I stayed at the Madison for a business conference in mid-January '07. Of the 20 people in our party, 13 of us were unable to get into our rooms until hours after the 3pm check-in time. After arriving at 12:30 (of course too early to expect immediate check-in), I received my room key at 7pm, well after our scheduled cocktail party had begun. Several of my colleagues had to camp out in the lobby for hours. At no point were we told we would have such a long delay. Upon receipt of my key, I took two of my less fortunate colleagues to my room to freshen up; waiting for the elevator, we ran into a busload of Phoenix Suns players who were just arriving and were able to walk right into their rooms without a wait. (BTW, one of my colleagues had her room key delivered at 8:30pm, which is just outrageous and, after many years of business travel, unprecedented.)
During this time we were not offered anything by the staff; no manager greeted us, apologized, or made an appearance. This occurred on a Sunday. No hotel management approached our conference coordinator, despite her requests for attention, until Tuesday morning, at which time she was told by the property manager that on Sunday they had "set up a drinks and dessert bar" on the mezzanine for us to wait for our rooms, which we had "declined" at a cost of $700 -- a jaw-dropping falsehood! Not one of us was informed that such a spread existed, therefore we had no opportunity to decline -- as if we would have (although how drinks and dessert would total $700 for 20 people...you be the judge). After arguing this point, she was finally given 10% off our room rate.
Naturally, this experience put a damper on our stay.
As we booked reservations well in advance, booked a meeting room for two days, scheduled 6 meals on-site, spent considerable dollars in the bar, and are --honest-- generally a well-traveled, polite crew who tips well, this was a pretty appalling experience. I chalk this up to a problem at the very top; many of the staff employees we interacted with were perfectly pleasant, although possibly not well-trained to effectively handle problems.
That said, the food was very good, and the rooms had comfortable beds, huge bathrooms and separate showers. Internet connection was erratic, and the heat in my room was broken. It's possible that this was an aberration, but if I were booking this property for a group event, I would proceed with extreme caution. Actually, I wouldn't recommend it at all -- which is unfortunate.
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