Great Location, BUT: Hampton Inn Gatlinburg Review

While we’ve often stayed in Gatlinburg overnight, we hadn’t stayed at the Hampton Inn on the Parkway until we needed a last-minute hotel on a weekend.

Here’s our review on whether it offers more than a convenient location. 

As usual, we booked and paid for this ourselves, with no hotel influence on our review

Location and Parking

The Hampton Inn Gatlinburg is in one of the best locations in Gatlinburg. It’s right on the parkway, and the whole town is walkable from here.

The photo below is taken out front of the hotel, looking east. There is no traffic since it is an early Saturday morning in November.

Parking is free, though we found the lot almost full by late afternoon. The spaces are pretty close together, too. We were glad we bought our smaller SUV instead of our truck.

There were still renovations during our November stay, with dumpsters in the parking lot.

There’s also another Hampton Inn in Gatlinburg (the historic trail) , located further south from the parkway, in a location that’s not as good for walking around town.

Booking and Price

The price for a one-night stay on a Friday night in November was over $300 after tax. This wasn’t even a holiday weekend.

This is exceptionally high for a Hampton Inn, but it is not unusual for a weekend stay in Gatlinburg, especially booked last minute. But we’ve found high hotel prices year-round for the last few years.

The staff at check-in were very nice and helpful. They even found two adjacent rooms (we’d booked two different kinds of rooms).

Rooms

We had rooms in the section that’s been renovated and are closer to the street.

Both renovated rooms we received looked newer and clean.

This room is close to the main entrance, and has a view of the cable car station at Ober Mountain.

One of the best parts of this hotel is the creek view from many of the rooms, made possible by the motel-style rooms, which have an exterior door on the front and a small creek balcony on the back, instead of only half the rooms in a hotel with a central corridor.

This brings us to the biggest downside of this building: the motel-style rooms. We travel a lot, and it’s been a long time (since we were kids?) since we’ve stayed in a motel that costs this much.

Gatlinburg is a reasonably safe area, but we were still woken up in the early morning hours of Saturday by some people walking down the corridor right outside our door yelling at each other.

Other Amenities

Free Wi-Fi & Breakfast: The essentials are covered—the included free hot breakfast is standard (though nothing to write about), with standard items like a waffle maker and cereal/yogurt. We ate breakfast at one of the many Gatlinburg pancake restaurants directly across the street.

Pool: Seasonal heated outdoor pool, which was closed during our stay.

Best Suited For…

• Families on a Budget: It’s not fancy, but clean and comfortable rooms, the location, and things like free breakfast help stretch your dollar.

But…

• Expect Some Noise: While convenient, don’t expect total peace and quiet. The room doors that open to the outside lets in plenty of noise from the adjacent parkway.

Our Honest Take

The Hampton Inn Gatlinburg won’t wow you with luxury, but it’s in a great location. But it’s motel entry rooms are priced as high as many other hotels. If that isn’t a deal breaker, give it a try. We give it a 4 out of 5,.