Still A Good Hotel...Expected Better
In town for a wedding and brought a guest to show off my fabulous city and stay at what I thought was the finest hotel in Indianapolis. From my previous experience at the Conrad two years ago, I just knew it was the perfect choice to make a first impression on my friend. After my stay this past weekend, I am not so sure the Conrad is living up to my expectations of a 4/5 star hotel.
Long story short, my stay was a Friday/Saturday night stay and for the time my guest and I stayed in the hotel room, things were fine short of the minor thumping we heard from the housekeeping crew at various hours.
My complaints were few, but critical considering the property being one of the elite in the city.
#1. Valet service was HORRIBLE. This is not an exaggeration but truth. I was shocked to learn that the Friday night we checked in valet was not accepting call downs for vehicles. We had been told by front desk to call down if we needed to have the car brought up. When I dialed down, the service desk told me they were not accepting calls and we had to come downstairs to have our car pulled. I was a little embarrassed. I had boasted about the Conrad all the way to Indianapolis and I was quite surprised to start the night out with an inconvenience that should not have happened in a hotel of this caliber. Nonetheless, we went downstairs to have the car pulled and it took about 20 minutes. This is quite a high turnaround in my opinion, but considering it was 5pm on a Friday, I let it go and chalked it up to rush hour. Unfortunately, this ended up being the norm for the rest of the weekend. Of the 3 additional times I had my vehicle pulled only the last time was it under 25 minutes, and the last time was check-out. There was an obvious lack of staff and coordination out front. The fact that I'm paying an additional $33 per night for parking made this issue #1 on my list. If you are going to charge for a service, set the expectation with the customer and if you cannot live up to it because of limited staffing or other reasons, compensate your guests. I did make a complaint to the front desk and was told they were totally booked and were just really busy. Though there were a few events going on downtown, I don't believe that is an excuse when you are charging a premium price for a product and service. Not to mention Indianapolis is a Super Bowl city.
#2 Telephone. This is a small issue, but I had to note it because once again this is a high-caliber hotel. There were 3 phones in the room. One on the desk, one in the bathroom and one next to the bed. The cordless next to the bed did not function. We had to order room service from the phone by the desk, which isn't a big deal, but again one of those little things that a 4/5 star hotel wouldn't miss. The room attendant that brought the food up laughed and just ignored it like it would go away on its own. I would expect a paid employee for the hotel to at least notify someone to have the phone replaced right away. The guests should not have to deal with such matters. Trivial, but important to me when I am paying top $$$ to stay at the finest in the city. Room 1517 just in case any of the hotel staff happens to read this.
#3 Customer service. My last stay here I felt extremely welcome and special. This time, not so much. It was as if the A team packed up and left after the Super Bowl. On this stay the hotel was staffed by a team that was not as engaged as I would expect which led to just an average experience for me and my guest. I am very disappointed that my guest did not experience the hotel the way that I did for the first time. 
I've always said its the little things that help me make decisions in life. These three small things have added up to a possible stay at the JW next time I am in Indy.