I had a terrible experience with this hotel’s management in early 2025, although my stay was in 2024.
When booking a room at this Hampton Inn, I realized right after paying that I had selected the wrong date. I called customer service within a minute. The Hilton representative was helpful and understanding, and said she could adjust the reservation dates without extra charges, even though it was non-refundable. She explained I'd receive a cancellation notice but would be rebooked for the correct date without a cancellation fee. So, on the chosen/correct date, I arrived at the hotel, I checked in, I stayed, I checked out, paid, and left, no issues.
Nine months after my stay, I noticed a Hampton Inn, Lansing/ Okemos charge to my credit card. I almost missed it because I am a Hilton member, and I often stay at Hampton Inn properties. However, I had not been to Lansing for a while, so this made me pause and think about the charge. After some digging in calendars, inboxes, invoices, etc., and not finding any messages, emails, voicemail or a call from this property, and after confirming that my last stay in Lansing was at the Okemos Hampton Inn nine months earlier, I called customer service. The Hilton rep could not find information about the charge in his system either, so he asked me to call the manager of the property directly. Which I did, but was connected, instead, to the assistant manager Karen.
Karen lived up to her name from the very beginning. She did not want to hear details about the situation, threatened to hang up because "she was busy," and when I asked if she would at least hear what I had to say, she was like, 'you will ask me to cancel the charge and I will not do it because your reservation did not allow cancellation." The fact that I did not really cancel but stayed at the property one day earlier did not move her. The fact that the customer service rep had left a note when cancelling the wrong date to explain why no cancellation fee should be charged was not sufficient for Karen. She claimed the hotel "lost business" while holding the reservation for me because other people could not book the room. When I pointed out that I "held" the room for 5 minutes maximum before rebooking and they could not have lost much business for that time, PLUS they did not lose my business- I stayed with them (easy to check), she still did not want to hear it. When I questioned if it was legal for the property to just pull out my payment information and charge my credit card 9 MONTHS AFTER my so-called cancellation (actual stay), without a call, without an email or message, and without ANY document/invoice for the transaction (which I still think was illegal but I have not had time discuss with a lawyer), Karen rudely interrupted with the words, "Oh, yes, we can!!!"
I know the service sector is short-staffed since the pandemic, but I still cannot believe that a person with the attitude of this assistant manager is allowed anywhere near customers.
I did get reimbursed by Hilton for this surprise charge. Hampton Inn Okemos lost my business forever. They also lost the business my son's hockey team used to bring to them- we will never do a block reservation with them again. I did cancel my credit card that Karen had on file. I do NOT want to risk being charged by this property in another year or two for something else that they might decide they have the right to charge for.
The experience was surreal, like something one would expect in a third-world country when staying in a shady, cheap motel.
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