I am a long time and fervent fan of Hilton properties. I will often go well out of my way to stay at any of their hotels and have done so throughout the USA, Australia, Asia, Cairo and Dubai. I guess I have been spoiled in the past, particularly at Homewood Suites, Buffalo Thunder Resorts in Sante Fe NM.

I stayed at this TN hotel, ideally located in a premier shopping area called Turkey Creek, for about forty-five days: It proved to be a sorry exception to my other Hilton experiences. (That said, let me confess to giving the hotel a second chance now (Mid July for about thirty days). I am, after all, a Loyal Hilton Customer!).

Back to my earlier 45 day stay. Upon checking in I was assigned a room next to the elevator (which is listed as a no-no on my preferences.) I moved to a second level room that proved noisy because of a gorilla living over me on the third floor. (There are four floors to this hotel.) Despite my scheduled long stay the hotel failed to give me a US Govt Per Diem Rate which meant that I would not be fully reimbursed by my employer working under a DOE Contract at Oak Ridge TN.( I did, however, secure a ten dollar discount.) . Although the manager promised me a fourth level room as soon as one became available it was only due to my asking the night clerk that I was afforded the chance to move.

The room was cleaned adequately except for a few personal items that were swept away by a zealous housekeeper.

Homewood Suites serves a breakfast daily and a light supper Mon thru Thurs. Breakfast was late (supposed to be 6:00 a.m.) on a couple of occasions. I had a great deal of trouble getting my Wall Street Journal (I subscribe) but, this may have not been the hotel's fault. The staff did seem to enjoy a magazine I ordered through the mail however.

The hotel seemed to have a problem getting my periodic bills tallied as I requested. (They would leave a day off and, as I file expense reports bi-weekly, this created a minor annoyance with my home office.)

My stay was the most disappointing of any I ever experienced with a Hilton Hotel. I was especially surprised that that these problems did not merit a face to face meeting between me and the manager. We did have a couple of email exchanges and a couple of telephone calls... but I truly missed the personal touch that could have gone a long way to mitigate what I believe to be shabby treatment toward me. This was reinforced by a one night stay I had the very next night after I checked out of the Homewood Suite. The one night stay was at Hampton Inn property (in Jackson, TN) when the front desk went out of their way to make me feel welcomed and valuable by their friendly greeting and service.

Maybe I was too sensitive and critical of the Knoxville Homewood Suites. I am scheduled to stay for a month to again work at Oak Ridge. I will give them another try and report what I experience this time.