This is a review that will probably fall on deaf ear?s, in other words before the spiders can add this article to the worldwide web, the Holiday Inn in Anaheim, California will be closed and turned over to new owners?. With that in mind, I hope the future owners take time to read this review, my experience at this Holiday Inn was an incredible, bizarre experience, and I hope the new owners, of what will soon no longer be a Holiday Inn, fix the incredibly inept service issues when they convert the building to another hotel
Ok, let?s start from the beginning, we checked in around 9.30 pm on Friday July 14th we were given room 310, which was suppose to be the ?Kid?s Suite? (a room which was decorated with cartoon characters, offered free video games and DVDs for the kids to keep them entertained, (so us parents can get some much needed down time). We had at least 10 pieces of luggage, (one piece belonged to me) we grabbed a luggage cart and headed to the room, only to find out that the door key was not working, so I left Carmen and my two daughters ages 2 and 9 outside the room while I got the card re-activated. I soon returned and this time the key worked, so imagine my surprise when I opened the door, only to find someone else?s luggage in the room and the room a total mess. I quickly slammed the door shut and headed back to the front desk. Ok, by now I am a little annoyed, not only did they give us a room on the other side of the complex; I had to make two trips in an attempt to fix the problem.
When I arrive at the front desk one of the supervisors looked dumbfounded when I told him my room was already occupied, he checked again and mumbled something about a housekeeping error. So I asked what does a house keeping error have to do with my room being used by someone else? The last time I checked, housekeeping was not in the room issuing business?? To make a long story short, we were not going to get the ?kids suite? instead we were offered a standard room at a reduced rate, during this whole event, I try to maintain a little composure, I frown on things like my room not being ready, or not being available, so I asked, do you have any other suites available? To my surprise he said yes, ?we have the family suite? Let me explain the difference between the ?kids suite? and the ?family suite,? the kids suite is not a suite at all, in fact, what the hotel did was take a standard room, put a partition to separate the regular bed, add bunk beds, a second TV with a special Playstation that apparently can only be played in the kids suite. The family suite is nothing like the kids suite, it came complete with a 50 inch projection television, a full living room set, a full kitchen, two queen size beds and a very large Jacuzzi tub, this tub was so large you could park a Volkswagen in it. So I should be happy, since I was just upgraded to MEGA SUITE. We, I mean I, accepted the upgraded and were told someone would come up to connect the Playstation, no one ever did. Finally I called down to the front desk, only to be told, ?you can only use the video game controller in the kid?s suite, if I wanted kids to play video games I would have to pay for them??.. Oh, and I was informed that they fixed the housekeeping error and magically a kids suite room had just opened up. (This is after we unpacked our luggage and put the kids in their PJ?s around 11:30pm). We had a Disneyland adventure planned for the next morning so changing rooms at this point was not an option.
And then to add insult to injury, we requested a late checkout with the front desk, which means we would be leaving 1pm instead of 12 pm on July 16. However around 10am on the 16th day there was a knock on the door, (yes, we hung the do not disturb sign) it was housekeeping, (I guess they really do run the place) asking us when do we plan on checking out of the room, Hello it?s 10 o?clock in the morning, why in gods name are they pounding on my door to see when we were leaving It not like we got the room for free, and besides regular check out is not till 12pm at the earliest. We packed our stuff and split at 11:30 I needed to leave that place before something bad happens you know when SWAT arrives and yells at you through a bull horn asking you to come out with your hands up!
If I had to return to Anaheim again in the next couple weeks I would never use that Holiday Inn again. It too bad such a nice looking hotel has so many service issues. On a final note I do want to thank the assistant general manager Rick who took time to show me the kid?s suite for this article, good luck on your new venture!