Hotel Dena, Pasadena Los Angeles, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel — Hotel in Pasadena

Amateur hour! I stopped by Agents Only, a bar in the lobby of The Dena Hotel—on my way to the Pasadena Civic for a reading by one of my favorite authors, David Sedaris. I was utterly floored by how badly trained the staff was. We walked up to the half empty bar counter and were ignored for 5+ mins. No eye contact, no head nod, no acknowledgement. Totally fine. But when the “bartender” did come over I asked for a Ketel Martini and a tequila soda for my friend. The bartender said, “Martini??” He’d never heard of a martini. Yes, a Ketel martini, please. “Martini???” Yes, vodka. Ketel one. A martini. “Martini????” Ummm. Ketel One vodka straight up, very cold? “Ooohhhh straight up! Ok.” The “manager” behind him decides to help and asks me again, “Vodka? Straight up??” Yes. I watch him pour the vodka into the shaker and then notice him grab a bagged liquid and start to pour it into the shaker. I asked him if it was olive juice, “please don’t make it dirty.” “Dirty??” Umm, what is that that you poured in with the vodka? “Oh, it’s something like triple sec.” Ummm no. Please don’t add anything. Just the vodka, please. Just the vodka shaken with ice and in a MARTINI glass. He throws out the concoction he made all annoyed, as if I had changed my mind or something. He pours the vodka in the shaker again, shakes, and pours it into the MARTINI glass and tentatively pushes it my way—unsure if he made it right. We had two drinks each and headed to the reading. Afterwards (and yes, this is on me) I return to Agents Only for a quick bite. I was parked right there and didn’t want to walk out of the area so—yes, I went back.

I sat at the bar and when the “bartender” came over to ask whether I wanted I said: May I have a hamburger, please. “Hamburger??” I couldn’t stop laughing. Yes, as I pointed out the item in the menu, showing it to him. “Ooooh, a HAMburger.” He asked if it was to-go. I said no, for here—and asked for a coke. “Only Pepsi.” Sounds great. The food came out in less than 10 minutes. And it was actually really good! The bread was a tiny bit dry but I was pleasantly surprised after the fiasco of trying to order. While I ate, a man came up to the bar and asked if his order was ready. The “bartender” looked surprised and ran to the back. He came back out and handed the guy a white plastic bag. Thank goodness the guys checked the bag. The guy asked: where is the dessert. “Dessert??!” Yes, my bread pudding. “Ooooh, bread pudding! Ok, I can get that for you.” The “bartender” ran to the back. While he was gone, the guy looks at the containers and pops one open. The “bartender” returned with what I hope was the guy’s bread pudding. The guy points to the container in the bag and asks: What is this? The “bartender” very enthusiastically says, “The hamburger!” The guys, very annoyed, say: I ordered the roasted chicken. “Chicken??” Yes, I ordered the roasted chicken “Oh, ummm, the kitchen is closing I don’t know…” He runs suddenly to the back, again. The “bartender” returns, “oh they are making it. I’ll have it brought to your room.” The guy doesn’t seem convinced, for good reason. He says: No, I’ll bring these up to the room and come back down for the chicken. The “bartender” asks if the guy wants to take the hamburger, too—explaining that they will just throw it out. The guy leaves. I finish my burger. I won’t bore you with the trying to pay detail. Suffice to say, it wasn’t seamless. While all this is happening, there’s a DJ in the corner playing throwbacks, a table with super drunk guy wearing a bright red track suit singing off-key at the very top of his lungs. The pair of couples sitting to my left are in a full on cursing contest. And there are 5 kids under the age of eight sitting in the adjacent open area screening a movie on the wall. The poor kids are with the inebriated red track suit dude and he’s beyond embarrassing. Yeah, going back a second time was definitely on me. Total mess. At least they’re consistently a mess, I guess. (2 stars for the...

