We were so excited to stay at a Omni Hotel, but the experience was horribly disappointing. I booked the room on Priceline. The cost per night at the Omni was almost double compared to the other hotels in the area (Hyatt, Hilton, etc.) So, of course, we expected a top of the line experience. Well, lesson learned.......more $ doesn't mean better!!!!!!!!!!
When I booked it on Priceline, it didn't give me a preference for bed size. I immediately called Omni and was told a note would be made in the reservation for a king size bed. I told her we were a couple and definitely didn't want to end up with 2 double beds. She assured me those things are taken into consideration during check in and the hotel was not at full capacity for the weekend (2 days prior.) I told her I wanted to be sure and she said it would be no problem at all. I asked her if it might help if we checked in early, she said it wasn't necessary, but we could.
With that in mind, we left home early and arrived at noon so we didn't sleep in separate beds all weekend. May checked us in and when she handed us the key I asked if it was a king bed. She said no, it was a room with 2 doubles. I told her there should be a note in our reservation for a king size bed. She said there was, but the hotel was at max capacity and it couldn't be done. I told her I spoke with someone who told me it wouldn't be a problem. She apologized and said there was nothing she could do. After explaining that I did all I could do to ensure a king size bed (even showing up 3 hours before check in.) I told her I didn't understand if notes were taken into consideration and most people hadn't checked in for the day how a room with a king size bed wasn't available. She said she had a room for us.
We were given a room by the elevator, across the hall from the ice machine. The room was small, definitely dated, even with a console TV. I would rate the Hyatt and Hilton a 10 compared to a 4 at the Omni. I was woken up several times during a late afternoon nap by the loud banging of the pipes on the wall next to the bed. It seemed every time someone in a neighboring room turn off the water, flushed the toilet, etc. the pipes would bang. After numerous attempts to go back to sleep, I finally went downstairs and asked to speak with a manager.
Luis, the manager said the hotel isn't the "new kid on the block" anymore and the plumbing old. I asked if we can change rooms to one that didn't have the plumbing sounds. He told me the hotel was full. He said he would be happy to change rooms for us the next day and he would send engineering up in the meantime. I also told him the trouble I had at check in and he said "We only guarantee bed preferences for OUR GUESTS! Not reservations made by a third party company." I'm pretty sure Omni authorized selling rooms to PRICELINE, EXPEDIA, etc. and received compensation for it, so wouldn't that make us THEIR GUESTS?!?!?!?
Luis asked me to make sure all our belongings were packed in the morning and when we came back from sightseeing to check in at the front desk for our new keys. He said our belongings will be moved to our new room by the hotel and there will be a voucher for McCormicks for us at the front desk for our trouble.
Well, when we got back to the hotel the next afternoon, we went to the front desk. The girl had not idea what we were talking about, I had to explain the whole situation to her. She found an available room for us and gave us the keys. She asked us if we still had our old keys because WE needed to go back and move our things to the new room! There was no voucher for McCormicks.
We went to our old room, carried our luggage to the new room. The key didn't work. Housekeeping was in the hallway and we showed her our keys. She used her master key to open up the door for us and we walked in on a woman who wasn't quite dressed!! We had to go back downstairs and was given another room.
Guess what?!? Despite of what Luis said about the dated plumbing being the same in all the rooms, there was NO loud banging of the pipes in the new room. Although it was the same small dated room with a console TV. All in all, I DO NOT RECOMMEND the Omni Hotel. Their customer service/satisfaction was horrible. They feel people who make reservations on Priceline are NOT their customers and even the manager can't follow through on his promises to rectify things.
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