CA Los Angeles Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach

[mclan]

Pros: Beautiful hotel with terrific location across from marina, within walking distance to pier and harbor. Large rooms with very nice decor, amenties (special beds/bedding, plush towels, spa toiletries, etc.)

Cons: Customer service, poor enough to reconsider another stay

Our stay at the Crowne Plaza was 2 nights, May 14/15 2005. We bid $90 on Priceline, first time, and won. (This was based on another person's bidding history that we read about on Better Bidding, so thanks again!) When we arrived at the hotel we were very pleased with the location and very elegant ambience, but were soon treated to some of the poorest customer service ever.

The check-in counter was empty, but we were rushed through check-in with a snooty attitude--we chalked that up to being Priceline guests, although we had nothing but a hunch to base that on. Arriving in our room, we could not get the AC to turn on, so we called the front desk, who told us they'd have Engineering give us a call. No call from Engineering, we call again. Still no call. So by pure accident, we discover that the sliding glass door to the balcony was ever so slightly open, and by shutting it, the AC went on immediately. Why the hotel operator or front desk couldn't have suggested this is beyond me.

Next morning we left our room at about 11am for an all-day event across the street. When we arrived back at 9pm, our room had never been cleaned! When we complained, we were given a long explanation of staff, duties, etc., and told that in some instances, rooms were not cleaned until 10pm. This, from a classy 3* hotel, made our jaws drop. We snapped back that staffing was not our problem, and that for a hotel with the rep. of Crowne Plaza, a room not cleaned by *late afternoon* should not only be totally unacceptable, but copiously apologized for--and that a room not cleaned by 9pm simply a non-occurrence. Well, they took off the $13/night parking fee. But we left shaking our heads. Again, we chalked it up to being Priceline customers--with nothing but a hunch, but we felt, a good one. We're going to notify Priceline of our experience and hunch, by the way.

Otherwise, the hotel completely lives up to its 3* rating. We had only 2 minor complaints: Door from the parking garage to the hotel is non-automatic! Poor planning for guests coming in, laden with luggage, to have to pull open a heavy door. Other thing was that you had to walk about a 1/2 block from the front entrance to the elevators--more poor planning.

[fatboyonadiet]

Very nice hotel in a nice location with good facilities, pool area is nice. Staff are very nice and helpfu, except for the concierge, the hotel doesn't come up on sat nav systems and neither does the toad which this is off, the concierge was less then useless and directed me to the OTHER end of the Pacific Coast Highway, about 10 minutes away by car!

In the end got a very helpful member of staff (Ben) who knew exactly where I was and got me there no problem, checkin-in staff made sure my room was ready and pre-checked me in as well as upgrading me to a bigger room free of charge!

Generally very good experience just problem with finding it. Oh and in response to the hunch, nothing of the sort for me, the free upgrade shows that!