Residence Inn Charlotte Lake Norman

This is a very tired RI. There have been limited updates but overall the place needs overhauling. Furniture in our two bedroom suite needs to go. Chair and sofa smelled bad. Our room was cleaned one time plus 2 ‘refreshes’ for our 11 day stay. We were told they clean every other day but only in the morning. We missed our first day so we were apparently dropped from the schedule and had to request service more than once. Getting basic supplies was also our responsibility. Breakfast bar was very limited and frequently out of coffee. Not a pleasant stay.

This is an unsafe hotel for your family. We have stayed here for over 5 years in the past for certain family occasions and it had always seemed to be comfortable place. They have changed!!! Over Thanksgiving this year my family stayed and we experienced the worst you could imagine. I personally watched as there was nobody working the front desk for over 10 minutes on Thanksgiving night and anybody could just walk in through the non-secure front entrance at 9:00pm at night. A guest stood there and was so upset that he could not simply get checked in. There is absolutely zero security in place. To make the stay even better, the next morning I wake up and my truck has been broken into - breaking my back window and stealing some items. The police come and ask if the hotel has any security cameras -the answer is no. How in this day in age does a hotel not have front desk coverage and zero security cameras? What if someone wanted to come into your hotel room? I contacted the hotel GM Leon and he has basically laughed it off and said this is how the staffing and security is at their facility. It is disgusting to me how I have been treated!!! I highly suggest that you DO NOT stay at this place with your family as it could be very dangerous and I am lucky it was only my truck that got burglarized this time.

Prior to this stay, we have found Residence Inns to be well managed and the staff good. However, upon entering this location, the Reception staff did not greet us at all. They asked for ID and proceeded to check us in. We asked where would make the best sense to park relative to the location of the room. She suggested the far side of the building. In fact, our room was quite close to Reception! The room was ok, although somewhat worn. Breakfast was abysmal. There was no fresh fruit. The orange juice machine was down. Although there were many 'toppings', when I questioned what they were for, I was told they were out of oatmeal but I could put them on my eggs if I wanted. Really!?! Nuts and chocolate chips on eggs? I don't think so. As we were eating breakfast one morning, another guest approached Reception with concerns about the condition of her room. The staff just blankly looked at her. We had chosen this property because of the poor reviews on other Marriott properties in the area. We won't be returning to this one.

Passing through on our way to Hilton Head. Spent an evening at this hotel. We used our annual free night. Upon check in, the hotel was unable to give us our keys (only mobile keys). This is tough when you’re traveling with a family. Nonetheless, our first assigned room was not clean (see pictures). We immediately requested a different room. Our second room was much better. Beds were fine. There was no bedding for the sofa bed so we needed to ask for it. Overall, the hotel is very dated and our stay accomplished what we needed.

For starters, it is difficult to find the front entrance as it is actually facing the main road as in on the main road with a small pull off for un/loading. Next, the rooms are very dated: small TVs (pretty sure they are 32ish inches), cable is basic with no guide option (was at another city’s residence Inn last week and they had on demand options for free and smart TVs), no smart ports for charging (I was banking on smart ports and didn’t have my “block” charging ports) and that is just the rooms. The gym had half of the weights missing and no water station (call me crazy, but I like water to drink while I work out). Breakfast was ok as best.

I'm writing this review to keep anyone else from the horrible experience my wife and I had staying here. Our first visit was about 5 years ago and the property was in steep decline then. The only reason we came back this time was because it was convenient to the location we were visiting and I used points to stay for free. That was the only positive thing about the experience. You know the place is way past it's prime when you walk into the room and find popcorn ceilings. As the pictures will show, there was a gross stain of some sort on the bathroom carpet in front of the sink. At first we thought it was paint but a wet wash rag cleaned the mess up. Apparently it was (toothpaste?) that housekeeping just vacuumed over and didn't even try to clean it up. Gross stains on the entry door and bathroom door as shown in the pictures. The heat didn't work. We had to turn both burners of the stove on in order to warm the room. We found a used Q-tip on the floor. The internet is the cheapest the franchisee can find. It's so slow and unreliable, we had to use the hotspots on our phones. That's all for now because we're checking out and never returning. This is a good location for construction workers and migrant farm workers, not for families and certainly not for business travelers. RUN!! (Unfortunately, this site doesn't give the option of attaching photo's but they are gross)