Priceline Hotel: 2.5* Los Angeles (Airport LAX) Hacienda

[Bowden68]

I pricelined this hotel at 2.5 stars for $55. Normally when I do 2.5 stars I get a pretty decent place: Courtyard, Holiday Inn Express, etc...At LAX I normally get the refurbished La Quinta which is better than the 3* Crown Plaza. When the "Hacienda" came up I was somewhat suprised, but oh well...The website for the Haceinda looked pretty cool, so I figured it would be ok.

When I drove up, my first impression was "what a dump" but maybe it was because it was just so old. The place is ancient. I checked in and got my room key which also served as my parking lot key. The parking lot was behind the hotel, and when I went through the parking lot was filled. I had to find the "second parking lot" which was across the street behind a gas station. Are you kidding me? It was several blocks away from the hotel. It sure was fun lugging luggage several blocks!

Then I go to my room and this sucker is old. But clean, I will give it that - the maids do a good job. The bed is cheap with cheap linens. Very hard and "lumpy". But ok, I am only here for one night.

The place is huge with several restuarants. I went to the "Night Club" on the premise, which serrves bar food and buy a couple $5 beers and a buger. The bar is an odd place. It's a country an western bar in LA. Just odd. About half way through my dinner they cut off the music and begin an hour of square dancing lessons. You know, with an instructor teaching people how to sqare dance. WTF? It's Frinday night at 8pm and they decide to cut off the music and have square dancing lessons with some guy shouting instructions???

Anyway, I go back to my room with a glass of wine and watch the fuzzy TV and just fall asleep with the air conditioning on high. About midnight I wake up in a pool of sweat, and I re-examine the thermostat. Yep, its on "high and cool". I call up to the front desk and ask them what is going on and they said, that because the hotel is so old, individual rooms cannot control air temprature. It's central air for everyone, and the temprature is set on "neutral" since people might complain its too cold if they turned down the air? WTF? Is this a dorm room? I have to sweat because someone else might think its too cold??? We all must have the same temprature????WTF???

They told me to open a window. Um...there are no windows, just two french doors leading out to the grounds of the hotel. And as a treat they have NO screens on the doors! So I am simply to open up the doors and allow anyone to walk in while I sleep, not to mention rats and insects??? So I had to sweat all night with the hot humid tempratures in the room. What a joke. You CANNOT control what the temprature is in your room!!!

This place was a complete and utter joke. I will NEVER bid 2.5 stars at LAX again with priceline, simply out of complete fear I might get the Hacienda again. This is a ONE star place. Even Motel 6 allows you to control your own temprature. This place can't even do that. Oh, and it was fun again lugging my luggage across the street to my rent-a-car to get to the airport.

This place is ridiculous and needs to be torn down.

[mrxow]

I hope you send your story to priceline. Maybe send it to the La Quinta, too, and tell them you like their hotel but can't bid in their zone again because of the ridiculous hotel Priceline allows in their system. Maybe they will apply some pressure to PL to take them off. There are plenty of other hotels in that zone. PL doesn't need to have one in the system that gives people experiences like that.

[Bowden68]

One more point. when I got so hot at 4am I investigated the option of opening up the french doors. The lock was broken, meaning my doors were open the whole time. So be very careful if you leave anything of value in the rooms. This place was probably built 50 years ago, and outside of bringing new furniture in the rooms nothing has been done to get modern

If you have medical conditions requiring temprature control of your room, or fear of people entering your room, due your due diligence. There area around the hotel is questionable...

[Bowden68]

I hope you send your story to priceline. Maybe send it to the La Quinta, too, and tell them you like their hotel but can't bid in their zone again because of the ridiculous hotel Priceline allows in their system. Maybe they will apply some pressure to PL to take them off. There are plenty of other hotels in that zone. PL doesn't need to have one in the system that gives people experiences like that.

What is the email for priceline reviews? This stay was horendous and I would never expect anyone to endure these conditions. I am not "soft" either. In my years I have stayed in nasty places. But I NEVER have stayed in a hotel where EVERYONE must have the same room temprature. Are you serious??? LOL. It was minimum 80 degrees at one point.

[thereuare]

Can you please add the date(s) of your stay so that we can add this information to the toipc title and this thread will appear in the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins.

Thanks.

