I stayed here last year and had a great stay and susequently left an excellent rating. However, my stay in the king george this year was a big disappointment.... the room was smaller which in itself would not be an issue but housekeeping was terrible..... our room was only half serviced each day... towels were rarely changed over the 5 night stay, coffee was never topped up in the room and the musty smell in the room was very annoying. The radiators made a loud rattle or humming sounds which we were told was because the heating is on an old steam system... We didn't experience this problem in the rooms we stayed in the year before. In addition to this there must have been a leak from the radiator as the carpet alongside the radiator was saturated and, i can only assume, most likely responsible for the musty smell in the room.
The were a few things about the hotel that helped keep up the rating.....
1) Its location
2) The staff (FrontDesk and especially Drew in the Bar)
The hotel, as I stated in my previous review of the hotel, is excellent.... only a block from BART, shopping and other activities.
The staff in the hotel were, at all time, friendly and polite. However our best experience was in the hotel Bar at night. We spent a lot of time this year in the hotel bar and were entertained each night by drew the barman. We met drew during our previous stay at the hotel in 2007 and at that time were impressed at his ability to relate to each person in the bar.
Again this year he remembered us and couldn't have been anymore helpful and friendly.
Another great thing about the frontdesk staff was the facility in place to advise and arrange our daytime tours and taxi's to the airport.
It is these staff in the hotel that made our experience more comfortable considering the unexpected drop in standard of the rooms compared to our previous stay there.
Another improvement in the hotels offering was the change to the breakfast menu..... a self service buffet replaced the original overpriced menu. The variety on offer had increased making it more suited to our needs.
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