Larkspur Landing Extended Stay Suites Sacramento — Hotel in Sacramento

This Hotel is a Quiet Gem, and Mr. MATT WOO at the Front Desk is excellent. Larkspur Hotel deserves my "Excellent" rating based on its staff's consistent hospitality and quick responsiveness, the hotel's roomy and tasteful accommodations, overall cleanliness, and top value for the money. This review is very detailed because I want to inform other budget travelers of this hotel which provides "Hilton-like" service, cleanliness, and tasteful and roomy accommodations at one-third of Hilton's price. First and foremost, Larkspur's staff are outstanding, and Mr. MATT WOO at the Front Desk is exceptional. While I waited in a short line in order to check-in, I observed that Matt cheerfully welcomed every new check-in guest, and he provided very responsive, professional and gracious service - - Matt carefully described the hotel's services and fully answered all questions asked by each guest. I observed that Larkspur's other staff members are similarly polite and highly responsive. During my check-in, I asked for one of the hotel's quieter rooms, and Matt provided the perfect quiet and clean room which allowed me to enjoy a quiet night's sleep before an important business meeting. Although I reserved and received the hotel's most basic economically-priced room, I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that even my basic room was well furnished, roomy, and included a kitchen (with full-size refrigerator, mid-size microwave, two burner stove, sink, small cooking pots, a few plates and cups, cooking and eating utensils, paper towels), a full-size work desk and modern work chair, and a roomy queen-size bed and one-person couch. The hotel's free WiFi is available in each room and provides acceptable speed, and I experienced no usability problems with the WiFi's speed while websurfing various business and financial websites in preparation for my business meeting. There are plenty of conveniently located electrical outlets for computer laptop chargers and phone chargers. I also enjoyed the large flat screen TV. My room's kitchen, bathroom, queen-size bed, work desk, and all furnishings were clean and tastefully contemporary. This Larkspur Hotel is NOT brand-new and it does NOT have an ultra-modern and fancy decor, so if you're hoping to receive a sparkly and luxurious 4-star Hilton Hotel experience at Larkspur, you'll be disappointed. BUT, for the VERY economical price charged by Larkspur, I was VERY pleased with the good size and thoughtful accommodations provided in my basic room, the cleanliness throughout, the tasteful contemporary furnishings, and the staff's exceptional service and hospitality. A comparable Hilton Hotel guest room equipped with a kitchen would probably cost at least $350. The Larkspur hotel shares a large outdoor parking lot with a CVS pharmacy, a large Raley's grocery market, and a few casual restaurants, and these stores and restaurants provide hotel guests with easy walking-distance convenience. The hotel is located a reasonable distance away from the street, and this setback contributes to the hotel's quiet surroundings at night, particularly after the restaurants close. The Larkspur is very conveniently located about 2 minutes from a major freeway, and it's just a 10 minute drive to Sacramento's downtown and business district. I notice that a few Google reviews and a few TripAdviser reviews have observed that the majority of the hotel's parking spaces are sized for compact cars, and therefore hotel guests with large cars have problems finding parking. While most of the parking spaces which are located NEAREST to the hotel's main entrance are sized for compact cars, there are many, many parking spaces for "standard" size cars located throughout the very large outdoor parking lot (there is no covered or underground parking). In summary, the Larkspur Hotel in Sacramento is a Quiet Gem, and deserves my "Excellent" rating based on the hotel staff's consistent hospitality and quick responsiveness, the hotel's roomy and tasteful accommodations, overall cleanliness, and top value...

STAFF- friendly and attentive when needed this included the housekeeping we came in contact with. Never had anyone enter our room or mess with our things like other reviews state.

HOTEL GROUNDS- first floor by the elevator regularly smelled like cigarette smoke/weed throughout our stay though we could never determine where that was originating from. The second floor hallway had no odor. Main areas clean and inviting. Exterior had garbage in parking lot and on ground near bbq area and low hanging trees that scraped the rooftops of cars. Staff cleaned up the outside areas regularly though. Tent camper set up behind the CVS across street. A gold mini van parked and slept in hotel parking both nights we were there. Staff seem aware as they entered to use bathroom and eat. Police cameras on site recording 24/7 but no security on site.

