ldsant

Hey - I know who booked that room! Kidding.

I would not recommend this hotel due to all of the issues I had while staying there for two nights.

However; the GM did return my call in reference to an email I sent him outlining all of the issues. BTW - I love the West Hollywood Andaz so perhaps since that was the first Andaz I stayed at I assumed the rest would have the same quality in terms of rooms and staff. San Diego Andaz did not. I don't quite get why people who work at this hotel didn't understand how if you listen to a guest and there are problems then make it right. It takes so little to make a guest happy but makes such a big impact. I think this hotel definitely has a particular demographic (if you are over 28 years old this probably isn't the hotel for you ).

spkg

"Its not a stripper pole, its an exercise pole"

Firewind

I can't believe that no Las Vegas hotel beat them to it -- with all their red-heart-shaped-revolving-on-a-pedestal-under-a-mirrored-ceiling bed rooms? Actually had one at the Trop, one night. Just little old me . Round and round... (And you've gotten up in the middle of the night and walked into a wall because you forgot which hotel room you were in?! Yes, it could be worse... )

peachy3

I'm sorry guys, but Japan has beat you to it by a long time. Love hotels have everything you need for a night in, including but not limited to poles, jails, trains, or whatever you like :P

Firewind

FT Post of the Day.

You ladies are pulling out the stops for this thread...

skywalkerLAX

LOL thanks for the laugh !!

I have been to that hotel and asked that they show me a few rooms... they had a large King available which would be the Upgrade for Diamond Members as well the above named "Exercise Pole" room.

The Manager on Duty said it could also be removed when I said one should certainly be careful which clientel he books this "suite" for and I referred indeed to a japanese "Love Hotel" especially with the sort of beds involved in that room.

I realize that hotel is not the top notch Andaz wants it to be but for the fun of it I reserved a room for in 2 weeks and even used a suite upgrade (heck, this year I had one expiring). I will report what this will result in. Based on satisfaction reports on here I'm excited to go ! Not sure if the hotel is just as excited to have me as a guest.

JFKSFOLAX_friend

Completed two stays at the property in late April. I have to say, I haven't experienced a more incompetent staff in any hotel in years.

I experienced a number of (admittedly) minor issues at the hotel. Unfortunately, the way in which these problems were addressed left me with a great deal of ill-will toward the property.

The first problem was with a twice-bungled room service order. The supervisor happened to take my order when I initially called it down. He confirmed that the order was relayed to the kitchen properly but they must have messed it up because they were "swamped." The supervisor offered to take one of the items off the bill. Of course, when I received my bill at check out, the unadjusted amount remained.

A second issue was resolved in a similar manner (i.e., the ball was dropped on service recovery that was promised).

Upon check out, the manager on duty offered me 10K goodwill points after fixing the bill. He said he would follow-up with hotel personnel about following through on promised items. It's ironic that the points never posted (i.e., he dropped the ball). After several emails to the manager were not returned ( ), Hyatt Customer Affairs had to be dragged in.

This was a textbook case of turning two minor/easily correctable issues into a situation whereby the customer will never return. Luckily, Starwood has nice properties in SD (and I also love the HR Mission Bay).

skywalkerLAX

Agree with the above.

After having the described tour last month I decided it was time for a stay to "evaluate" the hotel upon eventual pro's & con's. To say it upfront: I did not find too many pro-arguments.

I booked 2 rooms - one for myself (paid) using a suite upgrade a second one for friends using BWB. The reservation was done 3 weeks ago using a 167$ AAA rate. ANDAZ5/G2.

The parking is 30$ - not too bad for SD but not cheap either. The bell staff is very nice.

First, the web check-in did not work. Upon personal check-in I was explained that the rooms are not ready yet (12:15pm). I advised them that I reserved with an arrival time of 11:30a after arriving from a longhaul ex Asia. Suddenly they found 2 rooms, though not on the same floor but so be it. Then they proudly mentioned I have been upgraded to a "Loft" to which I responded that this is not really an upgrade per se, I used a certificate and if they could elaborate what "Loft" means. It ended up being a regular room with a diverter in the middle and a desk/couch beyond it. The bathroom was smaller than in the other (Standard) room. The second reservation did not recieve a Diamond Upgrade. Also my "Loft" did not have a bathtub which I specifically requested. They offered a downgrade to a room with a bathtub - great option !

I ended up taking the Loft as the other alternative would have been noisy as they admitted. As per the Duty Manager I will recieve my Suite Upgrade back. Not that I believe this happens automatically but we are talking Andaz so I will probably have to call in for my stay credit anyway due to "IT issues". The whole CI process took 40 minutes. An embarrasing development to say the least.

Facilities: The roof is supposed to be the crown jewel of the hotel. It consists of a restaurant/bistro area, sitting area, bar and the pool. The pool is roughly 1.20m deep. To give you the picture, this reaches barely the top of my shorts. Swimming is possible on 2/3 length of the pool. Beware of your knees ! My impression was, that the pool is more for a quick "cool down walkthrough" and "cocktail hangout" than serving it's purpose as an actual swimming pool. There are ~ 7 sunbeds, 3 Cabanas without shields and 3 half open sunchairs plus a sofa area with a tv. The Audio system changed it's volume level every 3 minutes - maybe they were probing "The Apprentice" for San Diego's DJ scene.

The breakfast was served on said bistro area the next morning. Service was ok - not more not less. Diamond breakfast amenity was extended to both rooms and ended up being ~ 100$ value. In opposite to for example the Andaz West Hollywood, the gratuity is not included in the check so you will have to take care of it yourself - fair enough.

The bar made proper drinks. The food which has been ordered was good quality and well prepared.

