Visited: Feb 2011
1 star
This hotel has a wonderful lobby with a huge atrium and decent-sized guest rooms. There are two restaurants and a Starbucks on the main floor, and several good-sized conference rooms are available. So, what’s not to love? Unfortunately, a lot. Pretty much everything about the service was disappointing during my visit. Things started off poorly and did not get much better. The hotel is 15 minutes from the Houston Bush Intercontinental airport, but it took me an hour to get there using the free shuttle bus, “which runs every 30 minutes.” Except that it didn’t, it was late, and then, after boarding, it was full and we had to wait for 15 minutes while the shuttle driver explained to the next group of passengers at the next stop that there were no seats on the shuttle and he couldn’t pick up more people (as opposed to actually dropping us off and returning to pick them up – or using the larger shuttle in the first place). There were 2 people at reception checking in a line of about 15 people, so the wait was longer than it should have been. Fortunately, I was able to get into the restaurant 15 minutes before it closed (at 11:00 pm, along with room service) and order my $12 hamburger, which was ok but not outstanding. My room was a good size; however it was not particularly clean. There was mold on the bathroom floor in the grout lines, where it was obviously not disturbed by the cleaning people. I used a towel to keep it covered (I couldn’t change rooms since the hotel was full). The phone was not programmed properly (the buttons for messages and wake-up calls dialed but never connected), the air conditioning didn’t work well (the thermostat was off by about 10 degrees), and there was no fan in the bathroom (probably a contributing factor to the mold), so the room was a little warmer and more humid than it needed to be – particularly after a shower. The conference room, however, was freezing, so I guess it balanced out. Our meeting of 60 people overwhelmed the wireless connection, so I ended up using an air card connection for most of the meeting. I don’t understand how a hotel can charge so much for wireless and yet have no connectivity. Overall, the attitude of the staff seemed summed up by a single experience as I was checking out: I was on one side of the elevator with my bags, an open (empty?) can of Monster sitting on the rail on the opposite side. A member of the housekeeping staff got on the elevator next to the can, didn’t acknowledge me, went down 2 floors, and left the can sitting on the railing after she got off. Of course, no-one asked how the stay was when I left, even the 2 managers I passed with my bags – I have noticed only the well trained staff do that, and I usually don’t have problems in hotels with well-trained staff. One final note, if you are still considering staying at this hotel, be very, very careful at night. The hotel is located in a dangerous part of Houston, and you should never walk outside at night (I was told this by at least 3 people I trust who are familiar with the area, one of whom is a police officer). For better or worse, there aren’t any restaurants nearby that you would be likely to walk to, so you may have no reason to go outside. Nonetheless, be warned.
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