Let me say upfront that the Palomar is very nice property. But some of the interactions there, and the way it left me feeling about how they value customers, weren't very good.
For example, I booked a City View King Room. While I was checking in, the Kimpton Front Desk Clerk (Telisa?) looked up my reservation, made a few "hmmph" noises about what she was seeing on the reservation, and excused herself to go talk to her manager. Twice.
Figuring that there was a problem with room availablilty, I asked if any of the upgrade requests were available, and she let me know that she was able to put us on a higher floor, and then asked if I remembered what kind of room I had originally booked. So it seems hard to upgrade someone if you don't know what you're upgrading them from. Eventually, we got a pretty nice corner room but it was a Queen instead of the King that I had paid for (~$25 difference). I should have just let it be, but at this point, I really felt like I had been duped and they were hoping that I wouldn't notice.
They changed our room to a non-corner King, one floor down, that was about 80 degrees when we got in. It was a very hot weekend, but the previous room and the hallways were very comfortable. It never cooled down enough to even use a blanket on the bed when we went to sleep. We were warm in just a sheet, and called twice to ask for maintenance or a room change, but no one would answer the front desk phone after 12am. So we just made do.
Not a terrible experience, but it made me feel like they intentionally tried to pull one over on me in hopes that I wouldn't notice the downgrade. Instead of giving us a room with an AC unit that wasn't working properly, if someone had just said "We're so sorry but we're overbooked and your original room type isn't available. We'd like to reprice your room to the lower rate, and by the way, here's a coupon for a few drinks at the bar" I would have come away with a much better feeling for how the hotel is managed and the level of respect Kimpton has for its customers.
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