The Stricklin Hotel - Florence, Alabama

Don M

My wife and I spent last weekend in Florence. Decided to try the Stricklin because of its central location. First of all, no dedicated parking. We had to use the street (the desk clerk did tell us that if we were ticketed, the hotel would “take care of it”). Our room was on the 3rd. floor facing North Court St. The room itself was fair, lighting was very dim in the bathroom. There was dust everywhere. |We enjoyed a very nice dinner at Odette’s and then had a couple of drinks at a downtown bar. We returned to the hotel and hit the sack around 10:00 pm or so. We were awakened around midnight by the drag races evidently being held on Court St (just about all night long). Then there were the concerts (loud music) most of the night (went great with the drag races). THEN, about 1:30 or 2:00 am, the real fun started …. I guess the bars closed and the drunks were out in force. I really thought there was a riot on the street (there’s a bar in the basement of the hotel and a couple located on each side). Screaming, shouting and the “F-Bomb and MF-Bomb” were used often and very loudly. |Needless to say, we’ll NEVER stay at the Stricklin again. We expected more for what we had to pay.

Amy Van Dijk

We stayed here for 6 nights while visiting family and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The hotel is in the perfect location for exploring downtown Florence. The room and shower are spacious, bed is comfortable, and the staff was very welcoming and accommodating. Be sure to check out the Boiler Room bar in the basement, pool tables, bowling, shuffleboard, etc. Thanks for a great trip!

Memory P

There was no parking info provided. We arrived and didn't see an unloading zone or anything, so I called and was told there is NO PARKING. NONE. They said find street parking. There was an event downtown and there were entire blocks shut down and we had to park two blocks away and carry our luggage. ||The hotel is pretty but not clean and minimally functional. Our room was super dusty - we could write in the dust on doors, the safe, the top portion of the mirror, etc. I also noticed my feet were dirty, getting into bed after a shower, so i washed them again - same thing. I wet a towel and ran it over the wood floors and it was the floors- they were disgusting. If they were mopped, it was dirty water. The shower head is huge and beautiful, and then you get barely any water pressure. We had several family members at this hotel on the 3rd floor, and this was the experience we all had with lack of water pressure and cleanliness issues. ||Other things worth mentioning- the pendant lights by the bed can not be operated independently. They're very bright, and have to both be on at once and operated by a switch by the bathroom, so very inconvenient if you just want a reading light. The bathroom also has very insufficient lighting for makeup and hair. Our group was in town for a wedding and all the ladies wound up sitting in a chair, makeup bag in their lap, using the mirror in the room with curtains open, rather than getting ready in the bathroom. ||The on-site dining options and boiler room are convenient, but the line to check ID for the boiler room is what you walk onto if you're coming in in the evening. Tiny hallway and you come in directly to the entrance to the boiler room before you can get to the hotel. There should be a better solution to that. ||Overall, not awful, but we wouldn't stay there again. Cleanliness and parking were deal breakers.

Geoff LeBlond

Whoever came up with the idea of having an extremely loud rock music bar in the basement of this small hotel needs to have their head examined. Shouting and yelling from drunken patrons on the street outside the front entrance for hours on end. Quite possibly the worst hotel experience I’ve had anywhere in the world. Do yourself a favor and avoid this place like the plague it is.

Paige Tipton

Had a wonderful night enjoying all the music. Came back, everything good. Got up at 7am for a shower, couldn't. Ceiling falling in on bath tub. Told ladies at desk. They said they'd put a work order.....geee thanks for the "no shower" or even a discount. Worst $250 room ever. Nice aesthetic, I will give them that. Check photos for receipt on ceiling falling into shower. They didn't even say sorry, just no care in the world for US and our day, smelling of booze the night before all day at a tournament.

mechrorobotocon

Rented a banquet hall for daughter’s post wedding brunch. Staff accommodating- we didn’t order coffee, and they hooked it up. Ordered food from Big Bad Breakfast (their Vietnamese coffee is eggcellent). Would host here again.

