Your Hotel Stay, Good or Bad?- 2008 Version

[IamTetsuo]

Stayed at the Marriot, as usual.  And as usual I had a wonderful stay.  I got one of the aforementioned sexy corner rooms overlooking the fountains and the park on the ninth floor.

Pros:
Quiet and efficient AC
Room safe for storage of my laptop extra camera and cash
Absolutely sublime king bed.  Seriously one of the best beds I have ever slept in.
Housekeeping kept the room nice and clean.
Staff was always nice and helpful.

Cons:
Despite having a sexy flat screen TV, there was no high def programing and it was set on stretch mode.  Also I couldn't get it to switch inputs so I didn't get to use my PS2.
Had to wait for two hours for a baggage cart on Monday.
Elevators, as always, make me feel a little queazy.
We found an empty bag of gummy worms under our bed.  We thought that housekeeping had eaten our gummy worms until I found our unopened package in one of our bags.  Kind of gross.

I'll definitely be staying at the Marriot again next year.

[Gatsby]

It was pretty awesome. I ended up letting like 4-5 people crash in my room but it was great to have company. I was on the 23rd floor of the Marriott so it was a pain in the ass to catch an elevator (and more than once I ended up running the stairs).

[Raymei]

I stayed at the Fairmont.

This was my first time to Fanime, so I wasn't familiar with any of the hotels, but this was the only one that was offering rooms from Thursday until Monday straight through.


The room was nice enough.  I didn't realize until Saturday night they didn't give us queen beds like I had reserved (both my brothers had to share a bed since they wouldn't allow a roll-away cot in my room, but I thought a queen bed would be big enough.  One of my brothers barely got any sleep because it was only a twin sized bed).

We didn't get a fridge aside from the mini-bar.  When we went to make room in there just to store some of our sodas, we see that "for our convenience, drinks are charged to our bill as soon as they're removed from the fridge ala sensors. 
I called the desk immediately and asked them to remove any charges and they agreed  (seeing that the amount removed in the same amount of time was quite ridiculous).

The smoke alarm went off randomly one day.
After 5 minutes they sent someone up and he told us it was dirty.    ....T.T....


The water pressure kept going out while using the sink or shower and a lot of the fixtures (like sealing around faucets and whatnot) weren't attached to the wall  @.@;;





They didn't have our credit card on file when we checked in and I was never informed by either the con or the hotel website I'd need to physically bring my card  (Thankfully my brother had one that he could use -- but we almost ended up stranded the weekend out).

The pool wasn't heated (despite saying otherwise) and it was really dirty  (people leave a lot of cigars and bottles out there).

And anything in the actual hotel was really expensive  @.@;;;



BUT!!
Through Fanime we got a fantastic deal ($105 a night) and even though it was 2 blocks away from the con, it didn't feel like much of a walk back and forth  (and it was a good trade from elevator lines like I had to deal with at other cons) and seemed like it was in the middle of everywhere we'd want to be  (lots of food places in every direction, so we got a good variety, bank right across the street, could see the whole area from our window).

All in all (and especially after seeing some of the other hotel "reviews") I think I'd stay here again next year  :)

[Mr Anime]

I ended up staying at the Hilton and had absolutely no problem. Well, except from a leaking shower faucet which only bothered me on Thursday night. I really liked the fact that you could open the window a bit even though I was on the 11th floor. It seemed to cool the room better than the AC. I also liked the fact that I didn't have to walk far to my room from the elevators since it was practically right next to them. I think the only complaint I might have about my stay would be the amount I had to pay for self parking, $18. That seemed a bit steep. Not to mention the spots were a bit small. Thought that's probably because all the normal spots were taken up and had to use a compact marked one to park my truck. But other than that, everything went well and I'll probably stay there again next year.

[Evelle]

I stayed at the Hilton this year. For service I give it 10/10. I have never encountered such helpful and nice people in my many years of travel. Any issues we had (including one caused by my stupidity) were quickly taken care of.

