Kimpton - The Forum Hotel by IHG

I had a bit of a complicated situation and check in was handled beautifully. Over my stay, I had several interactions with Chloe and she was friendly, kind and caring. I really can't speak highly enough about her and her level of customer service!

Elegant and well located.

Matt was great! Awesome Valet

This was a very frustrating seven-day, six-night stay for my wife and I at the Kimpton mainly because so many of the issues were fixable. We booked our room through The Edit By Chase which gives us a $60 credit per day for breakfast, $100 property credit, and a 4pm late checkout on our last day. Positives - Attractive property and common areas. - Very convenient location next to UVA business and law schools. - Friendly staff. - Fast room service from Birch&Bloom. - Comfortable rooms. Negatives - Hotel Wi-Fi is the worst I have ever encountered at any hotel and it makes it completely impossible to conduct any business (ironic since it located at the UVA business school). Zoom or Teams teleconferences? Forget it. You get at the most three minutes of connection if you are lucky before you are disconnected. It also doesn’t help that I have Verizon as a backup and it appears like you have four bars of 5G UW signal but that is even a lie. No data at all. I asked the front desk for alternatives and they said they put in a ticket but suffering through seven days of this was a nightmare. Maybe the internet hasn’t fully made it to UVA or the Kimpton? Or the Virginia legislature is taxing internet use past three minutes? FIX: Install working Wi-Fi in hotel. - The maid service was extremely inconsistent. We would remove the “do not disturb” sign by 9 or 10 am every morning and leave for the day but only received maid service three times during the stay. This was especially maddening because if you go to the front desk to ask for a roll of toilet paper or some clean towels, they will not actually give them to you. They put in a request in the system for you to get some clean towels or toilet paper and you go back to your room. Twice they never came and I had to go to the public restroom downstairs to fetch a roll. This is level of service you get at a $700 a night hotel!??! FIX: (1) Empower employees at front desk to hand out bath towels or toilet paper when requested, (2) Include a spare roll of toilet paper on the vanity in the room (most hotels do this), (3) Communicate with your residents that maid service is either request only or every other day. - Birch & Bloom (the breakfast restaurant) is EXTREMELY SLOW with limited options. Each time we ate in the restaurant it took a minimum of two hours. The menu has six main dishes (one is vegan, one vegetarian). Maybe this works for weekend travelers but for our six nights, it got old. We learned to order room service from here because even though they say room service takes up to 45 minutes, it never took more than 15. This is MUCH better option than waiting two hours in the actual restaurant. FIX: (1) Improve service in restaurant, (2) Add additional options on menu…maybe grits, oatmeal, biscuits, simple breakfast sandwiches? - Barn doors suck! The rooms have barn doors for privacy on the bathrooms that do not lock, latch, or close in any secure way. Our barn door was uneven/not leveled so good luck getting any privacy if you have anyone else staying in the room with you. Nothing like sitting on the toilet thinking you have closed the door and it creeping halfway open. I eventually got my tools out of the car and fixed it. Even after that, I would shove a hand towel under it to keep it from moving. I used the public restroom downstairs several times because of the barn door and difficulty getting toilet paper issue. - Valet and $100 property credit? It was explained to me that the only way to get the property credit was to apply it to valet parking with a code a check in. When we checked in the first night, there was no valet to be found at 11:30pm even though posted valet hours went to midnight. The front desk informed me to park in one of the valet spots at front and to give the key to them to hand to the valet in the morning. I have tried twice to get the $100 credit applied but it appears that unless you do this at check in, it is impossible to fix. FIX: Clear instructions to customers who have booked through The Edit By Chase how they can claim the $100 property credit.

The facility is beautiful and clean. I loved the garden. My room was very comfortable and I loved everything about it. It’s on UVA campus, right next to Darden.

Beautiful building and setting. The outdoor gardens and outdoor seating areas were so relaxing. Liked the noon check out time.

Bar closed right after we arrived. Despite the fact that we had not checked out, housekeeping was knocking on our door at 8 am and woke us up. Was not happy about that for many reasons. When paying over $400 for one night I expect to not be disturbed at 8 am after driving in the car all day the day prior.