[Bowden68]

March 28th, 2008. I stay at hotels 10 times a month minimum. This place was terrible. Oh well....I gotta catch a flight...

[mrxow]

There is a help menu at the top right of the PL screen that gives you access to a contact page with and email form and phone number.

I wrote them a nasty letter. There are 10 2.5 and 3 star hotels at LAX. Why do they need a place like this?

[thereuare]

I wrote them a nasty letter.

I hope you have stayed here yourself recently and didn't write a "nasty letter" based upon something you read on the internet.

[mrxow]

I stayed at the La Quinta and I agree with this person that it is better than the Crowne Plaza even though it is rated half a star lower. I would like to be able to bid 2.5 stars without worrying about having an experience like this one myself, or worse, having my wife go through it with me, both for her sake and for my sake having to listen to her rant about it...

There are plenty of comparably priced hotels at LAX - at least 4 others reported here at 2.5 stars alone and maybe there are more participating and there is a boatload of 3 stars, too. There is no reason for Priceline to subject its customers in a predicament like this person went through. When you place a bid on Priceline, you are putting your trust in them that they are looking out for you and won't let you be stuck in an unpleasant situation. This makes good business sense for them as far as keeping current customers happy and keeping word of nightmare scenarios from reaching the ears of potential new customers. But I think they owe this to people on moral grounds, too, since all their customers place a lot of trust in them.

My experiences with PL have been overwhelmingly positive, but to keep it that way, they need to be informed when they are failing to keep the trust placed in them. I didn't call them any nasty names, but I did inform them that I don't appreciate it when I am made to look bad when a service I recommend somebody use turns out to to not live up expectations. I told them they need to check out the ventilation system in this hotel, and that if it isn't up to snuff that they shouldn't allow their customers to be sent there.

I have no reason to doubt this person's account. It sounds like he travels a lot. The hotel has already been downgraded from 3*. I have read elsewhere that there the parking lot is not big enough. And we had some record breaking type heat here recently. A problem like this is not going to show up in every review since because it is weather and room dependent. Priceline can investigate the ventilation system for themselves, but they aren't going to do anything unless they are informed of a problem.

I liked the La Quinta. I would prefer that this hotel not be in the system. There is no need for it. All having it in does is benefit the hotel's owners who apparently want to skimp on their remodel and try to squeeze every day they can out of their old ventilation equiptment at the expense of their guests. The more complaints they get, the sooner something might be done to resolve it, and the less chance I or anybody I recommend priceline to or book a room for is going to have to go through a similar situation.

[thereuare]

I have no reason to doubt this person's account.

Nor do i... but there are others who have had better experiences and there are more favorable reviews than negative.

Even some of the best hotels have some negative reviews about them, and many of the worst have a few positive comments too... best to leave the complaining to those who actually experienced it, imo.

[Bowden68]

I have about 20 reviews or so on TripAdvisor and I never blast hotels. Usually I give pretty good reviews and on the one that are not so good, I try to point out "hey its fine for a night". There was nothing redeeming about this place. When you cannot control your own room temprature, have parking blocks away, and your door locks are broken, well that is a one star in my book - I had a $1,500 laptop on my desk someone just could've walked in and grabbed while at dinner. The only decent thing about the place was it was clean in the rooms.

SImply I will never bid 2.5 stars at LAX again. Just too risky.

I have not read the 90 reviews on TA, but this is what I saw at first glance:

# 8 of 9 hotels in El Segundo

Look, I agree, everyone has varying tastes...but being able to control your room temprature should be a pretty reasonable expectation in today's travels...just my opinion.

[thereuare]

Bowden68,

I am in agreement with you... i do think your stay went as described and that you should contact PRICELINE regarding your experience.

My point above was that, in my opinion, you are the one who should be contacting PRICELINE. I don't believe it's appropriate for anyone/everyone reading this thread to contact them regarding your experience at this property (since it is second hand). Should PRICELINE get multiple emails from multiple users regarding your stay? No, they should only get one... and it should come from you, so that they can ask you for additional information, if they choose to do so, after contacting the hotel.

I presume that when PRICELINE gets a complaint/comment letter, they first thing they do is look at the user's PRICELINE history and see when they purchased, the star rating, price paid, etc. If they get multiple emails from users who didn't even stay at the property, and commenting about what they have read about the property on the internet, the impact of the emails begins to lose their impact. Just my opinion.

Hopefully