I scheduled a business lunch at the Hotel Zaza in Houston's restaurant, The Monarch. Upon arrival I asked if my guest had arrived. This was a first meeting and I did not know what she looked like. I was assured she had not. I gave them her name and asked to please be on the lookout for her. I was seated in the main walkway through the restuarant so that I could see anyone arriving or departing. I repeatedly went to the host stand to ask if she had arrived or if anyone had called. I was unable to get a line on my cell anywhere within the hotel or restaurant (one of the waiters suggested I try walking down the street...it was raining). After 50 minutes of waiting, I saw a very annoyed looking woman waiting to get her parking ticket validated. I asked a gentleman (who looked like a manager) if she had been looking for someone and he said he didn't know. I called out the name of the person I was to meet with and she turned around. She had arrived minutes before me and had been told by the host/ess that I had not arrived yet and that tthey would seat her and let me know that she was there when I arrived. She was very mad and no longer had time for a meeting. This meeting took months to set up and could cost my company $$$$. The response I got from everyone in the restaurant was "I didn't know". I also left a message with the General Manager - NO RESPONSE. Bad Service at its very worst!!!

The hotel is beautiful and new; very well decorated. We had a room overlooking the pool with a huge balcony which was very nicely furnished. The Pool area was also beautiful. The staff was wonderful and the shuttle service was a great feature. The only drawback is you can hear EVERYTHING being said in the hallway. The walls are quite thin. Other than that, we really enjoyed our stay.

We stayed here for a conference because it was the only thing within walking distance. Our conference was in the museum district. We had considered renting a car, and driving to our conference, but there is no parking in this part of Houston. And that's what creates the problem for all of the hotels in this area.

The solution is: Find out about the light rail service, and make it work with a hotel near a light rail station.

The Good Things:

The City of Houston itself was a very pleasant surprise! The light rail is $1.00 for a 3 hour time slot. There were plenty of nice restaurants, and lots to do, museums, sports etc.

Location! If you're going to the museums, or Rice University, or Medical City, it's a great location.

The Front Desk, Concierege and Free Shuttle Drivers: These were the only folks we interacted with. All were top notch. Polite, enthusiastic, everything you'd want.

The Free Shuttle was great. They took us to dinner, we never had to wait more than a few minutes for a ride to our resuaurant, and the timing was perfect for the rides home.

If you do stay here, please do yourself a favor, and DO NOT BRING YOUR CAR!!!

The Problem for All Hotels in this Area:

The car/valet situation. From reading Trip Advisor, I understood that parking [and it's pretty much valet or nothing at the hotels in this area] was a disaster. Having been there I understand why. On the weekends, they park as many as 1,000 cars a night at the ZaZA. They have to use church parking lots in the area. The problem is that with that many cars to park and unpark, there's no way to do valet well. You are going to be limited by the physical space in the front of a hotel. We watched, and they had plenty of staff, but still, you can only unload and load 6-8 cars at a time. It made for long and frustrating waits. I imagine from other posts that this is not specific to the ZaZa.

The Problem with ZaZa:

They're trying to cater to two different crowds. The business/medical city/musuem crowd during the week, and the party crowd on the weekend. It's a dichotomy that doesn't work for the business crowd. This past weekend, they had the Mary Kay Convention Crowd, and two different party crowds. The ZaZa needs to decide which one it wants to please, because although they try hard to please both, it's not happening for them.

If you're a 20 something, or a 20 something wannabe, and you want to come party, and be seen, and bring your cute little fru-fru dog with you, and you think that Paris Hilton is the end all be all, then you'll probably love ZaZa on the weekends.

If you're past that point in your life, then you will not like the weekends at ZaZa. We didn't try, but apparently, you cannot even get into the bar or the restaurant on the weekends because of the events/parties going on.

If you want a place to stay, and enjoy as a resort, and you want to eat your meals at the hotel, I'd say that you can count on breakfast, and maybe lunch, but dinner would be iffy at best.

As a resort, or even just a regular 4 or 5 star hotel, there are some glaring things missing: There is no hot tub anywhere on the property. The pool area looks lovely, but a hotel of this calibre without a hot tub??? Also, there are no tubs in the rooms, and our sink in our second room was glass. GROSS.

The decor is just tacky. I never saw the Warwick, but I do cringe to think what they destroyed to put up that junk that they think is "hip and cool."

On Friday night, our room reeked so badly of cigarette smoke from midnight to 4 a.m., that it woke us up, and I couldn't go back to sleep. They very cheerfully moved us the next day, but to a SMALLER room. This was absolutely NOT made clear to us. It was a huge disappointment to have to pack up our room and then walk into a much samller room. You couldn't turn around in the bathroom, and there was neither the space to put your toiletries out in the bathroom, nor was there any decent amount of room to hang your clothes in what passed for a closet.

Would We Stay There Again:

If we wanted to party with the 20 year olds. In a heartbeat.

For another business/conference trip. Not on your life. For future conferences in this area, we're going to find a hotel near a ligtht rail station, save our money, enjoy the decor more [basic hampton inn decor would be preferable], and have a great time in Houston!

The ZAZA is in a great area of Houston. The hotel is very nice inside. We were fortunate to get upgraded from a standard room to a corner suite on the 7th floor. Room was awesome. Walked into a living area with a modern couch, dining room table that sat 8 and a huge plasma TV. The bathroom seperated the bedroom and living area. It was narrow, but very nice. Bedroom had a comfortable bed and another plasma TV. One minor complaint was the noise from the Monarch Bar was loud enough to be heard in our room that night. Overall the room was great.

Now to the service. This hotel is in need of a serious attitude adjustment. Front desk and check in were fine. Ate a late lunch one day in the Monarch and brunch the next morning. Service was slow and very spotty. Food was decent. Waiters were not friendly at all. Tried to get into the Monarch bar after we went out that night. There were 2 weddings going on in the hotel so the bouncers told us the bar was at capacity (there were a ton of non guests trying to get into the bar). Which would have been fine if they werent so rude about it. We tried to explain we were guests at the hotel and they didnt seem to care at all. We finally got into the bar later and it was 3 deep trying to get a drink. One bouncer told my buddy (who was also a hotel guesty) he had 5 minutes to get a drink and get out of the bar b/c more people were trying to get in.

On Sunday when we tried to get our car out of valet, I went to the valet stand and told the guy that I would like my car pulled around in 20 minutes. He rudely told me no and to come back when I actually needed the car. That would have been fine also, if it hadnt taken 30+ minutes to get my car out of valet when I returned. Several times I tried to follow up to see where my car was and nobody seemed to care. Finally one employee told me it was a crazy day b/c of all the people checking out. Fine, but if you are a 5 star hotel, act like one. Nobody at valet seemed to care at all and there was no system whatsover. Someone told me it took her 2 hours to get her car out of valet on Sat night.

I travel 2-3 days a week and stay at either Marriotts or the Ritz chain when I am out of town. This hotel could learn alot about customer service from the Ritz. Never once did any employee there go out of there way to make us feel welcomed. To them it was a privelage to be staying at the ZaZa. For the money that we spent there I expected quite a bit more.


Based on the rooms I liked the hotel, but will not stay here again as i left with a bad taste in my mouth.