Disappointing air con and service follow-through at an otherwise great hotel

1   Not Recommended
Room 1301/150... , Charles River Suite
March 21, 2017 by EXPERT

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The Liberty Hotel - A Starwood Luxury Collection Hotel
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Room 1301/150...

Charles River Suite

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Charles River Suite

I had a difficult one night stay at The Liberty on for March 10-11 after finishing a week of work travel on the East Coast. I actually love this hotel--love the masculine room decor/design, love the river location, love the Clink restaurant, love the bar scene, and usually love the service here. I even love the history and irony here--that this used to be a prison and now is called The Liberty...with a restaurant called Clink. Totally tongue-in-cheek.

Unfortunately, I had major air con and service letdowns for this stay. It wasn't pretty.

Would I stay again? Probably not. The hotel GM did contact me and assured me that they are working on a fix for the air con issue. But that doesn't resolve the mismanagement I experienced--let alone the lies I was told.

 

 

Check In

I checked in at 4 pm and after a short, slightly slow check-in, was able to head to my room. My Platinum status wasn't mentioned at check-in, which surprised me. But I needed no upgrade, as I was alone and splurging to treat myself to a Charles River Suite for the final night of my trip.

Room

This is where it all went downhill. I ended up in 2 Charles River Suites because the first (1501) had non-working air con. Unfortunately, the second (1301) also had non-working air con.

Charles River Suite: 1501 and 1301

The suite was a little surprising (and slightlydisappointing for me on a 1 night stay alone) in that the living room was particularly separated from the bedroom--something I often enjoy when traveling with my husband but which felt unnecessary and awkward in this case as I was alone. When I am alone, I prefer a suite with less separation, but that's my personal problem, not a fault for the hotel! I probably would have done better as a single traveler to simply book a Grand Deluxe Corner Room, which essentially was what the spacious bedroom would be.

The entry vestibule had the door to the bedroom open, which stuck out into the hallway--very odd. I closed it for this photo:

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The living room was spacious and had a great view onto the cold Charles River:

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There was a nice powder bath around the corner from the dining table:

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Through the door in the entry hall, there was another hallway into the bedroom and bath rooms:

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To the left just behind where the door opened, there was a bar/refrigerator area:

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The closet next to that was a bit on the small side if I had been staying for more than a few days:

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The bath was directly at the end of the hall:

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That toilet area was huge and without a doorway, which was odd. That wasn't the case in suite 1301, as it turned out. 

The bedroom was beautiful and spacious, with beautiful views out of both sides:

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The room was beautiful, well appointed, and spacious, and had wonderful views onto the Charles River and looking out onto Cambridge on the other side and further into Boston from the bedroom side window.

Unfortunately, the air con didn't work. It would turn out and blow cold air for maybe a minute...then the compressor would turn off and it just blew air. From my perspective, it seemed that the system was incorrectly believing it to be 65-69 F (it didn't matter what temp I set) and therefore stopped blowing cold air. But who knows.

Shower pressure was fine, nothing special. But I loved the (bed)room otherwise. 

 

Service

This where it really went downhill. The fact that the suite air con wasn't working properly was a problem...but the way the hotel handled it was very poor IMO. Everyone was friendly and trying hard, but I learned later that I wasn't told the truth (I asked for the GM, but I was told the GM wasn't there--and he was). I also was shuffled between managers and the managers consistently avoided telling me what their solutions would be.

After the fact, the hotel GM did admit that they had improperly reviewed my Platinum Ambassador profile and hadn't preset the suite to be cold. They might have realized they had a problem at the start had they done that.

After I arrivedf and saw the air con wasn't working, I called for an engineer. I had to call twice since he hadn't come after nearly 45 min. When he did, no dice. He was confused. After another complaint, and another 45 min, the head eningeer came to look. No dice again. They had no idea what was wrong...but knew something was wrong. They told me they'd get me another suite. I insisted they make sure the new suite had working air con.

A manager came to collect me and my carry-on (I travel light) and took me to the second suite, Suite 1301. We walked into the suite to find the heat pouring into the living room...and the bedroom air con off. I was pretty furious.

After several engineer and manager discussions, they ddin't know what to do. I had already asked for the GM and been told he wasn't there--which was a lie, as the GM admitted to me when we spoke after my stay. 

They told me they'd try to get me a regular room down the hall with working air con, saying the 2 zones for this wing of suites had been an issue. I insisted I would not move again until they could guarantee another room had working air con. I went to dinner with my client and they said they'd let me know. I also confirmed with the mananger that I would get the full room rate refunded to me because of this failure for a 1 night stay--he had agreed.

I never heard back from any manager after that. I went to dinner at the hotel restaurant, Clink, and returned to my room. They had brought a fan at my request. But no more word. So I went to bed...and slept poorly.

The next morning, I checked the portfolio on the TV to discover there had been no adjustment to the bill. I called and spoke to another manager who said he was unaware of the scenario. He then called back to say they would look into it and get back to me. My late check out at 4 pm came and I hadn't heard a thing. I checked out from the room and went to the airport--I was too upset to deal with a front desk or incompetent manager.

At the airport I called to ask why I'd not heard back. The second manager then told me I was getting a $100 credit. I was furious and asked to be put in touch with the GM. He emailed me the GM info the next day.

I spoke to the GM a few days after my return last week. He admitted he was on property and was aware of my situation that Friday night. That means that not only did the managers lie, but that also meant the GM didn't make any attempt to reach out to help me. I am a Platinum Ambassador guest who paid for one of the few suites in the hotel (I believe they have 8 or 9 suites total.) And he never reached out?  Really?

He agreed that it wasn't handled well--understatement. He agreed that I should have been given the half night credit. At this point, I agreed, thanked him, and decided to move on.

The GM didn't handle things well. The managers didn't handle things well. The hotel's suites air con system doesn't work. I moved to a different suite for no reason. I was never called back repeatedly.

To put it mildly, the service was poor.

The restaurant service also was surprisingly poor. Our waiter forgot a few of our orders, such that I finally had to go to the kitchen to ask. He comp'd the missed items, to his credit, but it seemed a pattern?

The service experience was far from what I had ever experienced here before, both on a previous stay and on numerous visits to Clink. 

Dining

Dining at Clink was great, despite the fact that our service wasn't so great. Our server started fine, but then missed or forgot several items we had orderd. It was pretty bad.

The food here, though, is outstanding. We had a great meal at Clink.

I also had a great room service breakfast, something I remembered loving from my previous stay. 

We also had a great time at the bar area. It's a real scene here on Fri and Sat nights.

Location

I love the location. Its view onto the Charles is wonderful. It's close to a T stop, and it's an easy Uber ride away from almost anywhere. It was just 12 or so minutes to the Logan Airport.

Overall

I have loved this hotel...but the service failures for this 1 night stay in a suite are unacceptable. The GM seemed more concerned about getting the issue off of his desk than in truly making amends for what went wrong--not to mention that he was there and never tried to help, himself, and that his managers were lying to me about him being there. It was just all-around a pitiful excuse for hotel management and customer service. Considering I was about as high value a customer as the hotel can get--an SPG Ambassador guest paying for a suite--it was a tragic experience and a tragic management response.

Will I ever return? Probably not for quite some time. I would never again pay for a suite here since the air con won't work. And I am not sure I could risk a stay again with such little confidence in the management team for handling any problems I might encounter. If you can't trust the management, especially even the GM, then you got problems. The Liberty has problems.

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