Check In: It took 30 minutes to check in. My Aunt booked the hotel through their website less than 2 hours before I arrived at the hotel. When she reserved it, it seemed as if she paid for it when in actuality she only reserved the room. Once I arrived the clerk said they needed to see my Aunts credit card, I explained to her she was not with me and had already paid for the room. That's when it was explained to me it was not paid for but reserved, and if the credit card is not present I could not check in. In order to take the credit card, my aunt would need to send in a fax with a copy of the front and back of her credit card as well as her driver’s license saying she authorized the payment. I explained she was not near a fax and is there any other way to pay for the room without having to do that maybe book through Travelocity. She said I could. I told them to cancel the current reservation so it could be re-booked through Travelocity. The clerk then explained because I’m rebooking without more than a 24 hours notice they would have to charge me a $79 cancelation fee. I explained to her I just made the original reservation online less than two hours ago, I’m standing right in front of you and I’m rebooking the same room why would you charge me $79. At this point I called my Aunt and passed the phone to the clerk so my Aunt could reason with her. In the end she said she would talk to the manager to see if he would waive the fee. Once that was partially settled, I was booked given and key and went to my room
The Room: Once I entered the room I noticed a smell, but I couldn’t tell where it originated from. I thought maybe the humidity was causing a closed in smell. Once I pulled the sheets back I noticed they looked stained. I pulled the top sheet back and a section was covered in urine, the smell was horrible. It penetrated down to the mattress cover but not the mattress. I don’t see how the maid could have missed the smell or that spot when making up the bed. I called the front desk and asked for new sheets, they immediately brought them up and apologized profusely.
The Restroom: The restroom is very small; the tile could use a good cleaning with bleach to remove dark stains. I also saw what looked like two small baby cockroaches on the toilet.
Cleanliness: The maids did not actually clean the room, I marked my sheets to see if my sheets were changed, they were not. They did not clean the restroom, they only made the bed and replaced the towels. Strangely when I arrived I had only three large bath towels, no wash clothes and when they replaced the towels they only gave me three large bath towels. Luckily I had my own face towel, but I thought it was strange I was not provided one or at least a hand towel.
Wi-Fi: I was told I would have Wi-Fi in my room, it is available, but it did not reach to the second floor. I had to go down to an area directly adjacent to the front desk to surf the net. I also tried getting a signal in the courtyard but I was unable to.
I would not recommend this hotel to anyone, the stained sheets alone would deter me from ever going back or telling anyone to visit.
- El Canario By The Sea
