Embassy Suites by Hilton San Rafael Marin County — Hotel in San Rafael

I stayed in Embassy Suites San Rafael from July 17th through July 19th. I've had the worst hotel experience in my life, and wanted some explanation from the Hilton itself, not the hotel, since I feel like I'm talking to a wall when I speak with their staff.

Summary of bad experience: After wedding party in the lobby, without any notice after midnight. Our toddler woke up during his sleep and so did we. We lost our precious sleep and was tired all day the next day. No house keeping without notice. What kind of hilton hotel does house keeping "by demand"? If this is their rule, we should have been notified during check-in. We came back to our rooms after 9PM, without any fresh towels or clean rooms. Did not get water bottles and condiments, which I chose in "my benefits" as a gold member. They reluctantly gave me on the first day, the clerk ordered me to follow her to the kitchen if I want to get them. They refused to give on the second day, saying it is their hotel policy (not hilton policy). This was my first time not to get "my benefits" from hilton hotels. Wrong bar billing : x9 vodka shots for x9 guests under my parents room.

Details of my worst experience (#4 above): On my second day, I found out there is an unknown charge that was "pending" in my credit card account. This was different from my deposit. I asked "Nathan" about this charge and after some back and forth and struggle, Nathan removed this charge from my room, and had sent the new receipt to my email. He originally told me he would let me know by phone call, but he emailed me at 2AM. OK, at least he was not rude and helped resolve this issue. But me and especially my parents had couldn't sleep and was stressed all night, because we are people who doesn't like to cause any trouble. So first night, we couldn't sleep because of the noise, and second night we couldn't sleep because of the wrong billing. But we would have kept this to ourselves, if this was resolved at this point.

The next day (7/19), I checked at the front desk again in the morning, the guy was not Nathan. So I had to explain all over again, and I had to endure the suspicious look and interrogation from him. OK, he wasn't aware of the situation. But later he ensured me the charges were removed by Nathan and even printed out new billing and gave me. So later, I headed to check out. My parents told me, they received a call from the front desk, telling them to come to the front desk (they scanned our parents with the bartender later, probably to see if he identifies them). I found out the charges are back again. I had to explain AGAIN. Then the same guy who ensured me this was resolved, came out with a receipt which has x9 vodka shots with x9 guests, which was printed after midnight, saying this is proof. I asked him if this make sense to him, since we were party of 4, and my parents are 70+ who go to sleep before 10PM, and he came out with the manager. Turns out, even though the charges were removed two times by the sensible employees the manager had put the charges back in. I received no apologies, my parents were treated like criminals for no reason, and their attitude was: "we removed the charges for you, what is your problem?". Our trip was delayed 30m just to resolve this, not to mention sleepless nights and stress thinking what could have caused...

An absolutely TERRIBLE experience. I HAVE NEVER SEEN A MANAGER AND HIS FRIEND CHASE GUEST AROUND A HOTEL BEFORE.

First and foremost we were promised check in latest at 3pm, we didn’t get to check in until 4 pm. The hotel’s renovations seemed to be rushed as dry wall was inconsistent in each room, and some bathrooms seemed to be missing ventilation. The halls are littered with food and the main lobby is kept at a consistent 75-80 degrees. Management was rude and unprofessional.

We came with a large party as we were there for a wedding. The wedding party booked 40 rooms in this hotel during our stay. The bride and groom were contractually promised an open bar past 10 pm on their wedding night, we showed up shortly after 10 pm and the bar was well closed. Guests in our party were instructed by the bartender to request the bar to open as the “manager” / “owner” whoever he was because he kept switching back and forth between both titles, was sitting at the bar top. After confronting the situation and receiving such a rude response, the managers friend continued to follow us around the hotel lobby recording us and trying to follow us to our room. Coming from out of state, I would have NEVER expected this type of treatment from such a “pristine” establishment. I am highly unsatisfied and disappointed with the lack of hospitality this location has to offer. It seems that they are “too good” and are more than willing to turn down business which is very disappointing considering couples host events here and in coordination with their wedding venue for tens of thousands of dollars. As a business owner myself I have never been more disgusted by the level of unprofessionalism. The manager/owner, again whoever he was, as well as his friends were more than willing to jump in guests faces and threaten “eviction”. He verbatim told us “to go back in our rooms and be quiet or else he will call the police”.

I am reading the responses to some of these reviews being left and it seems that there is no responsibility being taken for their own actions. The bartender working that night was more than happy to keep the bar open for us with the permission of his boss. The night prior we stayed up past 10 at the bar and they made a great amount of money off of us. The managers excuse was that there were noise complaints but quite frankly that’s a poor excuse given this location is primarily to cater large events such as weddings, and large birthdays. In addition, our party had booked out 40 rooms in this hotel so a majority of the guests staying there were part of our party. Again, this night had been planned and booked months in advance. There was a clear lack of communication between the management team as we were promised one thing by one manager and it got shut down by another.

I will forever recommend against this location as I am disappointed by the unprofessionalism that took place. High prices for cheap hospitality. The pictures attached depict the managers friend that...

Wonderful stay at a great hotel. We are longtime Hilton Honors members and this was easily one of my favorite hotels.

We had to stay here after I had a major surgery in San Francisco that required me to stay in bedrest for about a week. I didn't see much of the hotel or take advantage of the complimentary breakfast, but I can definitely speak to super comfortable beds, hot water right as the tap is turned on, endless HBO...! Loved it.

Only three challenges dropped my star rating from five to four (I would give 3.75 if I could):

1] Unannounced roof construction: we stayed in the top floor and endured construction noises the day after my surgery! We were not informed at the time of booking or arrival of the construction. We ended up requesting a different room for one of the days, which we were swiftly accommodated without much fuss. The hotel did rapidly work to fix this by passing around fliers to each of the rooms that announced the current and future planned construction.

2] Consistent, persistent cleaning disruptions: As I was on bedrest, I was pleased to see that the hotel's policy on cleaning was "Customize Your Clean [...] we will only provide housekeeping services upon your request." We placed a Do Not Disturb card on our door. Every day, at least once per day, we both were called and/or had our room visited by the cleaning crew. Most times we were awakened by the knocking and calling, and we would be asked what time we were checking out. It seems there may be a communication issue between reservations and guest services/housekeeping? It wasn't horrible to be so attentively asked if we wanted our room cleaned, but it was frustrating on the last day especially when we received a knock at 9am, 10:30am, 11:30am, and 11:45am and were asked when we would be checking out. We told them noon each time.

3] One of my caretakers has a severe dog and cat allergy and no other allergies. Upon arrival in the room on the first day, he was sniffling, rubbing his eyes, and coughing. We did a search and found little white dog (or cat?) hairs! We will be more vocal in the future about the thoroughness of cleaning that is required when I am traveling with him. Additionally, oversight in this area made me somewhat uneasy about the cleanliness of the room in general, especially as I had to take baths instead of showers. Perhaps this is why we were visited so frequently by housekeeping? But I couldn't risk catching covid through even the best-intentioned visitors after such a major surgery.

Overall, these challenges were not horrible and did not overly impact the quality of our stay. We still had a wonderful and pleasant time and I will book time here again if I am...