READ IF YOU ARE DOING A COMPANY EVENT AND BOOKING GROUP RATES.
As a preface, I reached out to hotel management prior to posting this to give them a chance to address my issues, but no one got back to me - you'll see a theme here.
This hotel is a fairly nice hotel and quality wise, I have few complaints. However, we recently hosted a company event and booked 10 rooms which was done through their sales team, not the desk. We booked 2 months in advance, we followed up many times for over a month prior to check in to assure we had no problems when our team flew in and arrived. There were issues with getting anyone to respond to us, they never asked for our personell's info until we asked them if they needed to know who was actually staying there. They refuse to take phone calls or escalate to management when requested. They made several errors in rooms selected (we put 3 executives in Track Suites) and in rates, which thankfully we had signed a contract in December and had to fight them to honor what we signed for. After assurance that all ours t's were crossed and i's dotted, we arrived around 8PM on check in day to find out "our suites were still being cleaned and they didn't have an eta for when they would be ready" so we had to go wait in the bar area while they "cleaned our rooms". Mind you, my wife who is pregnant was in our party and was forced to wait in the bar after traveling and flying all day. Once almost 10pm came around we checked in on our rooms only to be told the truth - no one actually told them our group was staying and there were no available suites, so we would need to be put in standard rooms.
Frustrating, but we were tired and ready to go to sleep so we obliged and took the standard rooms. The room itself was fine, minus a broken toilet paper holder hanging off the wall, BUT there was no cable in the entire hotel and the internet was not working. The mini fridges were not stocked, so the next morning I went to the desk to buy some water bottles, to which they stated they do not carry and we would have to buy from the bar. Fine, but to my shock, they only had two water bottles left for sale, on a Saturday morning. I bought both, sorry to the rest of the guests in the hotel.
Two of our employees had no fitted sheets on their beds, even after complaining and asking for it to be fixed, the second night they returned to find they never came to put sheets on.
While our company paid for the rooms, one of our employees was charged the full rate up front and we had to get them to refund him. They also charged two separate incidental holds of $100 and $65 for each room, never really got an explanation as to why there were two. They did end up moving us 3 execs to our track suites the following day, but they tried charging us the full track suite rate for both nights. When I asked them to MATCH the contract rate (should have been discounted or comped for the trouble IMO) for the standard room the first night, they tried to meet in the middle and negotiate with me.
I asked them to print an itemized invoice with all room charges in our group at checkout, but they were having so much trouble with doing it and had a growing line of antsy customers also wanting to check out and catch flights, they promised to email it to me that day. It has been nearly a week, I have sent follow ups, I have yet to receive an itemized invoice to review.
This is a nice hotel with a lot of potential, but as with many great things, it is so terribly managed that they can't get out of their own way. Despite all my noise, my emails, my survey, my now Google review, I have yet to have any manager speak to me, including at my stay on the property, no manager wanted to talk to me. My advice to the Kimpton, fire your incompetent management staff if you want this place to succeed, you have a really good property and a good opportunity here. I would have gladly paid more for the rooms if they came with a better experience.
My advice to anyone looking for more than a pitstop hotel for yourself,...
Read moreUpon checking in I was greeted by Martina and she was so nice and professional. I got in late so once I checked in all I wanted to do was shower and lay down. I called housekeeping to receive some towels, sheets, and a blanket. I have OCD pretty bad so I never sleep in the bedding that is on hotel beds or trust the towels that are already in the room. It took over an hour for me to receive the towels and sheets but no blanket. I was told that they were out.
Next day in the morning I went down to the front desk and showed them a picture of the toilet in the room that I was in. (I was on the second floor directly next to the GM’s room). The toilet seat was significantly smaller than the toilet which left me having to sit on the base of the toilet when I use the restroom which is gross. At the time Charles and another young lady was at the front desk. Charles was so dismissive and I didn’t care for his energy. The young lady apologized and as I was talking to her an older thin lady with glasses and short hair walked up and was very apologetic as well. They sent a guy up to fix it but the new toilet seat he had brought up was too small as well so he said they’ll just change my room. I was moved to room 330 and once settled I asked for a blanket again, no blankets.
The whole process had taken sometime and I had plans so I left for the day. I had the “do not disturb” sign on the door but when I returned to my room there were sheets placed on the luggage stand which was weird because I asked for a blanket not sheets AND the sign was on the door. It was late when I returned (I was on Cali time still). I called down to the front desk and asked for towels and a blanket. Took almost two hours and when the lady came she had towels and sheets. She said we don’t have any blankets so I brought sheets instead. At that point I was tired and irritated so I said thank you and moved on.
