Crowne Plaza Seattle-Downtown by IHG — Attraction in Seattle

I would strongly recommend that people do not stay at this hotel, particularly if you are a graduate student or professional traveling for work or a conference. My colleagues and I attended a national conference that was paid for by our university. Our university representative completed paperwork at the request of the hotel so all fees would be covered by university funds. Upon arrival the hotel requested that we each provide a personal card so they could place a $200 hold on each card for incidentals. When asked if our cards would be charged anything other than the $200 hold, the front staff assured us that only the university card would be charged for our hotel fees. This was untrue as the hotel charged hundreds of dollars worth of holds on our cards that collectively added to more than $1500. When confronted about the charges, both the desk staff and on-site manager noted that these charges were an error, that they would reverse the holds, and assured that no further charges would be made to my personal card. When told that their error had significantly impacted my ability to buy meals, the manager said a complimentary breakfast was the best they could do. Despite hotel staff and front manager assuring me they had reversed the charges, and that no further charges would be made on my card, they continued to make additional charges/holds on my card that nobody at the front desk could explain other than it being an error.

Upon checkout, I confirmed with hotel staff that all fees had been fully paid through the university card and that we owed no further balance. Hotel staff confirmed all fees had been paid and that my personal card would not be charged. However, after unsuccessfully trying to buy groceries today, I learned my account had been drawn to the negative by over $200, with my bank reporting four pending charges made by Crowne Plaza causing the issue. One charge was made the day of check-out despite the front desk worker assuring me this would not happen.

Dealing with IHG customer service has been a nightmare. I have consistently been told conflicting information, had my claim number lost in their system, told that a general manager would reach out to me (as of 8/10/24 no manager has yet to contact me), and notified that customer service would be unable to help since this is a billing issue with the hotel. Until today we believed the charges to be fraudulent due to the front desk, desk manager, and customer service either not knowing what the charges were or reporting incorrect information. It was only when our university contacted Crowne Plaza billing that they discovered the hotel incorrectly charged everything to our personal cards and not the preauthorized card listed on the payment authorization form that Crowne Plaza had our university complete prior to our stay. Great care was taken on our end to make sure that this situation would not happen, yet IHG presents as unconcerned with how this error impacted our trip and finances.

The continuous errors made by this hotel, and IHG’s unwillingness to help, diminished our ability to enjoy and attend our conference. These errors created significant financial strain and I spent most of Saturday morning working with staff trying to fix these issues rather than attending the conference. I had to ask multiple times for holds to be released despite being told multiple times by hotel staff they had released those funds as I stood in front of them. One IHG’s customer service representative claimed these holds never occurred despite my printed bank statements showing otherwise. I notified our director who is appalled by the situation. I will recommend that we are not placed at IHG owned locations as many of us still have several conferences to attend/present at this year. Overall, the Crowne Plaza and IHG made it clear that they are willing to leave graduate students in financially precarious positions while away from home and across...

I stayed at this hotel from May 9 to May 12th and will say this is one of the best hotels I've stayed at in terms of service, customer care, and room quality. I stayed at one other hotel in Seattle that I didn't feel safe in, but this hotel is absolutely on top of its game in providing safety and peace of mind.

Arrival and Departure: When first arriving there was indeed construction but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and honestly the lounge area was still useable and pleasent. My only complaint was the pull in in front of the hotel since it is right in front of a very busy intersection. This 'pull in' is small so if you're arriving via uber, taxi or lyft you might need to be very patient with your driver or willing to get off somewhere close in case that pull in has other vehicles in there. On that note, they don't have a shuttle to airport, which they explained was because of their position with the intersection, BUT they were super kind in calling a taxi. The taxi is $45 flat compared to a lyft being $85. I was super grateful they recommended that to me and they called (also shout out to the overnight receptionist, he was so nice and made me feel more chipper so early in the morning!!). If you arrive via public transportaion from airport I recommend the rail, but be warned that it was a steep walk with the path we took. Make sure to pay attention to the elevation on the paths recommended to you via google or apple maps!! 5/5 for the location being within 15 minutes walk to Pikes Place, the Waterfront, a Target and Walgreens, and a 30ish walk to the Space Needle.

Room Quality: Refreshing, spacious and if you can afford definitly select the room with a view! Well worth the extra cost if you're on a leisure trip to Seattle. They had an extra blanket and pillow in closet, can control the temp in room and a kurieg with water bottles for it. My sister was very excited to use the provided bathroom robes and spent every minute of us in our rooms either at window or on the very soft bed.

On the app it said that housekeeping services could be requested- I had forgetten to request but thankfully they came in and made the beds! That was a very pleasent surprise and made our very sweaty, busy day even better to arrive back to.

Security: This hotel honestly made me safer than I ever had in any hotel. Not only was the elevator super advanced with its keycard feature, seeing so many staff members interacting with other people here and at the entrance both inside and outside made me feel much calmer staying there. We had a previous negative expierence at an IHG Seattle hotel in October, so this really made us feel so much better.

The other plus was the restuant on site- I recommend their burger as the patty was absolutely flavorful and their sandwhich was plentiful for their price points. I recommend utilizing the grab-and-go market they have- my sister and I ended up using it frequently- especially since it was a self-serve and pay. That was convient especially after a long day being tourists around the Seattle area.

We'll happily stay again at this hotel...

ROACHES - See video on Yelp, only can post photos to google.

I just had a very unpleasant experience at the Crown Plaza in downtown Seattle. Very surprised given they're a big name hotel and I've stayed with them in other cities before with no issue.

Checked into a room on the 8th floor about 2-3 doors away from the elevator (can't remember the #). About 30 mins into the stay, I notice something crawling on the bed. I first think maybe a bed bug. After a closer look, I realize it's a baby roach. I record a quick video, then kill it, hoping it was a one-off situation. I come back to the bed and there's ANOTHER ONE! (See video). Take into account it's 2 PM, roaches don't usually come out in the day time unless there's a lot already. And where there's baby roaches there's a momma roach nearby!

I notify the front desk and they switch me to a 12th floor room. While the staff was quick to provide an another option, they seemed to not show any sense of alarm, as if this was not their first time hearing of this.

I had flown in on a red eye and was desperate for sleep so I take a quick nap fully clothed, scared to pull the sheets back, then proceed to the event I was in town for. I return to the room, and begin to do a deep inspection of the room for any signs of roaches, as I was VERY paranoid about going to sleep for the night. I quickly realize that the cleaning throughout the room was ok, but the bathroom sink was dirty. At this point I was disgusted and decided I needed to find another hotel.

I proceeded to check out two nights early, and spoke with Dan and informed him of everything that happened. He informed me that he would pass my message off to the morning team as he could not do anything about the situation at the time - understandable.

I booked through Expedia and contacted them to refund me my stay. They said not an issue if the hotel agrees to refund it on their end. Hotel denies the refund.

I speak with a manager named Andres the next morning and show him the video. He stated their hands were tied since I went through Expedia and referred me to speak with another manager.

The next day I spoke with Chair (not sure if thats correct name). She also refused to help in any way and stated some template policy baloney to me due to me deciding to fully check out the hotel two days early.

Look - I am a property manager for two residential apartment buildings in SF. Dealing with this satisfied customers is regular business. I know that if a customer TRULY had a bad experience, and it was due to lack of upkeep/cleanliness, exceptions need to be made to policies and rules. It's called A CUSTOMER SERVICE GESTURE. Thats how you make it right.

I am requesting Crowne Plaza authorize the refund to Expedia, as I did not pay money to stay with roaches.

I will be forwarding this complaint to the Seattle health inspectors office, along with every platform to help other customer avoid this same...