Palace Hotel - Luxury Collection

100   Recommended
July 27, 2000 by

 Map | 2 Reviews | 100% Recommended
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Palace Hotel - Luxury Collection
 Map | 2 Reviews | 100% Recommended

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Liked:
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Service
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Amenities
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We used a free weekend at the Palace in SF last weekend. We got a really fantastic corner suite. It was beautiful. But unfortunately, there is more to the story. My helpful platinum concierge had told us she was going to try her best to get us a suite there. But she said it was tough and they told her to call back the day before our arrival. I called the Palace the afternoon we were scheduled to arrive to check if a Fedex for me had arrived. I was told it had, and the person I spoke to read me the sender off the package. Then I asked very politely if they had been able to give us a suite. He said yes. I thanked him and hung up.

Check In

SFO was fogged in. I didn't get to the hotel til 3AM. My wife wasn't coming til the morning. I went to check in and the clerk, Jon, said "Two double beds, non smoking, right?" And I said no, we were supposed to be in a suite with a king. He said absolutely not, his screen showed we were to be in a "DD-N" which he went on to say was their "lowest class of room". I looked like I didn't blieve him, and he offered that I could look on his screen behind the counter (I didn't). I said I'd called earlier and been told I was upgraded. He said no, absolutely not, there was no request for an upgrade in the system and they wouldn't give me one. I said I was a platinum and this wasn't the service I expected and that I would call Austin. He said "We have a lot of trouble with the Starwood platinum people" I think he meant the Starwod reps, not the guests. But maybe he meant all of us! He said he could get us a room with a king, but it would have to be smoking. I said no, I'm tired, just give me a non-smoking room and I will speak with the manager in the morning and tell him/her to move me to a suite. At this point he took out a key, ran it through, and wrote a room number down for me. I figured he was giving me the "DD-N" room, but was too tired to care. I asked him for my Fedex. He said there was none. I told him it was there, I'd called earlier and the gentleman had volunteered who the sender was, so he had to be looking at it. Jon looked somewhere else, said it absolutely wasn't there. I asked him if it could be somewhere else, he said no.

Room

I went up with the bellman only to find I'd been given a magnificent suite! In the room was a note to me and and an amenity. I asked the bellman if the guy at the desk was new, and he said no. I asked him to find my package and he said he'd be happy to. Five minutes later I had it.

Service

I am still trying to figure out what happened. They had the suite all set up for me. Then the clerk tried to slam me in another room. What was he going to do? Sell the room at 3AM? It's not a hotel that seems like it would get a lot of walk in business. Go up there and party himself? Sell the suite the next night? I don't know. I keep puzzling over this with no answer. I hope that Starwood will pin him down and make him answer as to what his motive for screwing me over was. Obviously he didn't like the fact that I was going to come down and speak with the manager in the morning, and that turned him around. I take this to mean whatever he was doing WASN'T official policy of the hotel. I hope.

But, we had a delightful weekend! The rest of the staff were awesome. One of the concierges, Blaine, got us a table at the Millenium vegetarian restaurant which he highly reccomended to us and we and our guest loved it! The hotel is beautiful. It's much better maintained than the Waldorf which is, I imagine, of the same vintage. The staff were very friendly and helpful. I will definitely go back!

I've already let my concierge know about this whole scene, but I wanted to share it here to put pressure on Starwood to educate some of these clerks better. And for all of you to know that s**t like this can happen and that it pays to be tough with the desk people sometimes.

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