La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Seattle Federal Way — Hotel in Federal Way

First time here at this hotel and I just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed my stay here. Mariah who worked the front desk was the one who answered all my questions over the phone regarding the hotel before arriving. Check in is at 3pm but she was kind enough to see if we can do an early check in after 12pm only if it was available because I had explained to her we just arrived from out of state that morning and were here for a family funeral. Upon arrival she was the one who greeted us and was very friendly. This hotel followed the guidelines to social distancing and the place was clean and sanitized from the entrance, lobby and lounge area. They have free breakfast in a bag and a full bar from 6pm - 8pm where you can order appetizers and I must say they were good. They also had a little mart to buy stuff you need. They have other stuff but due to Covid-19 I'm only giving info on what they had open that I was aware of. Elevator is right near the front desk, even restrooms on each end of hotel which was great. Our room was nice and clean, our view faced the front of hotel where you can see the park across the street and what was great is that they had everything all around their hotel from restaurants, Walmart, Starbucks, The Mall etc. They also provide a microwave and fridge which some hotels don't... due to covid-19. It was also nice to know we were able to have our family visit us there while we stayed for 4 nights and no one bothered us. Even though they have a cleaning crew we made sure to clean up after ourselves from having cocktails in the lounge area because it's what we do whenever we go to places whether it's a hotel, Airbnb or resort. Teamwork people teamwork :). All the staff was great and didn't bother us at all (like other places where they don't have anything better to do then complain or monitor you). We are very appreciative and really felt at home staying here. I read other reviews about this place but we haven't experienced anything bad or anyone being rude. The only one thing I would say that was a negative was when we were checking out they didn't have many luggage carts and couldn't find the two they had on the premises (which we did use while checking in) so my husband had to make a few trips to carry everything down. Thank goodness for the elevator and nephews who came to help. Thank you Mariah and the hotel staff for being very kind and friendly and making us feel at home as if this was an actual resort and allowing us to have a great time while we were here. If I could rate their customer service I would say it was a 15. Guidelines due to Covid-19 A+. Our families who live in the area that visited us, now know where to book rooms for their out of town guests because they too felt at home. We look forward to staying here again whenever we visit. Last of all, just want to say, Stay safe, be blessed and continue to do what you guys are doing because you all are...

We arrived at about 9:30 pm (after dark) and were not able to finally get into bed until after midnight because of all of the problems we encountered...

Where to start?

Pros

Rooms were nice ((too?) freshly remodeled, see below).

A discount was offered because of the required room change due to an AC problem (see below in "Cons").

Cons

No height listed on overhang by front doors (my post incident estimate is 12'6", give or take a couple inches, to low for a tall RV). The outer, obviously visible, overhang is probably ~14'. However the darkly painted support beams (hard to see in the daytime, much less after dark) are much lower... much to the detriment of the front AC unit on the RV I was driving.

This was obviously not the first time a tall vehicle had stuck one of the support beams because another one had a gouge taken out of it (paint scraped off bottom side).

When the room reservations were made we specifically noted that we had a cat and asked if they would accept pets. The call center said yes, no problem. When we arrived, they said they DON'T accept cats.

Cat had to stay at my mother's small apartment (she was not happy as she doesn't like pets that can jump up on counters, etc. that hold her "nick-nacks" which can break if knocked over).

We were told that the room fees were NON-REFUNDABLE. If we didn't want to stay because of the pet we'd still pay for the two rooms.

The call center said NOTHING about the extensive construction that was in progress. The lobby was TORN UP! Many room areas and floor sections were taped off with plastic on the 3rd floor.

No discounts were offered due to the construction.

The 3rd floor had a funky smell that I assume was from construction chemicals (carpet glue, dry wall, paint, etc. (?)). I was uncomfortable with the health implications of these smells. Still non refundable after complaint.

The first room my wife and I were put in had an extremely noisy AC unit. When we complained the response was something like, "Oh, yeah, I guess that is the room with the broken AC unit, here, I'll move you into another room."

Apparently, this Clarion hotel has been sold to La Quinta and will be operating as such in a month or two (hence the construction). Because if this, the Choice Hotels reservations desk was blamed for the problems (no cats, not telling about construction, etc.), with this hotel not accepting responsibility for any of the problems.

Summary

Possibly the worst hotel experience I've had in over 40 years of staying in hotels on vacation. I will never stay in a Clarion hotel again and probably not any Choice Hotels (group of hotels) because of...

First I want to say the manager at the La Quinta was professional and kind, I stayed with them for several months, a couple of their staff stood out. The housekeeping team was simply amazing, the learned my schedule and kept my room and bathroom clean, thank you. The Bar staff Vinny hands down made my stay great, he took the time to greet and connect with all the guest whether they visited the bar or not. Front desk staff- first Lisa, she spent many of night weekend nights keeping me company as I was adjusting to be so far from home, never judgemental, always a smile on her face. Front desk staff Sunshine, we started off bad foot but she corrected herself and it hard not to see her after she left. Cory, Nick, and Tim.... Kitchen staff and house man, Thank you all for dealing with my difficulties with my food. Tim keep the hotel clean, smelling good, always friendly and kind, never a bad word from him, he kept the hotel feeling safe- especially at night when I would walk he would make sure I was safe in and out of the hotel. There were things I didn't like, the new manager he was rude, unkind to existing customers, he would take customer before me knowing I was standing there waiting to be helped. He was not kind at all.. Edgar.. horrible manager and person, when I offered to stay or relocate to another location, he was the deciding factor on me checking out of the La quinta. My overall experience at the La Quinta was a good one.. some of the staff made it really to be comfortable, I also want to point out. Over the time I was staying there, they had several African American women working there but always seemed interesting why they never stayed beyond a week or month in length... With Edgar treatment of me during my stay always wondered if there was some underline biases. Anyhow thank you house keeping team, Vinny, Corey, and Tim for your outstanding dedication and hard work. I will always appreciate you for making it easy for me during my stay.

Thank you La Quinta...