Your Hotel Stay 2009

[BenihimeSama]

Once again, the traditional--was your hotel stay awesome or what?

I stayed this year at The Fairmont Hotel, and let me tell you that the place was AWESOME! Our room was spacious, surrounded by food, placed within a nice short walk to the hotel, and it wasn't as insane or noisy as the other convention hotels. Checking out was also a nice smooth process. Only gripe I have is the parking.. Stupid $26 parking.

[heeroyuy135]

I stayed at the Marriott again after my wonderful stay last year.

The beds got softer, so even when I slept for 4 hours a night it was a good 4 hours of sleep.
I ran into a small problem trying to get the internet after it had expired, but that's more technical computer problem than an actual hotel problem.
Great, friendly staff - and I swear, the guy who helped me check-in was the same person who checked me in last year, same thing goes for the bellhop (not sure about the valet staff though).
Didn't have a huge problem with the elevators, and when they took too long usually I went back to the room because I forgot something.
Checking out early was a breeze on Monday - I was able to get everything downstairs quickly and into my car before the rush came, and then the check-out process was easy thanks to the automated touch-screen machines that were set - it didn't take me long.

I will complain about the vertigo experience on the elevators, which didn't happen last year. Then again I took the stairs because I was on the 5th floor compared to the 11th floor this year.

I love the Marriott, and I'm going to keep saying there.

[Mr Anime]

My stay at the Hilton was a rather pleasant one.  :D  The room was big and spacious and the maid would leave one of the small towels folded in the shape of a flower.  :)  Guess the only complaint, if you could call it that, was the nice LOUD wake up call on Sunday around 4:20 in the morning.  >:(  All thanks to someone one the 6th floor.  :P  Thank you 6th floor person.  ;D  LOL

[questionette]

The only reason I'm saying pretty darn good instead of totally freakin' awesome for my hotel stay at the Marriot, was that we don't get free breakfast like they do at the Hilton D: ....ok, well that and the elevators took literally 20 minutes to get on....but one can't have everything, can they?

[AnimeEmperor]

My Marriott stay was pretty good, however I had one bed when I asked for two and the A/c was really crummy. Not too horrible, but I mean I was sort of hot sometimes and even when I turned it up to max it wouldn't make it cold.

The staff was very pleasant to me though, and took care of all my needs quickly.

[Reikon]

The only reason I'm saying pretty darn good instead of totally freakin' awesome for my hotel stay at the Marriot, was that we don't get free breakfast like they do at the Hilton D: ....ok, well that and the elevators took literally 20 minutes to get on....but one can't have everything, can they?

I could have gotten free breakfast at the Hilton? Oops. I missed out on free food.

The rooms were pretty nice this year. It was remodeled since last year, so it was all new looking. The inclusion of an HDTV was really nice too. The only complaint as usual is the elevators. Some of them didn't seem to work too well (like some elevators randomly flashing the alarm and going back down, even though it wasn't that packed). People who stay on the 3rd floor and use the elevator were also annoying, but that's not the hotel's fault.

[SSX]

"Eh, it was okay"
Stayed at the Marriott this year. Internet was so slow every hour of the day except @ 7am (yay for being able to wake up early). The hotel and staff were extremely nice. I got to check in a little bit early at around 12 on Friday so I was pretty happy about that. Beds are comfy, towels are changed every day, and lots of space in the room. The remote for the television ran out of batteries so it was a bit annoying flipping through the channels manually but I am just nitpicking right now.

The worse part of it was the elevators... Every single time I head up to my room, I feel like I'm going to throw up! I can't believe how immature and juvenile some Fanime goers are! On Saturday evening, while I headed into the elevator on the first floor, these group of ~18 year old got out of the elevator laughing and giggling. I got into the elevator and saw all those buttons lit up. !@#$R!$ER@AR@!R!@R~!@! WTF if the door did not close at that moment, I would've seriously yelled at them like the 3 year olds that they are. I saw the elevator lit up with all the lights a total of 8 times... People need to grow up. Next year, to the people who do this: BEWARE, if I catch you, I will have a little chat with you, and you will wish you never ever even touched the buttons.

