Kimpton Hotel Palomar Phoenix — Hotel in Phoenix

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I rented a cabana here back in 2017 and had such an amazing experience, flash forward to now… My boyfriend was looking for a place to host an employee appreciation event. I told him about Palomar and he thought it would be a great idea for his small team. I’m honestly embarrassed I recommended it after our experience today and him shelling out $700 in cabana rental fees, almost $1200 in food/drink, and a $300 tip. (SEE UPDATE BELOW WITH FRAUDULENT DOUBLE CHARGES, so even more than that now).

Come to find out…. you don’t need to be a guest of the hotel or even reserve anything. Literally, anyone can walk in and claim a chair, plop under a cabana, or take a dip. We arrived with two cabanas reserved (paid for in advance) and were given one. We waited about 15 minutes and we’re led to a single cabana with no reserved sign. When we said more people were coming and we paid for two, they said they would have people move the stuff from the cabana next to us, as it was already full to the brim with others belongings. They did. Shortly after another hostess/manager/bartender guided another group of patrons to our other cabana. It caused a really awkward convo and her saying “it’s first come first serve” and then we told her we had it reserved. We had to show our rental receipt, again… The people in a cabana two over from us said they didn’t have to rent anything and they were there all day. I’m not sure what our $700 got us? No reserved sign, which resulted in us having to fend off other patrons (and employees) from taking what we paid for? We did get a bucket of water, which they then took and never replaced, so $700 for two half drank water bottles seems a little steep to me? The fact that other cabana “rentals” did not pay (and were not guests as they told us), was wild. I guess if you want to have a rooftop pool experience, head to The Palomar, because you can get in from both entrances (one directly off the street) with no key and they won’t check an ID or anything of the sort. No safeguards at all.

The pool was NOT packed as I have seen it before and seemed to be adequately staffed with how many people were there. On a good run, we would wait about 15 minutes for a drink. On average, about 30-45 minutes. We would try to make things easier by going to the bar to order on the tab we opened, but were told to wait for our server instead. Our server was VERY nice, so I can’t fault her. I don’t know what the dynamics are that a pretty full staff can’t adequately serve a half-full pool, so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt as I don’t know the full ins-and-outs for here. Again, she was lovely and a highlight of the experience for sure.

We still tipped 20%. We were still kind and as patient as we could be. We can deal with slow service, but it’s a harder pill to swallow when you pay $700 for absolutely nothing other than the indignity of having to ask others to leave your rented space over and over and over again. My, what an investment in a $10 plexiglass sign would be for Palomar so those who have reserved can hold their tables from other guests OR those who literally wander in off the streets. Glad to know for next time that we too can wander in and not have to shell out $700 for two water bottles, whilst also playing bouncer and cabana field goalie for six hours. Would love to know how we can get AT LEAST a partial refund, or maybe fill out a W4 to get paid, since we had to actively work the entirety of our stay there.

UPDATE: THEY DOUBLE CHARGED THE CARD. Not even double charged, two entirely separate amounts were cleared on a card. What is going on here? Honestly? Is Kimpton that hard up for money, or what? We have been calling and no reply or urgency whatsoever. One charge for $1,495.98 and another...

