Best Western Inn at Palm Springs — Hotel in Palm Springs

Best Western locked us out of our room at 3 am during Coachella weekend. We returned to the hotel after the final set at 3 am on 4/16/23. The card key for our hotel rooms did not work, so we went to the front desk. Noone was there. We tried calling the hotel directly. Nothing. We called Best Western corporate, they told us to ‘figure it out’ and that they could not do anything. As a result, we were outside of the Best Western hotel at 3:30 am with nowhere to go. During Coachella weekend, all other hotels are booked. We were fortunate that we had a car to sleep in. As we were about to fall asleep in the car, we saw an employee walk into the front door at about 4:30 am. We were locked outside for over 1.5 hours in total. The employee realized how messed up the situation was and immediately got us key replacements for our hotel room.

The employee said the manager would be present on site the next morning to address this issue. The next morning the manager was not present, a different employee managing the front desk said the manager would be in the next day. The next morning I approached the front desk again asking for the manager, the manager was not there and I was told that the manager would call me directly in the next couple of hours. The manager did not call me, so I called the manager directly and asked for at least a refund for that night. Our per night basis was $450 per night for a 2 bedroom hotel suite. The manager stated “we make a lot of money coachella weekend” and that he was hesitant to give a refund and would have to talk to his management, he stated he would get back to me by Wednesday. By Thursday afternoon I had heard nothing. I reached out to the corporate directly who empathized with my issue and initially only offered a rewards tier upgrade and a $40 gift card. At this point I asked to escalate further to which the representative offered off half of the night. She said that the manager had made that same offer already which was not true. I believe there’s a disconnect between the realities of the local management and that of Best Western corporate. The only positive employee interactions I had this entire time was with those who were a part of the resolution team from corporate, these people were very competent and helped push my case forward.

Overall, I’m shocked at how incompetent the Palm Springs Best Western management and staff are that I interacted with. They put myself and my friends in a potentially dangerous situation at 3 am at night.I would strongly recommend to anyone to not stay at this specific Best Western hotel as their management can’t be trusted. Additionally, I would recommend to avoid Best Western hotels in general as it’s obvious their corporate structure has no control over their franchisees and cannot resolve issues appropriately after they happen. It’s a huge flaw if at 3 am, the corporate response to you’re in trouble is along the lines of “we can’t do anything about this, you’ll have to...

Best Western is usually our preferred hotel chain to stay in while on the road. We trust that we will always get a certain level of cleanliness and comfort while at a BW. I don't like to need to write a really bad review but sadly, this hotel was an exception, it is not up to BW standards and I do not recommend staying there. I am honestly surprised it belongs to this chain, this is one of the worst hotels I ever stayed in.

The hotel is dated, needs major cleaning and upgrade and staff needs to be trained in basic customer service.

We are a family of 3 and in every other hotel we stayed we asked for and got 3 room keys so we can come and go independently. Not in this hotel, the woman at the front desk said she can't give us 3 keys.

We had many things to bring with us to the room, the parking was relatively far from the room, so we asked for a luggage cart but they don't have one, so we had to do several rounds carrying things while super tired after a whole day of driving.

There was an odd corridor leading to the room, it was partially concrete which was stained as if someone peed there and as we got closer to the room there was a carpet that was also stained. (see pics).

The room was old, dated and in need of better cleaning. The chair was stained, the air condition was dirty and very noisy, and the dresser had an unlatching drawer (see pics).

The room has a groove with a tiny kitchenet that leads to the bathroom door. The bathroom had no fan and no window so the only way for it to vent was into the kitchenette. The toilet required 2-3 flashes to get clean.

We were looking for ice but couldn't find it so came back to the room and called the front desk, she guided us to get some ice from the second floor but the ice machine there had a sign that it is out of order.

The breakfast was in an odd location at the very end of the hotel in the pool area. It had the poorest choice of any BW breakfast we've ever had. There was food on the floor near my table and while I was eating I had to listen to 2 loud conversations in Spanish by the breakfast attendant. In the meantime, the coffee thermos was empty and when I asked her for coffee she wanted me to go get her the thermos.......

Checked in on a hot summer day - was able to decide which floor to be on. We chose the 3rd floor, but after a few hours of being there the room never cooled down - could be our mistake for choosing the top floor. The room was spacious, but we could tell the updates were not done with rigor. The grout lines were messy, tiles by the floor was falling off the walls. Baseboards loose. Felt outdated.

The service desk person was nice enough though to switch us to a room on the 2nd floor. The room was smaller, again- we could tell there was an attempt for an update but it was done half-heartedly. The paint was mismatch, the rug was ripped by the baseboards, the tile was cracked in the tub. Random patching on the ceiling. Everything just felt outdated. Some of the drawers on the dresser did not match. The big red flag for us was coming in and finding a small roach on the table. We were too tired to move/complain and figured housekeeping would remove it the next day.

The next day, came back from hiking and housekeeping did come to give us new towels and... the roach was still there. So the surfaces were not wiped- let's hope they wiped in-between guests at least. Also the rug was sort of disgusting with stains by the bathroom. Speaking of bathroom - poor shower water pressure and drainage. Poor door seal- we could see the light coming in from the hallway under the door.

Overall- you get what you pay for. If you don't plan to spend a bunch of time in your room and just need a place to sleep and shower, then this place probably does it.

2 stars - 1 for the nice service desk person to switch our rooms and another 1 star for the free just ok breakfast and plenty of parking. Won't be staying...