My husband and I checked in to this hotel after a 12 hour drive from California. We were booked for 3 nights. When we got to the room, it was clean and decently appointed. But the a/c wasn't on so the room was stuffy. I turned on the a/c but the room didn't cool off very much. I was too tired to deal with it until the following morning. The maintenance man came at 8:30 am and decided that the compressor wasn't working. The front desk receptionist said she would move me to a different room. She assured me that they would work on my new room first. One hour later, after repacking all of our stuff (I don't travel light!), I went to the front desk and was told by a grumpy man who really shouldn't be in the hospitality business that "It will be awhile." I told him what the previous lady had said so he went in the back office, presumably to talk with her. Upon his return, he said that she hadn't given me any kind of a time frame and that it would be at last another half hour. He went on to say that housekeeping had just arrived which was untrue. I had seen housekeeping carts in the hallway for an hour or so. In the hospitality business, travelers aren't interested in the inner workings of hotels. They just want good service at a fair price. The correct response to a customer who has been inconvenienced due to a shortcoming of the hotel is "I will call housekeeping and find out when your new room will be ready. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you" not "It will be awhile"and "There's nothing I can do."
Aside from the problem with the a/c, I will mention a few small things that would make guests more comfortable. First, guests shouldn't have to decide if they want to unplug the refrigerator or the lamp in order to plug in their laptops in the desk area. Put a power strip on the desk so we don't have to crawl around deciding which plug goes where. Don't put a queen sized top sheet on a king sized bed. It makes for a night-long tug of war for the sheet. If you have reservations for specific rooms, turn on the a/c prior to the guests' arrival. This is an extremely hot region. Even with a functioning a/c, it can take an hour for the room to cool off. If the a/c is turned on at check-in time, then the rooms will be comfortable as guests arrive. At around $100/night, it isn't too much to ask. In my case, if this small consideration had been done, they might have known in advance that the a/c in our room wasn't working and put us in a different room to begin with.
Breakfast was typical hotel breakfast fare. But the area was clean and the employees kept it well stocked. They could use a few more tables.
UPDATE: When I was finally told my new room was ready and went to the front desk to get the room key, the man did apologize for the inconvenience and comped me for one night. For this act of kindness and professionalism, I'm adding a star.
In any case, the next time we are in this area, we will try a different hotel. read more