I should have known from my experience with making my reservation that I would have issues at this hotel. They advertised a promotion and when I called to get it, the reservationist said it wasn't available so I booked at a higher price. Then when I called back to give my HHonors number, they said the promotion was available, so they refunded my card to give me the lower rate. Then said whoops! The lower rate isn't available and the only rate we have left is $50 higher than what you originally paid! Obviously, I got upset but the manager gave me the original advertised promotion which I was grateful for. This all occured within 5 hours of each other so I guess promotions are/aren't available depending on who you speak with.
We arrived at the hotel and checked in. We brought our 8lb. dog which is an additional $75. We went to our room but they gave us a smoking room. I knew it was a smoking room by just opening the door, it smelt so bad. Funny, because they had me sign a waiver saying we wouldn't smoke in the room. They told me they would take care of the issue.
When we got back to the desk, they said they were sold out and the only non-smoking room left was 2 double beds, not the king I had reserved. He said it was not a pet-friendly room since it was non-smoking but he was making an exception. They told me I could have a king, nonsmoking if I didn't bring my dog in! What am I going to do? Leave her out in the car for 6 days?!? They were not sold out. This was obvious when someone walked up next to me and asked if they had a king, non-smoking room available for the next 3 nights and was immediately booked. When I asked why he could have a king, non-smoking and I couldn't, they said because the pets are all kept on the same floor. I realized the pets, smokers, and loud families are all put on the same floor (it's the second floor, in case you're wondering).
Meanwhile, another guest and her husband were complaining to another manager because they booked 5 rooms next to each other, were told this wasn't a problem, and then were split up all over the hotel. They were attending a wedding. We overheard another guest in the elevator later in the trip complaining because the hotel lied to them about availability on the top floor.
I wanted to find a different hotel but it was difficult with the dog and my fiance just wanted to sleep since we had driven 14 hours from Atlanta to be there. After much arguement with front desk manager Dan, we took the room. After Dan told us that all of their pet-friendly rooms were smoking rooms, he later told us a King, pet-friendly, non-smoking room was opening up on Saturday. (I love that they catch themselves in lies.) We told him we would switch rooms on Saturday but we were visiting with family in the afternoon and then we had a massage appointment at the San Luis and 1:00, but we could move rooms after that. He said it wouldn't be an issue.
On Saturday, my family was using our room to change for the beach while we went to our massage appointments. Walking out of the lobby, Dan stopped us to say the new room was ready. We said we were on our way to the appointment and would move when we returned. 5 minutes in to my massage appointment, I get a phone call from the hotel. It's Dan. He says our room is ready and we have to move now. I told him this wasn't going to happen due to the appointment we told him about. I continued explaining, but he responded to everything I said with, "You have to move now, do you want the room?" He must have said it 5 times. Obvisouly, my massage was ruined and I had to lose the King room. When I got back to the hotel, my family told me that the hotel kept calling the room and knocking on the door. They said the hotel probably called 5 times and knocked twice. My dad spoke to them but he didn't know anything about us switching rooms and the hotel kept giving him a hard time trying to get an answer from him.
We stayed one more night and finally had our last straw when we caught 3 of the housekeeping staff "barking" outside of our hotel room door trying to harass my dog to bark back at them. We shortened our trip by 2 days because of the hotel.
The other downfalls were the noisiness of the housekeeping. When I saw how many families were staying there, I was worried they would be noisy, but it's definitely the housekeeping. Why does it take 12 housekeeping staff to clean 1 floor and takes them until 5:00pm? The room service trays are rarely picked up. We had our neighbors tray next to our door for about 36 hours. A different tray had been left about the same amount of time and another dog had gotten in to it and spread it all over the hallway. Lovely. We actually have pictures.
In case you decide none of the above situations would ever happen to you, I figure I'll include a few positives:
1) The pool - Seemed nice but we never went in because it was always pretty crowded. Has a swim-up bar.
2) Location - Next to the San Luis Resort, The Steakhouse, beach, Rainforest Cafe, IHOP, etc.
3) Has a covered parking garage that is free.
4) Plenty of grass to walk the dog.
I should also point out that I'm not some hotel snob. I gave a LaQuinta 5 stars and a fantastic review on this same trip. If you are a non-smoker, I highly suggest you go somewhere else. We were told repeatedly that they never guarantee a non-smoking room and a large amount of the hotel is smoking. The hotel bar is open in the lobby so you have to walk through smoke every time you come and go. If you have a dog and want to go to Galveston, I would suggest not going to Galveston! There are very few hotels that take pets there, and definitely no luxury hotels that take pets. When we left, we ended up going to New Orleans which has a large amount of pet friendly hotels to choose from.
Overall, this is the worst hotel experience I have ever had.
