Okay but need customer service training!
After a two week trip round the west coast where we had stayed in motels costing a quarter of the price of the Crowne Plaza but had received excellent customer service, I was expecting the same kind of thing when my husband and I stayed at the CP in BH for three days...how wrong can you be?
We checked in okay...the receptionist was very helpful and outr first night passed without any bother. The next night we asked the concierge about how to get around in LA and did she have a map, as when we were in San Fran, the hotel there had given us a map of ALL the streets in San Fran, had advised us on best places to eat, where to get buses, trams and cable cars from and where to avoid. All the concierge at CP did was chuck a map of the Star Lines sight seeing bus,which was a very basic map that did NOT have all the street names on it. When we said that no, we didnt want a taxi and that we wanted to walk to places, she laughed in our faces. Not a good sign. We then asked her about places to eat and she just pointed in the direction of the Bistro that is attached to the hotel! So we asked again, and she shrugged and said that because she didnt really eat out, she couldnt recommend anywhere! We were suprised by this lack of local knowledge as we had had such good service in San Fran. After spending the day in Hollywood,we went back to the hotel to ask about tickets to Universal Studios. There was now a guy in the concierge seat who, I think, had obviously watched too man mafia films...he sat back in his chair, looking down on us stupid english tourists and even tutted when my husband asked why taxis that the hotel booked were so expensive? Once again, we asked for a more detailed map of the area, only for the guy to get very rude and give us yet another bus tour map. When I pointed out that we had already got that map and was there any other he could give us he said no and that couldnt we work the map out? So annoyed! The next day after going to Universal (our taxi driver was great!) there was yet another person on the desk. He was very polit and helpful but even he could not give us a map of the area. He did manage to give us a map of restuarants near where we were so that helped a little bit....but what really upset me was the fact that on the day we were leaving the same concierge we had seen on the first day was getting a map printed off by the reception staff to give to a guest!! All the other staff were very helpful anf friendly....I just think that the concierge staff need to be more knowledgable about the area surrounding the hotel, listen more to guests feedback as they could let the concierge know about good places to eat, what to do, what to avoid etc...and have more customer care training...or take a lesson from some of the other staff there!