I decided to try this property out using the introductory offer which is a free night plus $100 spa credit (or so I thought). I got a top floor Deluxe room facing the waterfall and the freeway. The room was very well appointed with a huge Samsung LCD TV with HD and an Ipod "I-Home" dock. However the dock is just a tiny unit with tiny speakers and does not integrate with any room stereo. In fact the Crown Plaza San Jose has the same thing. I should think a new luxury hotel should aim a little higher than an ordinary Crown Plaza. Most new or renovated luxury hotels have fully integrated multimedia stereo systems. But maybe they just haven't gotten around to installing new systems yet. The hotel is still adjusting and changing.

Room

The bathroom and even the showers in the otherwise wonderful spa have poor water pressure. Perhaps that is due to the location, however the W LA where I stayed just before had great water pressure. Another thing the W had, and most every other hotel I stay at has, is complimentary bottled water in the rooms. But the last few FS's I've stayed at do not do this. This is infuriating nickle-and-dime approach of Four Seasons is one reason I don't stay at them often. For the amount of money we spend here, the least they could do is put a couple of 20 cent water bottles in the room. But no, they want you to pay $3 for mini-bar water. Also there are no pens in the room. Just a cheap pencil.Now I know I could speak to a manager and they would instantly take care of me, but why should I have to complain to get service?

Service

The service is spotty, but I guess we can mark that down to a new property. You could tell the staff at breakfast were being trained on the job. Overall I guess the service was good. In fact the door staff was excellent. Ditto for the front desk and concierge.

Spa / Pool

There is plenty to do here with a kids play room, cooking classes, various classes in the well appointed fitness center, and guests have access to the very exclusive Sherwood Country Club as the same guy who owns that, owns the FS. There is even a large TV studio on-site for the Hollywood crowd. The California Wellbeing Institute is also onsite. This is a full medical facility for people who have far too much money. But it also means the Spa professionals are just that. Professional. The treatments are excellent and the facilities are mostly good. However again, plumbing problems. The steam room apparently hasn't worked in weeks. I was told the engineers are working on it. The water pressure in the spa is bad too. The Jacuzzi is tiny, but the sauna was fine. The spa lounge opens up to an outdoor pool ( there is an indoor pool too) with plenty of very nice Cabanas for rent. The Cabanas have comfy beds and plasma TV's, etc. Behind the pool is a Japanese garden with a large Pagoda over a pond. Kind of like a miniature version of the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo.

Gym

The fitness center has its own locker rooms with individual shower/steam cabins. Or at least the mens side had one. However the shower handle broke while I was there and I could not turn it off. I mentioned this to a staff member, but the next day it was still broken.

Bar

The bar is nice with 3 pool tables a fireplace and an outdoor balcony. Other than breakfast, I did not try the restaurants. But I did have a nice plate of Spaghetti at the bar one night.

Overall

Another big problem is that cell phones don't work well in the hotel. However they said they are working with Cingular, T-Mobile and Verizon to put repeaters on site so that problem should be fixed soon. Supposedly Cingular already works well, but I was using T-Mobile so my phone only worked in certain areas of the hotel.

The self-parking garage has a toll-gate, but it is disabled for now. So free parking for the time being. I don't know how much they charge for valet.

A small error with my laundry as I asked for my shirt to be folded, but it came on a hanger.

At check out, I didn't see the spa credit. They told me the $100 credit is only for the California WellBeing Institute. How could I know that was different than the spa? A manager came out and apologized for the mistake and said they would work better to let the guests know about this. However this offer ends in April anyway.

So my verdict is that it is a nice property, but they still have a lot of work to do to get up to snuff.