Dimond Center Hotel, Anchorage

I wrote a private email to the general manager - Joe Merrill - a month ago and he hasn't even had the courtesy to respond so I am posting excerpts of it here. I arrived and checked in with my infant daughter on Tuesday, November 8, 2010 at about 10pm. I was rather quickly displeased with what I feel was a lack of customer service and common courtesy. Specifically, I came laden down with luggage since I was there for five nights and traveling with an infant. After checking in – which was a rather painless process, I loaded up a luggage cart at my car in the loading zone and attempted to come back inside the building. I was carrying my daughter and pushing the luggage cart up the slight hill to the handicapped access door – which was no small feat in itself, since the pathway/parking area seems to slope downhill from the door, and then pushed the handicapped door button. Nothing happened. I immediately noticed that I also had to use my keycard, since it was in the evening. I used the key card, and pressed the button again. Again, nothing happened. I tried this another couple times, and still nothing…then, I start using my key card and actually pulling open the door by hand – that works, however since I only have two hands, I cannot simultaneously open the door by hand, carry my infant daughter, and also keep a hold of the luggage cart on an incline. Consequently, my luggage cart starts sliding back toward the parking lot, I let go of the door, and the door closes and locks. This happens several more times while I try to use my foot, the cart, and even my baby to help keep the door open long and wide enough to start pushing the cart through, to my extreme frustration. Meanwhile, I am at the door at least five minutes quite obviously trying to get in the door. The front desk is directly in front of me, where three Dimond Center Hotel employees are visiting and not a single one of them makes a move to help me, even though they obviously see me. Finally, an young couple visiting in the common area hears my yells of frustration (“This door doesn’t work!”), takes pity on me, holds open the door, and helps me with my cart. Once I am finally through the door, I (admittedly) holler at the front desk staff “You need to fix your door!”, to which the man at the counter rather snarkily replies “It works just fine; you need to use your key!”. I retort that I used my key, but the handicapped button did not work. He looks at me and says…nothing. The remote control doesn’t work. The toilet backed up while I was at work. Someone came up to 'help' without any tools. On Friday morning, we are awakened to a fire alarm. Again, on Saturday, we are awakened by a fire alarm. I attempt to call down to the front desk from the phone directly next to the bed; there is NO DIAL TONE. I try again several times. NOTHING. I try the phone on the small table by the window, and pick that up; there is a dial tone. A man answers, but apparently can't hear me. Finally, I give up and call on my cell phone. IHe also indicates that he is aware of the issues with the fire alarm and that it has been resolved – dust in the alarm system apparently. He also states that I am welcome to call management, but that they have previously indicated to him that ‘the hotel is booked, so oh well’ and it is highly unlikely that anything will be done. What is interesting, is that my husband and I stayed there in September of 2009 to attend a wedding of some friends of ours, and were awakened the day after the wedding at about 5 or 6am. That alarm lasted so long, we had to actually get dressed, vacate the hotel, and stand in the parking lot for about a half an hour while the fire department arrived and checked the scene.

My fiance' and I stayed at the Dimond Center Hotel for Valentine's weekend. When we checked in, they "couldn't find" our reservation. The situation was easily fixed (so I thought), and the desk attendant made a new reservation. We actually enjoyed our room and the amenities. We liked the convenient location for shopping. The breakfast was crowded but not bad. The problems began when we checked out. I found on the bill that I had been charged an additional $100.00 because I had "used a debit card"; they told me not to worry because it was just a security deposit that would be refunded to my account. My fiance' asked "What if she has bounced checks because of this unexpected charge?", the front desk girl told me "just call if that happens and it will be taken care of". When I checked my bank statements online on Monday morning, I found that the hotel had charged another $122.08 to my debit card! AND the $100.00 "security deposit" had not yet been refunded! As a result, I had FOUR NSF fees ($80.00) on my checking account. I called the hotel to find out what was going on, and the general manager told me that the $122.08 was a second reservation made by mistake on THEIR part. I asked how they planned on taking care of the NSF fees that resulted from the unauthorized $220.00 that was overcharged to my account; the general manager told me that "it wasn't her concern how much money I kept in my account"!!! Oh, and she also told me that "every hotel in the world does business this way"; apparently the hundreds of other hotels that I have stayed at were not "in the world"! Terrible management! Very rude and refused to be accountable for their mistakes. Don't stay here if you expect good service and honest business practice!!!

