Sonesta Anaheim Resort Area — Hotel in Anaheim

My girlfriend and I stayed at the Sonesta Anaheim Resort Area for five nights, from 07/30 to 08/03 and checked out on 08/04. On our last night, my girlfriend and I came back to our hotel room around 9:30 PM finding out that it got broken into and ransacked. We noticed the bathroom door was left wide open and the closet doors were left wide open as well (please note that every time before we leave our hotel room, I would always close the bathroom door shut all the way and pull the hotel room door shut). All of our bags and smaller bags were on the bed with the contents inside them scattered all over the bed and some on the floor. My duffel bag and girlfriend's luggage was rummaged through, and the TV drawer that had stuff in it was left open. Some of our stuff were stolen and it includes my backpack with miscellaneous stuff in it, my MacBook charger, my portable battery pack, a Round 1 arcade card, a Starbucks gift card that has no balance in it, my girlfriend's iPhone charging block, her glasses case with cleaning solution and wiping cloths, and one of our hotel room keycards. We were on the seventh floor and our room was also next to a staircase exit and it was likely a grab-and-go situation and he, she, or they did not have time to steal our luggage and other stuff.

At first, we got new keycards and the old ones were deactivated, but after some time of thinking, we decided to move to a different room fearing that the person or those people might come back and steal something again while we're sleeping and we don't know if they have a weapon or not, and regardless it's still a scary situation, and so we got moved to the second floor. The next morning, we talked and filed an incident report with their front office manager, Jimmy Raynor, and told him everything that happened and he explained that it might take a week to hear back from them/corporate. We asked him if this has ever happened before to anyone, but he said it doesn’t happen. We have no idea why our room was targeted specifically (we weren’t told of other rooms being ransacked that night), but we think it was because our room was right next to the staircase exit and/or the strike plate of the door was loose, making it easy to pry open without a keycard. We also realized that the hotel is located right next to an overpass, so there are a lot of cars passing by the building. Considering this, you would think that they would have a security guard in the parking lot and/or in the building, but there was no security guard on the premises at all to ensure safety. We asked one of their front desk employees about having security in and around the hotel, but they said in the past they had a security guard posted in front of the elevators in the lobby floor to check and see if a person or a group of people are guests at the hotel and would ask them if they have a hotel room keycard, but now they don’t have a guard on duty anymore.

This was supposed to be a relaxing vacation and celebrating my girlfriend's birthday Disneyland trip, but it's just sad it all had to end that way and we're still spooked about the situation. When we checked out, we talked to their assistant general manager, Gonzalo Guzman, and told him about the situation. I asked Gonzalo if we could get a copy of the incident report we filed, but for some reason we were not allowed to get a copy and he did not give us a reason why. We will never stay at any Sonesta ever again and we will not be recommending Sonesta to our friends and family!

P.S. If you do plan on staying here, do not get a room that’s right next to a staircase exit, make sure your hotel room door is pulled shut, make sure parts of the door are secured tightly and intact, and I recommend locking up all your belongings before leaving your room!

Also, we just found out two other reviews we found on Yelp that were posted 05/30/2022 that they were robbed of their stuff, and on 05/17/2017 an iPad was stolen out of their locked safe. We were told that this does not happen often, but seeing those reviews makes us think...

Unfortunately, we had a horrible stay at Sonesta Anaheim. I don’t recommend this hotel to anyone going to Disney: stay anywhere else.

I had a really unfortunate circumstance when we decided to go to the hot tub to relax. The pool hours began at 8 am and we went down at 10:30 am. I was sad that the hot tub was luke warm, but got in because we really needed to unwind. Right as we sat in the tub, a leaf blower using diesel came roaring into the pool area and blowing leaves, dirt, and debris into the hot tub. I asked him politely to stop. Seems like you should use a broom in this scenario, since we were there during pool hours? The leaf blower is so bad for the environment and for people’s health. No guest wants to breathe in dirt and debris. It’s a health issue.

