Worst customer service experience ever
Our customer service experience was terrible right from check-in, all the way through to check-out. Actually, it was even bad AFTER check-out as we were sent an email from the hotel's Guest Service Agent... we replied to it with the review below, and have never received a response. Also, we even went on to the Kimpton website and sent this same review to their CEO, and also have not received a response. Over a month has gone by and we have received no response from anyone involved with the Palomar or Kimpton, so now we are here to tell everyone our experience, and to stay away from this company!
The Check-In
Upon check-in, the hotel staff who gave me keys to our room. I was asked if we had a car/if we had driven to Philadelphia; I noted that we had no car as we flew into Philly and took a taxi to the hotel. The front desk clerk informed me that our room included free valet parking, so, if we had a car, it would be free to park. I again informed her that we didn't have a car... that was met with a blank stare, before she continued on checking me in.
The Room Keys
After checking-in, I took the elevator to our room with my luggage, but the keys did not work - this happens often in hotels, so it was no big deal at the time. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to spot the bellman on our floor, so asked him if he could help me out - he let me into our room so I could get settled. Later that afternoon, I went to explore Philly and stopped at the Front Desk to get a replacement set of keys and to drop off my drycleaning (more on that later).
The Room Keys
After walking around for a couple of hours in the hot Philly heat, I returned to the hotel and was looking forward to relaxing in the a/c in our room... but upon getting off the elevator and to our room, my newly minted keys AGAIN did not work. Tired and a little bit frustrated, I went back down the elevator to the front desk again and informed the staff that the second set of keys I was given did not work. The front desk clerk attempted to give me another set of keys, but she said that something in her computer was preventing her from doing so. She made a few trips through a door to a back room, and about 5 minutes later came out and created a new set of keys for me... I was tired at the time, but was excited about the possibility of being able to return to our room to rest.
However, upon handing the keys to me, the clerk said something to the effect of "ok, here are two new keys, but I'm pretty sure that they are not going to work - there is something weird going on with our computer, but here they are, so go ahead and give them a shot". At this point, I explained to her that this would be the third set of keys I would be trying for our room; she said she couldn't guarantee that they'd work, but that I'd have to give them a try to find out. I explained that I was tired and didn't want to head back up the elevator only to find out that I could not get into our room again, then asked "do you think this is the best solution - to give me a third set of keys and tell me to go give them a shot?" She noted that there's nothing she could do as she won't know if the keys work until I try them. I asked "So, after knowing that I have already been giving two sets of keys that didn't work, do you think that sending
me, as a guest, up to my room to try and third set is the best solution to the situation?" Though she kept her poise, she again suggested that I try the keys. This, to me, seemed like the one of the worst things one could do to a guest in this situation, so I asked "are you sure you want to send me up to our room for a third time with a set of keys that, you said yourself, probably won't work?"
After some further debate, she noted that there may be a problem with the magnet on the door, and she that she could have the maintenance man meet me at our room, and he and I "could look at the lock and magnet together". I said that I did want to look at the lock or magnet - I simply wanted to have access to my room. or be given a new room that had keys that worked. She said that if the keys didn't work, then the maintenance guy could let me into the room. "What would happen the next time I left my room, if these keys don't work and the maintenance man had to let me into our room, I asked?" She said that I could come back to the front desk and get another set of keys. I noted that as soon as I get into my room, I am going to change, grab the ice bucket, and head to the 4th floor for ice, and asked if she expected me to come down to the front desk to get a new set of keys each time I left our hotel room. She said that she could have the maintenance man unlock the door for me again, but I noted that I'd have to come to the front desk to tell her that my keys weren't working before she could call the maintenance man to meet me at my room. She paused, and said that there was nothing more she could do, other than to send the maintenance guy up to the room to meet me so the two of us could look at the lock... visibly frustrated, I left and headed towards the elevator to our room. 
As the elevator door opened on our floor, a gentleman who looked like the maintenance guy stepped aside so I could leave the elevator, and then was about to board the elevator when I stopped him to ask if he was the maintenance man. He confirmed that he was and asked if I was the guest having problems with my room, which I confirmed in return. He said he tested my lock and it worked fine and was about to head down the elevator again when I had to ask him to
stop and come with me to my room just in case... he did, and I was quite happy to find that the third set of keys I was given did, in fact, work! I was finally able to get some rest and wait for
my gf to arrive.
The items sent to the shipping Department
Prior to our trip, we had a few boxes shipped to the Palomar - we always have items shipped to our hotels when we travel. All the online tracking records show that all boxed were delivered and signed for prior to our day of arrival. There were five boxes in total, shipped from various parts of the US, all addressed the same
On the day of arrival, we asked the front desk to have any boxes waiting for us to be delivered to our room. Later that day, 2 boxes were delivered. On our day of checkout, three days later, I again asked the front desk to check for any boxes that were waiting for us, and 2 more were delivered. As we were expecting 5 boxes, it was clear that 1 box was still missing. We proceeded to the front desk to inform them that we were awaiting one more box, but were told none were waiting for us. I pleaded with them to search again, and sure enough, after this search, the 5th box appeared - but only because we were adamant that it be looked for again.