ROOM- The hallways to and from our room had new paint/carpet and at least our 2 room suite (room 241) had new carpet, furniture and appliances and paint. The cabinetry in the bathroom and kitchen is definitely still worn and dated but it does appear they are working on upgrading things. We didn’t cook in the room but did check on what was offered. Silverware was okay. No sharp knives. We did notice what appeared to be a spoon that had been used and rinse poorly before being added back to drawer. There was a small spot of something in the fridge. The cooking utensils are a super cheap quality. There is no sponge or scrubber in room for dishes. The coffee is cheap/basic we didn’t try. The quality of the paper towels, TP and bathroom soap are budget. The bathroom towels are very small. They will not wrap around the average adult. Our room had missing or loose screens on both windows I would be concerned about staying with children. We found the beds to be too soft for sleeping but comfy for sitting and watching tv. In the bedroom with a king the heating vent is behind the dresser. Guest prior had stuffed a vent with a towel to try to block some of the heat. You hear people above you loudly. There was an apple left under the living room bed. Our room windows faced the backside of Raley’s and the early morning daily garbage pickup for the hotel was annoying but we get it a necessity. No one parks on this side of the building as it’s isolated and theft would be easy. The tvs in our room sound/ picture are way off on both tvs a service issue. The cards for the room would work 1-2x at most before we had to go back and have the cards recoded. This was a daily thing and sometimes more than once a day which was ridiculous. Despite never being near a credit card or a cell phone. Not sure why but was extremely frustrating and should be addressed immediately. NO ICE MACHINE!!! EVEN MOTEL 6 HAS ICE MACHINES!!!

LOCATION- There are 3 restaurants in the parking lot prices were high. Raleys/CVS /Starbucks are across the street.. Safeway too. Close to freeway and most things East Sac offers. If you like sushi highly recommend Sushi Hook for low prices and large portions and great service.

BREAKFAST- food is prepackaged food service stuff but we found many great options though we didn’t photograph the fridge full we did have access to food at 6:45 when breakfast didn’t start till 7. If you want options go early as it empties out quickly by 7:45 options are slim didn’t appear to be restocked.

I stay at Embassy Suites and Marriott regularly and Holiday Inn & Suites is the cheapest I have ever stayed. This place while it could be better and needs some things immediately addressed it really isn’t as bad as reviews make it sound. We felt safe during our stay and like the overall experience. If you go in looking for $350 a night or more accommodations you will be disappointed. For what it is it wasn’t bad. Would be willing to stay again if I needed to be in the...

Overnight stay in Sacramento. Booked and paid for hotel in advance of arrival. Flew up from Southern California to attend a special birthday celebration that same day: *Front desk reception was pleasant upon arrival. Allowed us to put our things in the room a bit early and rushed off to the party. Thank you. *Room appeared clean and adequate for an overnight stay. Surprised to see the kitchenette with full-size fridge, stove, etc. Would be a nice touch for anyone staying more than one night. *Arrived back at the hotel around 11:30pm. Showered, only to find the soap dispenser was broken and had to shower with shampoo. Be sure to check the dispenser in room 213 second floor! *Retired around midnight but were abruptly awakened at 4:00am by the fire alarm blaring and lights flashing inside all rooms and hallways. Tried calling the front desk for information/direction, no answer. When it continued for a time we thought we should dress and evacuate down the stairs. *Other hotel guests, some with infants & small children did the same and all of us were gathered in the parking lot when the fire department arrived *No hotel representation present *Did I mention it was raining? Yes, we went and sat in our car. *After about 20-30 more minutes the alarm was silenced and we noticed other guests filing back to their rooms. We did so as well. Still no hotel representation to apologize for the disruption and let guests know what was going on and whether it was safe. Fire department was still there. *Obviously, we couldn't go back to sleep and with only 4 hours of sleep, left the hotel for the airport and return trip to Southern California *We had pre-paid for our room a couple weeks before arrival. Upon arrival was told hotel policy was to charge a $250 deposit - regardless of prepayment. Not just hold a card# on file (no big deal, really. But....) *Today (next day), while reviewing the charges for the trip I saw the deposit amount was actually processed and deducted from our account, but so far, has not been refunded. In contrast, we prepaid for the rental car, they charged a $250 deposit and it appeared as a charge and credit back to the account this morning (next day). I called the hotel and spoke to a pleasant woman, but had a very difficult time understanding her. She said it could take until Friday (5 days) for the deposit to be returned to the account. I also asked her about the disruption due to the fire alarm and she said she knew nothing about it, wasn't working over the weekend but would check. She came back to the phone and reported that someone had falsely pulled the fire alarm and was sorry.

I am not one to write a negative review. Sometimes things happen that are outside of anyone's control (e.g., some jokester setting off the fire alarm in the middle of the night). The thing that makes a difference between good and mediocre perception of service is how those things are handled. How you respond to issues is most definitely within your control. Things like building maintenance, housekeeping, and communication (or lack thereof). When all boxes are checked, people are typically more forgiving. Broken soap dispenser/showering with shampoo, lack of hotel representation to re-assure guests during a stressful moment, difficulty understanding the front desk/phone attendant, charging a deposit after check-out and then taking 5 days to return it - multiple annoyances, stresses and poor communication almost always lead to a disappointing...