4/10 for the Marriott. 9.5/10 if not for the elevator issues.

[Dracil]

I had a concierge level (26th floor) room in Marriott thanks to my friend's Platinum status and AAA card at around Fanime prices.  I'd say the stay itself was fine for me.  I didn't have to pay for the internet.  Being on the top floor meant that the elevator wouldn't be full when I entered (unlike the people on the <8 floors, some of whom should have been walking anyway).  The internet itself though, was slow as heck.  Monday morning was fine, but before that, it was incredibly slow.  They can't handle full capacity rooms filled with geeks.

[jinnai_animexcalibur]

I loved the Hilton! The boxed lunches were awesome (and buy one get one FREE on the last day!)

Cheap room, awesome bed (i had a good nights sleep for once!) and FREE internets in the lobby! :D!!

[Kimiko]

In previous years, I've stayed at either the Marriott or the Hilton. And while both of those hotels are great, I decided this year to try the Saint Claire. And the experience was great! They were very accommodating, extremely pleasant and my entire stay there was smooth as butter. The rooms were decent sized, but the best part is that it was quiet, and the elevators.. it was heaven.. lol since there aren't as many floors, I barely waited for the elevator. And then staying on the 2nd floor, me and my girls just walked down the stairs. Also comes with a refrig which is great. And then when I checked out, I wasn't ready to leave yet, so I was able to check my zillion bags/costumes/etc in until like 8pm or so, then I got my stuff and went home. I was very happy with the Sainte Claire. Oh and they have free internet access as well, although I didn't use it since I didn't bring my laptop. It's right next to the Marriott, so it's not out of the way at all.  

Even still, next year I'll probably stay at the Marriott just because i like the convenience factor the most for my girls. And I'll try to get a suite as well. OR get a suite at the Sainte Claire. We'll see!

[Tsu]

Marriott.

Pros: Everyone was ridiculously friendly, from check in to our departure. Really awesome people, felt invited.  Room was great, A/C was fine.

Cons: TV wouldn't let us hook up the 360! Well, we could hook it up, but it wouldn't play. The staff informed us that they'd set it up so that you couldn't do such a thing (I dunno if they'd disconnected the A/V ports or what) but now other people are reporting they were able to use their TV to play stuff.  I'm really annoyed about that.  Secondly, we got locked out of our room (automatically) at about 11:55 am.  Both of our phones (time is satellite-set) said it was only 11:55, yet the key wouldn't let us in. So we had to call up someone to let us in. It took 45 minutes, while our ride grilled to death in the car outside.  Lame.  On the plus side, the person who came to help us was really nice about it.  Too bad we had to call 3 times to make it happen. Internet was painfully slow.

The hotel was nice and quiet (at least on our floor) this year, a nice change from prior years.

[codex biblio]

I stayed at the Hilton. Since I had the room to myself, it was very spacious. The bed with the new pillows/comforter was the best part. The staff was very accomodating and friendly. Valet parking was very convenient.

There were very few cons to the hotel itself. My room was not cleaned as well as I would have liked upon check-in. There were a lot of dust bunnies, like that didn't vacuum. The other issue was the self-parking. They had very limited self-parking. Truthfully, I would've just gone to valet parking directly and saved myself the aggravation of driving around that lot. On the plus side, valet parking is only an additional $5/night (and tip), so the convenience was definitely worth it.

The major con that a previous post mentioned (and the only reason that I might consider St. Claire/Fairmont next time) is con-goers rather than the hotel itself.

Noisy people. People playing games in the elevators. People who didn't seem to bathe even though they were going up a hotel elevator so they must've had access to shower.... Sigh.

[FanFicGuru]

I crashed for two nights with a couple board members at the Marriott and my stay was great. I slept on the rollaway on Friday and Saturday night...very comfortable. The showerheads are amazing, and I love the deep tub. Nothing more relaxing after a long day at the convention then soaking in a warm bath for an hour lol. Yeah you can't set up consoles or anything, but it wasn't a terrible loss for me since I was busy downstairs most of the time anyways.

