Just terrible
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 9/25/08
My wife and I travel to London and stay in the city two – three times per year. We love the central / convenient location of the Crown Plaza, St. James and have had a number of positive experiences over the past 5 -6 years.
This past visit, (22 – 24 September), was absolutely terrible.
The problems began at check-in:
- two very inexperienced young women (with no apparent supervision) at the check-in desk
- our room (booked on their internet site) only had a double sized bed; despite the fact that the internet site referenced a “queen sized” bed
- when we complained about the size of the bed and the mis-representation of the internet description, the front desk clerk told us “this happens all the time with Americans” (!!)
- we were then moved to a room with two double beds pushed together (room 229)
- while larger, this room was old, in a terrible state of repair (cracked tile, door), was very dirty (carpets stained, odd stains on the walls), was positioned on the property such that we couldn’t log on to the internet, was hot (…and the air conditioning didn’t work)
- daily newspapers we ordered at check in didn’t arrive
- “complementary” water bottle in room was already opened (creepy) and top replaced
- on day of departure, we discovered we were only provided ONE TOWEL (for two people)
- in addition, on day of departure, the apparent “supervisor” knocked repeatedly on our door asking “when we were going to leave” the hotel!!!
- No member of the hotel staff was a native English speaker – which made communication difficult; and, I believe, was used by the hotel to avoid having to deal with our issues
- (Conveniently) the front desk did not have any customer feedback forms; no customer feedback forms in the room either (surprise, surprise)
- breakfast was incredibly expensive; poorly stocked; and as above, no member of staff spoke English – other than to ask repeatedly if we’d completed their room charge form !!!
Absolutely the worst visit we’ve ever had to a Crown Plaza property.