PRO: The hotel is well-placed on Hotel Circle and the grounds were nice. The food in the restaurant was good, albeit expensive. The wait staff, with one exception - a warm and chaming young lady from Eastern Europe - was pedestrian. I felt very comfortable with the 5 police officers who met one day for lunch. It indicated to me that the restaurant had a good local reputation for its food. The pool area was nice and pleasant to relax at. Free internet was nice as well. Management is concerned with their image and were quick to my complaint to Best Western headquarters - see below.
CON: The room was too small and very uncomfortable and every request to upgrade to a larger room was met with disdain and "if you're not happy with the room, go somewhere else," or "Don't let the door hit you in the back." This happened 3 days in a row. They were rude and obnoxious.
On the last day I requested a late checkout and was treated, once again, very badly by the Front Desk Staff - they were extremely rude and obnoxious. One of them actually sneered at me. I asked to speak to the manager and was told he was unavailable, but I did speak to a Customer Service Clerk and she was very helpful. We were allowed a late checkout (5:45 p.m.) and were fully charged for an extra night. Oh, and I never did get to speak to the manager.
When I returned home, I called Best Western and filed a complaint. To my suprise 3 hours later, I received a phone call from the manager who was too busy to talk to me that day. We had a pleasant and fruitful exchange re my experience - he apologized and we discussed the need for better training of his front desk staff. I was not offered any consideration to return and the hotel never forwarded my stay to Best Western and I never received credit for my stay in their Rewards program.
I have stayed in literally hundreds of hotels (including BW) all around the country and I've never been treated so shabbily. I was positively impressed with the speed and personal response to my complaint (Kudos to Steve!), but it does not mitigate how I was treated. Hopefully the staff has been retrained and have been taught the proper treatment of guests and without those guests, they would not have jobs.I would not recommend this hotel to friends or family, because I can not be sure that they will not receive the same nasty treatment I did.
Lastly, prior to San Diego, I stayed at the BW Carriage Inn in Sherman Oaks for 6 nights and the front desk staff went out of their way to make our stay pleasant and that our business was appreciated. I highly recommend this hotel.
TripAdvisor has free and easy resources to help you enhance your listing and promote your property.
- Start Here - Visit Your Owners' Center
- Add Photo
- Add Video