So check in was smooth. After that, things have gone down hill. The complementary water that was supposed to be in my room wasn't. Ohh well, I was tired and not going to flip about that. Then I went into the bathroom. It looked nice, except for the faucet half broken out of the wall and hair in the sink and on the shampoo bottles. Kinda gross. I cleaned it up since I was once again too tired to deal with staff. But then I went to wash my hands, and there is no soap. I'm annoyed and use the body wash (which btw I'm pretty sure is exactly what they are using for shampoo as well).

Then I went down the hallways to track down cleaning staff, who initially told me they had no soap and might have some more tomorrow. What? Since when should a hotel run out of soap. Luckily she asked another lady who looked like she might have been a manager of some kind. She then went into another room (I'm assuming with no occupancy) and gives me it's bar of soap. So I go back to my room to finally settle in.

At least the toilet was clean even though it sounds like a jet engine when used. The tp is awful though, typical of hotels. There is no fan in the bathroom, so if you want a shower, don't expect anything else to get done in the bathroom for a while except steam room time.

The beds and pillows were ok but the sound proofing is awful. I could hear the ice maker being used late at night clearly down the hall. One night people were quite loud playing music till almost 11. That's 2am ET for travelers. Makes the 6am morning meeting tough. Front desk says quiet time starts at 10:30. The lighting in the rooms wasn't great. The mini fridge didn't get cold.

To cap my experience was the TV. It has some basic cable channels, but when I wanted to use it to see a presentation on a bigger screen, none of the inputs work. I have never seen a TV so locked down. You are watching their cable or not using it. If you have kids and want to put the switch game on the TV, forget about it. Want to cast. Something you downloaded on Netflix? Can't do that either. Actually I'm pretty sure there is no Netflix. It was the worst TV setup I have ever seen at a hotel. The whole experience here is disappointing. It just wasn't great for the cost of this place.

I would avoid if you are here for business or have kids. I've gotten much better out of a motel. Edit: to Marriot, saying it's not typical when many other patrons of this establishment have complained of these same things seems disingenuous at most. If your not going to do something to improve the customer experience or attempt to correct it after the fact then just don't...

My wife and I had an event in downtown Pasadena. We shopped around for a hotel and went with the Dena. We were trying to avoid the big box cookie cutter hotels. Dena had the Palm Springs boutique feel to it. Not too big... artsy... fun. My first impression walking in was great. The music was thumping, the bar was hopping,and the staff was awesome.

I was disappointed in the parking. $30 a night, while typical for Los Angeles, just plain sucks. We come from Vegas where the hotel/casinos recently tried to implement parking fees and were met with heavy backlash from the locals. But anyways... Be warned: the parking is shared with the convention center and other entities. It gets stupid crowded and busy. When we first arrived, after checking in, ended up leaving and going out to dinner as we couldn't get into the garage due to a large crowd at the convention center that was trying to get out. Thumbs down.

The room was okay. My wife said it was "cute". Not very big and simple. But we didn't need much more. My wofe was very disappointed there was no bath tub. She's the type that needs to soak for hours to feel clean and fresh. A small shower doesn't do it for her. And because she didn't feel "fresh" if didn't get to feel her. If you know what I mean. Two Thumbs down. Also note, the walls are thin. You will hear your neighbors. While falling asleep to back to back episodes of Forensic Files I awoke to screaming. At first I thought this was part of the TV show. Nope. Our neighbor was getting it on. Screaming and moaning. At least someone was enjoying the pound town. I muted the TV and lived vicariously through their ecstasy.

Speaking of the bathroom... at one point a weird muddy substance leaked out of one of the sink faucets whe. We went to turn it on. Gross and weird. I almost called the front desk but was going home in the morning and didn't want to be bothered.

And the windows. We opened the blinds to get a view of the mountains. The windows have not been cleaned in a ling time. The finger prints and face smudges were all over the glass. Gross. We left the blinds open hoping housekeeping would take note and maybe break out the Windex but nope. They did replace the bathroom towels and make the bed. That was about it. We noticed they didn't vacuum the floor as a few crumbs were still there when we returned.

Location is good if you are interested in the downtown/old town Pasadena. We were able to walk to the event we came to see as well as to the restaurants and shopping. And again the staff...