As I write this, I am sitting in my hotel room here at the Edison Walthall that has no air conditioning or heating. My room smells of mildew and old musty furniture and carpet. There are 2 lamps in my room that have no light bulbs. I have opened the windows so that I can breathe. There is no phone book, no pencil or notepad, no information about the hotel or its services. My room was not made up until after 3:00 this afternoon. I would change hotels, but there are no other hotels this convenient to the convention meetings I am attending. Wow! What happened to this lovely old hotel?!!! I have stayed here several times while attending an annual convention here in Jackson. It has been only a couple of years since I was here last, and what a change!! The doors on the outside balcony rooms are warped. Paint is peeling everywhere in the hotel, and the food in the restaurant is not good. The staff is friendly, but not very helpful. Unless something is done to improve this property, I will not stay here again. How sad!

Poor maintenance plagues the hotel. Checked in late at hotel to what looked like an almost empty hotel (2-3 cars in parking lot). Put in room in corner of hotel with window facing a wall, drapes held up by coat hangers, bathroom lights didn't work, shower curtain moldy, thermostat broken (couldn't adjust temp - so room was friged - opened door to let frigid air out). Stayed in room for night because of late hour, next morning went to fitness center, eliptical runner broken, treadmill broken, was able to get another treadmill working, wanted to swim but pool appeared dirty, as was the jacuzzi (full of leaves), also jets not working. Decided to change rooms, allowed to change rooms. New room better, but discovered ice machines on several floor out of order. Staff tries to do their best with poor conditions.

Upon walking into the lobby, I was impressed with the decor and thought this might be a nice place to stay. Once we reached our room in the tower, it smelled of wet dog. I figured it was because the a/c had not been turned on. We turned on the a/c and then left the room only to return to a room that had no a/c. The staff was alerted of the problem and I was assured it was being worked on when I called. I called again a few hours later when we returned from an outing and let them know it was still not working, the staff said that they "Just got there" to work on the a/c. I feel the staff lied to me and was trying to cover their butts by telling me someone was there to work on the a/c earlier. We were given box fans to help with the heat in the room. The room was not all that clean, something I would equate with a run down motel in the ghetto. The following day upon waking I was itching really bad on my neck, arms and legs. I noticed a rash developing. Come to find out I had flea bites all over my body. (I have no pets) Upon returning home from the trip, I called the Manager and let him know of the problems we had encountered. I told him I was expecting some type of compensation on our bill. The manager apologized for the "inconvenience" and said that he could not afford to compensate everyone who had problems. He said he would offer us a nice suite free of charge on our next visit. I told him this was our last visit and I was not happy with the outcome. I think the health dept. needs to visit this place.
For me the worst was the fact that I am still dealing with this horrible rash and aftermath from an unclean room.
If I could have chosen no stars, I would have. Giving one star is too generous. Don't stay there if you value your health.

The Edison Walthall is an old hotel with a beautiful lobby. Dark wood paneling and reproduction furniture appropriate for the time period add a dimension of elegance not found in modern hotels. We were quite impressed with the lobby, dining area, and bar/lounge. Now for the problems.
I had trouble reconciling all of the reviews that I had read because they were either very positive or very negative regardless of when they were written. Now I know why. There are two parts to the hotel. There are rooms around the pool and rooms in the tower. These two parts are serviced by two separate air conditioning systems. The a/c in the pool rooms works fine; the a/c for the tower rooms is out and not repairable. (I got all of this information from several employees who were willing to talk to me once I assured them that I would never reveal my sources.) The employees had been told in a staff meeting to instruct guests who asked that there were no managers available to complain to about the heat in the rooms. They were also instructed to state that they were aware of the problem, that a repairman was on his way, that the a/c was being worked on, that it had gone out suddenly, etc. In other words, the staff was instructed to lie to the guests about the fact that the air conditioning for the tower rooms was broken and would not be fixed ($20,000 to replace). And yes, they continued to book rooms for the tower. In fact, I had called the Monday prior to our Friday arrival and told the desk clerk that I was concerned because of all of the negative reviews that I had read. She assured me that the pool was clean and in working order (and it was) and that the rooms on the 7th and 8th floors had been remodeled. She told me that I would have one of those rooms. She never mentioned the lack of a/c. I actually had several of those rooms before we checked out in an attempt to find one that was cooler than 80 degrees. None of them were. We found a Lowe's and purchased a fan to get us through our stay, but the heat was unbearable. By Sunday morning when we checked out, there was a distinct odor of mildew throughout the room because of the high humidity permeating the carpet. All of the rooms that we saw in the tower were clean (some bleach-type stains on one carpet), but they were all 80 degrees and unbearable because of the heat. We will never stay there again because even if we call and are told that the a/c is fixed, we know that the staff will lie as per instructions from their supervisor.