The Drycleaning
On my day of arrival, I took a jacket and a suit to the front desk and asked them how I send them for drycleaning. One of the women at the front desk helped me out, and we filled in the Drycleaining Form together. We checked the boxes for one jacket and one suit. The following evening when the drycleaning arrived in our room, the form that I had helped to fill out was over-written with a large black pen to indicate that the items drycleaned were one jacket and one blazer; the one suit had been crossed out. Concerned, I checked the bag of clothes, and noticed that there was a jacket and a blazer, but no pants to complete the suit! I immediately went to the front desk to explain the situation and was told that they would look into it and let me know what they find out. Later that evening, the front desk called our room and noted that the pants had to be sent back to the cleaners for "additional work" and would be returned the next day. I informed the person on the phone then that I had a wedding to attend the next afternoon at 4pm, so required the drycleaning back first thing in the morning. At 11am the next day, the front desk Manager called our room again, and rather than informing me that the pants which had been returned for "additional work" were now ready, I was informed that there was, in fact, no sign of the pants anywhere.
She expressed her regret and apologized, and noted that as I had a wedding to attend in a few hours, the best solution was to go purchase a new suit which the hotel would reimburse me for.
In light of the situation, this was actually a very good suggestion by the manager, and I thanked her, expect for the fact that it was only a few hours before the wedding and we had other plans that involved getting ready for the wedding and enjoying the vacation, rather than having to walk around in the afternoon Philly heat and shop for clothes! Regardless, that was our only option, so we set off for suit shopping. Upon our return, I met with Nika and she refunded me the cash for the suit. What was not refunded, though, was the 25% import duty to import the suit back to my home country. At the end of it all, we was out approximately 4 hours of my vacation time dealing with the front desk staff to find my suit pants, having to go shopping for another suit, and $87.50 in customs duty.
The Day of Checkout
On our day of departure, we asked for a late checkout and were kindly given a 1:00pm checkout. We brought our luggage to the lobby area, asked for another box from shipping which eventually arrived (see above), and gave all of our luggage and the box to the bell man who gave us a ticket stub. We also asked the bell man on duty how long it will take to get to the airport on a Saturday afternoon/evening from the hotel. In turn, he asked what time our flight left (8:05pm), noted that we had to be at the airport around 6:30pm for that flight, and said that we needed to leave the hotel by 4:30pm. I asked if it really would take 2 hours to get to the airport on a Saturday afternoon, when it only took 30 minutes to get to the hotel from the airport in rush hour traffic on a Wednesday evening? He was adamant that we had to leave by 4:30pm to ensure we'd get to the airport in time!
On our way for a couple hours of sightseeing by taxi that afternoon (on the way to Jim's for some cheesesteak), we asked our taxi driver how long it would take to get to the airport from the hotel... he asked the same questions as the bell man, and said we'd be there in time for our flight if we left the hotel at 6:15pm - that's an extra 1.5 hours of sightseeing! We questioned him again as to whether a 6:15pm departure from the hotel would be cutting it too close, and he
assured us that it would not - just to be safe, though we erred on the side of caution and asked him to pick us up from the Palomar at 5:45pm.
Fast forward 3 hours when we were back at the Hotel Palomar and about to depart for the airport - it turns out that erring on the side of caution was a VERY important decision. We handed our luggage tag to the front desk staff (as no bell man was present at the time), who then proceeded to bring our luggage into the lobby to the then-present bell man, who was very pleasant and kept us occupied while the luggage was brought out. The front desk staff helped the bell man take all of our luggage outside, open the doors for us, and put our luggage into the trunk of the taxi - I tipped him $20 for dealing with our luggage, allowing us to relax and leave the hotel without having to lift anything or worry about a thing.
However, once we got to the airport, we were very surprised to realize that we were actually missing one piece of luggage! We were obviously very stressed about this! Given the poor Hotel Palomar service experience we had to date, we simply did not trust that calling the hotel and asking them to a) find, and then b) deliver our missing piece of luggage to the airport would provide a satisfactory result, so we decided that our only course of action was to go back to the
hotel ourselves, in person, to ensure that the luggage was found and would travel with us to our next destination. The trip to the airport took a mere 15 minutes (not the 2 hours we were told!), so we figured we had enough time to do the trip twice more. Those two trips, of course, incurred another $70 in taxi charges. Fortunately, we made it back to the airport with just enough time to check-in and make it through security to our flight, but not without the added stress and expense.
So, as you can see from above, our experience with the Hotel Palomar severely impacted our vacation experience in a very negative way. We have never received such poor service, compounded by more poor service, anywhere else in the world.