hotelHotel Hell · Season 2, Episode 4 · Aired August 11, 2014
Hotel Chester
Starkville, Mississippi
Yes. This one is still open.
What happened after
Boutique hotel actively operating in historic downtown Starkville under the same name; repeatedly named Best Hotel in Mississippi by Mississippi Magazine.
What happened on the show
David Mollendor knew hotels; he had worked as a consultant. Then a car accident five years before Ramsay's visit left him injured, and the Hotel Chester in Starkville, Mississippi had been sliding ever since. His wife Sukie was trying to run the kitchen without training, and her sushi menu, badly matched to the local college crowd, took over an hour to turn a single table. The couple were so deep in debt they were living inside the hotel. Ramsay renovated the rooms and the beer garden, scrapped the Japanese menu for approachable casual American food built around a robatayaki grill, and arranged both a proper chef and an apartment so the Mollendors could get off the property and back on their feet. The intervention was as much about giving an overextended couple room to breathe as it was about fixing the food.
After the cameras left
This one worked, and kept working. As of our latest verification pass the Hotel Chester operates in historic downtown Starkville under the same name, with a live official site and booking. The Gordon Burger that came out of the reboot is still a draw, and so is the beer garden Ramsay built. The property has since been named Best Hotel in Mississippi by Mississippi Magazine more than once and sits near the top of the local hotel rankings. For a couple who were living inside their own failing hotel when the cameras arrived, that is about as good an outcome as this show produces.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.