For the actual hotel 8/10. The noisy pipes woke me up several nights and the parking was a bit steep. But they are renovating so hopefully at least one of those will be fixed.

I will definitely be staying at the Hilton next year.

[Dragon Ninja]

I stayed at the Marriot, and I had a wonderful time there. :)

[AmazonPrincess]

Due to my own procrastination I got stuck booking at the Fairmont this year. And at first I was kinda happy about it, the rooms are way bigger than the other hotels, and it's a freaking Fairmont, they come with this certain ritzy reputation. And the whole proper afternoon tea service thing just seemed really nifty. And it was close to all the food.

But then we checked in. The toilet flushed funny, the handles for the bathtub were falling off, housekeeping never showed up, even though we called for them several times, we ran out of toilet paper, there was no wireless internet and once we wired up it took a ten minute call to their tech support to get it working right, and the minibar thing was totally inconvenient, and the tv was old and we couldn't plug in a dvd player or anything and our coffee pot had to be in just right before it would start. Oh yeah, we also got eaten alive by fleas. One of my roommates even found one hopping across her sketchbook. Plus the parking was expensive as were the hotel bar/restaurants.

So I'm not staying there next year. Or ever again.

Next year I am so TOTALLY going back to the Sainte Claire. I wanted to go in and tell them how much I missed them after checking out of the hell hole that was my Fairmont experience.

[Moonblossom]

...FLEAS?  :o :o :o

[Squeeky_Moonkin]

I stayed at the Hilton.
I thought it was a 7 out f 10. My main complaint was the water pipes. I was on the third floor and any time someone from another room or even floor flushed, shower, r ran their bathroom sink the pipes in the bathroom and noise come from the ceiling. I swear at 5am every morning it sounded like a water pipe was going to explode. One minor complaint was how ghetto our coffee maker was @_@ or in our case, our cup-o-noodles maker. Other than that the rm was nice, the beds okay, pillows galore @_@, and the staff awesome. We even ended up with a fridge even though we did not ask for ne. Wish we had a microwave too ;_;

[FanFicGuru]

...FLEAS?  :o :o :o

Yeah, seriously? That's disgusting...I would ask for a refund or something. *shudder*

Or leave them a nasty review on Trip Advisor.

[Barnes]

I rate my Hilton stay a 5/10
9th floor

+Bed was comfy
+Checking in at 9am on Friday=WIN
+Fridge is very convenient 

-The toilet flusher had to pushed in pretty hard in order to flush
-My neighbor had a dog in his or her room. WTF? It barked everytime I went into my room. Are pets even allowed in the Hilton? Ugh, I should have said something to the staff. As much as i like dogs, it's barking bothered me.
-Maid(s) did a sloppy/so-so job cleaning my room.
-On Monday, I left some food in the fridge, but when I came back up, the maid was there and THE FOOD WAS THROWN AWAY! Not cool  >:( And some of my stuff was sent to lost and found (I got that stuff back, but still)
Maybe I should have left the Do Not Disturb sign on the door, and taken EVERYTHING down myself

[AmazonPrincess]

...FLEAS?  :o :o :o

Yeah, seriously? That's disgusting...I would ask for a refund or something. *shudder*

Or leave them a nasty review on Trip Advisor.

Proper complaints have been filed with the hotel management and with the Diamond Certified rating people.

But yeah. Fleas.

[shinjiboy]

ST. Claire
8/10

Pros: Not crowded, nice rooms (AC + Comfy bed), Flat screen TV
Cons: Bad service, Wet spots in room, 1 block away, Scary Elevators

So we only had the room for 1 overnight stay (Sat - Sun).  When we arrived there (with early receipt in hand), they told us that the room was not available cause it had to be cleaned.  When we came back at 3 PM, the rooms were still not done.  Consistently, the receptionist asked us if we wanted a "bigger" room with 1 king sized bed and a roll in.  We said NO. 

