Kimpton Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh — Hotel in Pittsburgh

Rooms were nice but lack luster housekeeping and absolutely terrible valet service really soured our recent stay. Valets were rude, slow and never offered to assist with opening doors, carrying bags or loading and unloading vehicle. In addition, the system they have to get your car, in which you have to text a code to an automated number and then wait for a reply that your car is ready, just plain sucks. On one occasion after sending the text and waiting 20 minutes I got a reply that said there no valets available and to try again in 10 minutes. And this was 2 hours before valet service was scheduled to end for the night. When the system did work, the average wait time for the car was 20 minutes. The traditional car valet has been a proven system since the invention of automobiles and seemed to work fine up until now. This was not a system that needed the addition of technology, especially when all it does is lengthen the waits we were accustomed to to retrieve our cars. Really felt let down by both the system in place and low level of service provided with the valets here. At one point we were told that our key fob didn't work and car would not lock by pressing the fob. Okay, the battery must have died, but instead of, you know MANUALLY LOCKING THE DOORS, they just left the car on the street unlocked. Is pushing the big LOCK button on the dash board such a hard thing to do? Hell they could have even just locked the car with the KEY that was inside the fob itself! Guess they didn't think of trying that? As for housekeeping, they did a good job but for unexplained reasons just didn't come to clean the room on one day, even though they did drop off an extra blanket that was requested. They came into the room and left the blanket, but didn't clean the room itself. That seemed odd, and no we did not have the Do Not Disturb sign up. When I told the front desk about this I was told that housekeeping was done for the day and that they would make sure our room was cleaned the following day. Not the best service to be honest. One last point, and this was also noticed by another couple we were with was that even though the room was listed as having a King sized bed, we couldn't get over the fact that it seemed much smaller. Maybe not as small as a Queen but certainly not the standard width of a King. Didn't measure it to confirm though but we were not alone in noticing this. I will say that the pillows and bed itself were VERY comfortable. So that was a plus. Also, while the room did have a mini fridge it did not have a microwave, had no fan in the bathroom and the thermostat seemed locked at 67 degrees and would not allow us to increase or lower the temp. TV was also old with a small screen and programming was basic at best. This hotel is really starting to show its age. Hotel was clean and drinks at the hotel restaurant and bar...

I would not stay here again. I arrived around 4pm, and was told that the room is still not ready. What they explained is that the room is ready but they are doing the final check. I was guided to wait in the 1.5th floor lobby and they said will call me back. Waited for 30min but still not called, I went back to the front, explained the situation again, the front rep called to the team and finally gave me the key around 5pm. They never apologized. Again they said the room was cleaned but under the final check, but I saw the house keeping cart was just next my door cleaning the next room. Who knows.

My employer needed itemized receipts which I usually get from major hotel chains once I check out, or the same day, but not with the hotel. I emailed to the address appear in the website. It rebounced due to failed mail server, a couple of hours later got a message from IT dep saying "resolved" which I am guessing they just released and relayed the email to the recipient, but I am kind of accidentally cc'ed. Still didn't get a contact regarding the request I made there.

So today, I called the reservation team, they said they can certainly send an itemized statement. I also asked to write that I was the only guest since I made a reservation for 2 guests which is default, but has no price difference. Then they connected me to the front desk which refused to even issue the statement. The rep said that they can't do anything since I made reservation through expedia. I don't know what they were talking about. I had to 'guess', i made reservation through Chase travels, I know it's 3rd party, but unsure how the hotel cannot even issue the detailed receipt to the guest. The rep yelled at me, who they already put on the line for 10min., repeating you made the reservation through expedia. What a professional guest service rep can tell to their customers.

I hung up, recalled to the reservation team who said they can do it, went over the process, then they put on hold forever. Okay, now I called to the Chase Travels, they said the request has been made, will need to take up to 72 hours.

Alright, it is obviously me who made mistakes, no one else not listening to the other because they are too busy? If you expect a standard service, room is ready around the check in time, get proper assists 'before' you ask twice when small things got messed up, get just one bottle of complimentary water, get the final receipts after your stay, get help after your stay for whatsoever possible, don't stay here.

Already spent enough time and energy to figure these out, writing this review took my precious time in addition. But potential customers like me have their rights to know about their service, since I do read google reviews when...

I really wanted to like this experience more than I did. At the end of the day, it was a good stay but with many many hiccups. Here’s the story:

-We arrived late, it was quite busy as this place seems popular with weddings so we managed to find a quick spot out front. I ran in to grab valet, but told valet stops at 11. Seemed a bit strange as I’ve been at hotels that offer later valet, but sure. Go across the street, on weekends the parking garage is $5 a day vs $42 at valet.

-Walked into the room and it had a damp smell and odd hard bumps in the carpet. No idea. Then, after midnight we could hear yelling and loud noises, turns out we’re above the hotel venue loading dock, awesome. Decide to take a shower and as I turned it on, sludge came off the shower head. I had no words, wiped off the sludge and took it to front desk. I had previously asked front desk when checked in if there was a higher floor but was told it was completely booked up so I had no idea what the solve was going to be. I guess after I showed the photo of the shower head along with the sludge napkin, a room suddenly opened up. Note, front desk the entire stay was incredibly nice and understanding. I also understand that hotels keep a few rooms empty for emergencies so I don’t fault the nice front desk person for this.

After giving us a new upgraded corner room (way nicer, so book corner unit when booking) we were much happier. However a brown stain on the bathmat wasn’t amazing, at that point I was just happy for a clean shower head.

After a long day, we came back to an unmade room around 4pm with no cleaning staff in the hall. Apparently you have to call them if you want room cleaning? In 3 nights we were there, the room was cleaned once.

-Sunday evening was a great sunset. So, why not take advantage of their rooftop bier garden? Closed… it wasn’t even dark yet. This could be such a great hotel feature but why on earth is it closed when it isn’t even dark out?

I’d stay here again perhaps, but I think some things need to be a little more ironed out. Location is great but it’s tough to find a bad location in Pittsburgh as just about everything is walking distance. Didn’t get a chance to try the restaurant but it looked good. When it comes to a good hotel stay, the details are so important to the overall experience so I think there just needs to be a closer look...