We have stayed at the Stanford Court at least once every year since 2006. We know the hotel and the room layout options. Which is why I made a point of calling and speaking to a reservations clerk to expressly confirm the availability of a high floor room with a view and 2 double beds for my family of three people. Unfortunately, we arrived around midnight on a Friday night (after a very long flight from the East Coast) to be told that our reservation for 2 beds was "only a request" and the desk clerk then directed us to a handicapped accessible room on a low floor, no view, with a queen bed that turned out to have literally no space for a roll away. When we called the desk from the room and said that if we put a roll away in the room, someone would have to step onto the rollaway bed in order to get to the bathroom, the desk clerk tried to tell us that all of the rooms were the same size --and he said no other larger rooms were available in the entire hotel. When we pushed back and said we'd stayed there before (and knew there were larger rooms), he told us he'd call us back--and yet left us hanging in the room, with our luggage and the somewhat embarrassed bell staff for 15 minutes of awkward conversation. Eventually, since it was now about 12:45 am and our child was exhausted, we called back and he found us a room, which, big surprise, was on a high floor, had a good view, included a king bed and had sufficient space for a rollaway bed. Very disheartening to be told first that no such rooms existed--only to be given one roughly 45 minutes later after arguing...The room was a bit dirty (there were loose hairs on the floor and someone's receipt was still sitting on a chair), but it was fine. Given that it was a weekend, the hotel was very busy, the concierge seemed overwhelmed (we had to ask twice to get all of the information that we needed) and in the end, the staff seemed intent on just getting through the barrage of guests until the weekend was over...Indeed on Saturday, the maid literally did not come to clean the room until 5:30 pm. And then on Sunday afternoon they cleaned the carpets in the hallways and our room smelled of carpet cleaner for much of the last night. I could hear the desk staff talking about the smell as I walked by the front desk--they also thought it was terrible. I have always liked this hotel in the past. The location near Union Square is outstanding. There is a great playground nearby (and another in Chinatown, just a few blocks away). And the views are great. But this visit did not meet my expectations (from past visits). Based on this last visit, I would not recommend staying here on a weekend or coming in late at night. They are fine when they are not overwhelmed with people, but their social and customer skills seem to be under too much stress when their capacity is close to full.
hotel reviews