In nearly 40 years of international travel, as well as working in the travel industry for over 30 years, this hotel has to be one of the worst 4* hotel experiences I've ever had. ||||When I arrived, I noticed that there was a light brown stain on one of the sheets. I didn’t raise it as an issue as there were two beds in the room so I could sleep on the other one.||||A little bit later, I noticed that the mini bar had two half-empty bottles of water in it and the previous guests leftover sandwich. It clearly wasn’t checked before I checked in.||||I was starting to feel that things weren't great so I phoned down to let them know about the half-eaten sandwich and half-empty bottles of water. They offered to give me $30 credit towards food and drink.|| ||After returning from a day tour on day 2 (just after 5pm) I found my room had not been cleaned or my bed made up. I called down to reception and they said they would send someone up. I then went to the gym for an hour. When I returned the room still had not been serviced. I had to call down twice more and then physically go down to reception. The room was serviced around 7pm which threw my dinner plans that evening. ||||In addition to the issues above, the furniture was extremely shabby (see photos), sunbeds round the pool dirty and the 'clean towels' quite dirty too.||||I decided to write to the General Manager to let him know my thoughts. I received an apology from the Housekeeping Director. ||||The next day, to my astonishment, I arrived back at 6pm to find that, once again my room had not been serviced. I called down to reception again and was told that there was one housekeeping staff for 240 rooms so sometimes 'things don't get done'.||||By this time, I had already realised that the hotel had serious service issues. The Director of Housekeeping then promised me a meal 'on the house' that night. She told me to 'order what I wanted'. When I went for the meal, I ordered a bottle of wine from the menu which, of course, they didn't have in stock. The following morning I woke up with extremely bad diarrhea.||||This catalogue of poor experiences was made worse by the very casual and dismissive attitude of many of the staff. They simply couldn't be bothered.||||I then followed up my letter to the General Manager as he still hadn't responded to me personally. He said he was embarrassed and apologetic and offered a full refund for the 3 night stay. ||||This refund has still not been forthcoming (it's over 3 weeks since my stay) despite repeated attempts to contact the General Manager, Mr Devin Mahoney. I have even tried to contact the CEO of IHG (no response either). I booked via a company called Algotels who have been equally unsupportive and unresponsive. I would definitely avoid booking with them.||||Needless to say, I would avoid this particular hotel at all costs; but, not only that, it has destroyed any trust I have, both personally and professionally in the IHG brand. Of course every hotel can have an 'off day' (although many I work with never do) but it is how a hotel or hotel brand responds to those situations that gives a customer trust in the brand and the product. IHG have failed on every level and the way they have handled this is...

If I could give this hotel negative stars, I would. Immediately upon check in, with our platinum ambassador status we qualified for room upgrade which should have been amazing. Instead they stuck us in a room that was only slightly better than the room we booked, and one that was completely filthy, with a air conditioner that barely worked, that was so worn and broken down looking. I felt so uncomfortable staying here. The remote control was so dirty it had food crumbs all over it, there was urine and hair caked around the back of the toilet, the shower head was partially falling out of the wall and again completely filthy and like I said, the air conditioner did not work effectively. It was exceptionally humid in Phoenix as it was monsoon season, but we had the AC set as low as it could possibly go and we were sweating the entire time. I doubt it went below 75 in that room the entire time. We were only there for one night, and checked in pretty late after a horrible flight so we weren't interested in complaining to get a different room as we just wanted to go to sleep. That said, being loyal IHG members that always stay at hotels in this chain we are extremely disappointed. It's enough to make us reconsider whether we want to stick with IHG, or pursue becoming loyalty members at a different chain like Marriott or Hilton. I expected so much more from an IHG hotel, everything from the finish of the room to the actual amenities like air conditioning were extremely lacking. Sanitization is so important right now during the pandemic, so to know that a high use item like the remote control was not even sanitized makes me feel extremely worried about just how bad housekeeping is at this hotel. I would recommend staying away, I included a lot of photos showing everything I talk about here. Including the massive crack under the door that let in a ton of light and noise from the hallway... I've literally never seen that large of a gap underneath a hotel door, we ended up having to put a towel onto the door while we slept so that the room was dark and to keep out the noise from the hallway. Also when we went to check out, I could barely breathe in the lobby as it smelled like raw sewage. Not sure if they're having some sort of a problem because of the flooding in Phoenix, again due to the monsoon, but that's completely unacceptable. The smell was so intense that even standing outside waiting for our car we felt dizzy anytime the doors opened and let out the smell of sewage. Not even exaggerating. I have traveled all over the world and this was the worst hotel experience I've ever...