Anyways, I had a great stay and I'll probably stay at the marriott again next year.

[sweetrinoa]

Stayed at the Marriott.  The room was great, the bed was so comfy.  Trying to get an elevator was a task but it is like that every year.  The hotel staff did get confused about who was in our room though and kept calling us by the wrong name.  I found it quite funny. 

[Snowchef]

i stayed at the fairmont. there were some pros and cons to it

pros
HD TV
awesome beds
hotel staff was courteous


Cons:
extra charge for just about everything
valet parking only
they won't let you borrow a dolly, but they'll send you a bellboy.
i paid 205/nt and didn't get a freaking microwave. WTF?!?!!
felt that the rooms were kinda small for what i paid for


curious, is there any way we can get a con rate for like a presidential suite?
blew a fuse by plugging in two appliances to a wall. didn't even use a power strip.
internet charge was expensive

[Kuudere]

We stayed at the Marriott, as we have for a few years now. We're a pretty quiet group, so our contact with the staff was limited, but I'll list what I observed.

Pros:

• 
  Loved the comfy beds. I fell asleep easily in them.


• We got both a 360 and a Wii working with the TV (although others seemed to have problems with it).


• The TV and selection of channels was nice.


• It was a very quiet floor.


• The staff at the valet entrance always held the door open for us. I thought that was very sweet and helpful.


• There was a man guarding our belongings when we were waiting for them to deliver it to our room. I get very worried when I leave my possessions out in the open, but this guy wouldn't let anyone near it without proving it belonged to them. I thank you, Mr. Luggage Bouncer Guy.

Cons:

• 22nd floor T_T. The staff said we should have a lovely view because of it (it faced the convention), but everyone/thing just looked like ants from that height.


• The bathroom doors! They just slide, and there's no lock on them. Being the only girl in the room, I think I need a little more privacy.


• I really, really wish that the Marriott had someone on these forums like the Hilton does. Maybe they do, and I haven't seen them yet. But it only helps their image in our eyes if they take time to communicate with us here.


• Of course, the elevators. People also didn't know how to wait their turn for them. We'd wait for the elevator for 20 minutes, then some people would come right as it arrived and try to take the few spots that were available in them. That's just rude.

I also thank the amount of tolerance and graciousness that these hotel staff display during what must be a stressful time. I'm glad that they allow us to stay year after year.

[Fructose]

I stayed at the Marriott, along with three other people in a double/double.

Pros:

• Super comfortable beds and soft sheets.
• Big enough rooms to easily set up the extra table they provide and finish sewing a last minute cosplay without being in everyone's way, and also set up an entire food area since we brought a cooler and lots of non-perishables to save money.
• Coffee maker to heat up water for drinks and soups.
• Nice shower.
• Both upon check-in and check-out, the bellboy who brought up our luggage cart let us use the service elevator, so we didn't have to wait forever for an empty one.
• Very, very nice and helpful bellboys and valets.
• Upon check-out, it didn't even take the half-hour they estimated to get a luggage cart sent up.
• Because we were on like the 23rd floor, while it took a little while to wait for an elevator during the con, once one came up, there was always room because there were only 2 floors above us so they were never already packed, like it happens on the 10th floor or so.

Cons:

• The woman at the counter when we checked in was an idiot, and rude. First she couldn't run my card through no fault of my own (and the card worked fine the rest of the weekend), so we had to pay cash for the full weekend up front (which incurred me 9 dollars in ATM fees since the nearest one had a $200 transaction limit and a 3 dollar fee per use), and she tried to charge me full-price for the valet parking all weekend, instead of the half-off Fanime price, and tried to argue when I brought it to her attention. She then hands me our keys and says "There you go, one king room. *gleam!*" Um, no, bitch. I reserved a double/double. It may be first-come first-serve under normal circumstances, but I have 4 people going into this room and we are NOT paying an extra fee for a rollaway to still be a bed short! I know this happened quite a lot one year (i think two years ago) and remember the outrage from the con at the Marriott for doing this, and the specific instructions to go find a con higher-up if the hotel tried to pull this on you. After a lot of "I RESERVED a double-double." "It's just a request, which will not necessarily be honored." "We have 4 people! We can't all easily fit in a King room." "Well, we have no double-doubles." either a manager or some other counter person (not sure which) popped up and said "Well, lemme cheeeeeck..." and boom, they had a double-double. ...it also would have been nice if you could understand the damn woman. Talked like she had damn cotton in her mouth.
• Lazy maids. They never actually cleaned our room, just took out the trash (and once only emptied ONE of the two full garbage cans).

