I would not normally bother with a review of a Hampton Inn as they are all pretty much the same. However, this one night stay at the Hampton Inn in the Charlotte suburbs impressed me enough to warrant writing a quick review.

I spent the night here after arriving from New York prior to an all-day meeting in an office building across the parking lot from the hotel. I took a Lyft from CLT and arrived at the hotel around 10pm.

I did not even ask about an upgrade (as I was alone and planning about nine hours total at the hotel), but it appears I was upgraded proactively as a Hilton Diamond into a junior suite.

I had a decent night’s sleep and grabbed breakfast at the hotel on my way out. This is where I was really impressed as many limited service hotels have cut down their breakfast offerings using the pandemic as an excuse, even as travel has rebounded to 2019 levels.

The spread was quite impressive for a Hampton Inn. I stayed at a nearby SpringHill Suites a couple of months ago, and this hotel was much better, despite SpringHill being marketed as supposedly a cut above the basic level limited-service hotel. The food was all fresh and hot. This was despite me being the only one eating breakfast at that hour (7:30am).

So many hotels have cut down on upgrades and breakfast offerings following the pandemic and have been slow to respond to the rebound in travel. The Hampton Inn Charlotte/Ballantyne is doing things right.

If you enjoyed this post (or have questions), let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.