I thought the hotel was fine enough to start - we were staying in the Toronto area, finishing up our annual week-long trip to Canada from Cottage Country by being closer to friends in the city. Hotel was clean enough, I suppose (although I am generally picky) - things I noticed were some brownish red spots on the cream-colored comforters topping the bed; white-colored spots on the red pillows adorning the in-room couch (gee, I wonder what THAT is), and two temperatures for the central air system: freezing and humid.
I actually looked past all that and decided it was still a decent stay. Until today. NOW, customer service is now my prime issue.
We checked out today (Sept. 9, 2012) around 10:30AM local time to meet with a friend for breakfast. We did our rounds, but of course, we forgot something in the refrigerator (which is a nice touch, along with the microwave as well). I called maybe 40 minutes later once we got to the restaurant (avoiding roaming charges, of course) and spoke with a man at the front desk (who had a distinct Chinese accent and was also present when we checked out), letting him know we had left food and tupperware (which belongs to my boyfriend's mother) but we would like to pick those up as we will be able to stop by in two hours - he confirmed he would let housekeeping know and we can pick it up.
We stop by two hours later, and even though it is off the 401 which takes us to the Sarnia border cross, it is still a few minutes out of the way there and back (you have to exit the highway and then take a side road for about five minutes past industrial parks). We get there and the front desk attendant I spoke to is no longer present but now another male along with an older female with a European accent are at the counter - I am almost positive that this female is the one I actually checked out with earlier in the day. I explain my plight to the male first, who then decided to defer to the female. The female said that she didn't understand, but would call Housekeeping - she then proceeds to page Housekeeping and then teach the male about their new 'paging' system using a series of walkie-talkies.
Apparently, the male had stopped working at this location for two months because he now lives in downtown Toronto due to attending school. Another of the staff, presumably housekeeping at first glance due to the uniform, joins them to chat. She asks how he is doing and they chat about what he plans to do with school and what he will do with his time downtown. I am telling you this because I am still standing at the front desk, waiting for some sort of confirmation from the female about the status of my belongings - that's how rude the staff were becoming. Possibly realizing I was 'eavesdropping' on their conversation, the female states that the newly joined party member is from Housekeeping and asks me to explain my plight to her - I do so and she says she has no clue but will check. She then turns BACK to the conversation and discusses the male's situation downtown again and after a few moments walks away. A fourth party member, presumably Housekeeping again, comes up to introduce himself to the front desk male attendant and to chat about the male's endeavors as they had never met.
At this point, I know more about this male, who I believe his name to be Devon (pronounced Devan), than I do about my items.
Finally, the female attendant, who was inspecting the walkie-talkie systems while making idle chatter addresses me and states that Housekeeping presumed we left it on purpose and threw the items away - when she found the time to get that confirmation, I have no idea as she was staring at the walkie-talkies and not holding them to her ear in any way, shape, or form. When I irritatingly state that I called less than an hour after leaving and was reassured that I would be able to retrieve the items, she merely stated that she was not sure there was anything they can do. No apology, no sympathy, nothing - instead, back to explaining the walkie-talkie systems for the apparent celebrity of a male front desk attendant.
I understand that the items were not of significant value to her or even to me as tupperware can surely be replaced, but the principle of the matter is that as a member of customer service, you give your utmost attention to the CUSTOMER - not to a pretty boy coworker, not to new-fangled technology you may have never seen before - to the customer. The lobby was DEAD, no less; my boyfriend and I were the only ones in the room, staff couldn't wait until after a customer was no longer present to teach him new things or to chat about personal life?
This experience left a horrible taste in my mouth for this hotel and I will be sure to avoid this location from now on. I give it two stars because I am still impressed with the free wifi, microwave and refrigerator, but otherwise, stay somewhere else.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.