Coming to our room (5th floor, double twins), I noticed certain wet spots on the side and near the bed.  I'm thinking that they were just cleaned with some sort of water or fluid.  I smelled it (!!), and it didn't have an odor.  The night of Saturday, a technician came and fixed the elevator.  It was already clunky to begin with and was scared for my safety, through the persuasion of others, to take the stairs. 

But the little things did not take away too much from the good things.  What did you pay for?  A nice clean room with a bed.  And there it was.  Recommended as an alternative to the bustling Hilton/Marriott along with all the horror elevator stories.

EDIT: Free Wi-FI, Quiet Environment, Fridge, DVD Player

[thebrain2u]

I stayed at the Marriott this year, as I did last year. Valet parking was great, half price with in and out priviledges was great. The guys running it were pretty cool, nice people. Seeing as how my cousin was fronting the bill, I had full access to all the services like internet and room service. The elevators were as bad as last year, but that's not their fault, more like insane con-goers. They let me check in early at around noon and I got a room on the 9th floor. Wish I could have gotten a lower floor, so as to avoid the elevator waits. Overall, the Marriott was as good as last year. I'll probably be staying with them again next year.

[phoenixphire24]

The Sainte Claire was great as always. We got into our room right away and had no problems the entire weekend. The free wi-fi and the tv hook ups were great. No problems with noise or crazy elevator people either. And with 4 of us in the room (each sharing a double bed) it came out to $93 each for the whole weekend (with parking and taxes). We'll definitely be there again next year.

[Squeeky_Moonkin]

The Sainte Claire was great as always. We got into our room right away and had no problems the entire weekend. The free wi-fi and the tv hook ups were great. No problems with noise or crazy elevator people either. And with 4 of us in the room (each sharing a double bed) it came out to $93 each for the whole weekend (with parking and taxes). We'll definitely be there again next year.

How far is this hotel from the convention center. It sounds wonderful.

[Nyxyin]

The St. Claire is as close you can get to the convention center without staying inside the Marriott or Hilton.  It is just across the street from the Marriott (the side of the convention center with the video rooms).  If you wanted to go from the convention center to McDonald's, it's the first building you pass.  It's much, much closer to the convention center than McD's.

[Hirotona]

Me and my friends roomed at the St. Claire. It was pretty nice (easy to access our room by stairs if need be) and the room was clean. Only problem was we ended up having a bunch of extra people crash our rooms and from what I've seen the two double bedded rooms offered at this hotel are the smallest of the four or five around the area (espically of the Fairmont, which is defientely the hotel I want to book for next year). But the St. Claire is a good venue, just not if you have an extra four people or more that end up crashing for the weekend =__= Very attractive hotel, rooms are just a bit on the small side.

.. and as for service I have no idea how good or bad it was. I was never around when the cleaners came and I never order room service so I have nothing to offer as far as that goes.

From what I've seen the Fairmont rooms are the best overall deal (size for the price) and the distance is really not an issue (easily five minutes at the maximum taking in street light wait). So I look forward to rooming in the Fairmont next year. 

[FanFicGuru]

Me and my friends roomed at the St. Claire. It was pretty nice (easy to access our room by stairs if need be) and the room was clean. Only problem was we ended up having a bunch of extra people crash our rooms and from what I've seen the two double bedded rooms offered at this hotel are the smallest of the four or five around the area (espically of the Fairmont, which is defientely the hotel I want to book for next year). But the St. Claire is a good venue, just not if you have an extra four people or more that end up crashing for the weekend =__= Very attractive hotel, rooms are just a bit on the small side.

.. and as for service I have no idea how good or bad it was. I was never around when the cleaners came and I never order room service so I have nothing to offer as far as that goes.

From what I've seen the Fairmont rooms are the best overall deal (size for the price) and the distance is really not an issue (easily five minutes at the maximum taking in street light wait). So I look forward to rooming in the Fairmont next year. 

Watch out for fleas...

[Hirotona]

Ahhh well the couple of rooms at the Fairmont I hung out in didn't have any such problem, and all my friends who stayed there have only the most positive things to say about the hotel >____<;;

Sucks to hear your experience wasn't so good though.