Sheraton Garden Grove - Anaheim South Hotel — Hotel in Garden Grove

This was perhaps the most unpleasant of my Starwoods Experiences and it had nothing to do with the hotel, which is supremely located within one mile of Disneyland, has a 24-hour heated pool, has a welcoming lobby and interior space, free public wifi in the lobby, and is sparkling clean.

The reason for my dissatisfaction was what I experienced to be extremely unhelpful service from the front desk attendant. We arrived late in the evening, only to find no parking spaces available. They offered free valet service to make up for this which was fine, except for the fact that they only had one valet available and there were no less than five cars waiting in line to be parked. The valet himself was very helpful, competent, and courteous, but was utterly without help.

The front desk manager told me that I would have to pay for overnight parking. This surprised me, because when I made the booking, NO MENTION was made of this utterly unnecessary and rather expensive add-on to my bill. When I told them about this problem, the front desk manager gave me a helpless "I'm sorry" which (1) didn't resolve the situation, and (2) did not communicate to me what options I might undertake in order to resolve it. When I asked to speak with the manager, he told me that the manager had left for the day and that there was nothing he could do. I don't know why, but I was immensely frustrated by this, after a 5 hour drive from up north. I had envisioned a quiet serene scene to welcome my family and, at 11 PM, the lobby was a chaotic zoo.

I brought up the situation to the morning manager, who told me that I should come back at another time when the managers were not so busy to talk about my problem.

The second problem was that I was told over the phone that my entire family would be eligible for a free continental breakfast on the second day of my stay. However, when I checked in I was only given two vouchers for these breakfasts. When I told them that the lady over the phone told me that each member of my family would get a free breakfast (why do they think I opted to stay here in the first place?), he again gave me the "I'm sorry" with absolutely nothing else to say. With that, I took my family out to breakfast at a local Mexican place. (Great place by the way) No way was I going to spend extra money to cover for their mstake. I understand that the offer I signed up for may have only included two breakfasts...just don't tell me otherwise over the phone in order to entice me to make the booking.

To top it off, not one effort was made to upgrade me to the Club Level floor or anything like that. Every Starwoods Property I stay at seems to be staffed by people who go the extra mile to look for upgrades without me asking for them. No such luck here. When I asked they told me that no upgrades were available. Fine. I get that. But...

Let me start by saying I am a very experienced traveler, having spent the past 30 years in banking and traveling all over the country on business.

Overall the hotel was fine but the restaurant and bar were the worst ever! They were unable, despite repeated attempts, to get my SPG number entered so I give up on that. Our room had a DO NOT DISTURB sign on it and the key didn't work so we waited a while for the front desk to get things straight.

Since we were arriving on Christmas Day and we had 11 people in our group I made a reservation well in advance. I should have known when the person on the phone assured me I didn't need a reservation that things would not go well. We started out earlier by trying to get a round of drinks at the bar which proved to be a test of endurance which finally ended when one of us went to the front desk to ask for help at the bar.

We arrived for dinner at the appointed hour, waited a while for someone to acknowledge our presence and were questioned when we said we wanted to sit together. That's why I made a reservation! We ended up having to put the tables together on our own to make a table for our group and there was only one other table with customers at the time. Service wasn't much better. We received an assortment of menus for some unknown reason, all different. I had to remind the server that this was on one check too. Our orders were placed, finally, and it went downhill from there. Salads were received sporadically and several without dressing. Beverages were even more sporadic, with one not being served until after the entree arrived. The kids wanted apple juice but only one was served because they ran out. Ten bread plates were delivered for eleven people and when we asked for more bread we were informed it would take a while because it had to be toasted (it came with dessert). The Christmas Special Dinner which several of us ordered was an embarrassment - cold beans, luke warm canned sweet potatoes, tasteless gravy and stuffing, and, canned cranberry sauce that still proudly displayed the ridges from the can.. Frankly, it looked and tasted like something that would be served in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. No dishes were ever removed so our salad plates remained. There were no salad forks offered and the one fork we received was used for all courses. When it came time for dessert only those who had the "special" dinner received anything and nobody was even asked if they would like dessert, not even the 3 small children in our group. The serving sizes were HIGHLY variable in size and HIGHLY lacking in flavor.

I would suggest that if you are going to be open on a holiday, you should be prepared for it. Fortunately for all of us, it was so pathetic that it was funny. We felt like the...

We were completely dissatisfied with the staff and their ability to communicate and serve us. Upon check-in, the front desk representative did a VERY POOR job of explaining the SPG benefits (in-room wi-fi, points, member happy hour, etc.). I had to go back 2-3 times for clarification. I even asked her is there was a breakfast buffet in the restaurant and she said "No", only a full menu. When we arrived at the restaurant the next morning we found a full breakfast buffet offered. However, EVERYTHING was cold; the eggs, bacon, sausage, and french toast. It was the worst $40.00 ($35.00 + tip) breakfast we have ever had. There was one other party having breakfast and I noticed that almost every single table had dirty dishes and the floor needed to be swept. There wasn't an employee to be found and we barely saw anyone while we were eating. The gal that did come by once or twice was very nice and cheerful. When it was time to pay our bill we had to go to the bar, next door, to ask for help. There we found 3 employees chatting. Lastly, upon check out, we were not told what to expect or how to go about exiting the hotel parking lot. When we arrived at the gate it asked for a ticket. Fortunately, we had one, but what if we didn't? It also asked for a credit card to pay the bill. However, we already paid it upon check-out. It seems to me that the front desk person should have said what to do/expect and how to go about exiting the hotel parking lot. Instead she left it up to us to figure out and in the mean time we got irritated because of the delay trying to exit and the gate asking us for an additional $36.00 to exit. I thought we were going to have to park and go back inside for instructions. As it turns out, after a delay, the gate opened without having to pay again or go inside. This is not they way you want to end your vacation at "the happiest place on earth".

I think the general manager of this hotel needs to require every front desk employee to be re-trained on how to serve their guests. I mean REALLY serve their guests. Not just act like a robot and check people in and out, but to tell them specifically where things are located, what is included with their SPG benefits, how to get catch the shuttle to Disneyland, and how to get out of the parking lot upon check out! Employees should not be able to serve the front desk if they cannot clearly communicate the SPG benefits. They should be quizzed and the managers should be confident that they know and understand all about the hotels products and services before being placed in that position. I am appalled at the poor quality of service provided by this...