Cambria Hotel New Haven University Area — Hotel in New Haven

We booked this hotel thru Hotel Tonight, which is a website I will not use again. When we booked the hotel, we booked it for two queen beds. Our confirmation email said two queen beds. We arrived at the hotel around 9pm. Anthony, the front desk agent, graciously removed one of his AirPods and was able to set his phone down for about 30 seconds in his efforts to provide the worst customer service possible. He told us bluntly that they were oversold on queen beds and that the only thing he could do was offer us an upgrade to a suite for an additional $100. We tried to show him our reservation email, showing we had booked two queens and he wouldn’t even look at it. He said our only option was to pay an additional $100 for a suite. I looked online, at their direct website, and the suite was available to book online for a price difference of about $60. I asked him if he would honor the price on their website and we would pay the additional $60. He refused. He said he was not allowed. Mind you, I used to work in the hotel industry for many years. I told him I knew that was not true. I also said, you can see our reservation is for two beds. You should honor the reservation and give us the upgraded room for no cost, since that is what we paid for and it is not our fault you oversold the room type. This happens all the time in hotels. I wasn’t trying to get a free upgrade, I just wanted the two beds that we booked. If the hotel oversold a room type, it is bad business to ask the customer to pay more money upon arrival when you have been traveling all day. It was also late in the evening, there was very little chance that a big influx of guests would storm the place and need rooms. ||Meanwhile, my husband went online to Hotel Tonight to show him they were still advertising two queen beds on their website. They also had the suite Anthony was trying to upsell us available for $50ish cheaper on their website. While attempting to show Anthony this, my husband accidentally clicked on the room type and booked the suite for that night. This was totally our fault and a dumb mistake, I am not blaming the hotel at all for that. We tried to get in contact with Hotel Tonight, who refused to let us cancel either reservation, even though the hotel wouldn’t give us the room we had originally reserved and the second was an accident. Again, this is not the hotel’s fault except for not honoring the original room type that was reserved.||At this point, we didn’t want to stay there anymore but had booked two rooms and didn’t want to spend anymore than we already had for one night. We checked into our two rooms, which Anthony put on two separate floors, even after we requested to be near each other because it was a family trip and we were sharing several items between us. We got to our room, the suite, and it was gross. Hair everywhere and there was even someone’s used contact lens in the shower. Most of the outlets in the room could not be used because of poor installation and misalignment between the plastic part and the electric part. Only two small towels in the bathroom, one of which I had to use to clean up all the hair. The tub had a bunch of black marks in it and I had to clean the tub myself before using it. The beds were comfortable but the pillows were folded into this weird squares which were horrible until you pulled them apart. And the kicker was there was a sign in the room asking for you to give your housekeeper tips electronically. This is horribly tacky for a hotel that tries to pretend they are midscale. Plus, if you’re going to ask for tips, please make sure there isn’t the hair equivalent of a medium sized dog strewn about the bathroom and please remove previous occupant’s used contact lenses. I should have gone back down and asked for another room, but I figured Anthony wasn’t going to suddenly decide to give good service and give us a clean room, so I cleaned it myself and my husband and I had to share a towel...

Pulling up to the Cambria Hotel New Haven in sweltering heat felt like spotting an oasis in the desert. I walked in, hopeful for an early check-in. Though it wasn’t available, your gracious front desk agent let me down with such poise that it was almost refreshing. She invited us to explore the town and return in a couple of hours, when she’d honor a slightly early check-in; which she did.

Upon returning, however, the lobby air had transformed. A thick, unmistakable potpourri of burnt sesame oil lingered. Hospitality may include ambiance, and scent certainly plays a role in that, but perhaps a different aroma would be more welcoming.

Check-in was completed by a gentleman who seemed laser-focused on his tasks, handing us a stark manila key packet and blank white key cards; perfectly in tune with the aesthetic of office-themed decor (from the exploded wall clock to the scattered typewriters).