This was the only place we stayed and I had left a mirror there that was about 25 years old. When I called to ask about it, of course the house keeper did not find anything . I also had left some lotions and beauty bar. I had called on our way back to fairbanks so a day had not gone by as yet. Ridiculous!!!

I had the worst time trying to sleep there because the beds are way too soft, the pillows large and uncomfortable, that I went to the downstairs lobby to try and sleep on their couch. I couldn't be comfortable on those couches either. I went back to my room, which by the way, did not have any scenery (looking out to other windows of the hotel), and resorted to going back on the bed. It was about 7:00am when I finally did fall asleep.

I would not recommend it to anyone. My reservations got messed up, even though I had called prior to coming and confirmed them. The room had a jacuzzi that did not work. The location was actually a bit of a walk from the exercise facility and pool. There was no view, and in Alaska you have to have a view. I have been in numerous hotels that were much more luxerious for less money. I was VERY disappointed. I was to stay for 3 days, checked out after one night and went to another hotel.

The staff made checkin very difficult! They were not really interested in assisting those in our party with check-in or correcting the issues with the registration. They almost made it seem as if it was our fault that their system wasn't working properly. We had to change rooms several times because of the "non-smoking" rooms. The toilet in one room didn't work. The wireless internet was down, they knew it was down and would be down when we booked but they didn't offer that information to us and they had no ethernet cables available. The staff was very uninterested in assisting us at all. At four in the morning the snow plows were out and woke most of our party. But it was a good thing because one of our party left a wake-up call that never came. On the second day there was a lovely gal named Leah who was very helpful but no one else on the staff seemed to care if we were there or if we needed any help. On the way out the second day it was snowing and the deskclerk was not interested at all to assist the ladies with their bags into the shuttle. Not a gentleman in the place! We will not be returning to that hotel. It may be convieniently located next to the mall and other shopping areas but I would rather drive further and have a courteous staff than be close to shopping with very inconsiderate personnel.

I love the hotel, i wish it did have a full restaraunt. the rooms are super nice and clean, the beds are wonderful and the bath tubs are super nice. I wasn't to wild about the divider from the bathroom to the bedroom the glass dividing them didn't have enough privacy.

I called two days before visit to confirm reservations, I was told shuttle would meet us at the train station. Thirty minutes before trains arrival I called to let hotel know our expected time of arrival and was told shuttle would be there to meet us. Train employee also offered as a service to all passengers to call our hotel to assure shuttle would be waiting. So the hotel received a second call. When we arrived after hours of traveling and working on a four hour time difference from our home, no shuttle was there. I called and was told shuttle was at airport and it would be a fifteen minute wait. Fine with us. Twenty minutes came and went and no shuttle. I called again and again was told it would be 15 more minutes. I was not happy but not unreasonable. I assumed delay was unavoidable so we waited. Thirty minutes passed and every taxi and shuttle had come and gone. We were left alone standing on the street. I called again and again was told it would be another twenty minutes. I was tired and sick of waiting but was assured the shuttle would come. About ten minutes into our wait a train employee happened by and took pity on us. She offered to call the hotel and received the same song and dance. She called a taxi for us. When we arrived after midnight at the hotel a man named John at desk did not want to hear our problems. We were told he only had one room with one bed not two despite the fact that my reservations were confirmed. We had four adult people in our group. These reservations were made in January for travel the first part of June. I raised holy heck and produced an email from their reservations desk confirming both rooms. Finally and miraculously another room was made available. We were put into a hot room. The air conditioning was broken. After three different maintenance men we told they were sorry but had no more rooms for us. We slept with our windows opened. Not a safe feeling in a hotel. Also no privacy because others could look from their windows right into our room. The rooms were clean, but service is horrible and there is no desire to welcome you, assure your safety and I certainly don't believe that the staff cares whether anyone ever returns. The worst experience my family has had in years and we travel alot!

I loved the bed - so cozy with a down comforter. The bathtub was huge - I could soak in the tub while watching tv. The next time I go to Anchorage I will make a point to stay at this hotel. We also stayed at the Captain Cook during our trip, and I enjoyed this hotel much more. The location is a bit of a drive from the Downtown shopping.

I have stayed here numerous times since it opened. They have the best rooms in the city hands down. Everything is oversized...bed, tv, tub and it's all well designed modern rooms. And for the price it's a steal. Sometimes the service is a little lacking. Once I was stranded at the airport because they forgot about me, but most of the time the service is great.