This place needs to get their act together fast! My husband and I were guests of the Kimpton Hotel Monaco and decided to visit Stratus for a nice Saturday night treat. We were provided a QR code to book a table, due to COVID-19 the...bar used timed table slots to control the occupancy which made great sense. The greatness ended there. We booked a table for a 1.5 hour time slot which included two drinks and two small plates for a total of $108. We thought this was a great idea as they advertised that they had a local DJ performing as well. Approx. 1 hour before our time slot we received a call from the bar informing us that they had two additional tables available which would let us extend our visit if we were interested. I thought this was nice of them until she explained that while the tables are available I would have to hang up with her and go back online to book and pay for an additional reservation. If she was able to call me to offer us an extension then it would have made more sense to be able to do the ACTUAL extension while I was on the phone. After understanding that she could not assist with the extension I told her I would check with my husband and make my choice. I went online immediately to find out the details before discussing with my husband only to find that there were in fact NO ADDITIONAL RESERVATIONS AVAILABLE TO BOOK. Okay, no worries we decided to just keep what we had and play the rest of the night by ear. We get dressed and head up to the rooftop to enjoy our night. We arrive at the door and walk up an additional two flights of stairs where we are greeted at the door by a hostess who asks us if we have our "wristbands"???? I ask what wristband? which she replies "you need a wristband to be seated". I asked why this information was not provided during the reservation process, on their website nor on the payment pages when we booked. She said that it was "because of COVID" which was no excuse because COVID does not prevent you from adding extremely useful information to your website, nor did it keep you from telling me this when you called me to ask me to book another table. I found it extremely shady that they would call to get more money but not mention anything that would help make our experience better in spite of "COVID". So my husband and I go down to the lobby to find Katie the manager for our wristband. There were no directional signs on where this "check in" location was so I went to the front desk and when asked about my night I let the customer service rep know how disappointed I was at the process which is when I found out that Status is not actually owned by Kimpton, they lease the space which explains a lot. I was sent out the front door to a podium where Katie was standing and when asked I expressed to her my disappointment from the lack of communication about the process, the lack of helpful information provided during a call to get more money out of us and the inconvenience of it all now that I have had to leave the comfort of the hotel room and the hotel just to get an arm band. She "explained" that this was a new process for them due to COVD (even though we are now in month 6 of the lockdown) and they are working out the kinks. To which I explain that because they have timed reservations and did not provide any information that would have prevented me from wasting 15 minutes of my 90 minute time slot I was now being penalized for services that I had already paid a lot for. She looked at me with the blankest of stares and said "I'm sorry, here's your wristband, enjoy your night". She had ZERO concern for my issue and frustration, which could have easily been remedied by simply assuring me that I would be able to stay for my entire time or offering a drink coupon, or even offering a sincere apology. She made me feel as if she had my money now and I should be satisfied with whatever I got at this point. We go back up to the rooftop to finally begin our night, a different young lady greets us at the door and doesn't even check her list for our reservation, she just seats us at a table for two. So much for the wasted 15 minutes getting the band. We take a look at the menu provided and realize that the "small plates" that come with our reservations are basically french fries, hummus, cheese, toast, tuna tartare and a newly added roasted shrimp. Any of these would have been perfectly acceptable starters at Chili's but we expected more. We ordered our drink which turned out to be a watered down glass of tea and requested the shrimp and potatoes. The food was not flavorful at all and frankly could have been elevated significantly by simply adding salt. At this point i am completely over my entire experience with Stratus from the clueless "hostesses" to the dismissive "manager" and the disappointing food/drink choices and the very late arriving poorly prepared DJ who struggled to get the sound right. All of these issues could have easily been remedied on their own by very small gestures such as genuine empathy or an offer to refund our money an cancel our reservation but no one bothered to care that we were guests willing to spend our hard earned money with their establishment in a time of a pandemic. WE WILL NOT BE BACK. An additional side note would be that upon our return from a genuinely professional establishment we visited after leaving Stratus we arrived back to the hotel and couldn't even reach the front door because Katie was not even attempting to control the flow of her patrons at the door. There was a crowd of people blocking access to the hotel lobby and even after saying excuse me several times we had to just push our way through to get to our room. They created a hazard at the front entrance, had no one controlling the flow of patrons, did not ask their patrons to move to a single line so that paying guests of the hotel could get in, THEY DID NOT CARE. Poor choice Kimpton for not having more influence over your outlets, your guests are suffering for it.More
75
48
16
8
18
