.com/m9u4o
That's his TwitPic above. Interestingly, @GaylordHotels (which has four Gaylord Hotels in the U.S.) has 475 followers but absolutely zero tweets. So we're guessing they didn't see DShelleny's @reply yet. Maybe now they have.
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