I had a pretty nice time, if you eliminate that one glaring incident, really. I haven't decided if I'll be back next year, though.

[Kender]

Side thought: To those complaining about those staying on the 3rd floor using the elevators (or even those only a few floors above them): Please remember that they paid for the same right as you did to make use of the elevators.  I really think it is very rude to complain about people making use of the elevator no matter what floor they were on.  And is certainly not a reflection of the hotel's service to you.

If it matters to you so much, perhaps request the hotels program the elevators to never stop at any floor between the 2nd and whatever level you judge to be "low enough to take the stairs"?  This is a serious suggestion, not a sarcastic one, if you truly feel people on X floor and lower should not be allowed to use the elevators.  Please also request that the hotels lower the rates for those staying on these floors as well, if you submit your request, to make up for the inconvenience that would be caused by taking away use of the elevator.



Beyond a few bad moments and little things that annoyed me, my stay at the Hilton was very pleasant as usual.  I thankfully missed the 4am "wake up call" as I was off on a "snack-age run" with a friend.  A lot of this is kind of a rehash from my comments/suggestions in the Hilton thread, but:

Pros:

• New beds: They were so comfy.  I never wanted to get up to go to my shifts for the day.
  
• New TVs: FINALLY!  My friends have been holding it over me for years they could hook up their video game systems in the Marriott and now I can too!  Next year I'll actually be smart and remember to bring a DVD player as well as a Wii.  Things were very easy to hook up as well.
  
• Carpet: It looks so much more... classy I guess is the word I'm looking for.  Same deal with the bedspread too.
  
• Self-parking: Nothing new this year, but one of the things that always finalizes my decision to choose the Hilton as it is the only hotel that offers this.  I want access to my car without having to have it driven up to me.
  
• Friendly Night Staff: Seriously, these are the coolest people I have ever run into in the several years I've checked into hotels by myself.  The day staff are nice enough, but the night staff will actually joke around with me.
  
• Fridges: Oh how I love the mini-fridges in every room without having to request one and provide proof of medical need.  Or pay an extra fee to have one as, if I recall correctly, is how it's done at the Fairmont.
  
• Quiet: I actually need noise to sleep, so a noisy area wouldn't bother me, but by quiet I just mean it was nice and... well... empty.  It was nice not to feel trapped trying to get to my room after being stuck in the Marriott for staff duties and the huge crowds that congregate over there.
  

Cons:

• Parking: $18 a night for self-parking is incredibly expensive.  And I was told when I checked in it was a "negotiated rate" as the regular rate had gone up.  Seeing as the regular rate had been $19, I don't think Fanime had to try very hard to get that "special deal" =/.  I wouldn't have been as annoyed if I hadn't seen the gate to the parking garage open during the day every day I was there.  Sure, the booth was manned a couple of times, but for the most part no one was collecting money.  I'm okay with it being open in the middle of the night, but I felt more than a little miffed at the possibility of people getting similar parking privileges as I did (sans the guarantee, of course) without paying anything.
  
• Bathtubs: I liked the new curtain set up, but I really wish the back had been angled, so to speak.  One of those built in back support things.  Would have been nice to be able to have reclined back a little more easily the night I was trying to burn off pain with a hot bath.
  
• Mirrors: There used to be so many more mirrors around Hilton in the rooms and on the floors!  I miss them!  They were good for little touch ups and for seeing how makeup for costumes looked in different light compared to the bathroom lighting.
  
