Level Seattle - South Lake Union — Hotel in Seattle

Short version? I'm a pretty low-maintenance guest, and I don't have the highest of expectations. I still can't recommend this place in good conscience. ||Longer version? Even before my car got broken into, it was a very average 3-star experience. I picked this hotel because it had bigger rooms and better amenities for the price, compared to other spots in the area. You're getting what you pay for. ||Let me just start by saying, if you look up parking on Google reviews, you'll find quite a few break-in experiences. I thought, "What are the chances? Surely it won't happen to me!" And then it did, so. For $45!! a night, you too can get your wallet gouged by their "secure" parking, and then again for car repairs and replacement of whatever was taken. ||I gotta say I'm not too impressed with how they handled it, and by now, they've had to handle it enough times that I honestly think less of them for not doing more to mitigate the situation. They insisted they had signage that makes them not liable (they don't), they didn't offer a refund for the parking fees, and when I asked what steps they'd take to prevent this from happening in the future they had nothing to suggest. ||I honestly think it's because they don't want to affect the "luxury" branding of the experience by having to warn you that your car will likely get broken into (after charging you a premium for parking). I'd venture to say the longer this goes on, the more this becomes known as an easy target. No one wants to file a police report during their vacation, especially after they've checked out and are ready to go home.||So, you're free to take your chances, but if you're planning on driving I would highly recommend not choosing Levels. I was lucky to only have minor damage and nothing too valuable taken, but if a window gets smashed or a lock gets damaged, god forbid your catalytic converter gets stolen, I don't even know how you'd get home. ||And for the rest of it:||Pre-arrival, I booked through Expedia, and was informed in my confirmation email that I would get an email with check-in instructions 24 hours before my stay. I did not, and had to call in to get them resent (he did not wait to confirm I received them before hanging up). ||And it was then that I found out they want you to fill out a screening form, that involves sending in photo of your ID, providing another? credit card for charges, and signing waivers for the amenities. I only bring this up because after the annoyance of having to do this to confirm my booking, I was asked for all of this AGAIN once I arrived for check-in. It will not surprise you to know there was quite a wait for check-in.||Service-wise, the staff are all lovely, very polite, but it almost seems like they expect you already know everything. Their communication is very weak, and you really have to chase after them for any information. ||When I checked in, I wasn't given a rundown of the amenities or told a check-in time or anything. And when I checked out and asked if we could use the amenities for another couple of hours, he activated one of the room key and told I was good to go. Very kind of him! BUT I wasn't given a rundown of any additional charges I would be charged for, nor an itemized bill. I still haven't received a breakdown of charges, so it seems like something you have to specifically ask for. And the cherry on top of that is, I received a 3rd distinct confirmation email for my booking after I checked out (and yes, the numbers were different all 3 times). ||For the rooms themselves, they're super spacious, with very well designed interiors, modern looking with nice lighting. There's everything you'd want for a long stay: stove, oven, microwave, dishwasher and washer/dryer. Free coffee but no tea :'( which is the real tragedy. They also have stupid heavy dining chairs which means you'll hear a lot of loud dragging from the people above you, and you'll wince for your neighbours below. ||HOWEVER, cleanliness is an issue. We found a singular metal chopstick on floor in one of the bedrooms, and one of the showers was clogged (they did send someone up to fix pretty quickly, but they did not clean out the hair). So, visually nice, beds were comfortable, but it definitely made us doubt the thoroughness of cleaning. Would recommend you wash any cutlery and dishware you plan to use.||Otherwise, location is super convenient. Very close to a ton of grocery stores and restaurants, and an easy 15-20 minute walk to Pike Place. ||Oh, and finally: they only ran 2 of their 3 elevators the Sunday morning everyone was checking out which was a real nightmare. There was a poor woman who had been waiting with a luggage trolley for an hour, trying to get down to parking. Plan...

