I had the displeasure of staying at this hotel last month. This was my second stay and it was as poor as the first stay. I was traveling with my elderly father and I had called ahead from the Montecito Doubletree to see if they could accommodate us with an early check in (two rooms). It was 11:00 a.m. and they said they had one room available but could not guarantee that a second room would be available when we were to arrive two hours later. Sure enough, we arrive at 1:00 and only one room is still available. I'm not sure what housekeeping did for those two hours. I settled my father in his room and went to the lobby to wait. I checked with the front desk at 2:00 and was told a room was still not available. I checked at 3:00, normal check-in time, and there were flurries of calls to find out if a room was available. One of the front desk clerks took over and was "happy" to help me. The hotel was under renovation at the time, and she put me in a room at the end of the hall that was past the construction zone. I had to cross the carpet protection to get to the room. The heater didn't work, the room was so close to the freeway it was incredibly noisy, and the construction noise was unbearable. I asked to be moved. I was then moved down the hall next to my father, in a room that was now - 10 minutes later - miraculously available. The front desk then canceled my father's room, not my old one, so when he left his room and went back in, his key didn't work. We had to make another trip down to the front desk to get all the keys straightened out. The wall between our rooms was so thin I could hear my dad coughing lightly during the night. Then, after attending a game at Cal State Dominguez Hills, I got lost returning to the hotel at 10:30 on a Saturday night. I called the front desk from my location and asked for help getting there. Since it was dark and I had absolutely no sense of direction by then, you can imagine my dismay when I was told to go SOUTH on Avalon. I described my location and the location of I-405, but they could not tell me if I needed to turn left or right on Avalon. Just SOUTH. I was flustered and frightened enough not to realize I could have just used my Smartphone for directions. I ended up tracing back to the school and calling my brother (who was also at the hotel and had come from the game) to help, and he also went to the front desk, and he also had a hard time getting assistance. As I drove back and found the hotel, I recognized where I had parked while I was lost and telephoned the hotel for help, and it was ONE BLOCK from the hotel. ONE BLOCK from the hotel and they couldn't get me there. Needless to say, don't expect any favors or help from the front desk staff.
- Doubletree Carson
