...and, given that I discovered TripAdvisor only 7 months ago and have been writing as many reviews as I can (when time permits) about places I've stayed in recent years, I'm now just getting around to penning my thoughts about this property. Now that I see site management is actually reading these entries:
-- The real advantages to your site are its adjacency to the South San Francisco Conference Center and U.S. 101, along with the large onsite meeting spaces plus the onsite coin washers/dryers (stackables) on some of the floors.
Your bell staff back in early '06 was great. When I wound up somehow being placed in a wheelchair-accessible room (and I certainly didn't ask for one...I was, still am, and am planning to be fully ambulatory!!!), I was aghast at the miniscule closet space provided. The bar height from the floor was sufficient for children's clothing size 6x and below, as well as short/petite slacks (slung over dry-cleaning hangers) and shirts/blouses. I called and one of the bellmen came up right away with a luggage cart that stood in as a closet.
-- Now for the disadvantages: I agree with the need to thoroughly clean up and renovate EVERY room...not just some of them. And please widen the closet space provided in the wheelchair accessible rooms. I compared the width of the one I had with that in a mainstream room. However unintentional, the disparity between the two is an insult to your customers who use wheelchairs!
The other feature in dire need of an extreme makeover are your local calling rates for the landlines, if you haven't already done so. These should reflect free local calls or a one-time $0.50 /$0.75/$1(per call) charge. Around $200 was billed to my room in landline charges due to dial-up Internet use. (I tried to drastically reduce, if not outright eliminate, this over-the-top charge upon checkout. Your staff seemed much more interested in enforcing policies than they were in customer satisfaction. At the time, I just didn't have the energy after five days of NLDA conference activities to contest it further.)
During my stay, the $0.10/minute after the first hour was in effect. I didn't realize it since I erroneously assumed that your property's rates and those of your neighbors were in line with the Best Western Grosvenor's, where I had stayed in '04 and '05.
Such a rate might be defended on the fact that many customers have cell phones these days. That's all well and good. However, keep in mind that not all travelers have them. Moreover, not all your customers have laptops capable of high speed Internet (mine did not in March '06), and thus require dial-up via the in-room dataports. Internet access in the Business Center was also not cheap (and had horrific connectivity to boot).
Another defense might be that the Bay Area in general is a high-rent district. Such logic would be questionable. Returning to the example of the Grosvenor, no such charges ever appeared on my '04 and '05 bills there!
I place all of this on TripAdvisor because customers should be aware of everything they're getting themselves into when they book a room at your property.













