We stayed here last weekend for a convention taking place at the hotel. We arrived on Friday, June 29 and checked out on Sunday, July 1.
Positives:
Location: The convention was taking place inside the hotel itself, so it was easy to get to all the meetings from our room. The hotel has several floors full of rooms designed for business meetings--a perfect setup for the convention. My only observation is that the hotel is extremely large, so allow extra time to walk between meeting rooms.
Service: We stayed in a room with 1 king sized bed. Because there were 3 of us (my parents and myself), we requested a rollaway bed to be put in the room, once while making the reservation and again at checkin. When we got to our room 10 minutes later, the bed was there. Very quick service. We even received a call 15 minutes later from the front desk to make sure the bed was delivered. I was very impressed--it seemed that they really cared about their customers. That is, until 20 minutes later...
Negatives:
Service: 30 minutes after we arrived at our room, we decided to go for a swim. My mother and I were getting ready and Dad was waiting in the lobby. We heard a knock at the door, and I thought that my father had forgotten his key and was coming back for it. However, when my mother opened up our door, it turned out to be a hotel employee. The following short conversation occurred:
Mom opens the door to a hotel employee, who attempts to hand her several bottles of soap and shampoo that we did not request.
Mom: "I didn't request this."
Employee checks room number, looking bewildered. He does not seem to understand English. He attempts to talk to my mother in Spanish, which she does not speak or understand. He is still trying to give my mother the soap and shampoo.
Mom points to the bathroom, visible from the door: "We already have these. I didn't call for this."
Employee: "You want coffee?"
(Okay. Where did that come from? My mother never requested coffee, never called the front desk for soap and shampoo, and frankly had no idea why this young gentleman was standing at our door.)
Mom: "What?"
Employee: Repeats previous question, "You want coffee?"
Mom: "No. We never called for anything. We don't need this [the soap and shampoo]."
Employee does not seem to understand. He is still trying to give Mom the items in his hand. Eventually Mom is very frustrated.
Mom: "I'll just take them."
Relieved, the employee hands her the bottles and leaves. Now, this may seem bizarre enough, but it gets better. We assumed that the employee had made a mistake on the room number, and whoever requested soap and shampoo would simply call again and the staff would get the correct room this time. But 5 minutes after the employee left, our phone rang. When I answered, I was told "This is X from Guest Services. I was calling to make sure you received your soap and shampoo."
WHAT? Once again, we never requested anything. Why were they giving us soap and shampoo? I politely replied, "Yes we did receive them, but we never requested them." The lady just said "thank you" and hung up.
Pool: I decided to go for a swim in the hotel pool. I noticed that the pool had a bar where you could order drinks while sitting on a stool in the pool. I thought that was really interesting. However, the chemicals in the pool and jaccuzi were so strong they were uncomfortable. We have a pool in our yard, so I know what it feels like to have the right chemical balance, and the chemicals in this pool definitely were not balanced. They made my father sick, and I was coughing the entire time we were there.
One other observation: We stayed on the 10th floor of the atrium. It seems the higher the floor is, the more humid and hot the hallways are. I was sweating just walking from the elevator to our room!
Overall, this hotel was very convenient and comfortable. I just wish the pool chemicals were not so strong--and that they hadn't tried to deliver unnecessary and unrequested items.
hotel reviews