Yelp needs to introduce a Zero Star policy if only for the Barlow Hotel.
The sidewalk entry awning, the front door signage and the lobby are very inviting and misleading, drawing you into the house of horrors. The staff is almost competent and they are accommodating. They are just innocent bystanders in this story.
Once you pass the lobby things start to fall apart. The hallway carpet is ghastly, the woodwork looks like it has been renovated with a hatchet. The painters were unable to afford drop cloths and to clean up after themselves. The installation of the hallway electronics is unique.
Once you get to the room it is very much like the entry, the initial impression is pleasant. But to get the full effect you need to spend some time in the room and look around. There is unfinished woodwork with gaping holes in the wall which has been partially blocked with scraps of wood; drywall is coming apart at the seams; bathroom sinks falling off the wall; drywall scored and painted to look sort of like the unfinished bath tile next to it; bathroom tile painted to look sort of like the wall next to it; tub doors installed over existing tub door tracks with enough mold growing under it to produce penicillin for a generation (which was specifically asked to be cleaned but never was).
Those are some of the damaged, unfinished or just falling apart items, there are others that are just plain strange. The owners installed humongous shower controllers/sprayers/heads that take up a great portion of the bathtub if you have a room with a bathtub and almost the entire shower if you have a room with a shower. Do not take a shower while someone else uses the toilet, I was scalded in both rooms when the toilet was flushed while I was in the shower, like staying in cheap Italian pensione in the 70's. I'm also not quite sure if there were mattresses under the sheets we were sleeping on, the beds were so hard it felt like plywood or concrete.
The ultimate insults start on our last night. I went to the bathroom around 12:00 am and sat down on the toilet but jumped up immediately because it was soaking wet. I turned on the light and noticed the bath mat in front of the toilet was also soaking wet and stained (light) brown. I looked up to the ceiling and noticed water dripping out of the vent that was above the toilet. I was repulsed. I rushed down to the lobby and found a sign on one of the desks with an emergency number on it and called it. The person at the other end assured me it was only "some condensation", as if it wasn't any big problem and I should just deal with it. I said that it wasn't condensation, it was feces that was dripping on me. He said that he would be right over. (I would like to explain that I am an architect and I own commercial property. I know what condensation is and I also know what dripping feces looks like.)
When the owners arrived, one came up to the room, took a look at the dripping ceiling and the soaked toilet and towels on the floor and said that I guess I need to move you. He showed us the adjacent room that had a large portion of the ceiling above the bed recently cut away and not completely patched. My wife was afraid of the same incident occurring so refused the room. We were moved to another room upstairs. We had to pack all of our belongings (it was a lot since we were on a two week trip) and move it all to the next floor at 12:30 at night. The owner carried ONE of my wife's bags.
The owner never apologized for the situation we were in the whole time he was there but the other owner did stand downstairs and whine the whole time about how late it was.
But the true horror was not experienced until the next morning. The girl at the front called the room at 11:05 and inquired if I was aware of their check out policies. I said yes but I believed that we had some extenuating circumstances because of the occurrences the previous night and that we would be out in a few minutes. I went down shortly after that to get the bill while my wife finished packing. When I arrived she started to explain that they weren't going to charge me at the higher rate for the better room they moved me to but would just keep the bill the same. I asked, in shock, if she meant that she would be charging me anything for the previous night. She said "why, do you think you should get a discount?" I said of course I do. She said that she would discuss it with the owners and they would get back to me some time in the future, she seemed scared of dealing with the owners at that time. I said, no call them now. So she called, spoke to one and said they will call back in a few minutes. They called back a few minutes later and said that they would give me a $25.00 discount (off of an $800.00 bill).
THAT WAS AN INSULT. The owners are incompetent and indifferent. Pictures enclosed.
To add insult to injury, the owners had the gall to post a reply to my Expedia review that was a complete lie. read more