Hotel Ballard — Hotel in Seattle

My husband and I returned to the hotel Easter weekend. Our kids live locally and this is the best property in Ballard. Check in went fine and the staff was welcoming. |The rooms was as expected, ample space, a nice bathroom, clean and other than rock hard pillows, a comfortable bed.|The problem was on Saturday. We came back to the hotel after a day with our kids to find the lobby being taken over by a wedding party. The lobby appeared to be the location for cocktails and appetizers.|We went up to our room, on the 4th floor (one floor beneath the ballroom) only to be disrupted by the constant banging from the floor above, which we were later informed, was the hotel staff moving and setting up tables. This must have gone on for quite a while; my husband went downstairs to the lobby where he was told the noise would be over by 11, it was bad then as they were moving tables, and did we want to change rooms. As this was after 5pm and we were checking out in the morning, that seemed useless.|After dinner we once again returned to our room, to be once again greeted by party noise, which was not over at 11 but continued until 11:30 with cleanup.|The staff in the morning was very unapologetic, and said we would have received an email about the event from the hotel. Totally did not happen; we made our reservation via Chase Travel and they are the only ones who we heard from about the reservation.|When my husband reached out again upon our return to speak to the manager, her attitude was no better and she was insistent we would have had an email. WRONG.|WHY WOULD THEY PUT US IN A 4TH FLOOR ROOM WHEN THEY KNEW THIS PARTY WAS HAPPENING AND WE WERE NOT CHECKING OUT UNTIL SUNDAY MORNING??? Poor planning, and we will have a hard time returning to...

First off, something that should be made very clear is that the reviews listed here are for two different hotels: The Ballard Inn and Hotel Ballard. The Ballard Inn is a small inn on Ballard ave that has more of a Bed & Breakfast vibe (shared bathrooms, common spaces, etc). Hotel Ballard is a brand new luxury hotel also on Ballard Ave. half a block from the Ballard Inn. My review is of Hotel Ballard.

I have lived in Ballard my entire life and was very excited to stay in the new Hotel Ballard this weekend. Although the restaurant and bar are still under construction, the rest of the hotel building lived up to or exceeded my expectations. I stayed in a beautiful Courtyard Suite and it was worth every penny. Gorgeous room, gorgeous view, decadent acommodations and amenities. I would reccomend this hotel to anyone and everyone with one pretty major exception: the customer service.

I will give the hotel the benefit of the doubt because they just opened, but it seems that the people working there have never been in the hotel industry or have even worked a customer service job before. They were pleasant enough, but they definitely didn't know how to serve a customer. Small things I would expect from a Holiday Inn, like sending the bags to the room, were difficult tasks to them. They required we come back down from our hotel room to pick up our bags and carry them up ourselves.

This is one example in a slew of wierd customer service failures: abrupt language, their needs came first, not the customers, awkward check-in/check-out interactions and processes, etc. I really hope they can get the staff up to high-class hotel standards because the luxury accomodations deserve to be paralleled...

I have certainly learned the importance of reading reviews before booking a hotel. This hotel has clearly made a conscious decision to make the lack of customer service a priority...and that is reflected by the number of reviews that have had the exact same experience.

For starters, we were unable to check-in until 5:30. When we talked to the GM about why, she stated "I will check with housekeeping". No explanation, apology or promise to follow-up. It was very clear she was in no-way going to follow-up on this issue.

But the biggest problem is the event venue. If you are staying on the 4th floor there WILL be a wedding happening IN your room. We were there on a Sunday night and had to listen to dancing until 11 pm.

Again, when talking to the GM, no apology was ever offered. She claims that an email was sent with fine-print stating there may be an event and if that is an issue, please call. Basically, it is up to the guests to know the hotel's schedule. Further, this email was actually never sent and she refused to send 'proof' that it was. She was very clearly lying and covering the hotels mistakes.

She did however mention how much money the hotel makes off of events! So if you want to stay at an event hall...this is the hotel for you!

For an evening of absolute hell, we were basically given a big middle finger and shown the door. And, as you will see from a number of other similar reviews, this is very common for this establishment.

Please consider visiting any of the hundreds of great hotels in Seattle. This is the worst one you...