This is a follow up review to one posted about a year ago. My husband's company uses the Wyndham as their corporate hotel so I've had the opportunity to stay here quite a few times now, and some things have changed for the better and other things just irritate me all the more. Since the Wyndham now hands out little cards asking the guest to PLEASE post a Tripadvisor review I will do so, in the hope they will read my comments and perhaps actually do something to improve.
Our latest visit (January 2012) was our first with our three year old son, and he actually pointed out a few things that I will mention here. First, he said "this is a nice place" while walking down the hall to the room and indeed the hallways are very nice, especially the funky carpet. He also appreciated the wood-effect floors as it made it easier to play with his remote-controlled Buzz Lightyear toy.
BUT - the bathtubs have been replaced with stone-lined stalls, which would have been great 1) had the door closed properly instead of flooding the floor and 2) had my son not been terrified of showers. I had to take a sand-castle building bucket we brought for a trip to the beach and fill that with water so I could wash him down. Since most guests will probably not be 3 year olds I will not knock them too much for this.
He needed those baths, though, because the amount of dirt that he picked up playing on those hardwood floors was disgusting. The floors need cleaning more often than they're being cleaned now, IMO.
There is a large plaza area in the back of the hotel that has a lake in it, which is beautiful to look at BUT there is a guy with a power washer out there in the morning at least three times a week (it seemed to me) so if you open your window to let in the cool air (the rooms are very warm for some reason) you can't hear yourself think from the noise outside. Do they REALLY need to power wash the sidewalks that often? I doubt it.
There are great flat screen tvs in the rooms, but the incoming feed looks like it comes from a TV antenna. The cable channels are not clear, they have video "noise" all the time. The mini fridge is great to have but the da*n thing woke us up constantly as it cycled in the middle of the night. The room furniture looks cheap and in the multiple times we have stayed at this property we have NEVER had a chest of drawers that worked properly, there are always a couple of drawers broken in every room.
Food - we avoid eating here (too many other places in the area to go) but one morning we thought it might be easier to order room service. I ordered a continental breakfast for myself and pancakes for my son. My three year old refused to eat his pancakes because they were "yucky," so I took a bite and boy was he right, they were dense and stale tasting. My continental breakfast pastries were a croissant that tasted like it had been frozen and then reheated (or cooked from frozen?) and a very mediocre blueberry muffin. The fruit was good, the coffee was fine, and the server was very nice but we left most of the food and vowed to continue eating out.
After all this negativity (sorry Wyndham), I would just like to say that the staff are generally great, helpful and cheerful and courteous. The exception is the older lady who works mornings at the front desk sometimes, I avoid her at all costs since she rolled her eyes at me when I needed to leave one day early last fall to return home to my sick child; earlier dealings with her solidified my view that she is no credit to the hotel.
In conclusion, this hotel is OK for a one night stay to go to the theatre or shopping at the South Coast Plaza, but being here more than two days is no vacation. They are constantly renovating, which is nice, but they need to invest in new bedroom furniture. We will return because that's where we're put, but if we had a choice we would probably try another hotel.
- Wyndham Costa Mesa
- Costa Mesa Wyndham
