Four Points by Sheraton San Rafael Marin County — Hotel in San Rafael

We stayed at this hotel from 2/25 - 3/1, during home renovations. We checked in late Sunday evening and realized we had forgotten to request a feather-free room. The front desk agent said all housekeeping staff were gone for the night, but the engineer would be up to help us.

We pulled all of the bedding out of our room and placed it in the hall while the engineer went to find other bedding. He was extremely helpful, making several trips to our room, as he wasn't sure where all of the bedding items were located in the hotel. Eventually, we had what we needed, we tipped the engineer well for his trouble, and the rest of our stay was uneventful.

We especially enjoyed the breakfasts each morning. There was a good variety of options. The dining staff were terrific and made a point of recognizing guests who were there for multiple days or return visits.

When we checked out, the front desk agent pointedly asked us to give them a 5-star review. I told her everything had been fine, and I would submit a review when I had a chance.

When our credit card bill arrived a week or so later, we saw two charges from Four Points, even though we had stayed on award points and had already paid our breakfast charges. One erroneous charge was for $220, and the other was $411.74.

I called the hotel and explained the situation to the employee who answered, and her curt response was, "Who told you no housekeeper was on duty when you checked in? That's not true." I explained again and asked for a manager and was told that one would call me. No call came, so I reached out again through the 800 number. Following a conversation with a rep there, we received an email from an assistant manager at the San Rafael hotel, stating that the $220 charge was an error and had been credited back to our card. The other charge was for "6 pillows, 1 robe and 2 top sheets that were sent/given to you or to your guests and were not in the room on the day of check out."

This is perplexing, because the items actually requested and received were:

2 foam pillows with pillowcases

2 blankets

2 mattress pads

2 top sheets

2 bottom sheets

2 additional blankets

We are Platinum members with a long history of stays at Sheraton and SPG properties with no theft charges or other behavior issues. If there was confusion as to what items should have been left in our room, a single phone call from hotel staff would have straightened everything out and prevented the need for us to work so hard to clear up the misunderstanding over the "stolen" items. Throughout the calls and emails, staff at the San Rafael location spoke to us as though we were trying to pull something over on them.

If we hadn't checked our CC statement carefully and then fought to be reimbursed, over $600 in erroneous charges...

The hotel appears to be nice once inside but that is not the experience I was provided.

My problem with the stay was that the slider to the patio, which lead to a common area for anyone to access, was not on the tracks and therefore could not be secured properly. Due to the door not being closed properly, the room was exposed to the elements like bugs and debris from the outside. I requested that the situation be addressed in the capacity that they were able to and was told that maintenance was going to stop by to address the situation. After a few hours, I inquired in person at the front desk to find out what the best course of action was and the very kind lady stepped aside to personally inquire from the maintenance staff nearby. After all of this, there was still no resolution and I checked out 3 nights early and moved to another hotel that valued my safety and security.

As some background, I stay at hotels more often than I am stay at my own residence so please do not take my review lightly.

Full Story: Upon arrival at the hotel, I was greeted with a smiling face and a few kind laughs. I was "upgraded" complimentary to a room with "patio access." I was very appreciative and got settled into my room. I found a very up to date room with some space to move around in. The bathrooms are nice. The King bed was very comfortable and clean.

The towels were nice sized but smelled of cleaning agents to a degree that I have never experienced before.

I arrived back to the hotel after my ventures of the day to find leaves and small twigs under the AC unit for the room. After noticing these items I found the patio door to be slightly cantered at the bottom away from the building allowing appropriately sized objects to pass through with ease. I was able to slide the door with more than average pressure and was concerned that I had just left all of my personal belongings in an unsecured room. I investigated the door and found that there was a aftermarket locking mechanism installed but due to the door being off track the lock was rendered useless. I sat down at the desk in my room and found small bugs crawling on my belongings.

I called up to the desk to have the situation handled and the beginning of this review is how it ended.

PLEASE do not stay here just because it is a Marriott, there are much better hotels in the area for around the same price.

For management, I am sorry that the situation was not addressed properly by staff and I understand that this experience could have been avoided by a simple room change or someone actually coming out to investigate the situation. These options were not offered to me and this is the reason I checked out. For future situations like mine, please take into consideration the safety of your guests and...

Unfortunately, I cannot say that I was satisfied with my stay at the Four Points by Sheraton in San Rafael. When I arrived on Saturday, August 3rd, there were no other customers in the lobby; however, there were three employees behind the check-in counter. I stood in front of the counter for several minutes before anyone even acknowledged me. I was then told that there was a balcony attached to my room (room 58), which sounded delightful. Unfortunately, my room was on the ground floor. Rather than finding a balcony, there was a walkway where anyone in the hotel had access to. There was also toothpaste on the bathroom sink's faucet and tissues shoved into the tissue box. The most alarming disappointment was that the metal swing bar door guard did not latch. I called the front desk with my concern about being two women, one of whom was pregnant, being on the ground floor and not having a working swing bar door guard. I asked if we could switch rooms and she said the hotel was completely booked and this was not possible. If we couldn't be moved, I told her that I would like a new swing bar door guard replaced. We went to the pool and when we returned the swing bar door guard was completely removed. I called the front desk a second time and the women said that it won't be replaced, but not to worry because all perimeter doors are locked at 10:00pm. At this point, I was so unsatisfied with the lack of professionalism, cleanliness and security that I was ready to leave. The woman at the font desk said that she'd check with maintenance again and call me back. Finally, a maintenance person was sent out a second time and replaced the swing bar door guard. We were given the option to check out late, which we accepted. Sunday morning we went to the pool and returned before we were supposed to check-out. Much to our dismay, our key no longer worked. I went to the front desk, explained the situation and didn't even receive an apology or acknowledgement that we were offered to stay until 2:00pm.

This stay was supposed to be a lovely little get away before our first child was born, but instead it was the worst stay that I have ever experienced as an SPG member. I hope you take this opportunity to provide your employees with trainings on professionalism, customer care, cleanliness...