Karl Long

(Eww moment and disappointment).
We love to support local businesses and especially like boutique hotels for their quirky and central locations. The central location had the potential to be a 10, but the bar/club next door was absolutely noisy, even in our room on the third floor! Management has a great look and feel design and it was sad to that they do not focus on where their clients touch most of all (bed and bathroom). The issues are DIRECTLY due to the lack of quality control, maintenance and cleaning.

(Ewww) House keeping must throw away sheets that are worn. Our sheets were rough at the foot area from over use by people with dry rough feet. The sheets were clean, but matted at the foot part of the sheet. Although clean, they felt nasty due to their wear.

(Ugh) The bed mattress had a three plus inch groove that caused the middle to be high and we were sleeping in a depression on both sides of the bed, causing pain in our shoulders and an uncomfortable sleep with a noisy room. We should be able to have a flat mattress.

(Noisy). We were on the third floor and hopes for a quiet restful sleep. The loud band ruined the peaceful nights rest until they finally closed the night club/bar.
(Fix It). The shower head was not maintained and needs to be change to something that works, verses going after a style. Ditch the funky shower head for something that works and maybe consider giving your clients a hand wand.
There is a Fridge inside a closed closet! When you open the closet it is hot due to the heat exchange of the fridge. Get the fridge out into the room with a cabinet that can allow air flow!
Emergency Fire Evacuation Plan Map was not found in the room. I would think this is a fire code violation in such an old building

(Management). You have a lot of potential that we lost on simple management errors. you boutique hotel is a fun quirky old building and you have embraced a lot of the character, but on top of the prior mentioned issues that can be fixed by better management; there seemed to need structural issues that concerned us to not want to return. The floor in our room slanted to what seemed to be 5 or more inches from one side to the other! Out luggage rolled from the middle of the room to the front door and hit with a big impact from rolling fast. This concerns me structurally and we were concerned in the safety of the hotel structure. .

(What we think). We are not likely to return.

There is a lot of effort put into the artistic design and the repurposing of old with new. We appreciate that effort. The noise from the bar band, the horrible matress and sheets, the clogged and frustrating shower head, the A/C that blew down on our face vs just cooling the room, and the structural concerns are why we are not likely to return. There is a lot of opportunity for improvement. We do not recommend this location based on our stay on June 22, 2024.

Brandi Panter

The Stricklin Hotel is a beautiful property. The rooms are tastefully decorated and spacious, and the bed I slept in was quite comfortable. The hotel is located in the middle of Downtown Florence, and it is very easy to walk from the hotel to most of the local businesses in the area. However, this is where my list of positive things to say about the hotel ends. To begin, the hotel doesn’t have a parking lot. There are only a few self park spaces in front of the hotel and they are open to the general public. There is also no valet service to offset this issue. At various points whenever I had to drive, I sometimes had to park a considerable distance from the hotel and walk. The Boiler Room, which is located in the basement, hosts live music several nights. This itself is not an issue. But at least in my room (202), you can VERY clearly and loudly hear the band in the basement. While trying to sleep at 11:30 PM on both Friday and Saturday night, I instead laid awake due to the noise - I eventually accepted this and tried to guess what covers the bands were playing. I was also told housekeeping would visit - no one ever came by and I did not receive fresh linens during my 2 night stay. There was no front desk attendant when I checked out, and I instead had to call a posted phone number to check out and simply leave my key on the desk. Most egregiously, I witnessed a dispute in the lobby on the first night between other customers and the hotel staff. While I’m not sure what the dispute was about, I personally overheard hotel employees (they were identifiable by their Boiler Room shirts) yelling and swearing at the customers. Overall, I would not suggest this hotel to anyone and will not be returning here if I need to make any return trips to Florence. Based on the experience I had, I found The Stricklin very overpriced and am confident I would have paid less and had a similar experience at a low grade motel room.