Determined to get it only 95% right
I just returned from a five night stay at the Double Tree. Overall the stay was ok, the room was nice, the bed very comfortable, all as to be expected from a Double Tree property. The location of the hotel was convenient for my purposes, very close to the client I was working with, and my reason for being in San Diego.
I also would like to point-out that the room service was good. The food arrived very promptly and was tasty (I had room service four out of my five nights).
The reason I am giving this property only an average rating is for a couple of little annoyance that could have easily been avoided, but added pressure to my very crazy/busy week:
1. The check-in process was not up to par. The front desk personnel was efficiently checking me into my room (Sounds great - right?), totally ignoring to elaborate on any of the circumstances of my booking. I had requested some upgrades via the Internet. Additionally, the room I booked used a company rate that included parking and the Internet. I had to prompt the employee to look up what upgrades I received as well as what was included in my room rate. Prompting the front desk to to take these things into consideration should not be my responsibility. What really bothered me was the uber efficient air the employee had, as if I should not have to ask. On top of it, the answers I got from the employee were not correct. Which I only found out, after I reviewed my reservation, once in my room, and had to call down to the front desk to get further clarification.
2. The next morning, while drying my hair, the hair dyer stopped working (probably because it was so clogged with dust and dirt in the back that the airflow was restriced and led to overheating the hair dryer). No problem - I called the front desk and requested another hair dryer, which arrived promptly (Great!). Only for me to discover that the new hair dryer was in no better shape that the first hair dryer. At the end of the day, I tried one more time to get my hands on a decent hair dryer, by taking the hair dryer to the front desk, explaining my issue and asking for another one. The front desk called housekeeping for a replacement, and asked me to return to my room, taking the hair dryer with me, since they would not know what to do with it, and to wait for the replacement, which would be dropped off at my room. Guess what, the this hairdryer was just as old and clogged up. The maid did not understand what I was asking her, and in the end I gave up and used tape and q-tips to try to unclog the hairdryer as much as I could on my own.
3. Day 1: Already being late from the hair dyer incident, I was rushing to get a quick breakfast on the executive floor (which was an upgrade I paid for), only to discover that my room key was not programmed to let me take the elevator up to the 11th floor! I had to go down to the reception, ask them to change the coding on my room key so I could have breakfast.
4. Along with the crappy hair dryer goes the really bad/old ironing board and iron in the room. I only tried to iron one piece of clothing. It;s almost as if the hotel renovated and tried to save money on the appliances.
5. Just as a final good bye gift from the reception, the morning of the departure, I received only page two of my final invoice under my door - I wonder what happened to page one? Once again I had to stop by the reception.....
Next time I have to stay at this property, I will need to recalibrate my expectations. But now I know what things to look out for. I understand that this is not the Ritz, but neither is this property a low end hotel, not for close to $200 per night. Also, I travel for work close to 30 weeks per year, and it has been quite a while since I was frustrated enough to write a hotel review.