The sesame-scented journey continued in the elevator and all the way down the hallway, but we were relieved to find it hadn’t invaded the room itself. What did greet us, however, were four pillows that at first glance looked like… anything but pillows. Rolled tightly, they resembled washcloths posing as bed linens. Thankfully, they unfurled into standard-sized pillows; a small victory.

We changed and headed out for the evening. Our destination: Beck at Westville Music Bowl. The concert was phenomenal. Spirits high, we returned to what we hoped would be a restful night.

It was not.

Adjusting the room temperature felt like trying to quench a deep thirst with a teaspoon. Despite selecting the fan setting, the unit had other plans and simply stayed off. Trying to darken the room for sleep was even more maddening. Every corner glowed. Blinking lights, steady lights, charging lights, a skyline so luminous, it would make Paris envious. The pièce de résistance: a Bluetooth-enabled bathroom mirror glowing like the Eye of Sauron. No button, switch, or polite begging would turn it off. That mirror became our scapegoat: high-tech, high-price, and hellbent on illumination.

The mattress, if it can be called that, was firm in a way that suggested it had once been hay. Between the light pollution and the medieval bedding, sleep came only by way of physical exhaustion.

Our planned 10 a.m. checkout turned into a 7:30 a.m. escape.

We couldn’t wait to leave.

At checkout, we dropped our keys into a “Quick Checkout” box and asked the front desk agent, who appeared to be watching TV, if that was all. She asked our room number, nodded, and that was that. No “How was your stay?” Perhaps she already knew the legends.

As we walked to our car, I apologized for the hotel choice. We agreed: we’d never stay at a Cambria again and would think long and hard before trusting a Choice Hotel in the future.

That said, thank you for asking for feedback. I’m sharing all of this not out of malice, but in hopes that it can actually help. You clearly put intention into some design and service elements.. now it’s time to match that with comfort, ambiance, and sleepability.

Served warm, with love.

— A guest who really wanted to enjoy this stay (and made his partner laugh in the retelling, so not...

I recently spent eight nights at this hotel and was not impressed at all. When I checked in, very little information was provided to me (i.e. I had no idea when breakfast was served, if there was even breakfast, where the workout room as, if they even had one, was not informed of the fact that the doors lock at night and you will need your key to get back in, etc.) It was just boom, here’s your key.

The room was standard, fine, but a bright red flashing light connected to the smoke detector or sprinkler, flashed ever 3 seconds and was ridiculously bright. I mean, lit up the whole room, you could see it going off even with your eyes closed when trying to sleep.

Traffic noise was very loud. Cars racing by outside at high speeds periodically throughout the night would wake me up. Eventually I had to turn on a white noise app in an effort to drown it out.

But the experience that takes the cake was the extrememly rude woman who manned the front desk during the day. Tall, very loud. She had a very condescending tone about her and made me wait for her to finish texting on her phone before she could be bothered to look up and ackwledge that I had been standing there. She was very dismissive, acted annoyed by everything and spent majority of her time at work chatting with coworkers about personal matters that frankly, people should not be overhearing. She had a profound attitude that was entirely unpleasant to deal with. Being there for over a week, it became an unfortunate part of my stay that I had to deal with on more than one occasion. Instead of helping find solutions to problems, (for example when the printer from the “business station” which is actually just an ipad, wouldn’t work) she would respond in a curt manner, dismiss me and then move onto the next customer with no follow through or help with my issue. No professional curtesy whatsoever. No, “let me help you with that” no “there’s a printing place down the road,” etc. Just, “can’t help you, sorry.” She never offered a good morning, good afternoon, hello’s ect, but then every once in a while decide she liked the look of someone else who just came in and greet them somewhat cordially. At one point I had ordered dinner from Grubhub and was notified by the driver that it had been dropped off. I called the front desk and asked if it was down there. She answered with a curt “yes.” then hung up the phone. When I went down I said, “hello, I’m here to pick up the food order that was dropped off.” She looked up from her phone and pointed at the bag sitting behind the desk on the counter. Didn’t even make an attempt to say anything or offer to hand it over to me. I found her completely off putting with the most unflattering attitude and frankly, she gave the hotel a nasty vibe. Dealing with her everyday was...