• A/C: It never got below 78F in my room, and averaged around the low 80sF, with the A/C on constantly and cranked down as far as it would go (60F).  It was uncomfortably warm in my room a decent chunk of the time ):  Turning my room into an "icebox" is one of the things I enjoy most about going to a hotel for a weekend.
  
• Glasses: I really wish they would provide more than two in the room when there are four names registered.
  
• Towels: Only three large towels.  For four people.  Three of whom were girls with a lot of hair.  This is not enough towels, Hilton!  XD
  
• No bill on last day: Hilton gave me a paper stating that I would receive my bill for my stay Monday morning around... 6am I believe it was?  I never got it even leaving my room several hours after that to go check out.  I was disappointed I could not do a speed check out because of this (I refuse to check out until I have a print out of my bill so I know exactly what they're charging me for).
  
• Not really a con, but I'm a little concerned a former friend was able to get a note put into my personal reservation to have a connecting room with hers.  I had said it was alright for her to do this, but I am concerned that Hilton did not call to confirm this with me.  When I checked in, it seemed as if I would not have been able to have this altered even if I had wanted to.
  

Overall, even though I have a lot of complaints, I did enjoy my stay and will be happily returning to the Hilton again as I have every year since 2004.  The renovations were a long time coming and I'm glad to see they've finally been implemented, and done so beautifully.

For those that care, my room was a double/double.

[Xeluu]

Stayed Marriott again this year:

Pros:
- Maids were very polite, clean towels every day. (even when I hung them so they wouldn't bother changing them out. XD )
- The hallways were very quiet this year. Like, noticeably more quiet. (But I suppose that's con-goers rather than the hotel.)
- Room set up in a King is wonderful.
- Being a Gold Rewards member meant I got a free breakfast Friday and Monday, and Sunday night I went up and got a mini salad/fruit and a slice of chocolate cake.
- New HDTV.

Cons:
- The beds are almost too comfy. I shared a king sized bed and we woke each other up a few times just from the fact that it transferred motion so well.
- Same old remote for a new TV. I generally had Cartoon Network on, and was unable to change it to the normal screen ratio. Stretched out picture not so ftw.

- Check-out was a nightmare. I requested late check-out (Like... 1:30pm) just so I'd be able to MISS the rush. I go down around 12:30 and request a luggage cart. I was told it would be up within 30-45 minutes. After said amount of time I go BACK down and request it again. This time I WATCH them call in to make sure they'll get a cart up to us. So, finally, after 1 hour 30 minutes of waiting for my luggage cart my sister and I ended up making multiple trips up and down, and to and from the lobby to my car.
And for reference, there were at LEAST 4 luggage carts being used to store luggage in the luggage check. When I went to the front desk to hand in my keys, the man started to give me excuses, but when he saw they said Elite member, and I mentioned the fact that I'd waited for so long, he offered to knock off a night of parking.
A nice gesture, yes.... but I would've preferred to have just gotten my luggage cart.

Will I stay at the Marriott again? Yes. But I think next year I'm going to be taking the majority of my luggage down the night before I check out. (It wouldn't have been so bad had I not sold things at the swap meet this year, and had to haul what I didn't sell back home. -_- )

Question for people staying at the Hilton!
How was the lighting in the room/halls this year after the renovation? Is it brighter at all? (That was one of my biggest reasons for staying Marriott other than it being closer to where I wanted to be most of the time.)

[Kender]

Question for people staying at the Hilton!
How was the lighting in the room/halls this year after the renovation? Is it brighter at all? (That was one of my biggest reasons for staying Marriott other than it being closer to where I wanted to be most of the time.)

It seemed bright enough in the hallways to me, but I honestly didn't notice a difference between this year and previous years.  I see a little too well in low light so I'm not the best judge, sorry ):

They did have all bright white lightbulbs in the rooms, though, sans the entry way light (I think).  With all of them on it was incredibly bright in the room.  So bright, we actually threw a cover over one of the lamps we left on at night while we slept to dull the light.  The bulbs were so far away from the top of the lamp shades it was awesome to be able to do this.  Gave us enough light to move about in the middle of the night, but wasn't so blinding that we'd want to claw our eyes out if we accidentally woke up facing it.