Next day I get up started getting dressed and realized I needed a hair tie and bobby pins. I went down to the front desk because I did not have over an hour to wait for them to bring me anything. Asked for hair ties and the young lady tells me that they don’t have any but offered office supply rubber bands! I told her that I could not use those for my hair. I said you guys have a card in every room stating that if we’ve forgotten toiletry items y’all got it. She said yeah those need to be updated because we haven’t ordered a lot of that in a while. At that point I was so over the Kimpton! Frustrated I went back and made what I had work.
Last night staying I arrive back to the hotel around 3am I ask the older lady at the front desk for some body wash (she had really long locs and I think glasses but I remember the long locs for sure). When my room was moved there was only shampoo and conditioner in the shower but I had a bar of soap so I didn’t mind but I had ran out. Again I walked down there to ask because I didn’t want to wait over an hour for soap. She started going through the drawers at the desk which I thought was odd and then looked me dead in my face and said I don’t have any. I honestly thought she was joking but she sat there and waited for me to respond. I then said y’all don’t have a closet where you keep all the toiletries? She said let me go check. She was gone for no more than two minutes and says I don’t see any but I can have some sent up in the morning. I said umm no I need soap tonight! She then says well I can have security bring you up some. I waited about an hour and nothing! Instead of going back down there upset I washed up with SHAMPOO!!!
Small toilet seat, no shower gel, mold in the showers, no blankets, blue tooth paste smashed in one of the “clean” hand towels in the room, housekeeping taking consistently well over an hour to bring ANYTHING, rude customer service from the lady with the long locs, no later check out, consistently being woken up by housekeeping allowing the door to hit the lock when they are going in and out while cleaning rooms down the halls. What happened to...
Read moreI will first preface this by saying that I never leave reviews and I always tip and try to be gracious with staff. I thought the hotel was really nice, and I was excited to eat at the restaurant. Unexpectedly, our experience at dinner was awful. The server didn’t take our order for about 30 minutes. At that point there are only two tables with one person each. So, they didn’t have a lot going on. An hour later a new server comes to our table, apologizes because he was on a “break” and asks us if we have ordered (idk who takes an hour+ break, but ok). We say yes, but it’s been an hour and could he please check on the food. At this point we are the only table in the restaurant. He comes back immediately with our food, almost like it had been ready... maybe it was just coincidence. We still don’t have silverware at this point so we had to wait another 5 minutes for that. Then they didn’t check on us after we got our food, and my husband’s steak was raw, like Gordon Ramsey, “this is ICE COLD” raw. We almost never send food back, but it was a $40 steak, and we’re all starting to get frustrated. So, because we had no idea how long it would be for them to check on us, he has to take the steak to the server himself for recooking. Meanwhile, I asked them for a plate so we could give our toddler some food and they brought me a comically small plate, like the kind you would serve salad dressing on. We finally get the steak back and the temperature is good. Honestly, all this would have been forgivable if not for what came next. The server asked me how everything was, and I told him as matter-of-factly as possible that the food was ok but the service had been really awful because it took over an hour to get our food as we had now been there for two hours. I ended it by saying, and we’re the only table here, there’s really just no excuse for such bad service. The server comes back a few minutes later with our check and informs me that he checked with the kitchen and “it didn’t take any longer than it should have.” Mind you, this server was on a break when we got there. So, I remind him that he wasn’t even here for the first hour and a half, and how could he know? And the clock doesn’t lie. And at this point, I am wondering why he is arguing with me. As a former server of many years, I would never have dreamed about arguing with a customer this way. And no, the customer is not always right. But it had taken way too long and I just wanted him to acknowledge that. I make a lot of allowances, because sometimes we have off days, and I always tip. But this guy was arguing with me and even gaslighting me about the timing. To make matters worse, I looked at the bill and I saw that he had added 22% gratuity. And normally, I would tip even under the circumstances. I even polled the table and asked everyone if they would tip. They all said no (I am including this detail because I want to emphasize that I am trying to be reasonable). Despite the consensus, I had planned to tip. I just couldn’t after he argued with me instead of just taking the criticism professionally. So, I told him to take the gratuity off because I would not tip after this experience and after he had been so rude. He began arguing again saying that we had six people (he’s counting the toddler who didn’t get her own food, but ok whatever). Eventually he relents and takes it off the bill. We pay and as we are walking out of the restaurant the guy at the front desk (Charles?) comes out and asks for two boxes. Then the server stops and begins whispering to him about us, obviously complaining because he probably thought that if he did first he would be able to get in front of this. I approached them and said, let me weigh in on this if you’re going to discuss it here in front of me. Talking badly about a customer in front of a customer is just messy. And bad practice. The front desk guy placated me and said he would make it right and that I should look for an email, but it’s been hours and I am still waiting. I will be following up...
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