Overall sentiment: The aggregated reviews for Traditions of Hershey are predominantly positive, with a strong, recurring theme that staff are caring, welcoming, and go above and beyond for residents. Numerous reviewers emphasize the warm, family-like atmosphere: staff know residents by name, offer daily check-ins, and organize extensive social programming that keeps residents active and engaged. Many families report a smooth move-in and transition, praise specific staff members and leadership, and view the community as providing very good value relative to other options in the area.
Care quality and staff: Most reviewers describe compassionate, attentive caregiving and responsive staff. Accounts highlight individualized attention, proactive communication with families, coordination with outside providers (including Home Instead and hospice), and an RN on shift in some reports. Staff are frequently praised for their friendliness at the front desk, for making residents feel special, and for facilitating social connections. However, there is a meaningful contrast in a minority of reports: some families experienced disorganization, delayed responses, or inconsistent staff behavior. These accounts describe staff turnover or uneven performance across shifts, which can affect perceptions of reliability even though the dominant narrative is positive.
Facilities and amenities: Traditions of Hershey is repeatedly described as clean, modern, and well-maintained in many reviews. Amenities commonly cited include an on-site salon, physical therapy/rehab gym, theater, game room (wheelchair-accessible features like skee-ball), library, exercise area, and frequent live musical entertainment. Apartments — particularly one-bedrooms — are noted as roomy, intuitive in layout, and apartment-like with kitchens, large windows, and included laundry in some plans. Some reviewers remark on a hotel-like feel and tasteful, cheerful decor. That said, a subset of reviews mention older carpeting or furniture, air-conditioning issues in certain rooms, and limited outdoor walking grounds or privacy when the building is near commercial parking areas.
Dining: Dining receives mixed but generally favorable commentary. Many residents and families praise the kitchen, salad bar, homemade soups, and multiple entree choices, calling the food “wonderful” and noting flexibility (meals delivered or heated in-room). The activities director and dining staff receive repeated commendation. Conversely, several reviewers report uneven meal quality — dinners that are less appealing, small portions, repetitive menus (grilled cheese, burgers, heavy pasta) or meals served not hot enough. These criticisms are not universal but are frequent enough to register as a recurring area for improvement.
Activities and social life: A standout positive across reviews is the robust activities program. Residents enjoy daily events, frequent external entertainment (bands, choirs, musicians 3–4x weekly), movie nights, game nights, outings to restaurants, malls, casinos, and planned social events like happy hours. The activities director is singled out for driving engagement, and many reviewers note that the program helps residents form friendships and remain active — a major contributor to resident satisfaction.
Management, policies, and cost: Many families praise admissions and marketing staff for being helpful and communicative, and several reviewers say pricing is competitive or a good value. Flexibility such as month-to-month pricing and included transportation are appreciated. Still, some reviewers raise concerns about pricing transparency: promises of no hidden costs followed by incidental charges, and a care-escalation pricing policy that may limit or complicate access to higher levels of care. A number of families also note that the community can be on the higher-cost end, and that affordability may be a constraint for some.
Serious safety and legal concerns: Amid the overwhelmingly positive feedback, there are extremely serious and specific allegations reported by a small number of reviewers. These include claims of elder abuse, illegal transfer of a patient, alleged kidnapping/unauthorized transport of a resident with dementia, and financial elder exploitation by another resident and a relative. Related complaints state staff awareness without corrective action, staff deflection or lying, and management non-response. These allegations are severe and represent substantial concerns about resident safety and the effectiveness of leadership and policies when severe incidents occur. They are, based on the summaries provided, not the majority experience but are significant enough that they should be investigated and addressed transparently by facility leadership.
COVID-era experience: Many reviews indicate strong COVID precautions, good communication, and no outbreaks in several reports; others describe restrictive visitation policies and temporary access denial which caused family stress during the pandemic. Overall, families commend the facility’s efforts to protect residents while noting the emotional impact of visitation limits.
Patterns and recommendations: The dominant pattern is one of high satisfaction driven by caring staff, active programming, solid amenities, and comfortable apartments. Recurrent, solvable operational issues include occasional housekeeping lapses, maintenance delays, inconsistent meal quality, and some older rooms needing updates. More concerning and requiring immediate attention are the rare but grave allegations about abuse, unauthorized transport, and financial exploitation, coupled with reports of management not responding adequately. From these reviews, potential residents and families should prioritize asking the community about incident reporting procedures, dementia-care protocols, staffing levels and turnover, housekeeping/maintenance schedules, meal sample options, and transparency around extra charges or care-escalation pricing. Facility leadership should ensure robust investigation and transparent communication about any safety incidents, strengthen dementia care safeguards, improve consistency of housekeeping and dining quality, and address any areas of deferred maintenance or HVAC/AC concerns.
Overall assessment: Traditions of Hershey appears to be a well-regarded community that offers a welcoming environment, rich activities, plentiful amenities, and many staff who deliver warm, individualized care. For most residents and families, it provides a high quality of life and strong social engagement. Nonetheless, a small but serious set of safety and management concerns reported by some reviewers warrants careful inquiry by prospective families and decisive management action to maintain trust and resident safety.