We did not use the restaurant downstairs as we ate out but ordered a dessert later from room service. A chocolate tart that was supposed to come with Hazelnut Ice Cream. The night staff had their creative Thursday so they decided to substitude the Hazelnut Ice cream with a spoon of almond/nut mix. Nice try but that wont fly. After an interesting discussion with the room service operator the ice cream was delivered ~ 25 minutes later. Short before the cake dried out.

"The IVY Nightclub" on the roof is one of the hip spots in San Diego - At least this particular thursday night I could not tell you why. Maybe it gets a bit better once summer settles in and they dont need the heaters anymore. Guests recieve a wristband so no ID checks etc anymore. You will get these from 8:30pm on at the Front Desk.

The beds are the biggest plus of the Hotel. Very cozy and comfortable. The bathrooms are compact but nicely assembled paired with hardwood flooring. Assorted bathroom amenities were available as well as plush bathrobes and good towels. All rooms are individually designed and in the hallways are original artpieces and individual carpets. The furniture already shows some usage but is still acceptable.

The hardware is good - however the hotel seriously lacks in one important field and that is unfortunately in profesionalism and customer satifaction. There seemed to be no senior management on site. At least none that comes from a full service Hyatt. It was all pretty junior staff and the Andaz specific IT is not making their job easier. After all the issues I had the manager waived one of my stay charges completely. Andaz5 took care of the rest. We will have to wait how/if the stay credit shows up. 3 hours after I left the hotel I recieved an email alert from my credit card the Andaz just authorized more then 200$ - again. The bill looks like a ping pong game as they already credited and debited my CC "by accident" more than 4 times. Greetings to the accounting !

Bottom Line: It doesnt matter what demographic group you belong to - there are standards that a full service property of the Hyatt chain (even if under a different name) should fullfill. This particular place needs serious support from Hyatt Senior Management in nearly all fields of daily operation. From a professional point of view, the stay was a desaster. My friends enjoyed it though and if you look at it the casual way then there is some leeway and they get away with some things. As a Diamond member who knows other Andaz properties as well I can just say there is more than just space for improvement. Get advise from the WeHo GM and lend some staff. The name "Ivy" can not revive everything !

As always, good stays and safe journeys
S.

WBurcham

I was there this weekend and can agree completely with the above statement. I typically hate hotel beds and don't sleep that well. HOWEVER, I slept like a baby.

Mersk862 & I requested double beds & were in town for a Padres game. The location was very good and we enjoyed the hotel Escalade service.

The interior facing rooms do get a bit noisy until ~ 2am but nothing too bad (we were on the 4th floor).

We would say that this was a W without the pretentiousness & brighter on the inside.

There were a few moments (including my call asking for a toothbrush that was forgotten) but overall I enjoyed the stay very much but I would say that was more caused by the location & staff (personable & friendly) than the hard product.

boifromtroy

I had my third stay here over the weekend. It felt like they were cutting corners this time... Front desk had only two "hosts" for Saturday check-ins at 100% capacity. Turn-down service did not happen. The minibar menu (which tells which drinks and snacks are complimentary) was not to be found in the room.

Their application of ANDAZ5 credits varied by visit. First time, said it was F&B only, this time, they deducted a flat $50 from my total--with parking and tax, it cost less than my room rate.

WBurcham

I did notice the lack of hosts. There were only 2 @ checkout Sunday and the great part about that was that there were at least 10 people waiting to check out.

I personally do not like the "host" concept.

ERQTraveler

I stayed at the Andaz San Diego last week. Overall, I was very disappointed with the hotel. Though there are good points, there are many more bad points. Furniture was poorly placed (couch under television), warped wood floors in the bathroom (who puts wood in a bathroom?), uncomfortable mattress, noise from the hallway & street at all hours of the night. Most annoying - you hear the doors on your floor slam shut each and every time. Also, on one night, a woman was yelling and laughing in the hallway for several minutes at 3AM!!! Needless to say, I did not sleep well during my entire stay.

My biggest gripe though is newspaper delivery. On check-in, the host offered to deliver a WSJ or local SD paper every morning (as she noted other preferences such as turndown service, etc). I chose WSJ, but on the following morning, no paper was delivered. I called the front desk and kindly reminded her of the offer/request. She responded, "We don't deliver newspapers to the rooms. The papers are available in the lobby for your convenience." Why offer newspaper delivery if you don't do it??? To add to the situation, they didn't even carry WSJ during my entire stay. I had to get a NY Times every morning from a Starbucks one block down.

There are more issues, but I don't want to go on and on. Though the hotel caters to a specific group/clientele, there is no excuse for the service and room issues. I will never stay at this hotel again, and I will not recommend it to anyone.

ERQ

ldsant

I'm wondering if anybody from Hyatt is reading this thread? Sounds like this property needs to have some retraining for the staff at this property. In all fairness, the GM did respond to my concerns once I got home. I just don't understand why the service is consistently poor here based on feedback from posters in this thread.

JFKSFOLAX_friend

I don't think newspaper delivery would ever be my "biggest gripe"...but your point is well taken. Service at this hotel is--well--downright incompetent and the example above (albeit a pretty minor problem) highlights the issue.

As I stated in my post above, my problems were also minor. But, they were handled so ineptly that it left me with tremendous ill-will. Both staff and management are completely amateur.

The good thing is (well, bad for the hotel)...there are a ton of other great options in SD.

cellis

a $170 rate with 7,000 points, a $100 breakfast credit, and a $50 room credit for a trendy/hip hotel in a major downtown area... and you're complaining over newspaper delivery and hazelnut ice cream?

get real. if this was the hyatt regency dearborn or even a hyatt place airport location (probably at the same price) would you be so critical?

andaz isn't park hyatt - get used to it.