Our experience was not fabulous, here are some thoughts to consider:||Elevators: there are three elevators that go up to the guest rooms and for the majority of the day 2 out of the three were being blocked by either maintenance or construction crews so the wait for an elevator was consistently very long- many people were complaining ||Construction: they are in the demo phase of the 13th floor, the construction workers told us they were building out a restaurant or something similar, expect noise in the parking garage and other areas tied to that ||Do Not Disturb Tag: We had a two night stay and had the do not disturb tag on our door the entire time, despite this in the middle of the day maintenance decided to knock on our door to come in and change an air filter and then come in again to do something to the dryer. While I appreciate the maintenance the room was vacant 24 hrs before and would be 24 hrs after so it was frustrating they couldn’t wait, also typically if a DND sign is on a door instead of knocking they call first to see if there is a good time to enter. Thankfully we were up and working but had we been sleeping and woke up to a maintenance person in our room, it would have been even more disappointing. ||Fees: We booked directly through the website. We got a promo rate for staying two nights and I could have sworn it said it included garage parking (which is approx $35/ day plus additional charging costs if you have an EV). A few hours after we checked in and was told that the free parking was only if you stayed 3 nights so we had to pay for it, we got an email saying the rate was changed for our room and was $60 more per night. I went to the front desk to learn that our rate did not change we were however charged a $90 housekeeping fee (even though we declined housekeeping) and a $50/night pet fee (even though I have a service dog). After explaining everything, the front desk agent did remove the fees and was unsure why they were applied. Upon checkout I learned there is also a daily amenity fee that is charged to your bill, although I am unsure what amenities we had access to and how to access them and a number of fees related to taxes/ city hospitality fees. You might want to be prepared to pay a lot more than the website quotes you per night. ||Pet Friendly: The hotel is pet friendly and many people had dogs however it is confusing where they are supposed to use the bathroom. All of the mulch beds outside of the building entrances have signs indicating the dogs are not allowed to go to the bathroom there. It did not seem like there was a good place for our dog to use the bathroom on the block of the hotel, which is frustrating when it is a pet friendly hotel. Also it seems like many people do leave pets in rooms and when the robotic vacuums go down the hall and bang into the doors or people walk by making any noise dogs often bark- keep that in mind! ||Cleanliness: The room itself was fine but the closet shelf had a ton of dust on top to the point where I put a shirt there to dry and it had dust all over stuck to it and it had to be re washed. Both nights around 6pm the smell of weed came through the air vents (I am assuming from someone smoking in another room). This of course depends what unit you are in and how the hvac is connected but it was not a fun surprise. ||Staff: The staff at the front desk was reasonably nice, although having to pay the whole parking fee thing still does not make sense no matter how nice they were. I was at the desk talking with someone and looking at the bill and he picked up the phone to help another customer who was on hold right in the middle of helping me so I had to stand and wait until he finished the conversation with another customer, which again was just not the type of service I am used to. ||I normally stay at Marriott or Hilton portfolio. Due to the nature of our trip I was looking for a place with laundry in unit and I gambled and booked Level. I am happy to pay a good amount for hotels and even for amenity fees (assuming I know what I am getting) however this fell short in SO many ways and was a very disappointing stay. We...

I had planned this stay as a special treat for my family. They did not know anything about my booking the Kraken suite, but as we had tickets to the game on Monday, December 30, I thought that this would be a special way to get into the hockey spirit!!||Sadly, what was outlined on the website as to what the exclusive stay experience included and what we actually experienced were completely different. ||From the website -|As official partner of the Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena, this exclusive stay experience includes: A kitchen stocked with some of the Kraken's favorite snacks & game-time beverages; Exclusive pre-game swag; ...||When I read the word STOCKED in the description of the first amenity - I was expecting beverages in the fridge, baskets of snacks on the counter, maybe a basket of fruit - but a nice array of food and beverages. In reality, there was a bag on the table that had a four pack of margaritas (?) or some other form of alcohol, two diet sodas (which I had asked for in advance), a bag of flavored popcorn, a bottle of BBQ sauce (which seemed weird), and a package of beef sticks. This to me is NOT stocked - it's a token of food and drink. When I went to guest services to see if I could exchange the four pack of alcoholic beverages for some additional soda, as no one in my party drinks alcohol, I was given the run around until someone provided two cans of Sprite. Again, this to me is not stocked! ||I also asked about the "Exclusive pre-game swag" since all that was on the table next to the bag that had the food items was a Kraken schedule poster, two "Go Kraken" hand signs, and a thank you for staying with us post card. There were, however, two Kraken "S" pillows and a Kraken tentacle arm on the upright chair next to the bookcase/TV, and an open box of dominos on the bookcase shelf. I was told that only the items on the table were for us to take - which really didn't make sense, since to me, that wasn't swag. Once again, we reached out to the front desk, and they apologized that we were missing the swag items from the room - and they brought up two glasses, a key chain, and two cans of Waterloo sparkling water. All of these items could be purchased at one of the Kraken shops, so not very "exclusive" at all. [note - the hotel did offer a few more items after we had checked out which was a nice offering; but just a before, there was nothing exclusive or special about them.] ||The kitchen appliances created a bit of a headache. The range/oven was not made by a well-known manufacturer (ie, GE, Maytag, LG, etc.). There were no instruction books in the kitchen area or in the room. Instead of words on the knobs, such as bake, broil, etc., there were pictures. The only way to figure out the correct picture for cooking our food was to do a google search. The Nespresso machine is great if you want to drink an expresso beverage - but when all the cups provided are full-sized coffee mugs, and there is no other coffee maker provided to make an actual cup of coffee, it makes it a bit more difficult to have coffee in the morning. ||The rooms themselves were lovely, and we enjoyed our night's sleep, so there are no complaints with that. And the memorabilia around the suite was neat to look at, as well.||The communication with the hotel has been severely lacking - it took two or three follow-up emails to request the diet soda that we had in the room when we arrived. We had accidentally left an item of clothing in the room, called the hotel to see if it might have been found, and never heard back. Additional emails to the Director of Operations went unanswered and unacknowledged. ||Overall, for the upgrade in price that was paid to stay in the Kraken Suite, I could have used that money to upgrade our experience at the game we attended and purchase souvenirs that we would have enjoyed. There was nothing physically wrong with what was provided, but this wasn't what I had expected based upon the description on the...