Horrid Experience. You've been warned.
My girlfriend and I checked into the Hotel Angeleno last Saturday the 26th. We are in a long-distance relationship so I wanted to treat her to a nice place on her last night here. I booked a suite knowing that we may want to entertain some friends of mine in the area.
Overall it was the worst experience I’ve ever had coming from Hotel staff, and here are the reasons why.
1. Major problem – When I check in they say there’s been a problem, due to construction my suite was not available. To make up for it, they offered a room at a discount or two connecting rooms at the same price. Seriously what am I going to do with two bedrooms, that’s useless. I took the one room at a discounted price, but more importantly, why wasn’t I made aware of this construction before checking in??!!!
2. INEXCUSABLY MAJOR PROBLEM – The night man Diego declaring we are kicked out of the hotel. Let’s start at the beginning. Our guests and us leave the bar upstairs just as it’s closing to go back to our room. (Now’s when it would of have been better to have a suite.) We decided to try and see if it was too late to order a bottle of wine to the suite to entertain our guests. My girlfriend calls down to the front desk (Diego) to see if this was possible. Diego tells her to go up to the bar and get it there. She has the impression after talking to him that we just need to go up there and pick it up. (Being the concierge, why didn’t he just call up?) I walk up to the bar, which seems pretty closed down. I talk to a man in a jacket who works there, he says there is no way. I go back down to the room empty handed, my girlfriend is confused because she was under the impression they were expecting me up there. We go down to see Diego. When we explain what just happened, Diego starts by quizzing us. “Did you call room service? Who did you talk to upstairs? Was it the bar manager? Go back up and talk to the bar manager.” It is immediately obvious that he is playing games, as he knew that my girlfriend had just called him on the phone about this and not room service. I explain (and am getting angry at this point because I would just like a straight answer) that I don’t know what the position was of the person that I talked to upstairs, I didn’t appreciate being shuffled around the hotel, and he should call up there for us to find out. He goes back into the office and gets on a walkie-talkie to try to talk to someone upstairs. When he comes back he explains that they are all gone and there’s nothing he can do. At this point my girlfriend has gotten angry (and it all could of have been avoided if he just acted like a concierge and called up to the bar for us from the beginning) and tells him he’s doing a bad job. At this Diego completely flips out. He says we are “Kicked off the premises! You can’t have your wine and you talk about my job. You’re out!” Yes, for real. Jesus man, just say you’re terribly sorry about the confusion but the bar is closed. Obviously I told him we weren’t going anywhere and that we would speak to a manager in the morning. I was livid. Our guests are upstairs, not in a suite that I ordered, and we’re sent on a wild goose chase looking for a simple bottle of wine that ends in being, “Kicked off the premises!”
3. Last Major Problem – When I checked out, I asked to see the manager. I explained the problem to Scott Gordon, Rooms Division Manager of Joie de Vivre hotels. He was very receptive and visibly shocked at my experience. I must assume now that it was all an act. He gave me his card and explained that he would talk with Diego and get in contact with me, perhaps comping a room should I decide to stay again. After not hearing anything from him over the past week I can assume that was an empty gesture. I honestly have no desire to stay there again do to the enormity of the insult I felt from Diego even if it was free.