The lobby and rooms are just gorgeous--brand new, full kitchens, spotless, really well designed and decorated. Obviously recently redone. We had two incidents with the front desk staff that left us horrified--and that's what I'll remember about the hotel, sadly.
We live in Charlotte and went with some friends for a "getaway" from the kids, each couple getting their own room, but one person made and paid all the reservations--our friend who wasn't arriving until late in the evening. Hubby and I arrived at 5:30 pm and were told that, despite having the email with the confirmation numbers, we could not check in because our name was not on the reservation. We pointed out that she'd reserved three rooms--desk clerk shrugged and said "sorry." I called our friend, who talked to the clerk on my phone--she said the same thing "nothing I can do." Another guest checking in suggested that our friend fax her driver's license to the hotel: I asked the clerk if that would help, and she actually looked put out that we'd found a solution! So my friend faxed over her license, added our names to the reservation, and problem solved. Shouldn't the clerk have suggested that in the first place since she was talking to the owner of the reservation anyway? And we talked to her for several minutes before I called my friend, who she talked to for several minutes. She had plenty of time for the thought to occur to her.
The second incident was at 3 am. We were all eating pizza in our pajamas in my friend's suite when another friend went back to his room to get something and realized his room key-card wasn't working. He went straight downstairs to the front desk to get his key reactivated and the clerk asked to see his ID. Our friend pointed at his pajamas and bare feet and said "it's in my room!" The clerk insisted he had no way of knowing that he was really who he said he was. After he'd been missing from the pizza party for about 20 minutes he called up to our room and another husband went downstairs--with his wife's ID. He was sent back in shame because "there's a problem--you are not this person" so the wife had to go down with her ID. If he had been traveling alone, would they have made him sleep in the lobby? We've had key-cards not work before, in the US and other countries, and they usually just ask for your name and room number before reissuing a card. The front desk staff of course needs to be responsible for security, but surely this was a little overboard!
It's a shame because the property is beautiful. And EVERYONE at the breakfast buffet on Sunday morning was SUPER helpful, friendly, and cheerful. The busboy in particular--maybe he can train the desk staff on how to HELP guests rather than act like a brick wall.
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