The leaf blower kept going, circling the hot tub for 15 minutes. Keep in minds we are down in the tub on the ground. Which means all the dirt and all the trash he is blowing goes directly into our faces, into the tub, and into our water. It was so unbelievably rude. I actually thought it was a prank. I mean, what type of hotel treats their guests this way?

The hotel staff rudely told us to get out of the hot tub so he could finish leaf blowing. He didn’t ask nicely but literally shouted at us. I felt like it was bad management and bad timing on their end: they should be leaf blowing when the pool is closed.

The Disneyland hotel would NEVER in a million years blow dirt and trash into the face of a hotel guest. I was taken aback to be honest because there are so many other options they have to clean the leaves: try a rake or a broom. I won’t be gaslit for their poor time management and poor groundskeeping management skills.

Even worse: the hotel staff was horrific, unhelpful, unkind, and cruel when I brought my experience to their attention. I was ganged up on by 4 staff members. The rudest of them all was named Sawa. She was cruel, condescending, and patronizing. Sawa gaslit me. This might be the worst customer service experience of my entire life. I’m not joking — she was so mean.

Sawa said no one had ever complained about leaf blowers blowing dirt into their face while in the hot tub. I said, okay well it’s a horrible experience and shouldn’t happen to anyone regardless. Instead of understanding how horrible it feels to have a diesel leaf blower blow dirt into your face while on the ground, in the hot tub, she was dismissive and cruel. She wasn’t listening to my experience and was immediately hostile and unkind. She needs customer service training or needs to be let go immediately. Sawa is unfit to check folks in or be in a customer-facing role.

Sawa said to me: “I know how gardening works.” Wow, so cruel. So do I, you could use a rake, broom, or a less disturbing method if you insist on doing it during pool open hours. I honestly was taken aback and felt that her being aggressively rude and gaslighting me was the worst response she could have in this situation.

Do you know how customer service works, Sawa? You don’t. You’re a horrific human being to interact with and you ruined my experience at this hotel. The customer service was horrific: the groundskeeper was rude, Sawa at the desk was rude, and we found no rest and no peace at this nightmare hotel.

Other cons: we couldn’t sleep because you can hear the highway from your bed. There is zero sound proofing in the rooms. There was no housekeeping and we ran out of towels and tp. Parking overpriced, food is trash.

Stay...

Bed springs in the room where very noisy, there was no soundproofing so you can hear everything the people next door where saying which was very loud at 11pm, myself and other guests had to drive around the property multiple times (I personally had to drive around about 6 times due to no parking spaces), which is not safe for a female to have to park far and make that long walk late at night in Anaheim. As I was waiting in line to speak to the front desk, I overheard complaints from other guests about plumbing issues and there wasn’t much resolution for those guests other than they didn’t have someone who could take a look. I also overheard other guests stating they couldn’t find parking, just as I struggled. When attempting to share my concerns and dissatisfaction, a hotel employee named Ischel was completely dismissive and rude. She did not care at all about my concerns and refused to cancel my stay and instead said I could leave if I want to but they obviously had already been paid. She lied and said there was plenty of parking which she, being inside the hotel, would not have an idea of what the parking looked like at 11pm. This is not what customer service is about. They are misleading people by using Disney graphics to attract clients. I would not recommend staying in this hotel. I would recommend paying a little more for a better quality hotel and better overall experience. Saving a few dollars is not worth settling for low quality and poor customer service from employees like Ischel. She was just horrible and needs to be trained on service recovery and service to customers in general. Even the restaurant parking was fully occupied. Please see the reference pictures. For the hotel representative Ischel to dismiss my concern and tell me that there was plenty of parking when I just drove around the property 6 times looking for a spot, is unreasonable. Not professional at all. People can choose where they want to stay and unfortunately, this hotel and service didn’t meet expectations. As a paying customer I should be able to speak up and receive a refund when I didn’t spend a single night at this hotel. Yet, Ischel refused to help and proceeded to charge me for a 3 day stay there when I didn’t spend a night there. Quite honestly, this is a fraudulent charge. Do not recommend this hotel at all. Please avoid and monitor the charges from this...