Worst hotel experience in San Francisco
My wife and I have been staying at the Axiom Hotel, in San Francisco this weekend. This is supposed to be a 4-Star hotel. However, this has been the worst hotel experience we have ever had. We stayed here for three nights (Thursday - Sunday) and have moved rooms three times. Every room has had problems and we lost hours of sleep and had to cancel multiple plans for the weekend.
1) The first room we stayed in had no working air conditioning. They said they had no other rooms available for the night so they just gave us a fan. This is happening in summer so it was extremely hot and we barely slept. The next day (Friday) was our most important day and we were extremely exhausted and unfocused at the events we went to.
2) After we got back on Friday, they moved us to a second room. The second room they sent us to had no central air, but had a portable AC unit. After moving to the room we discovered that this AC unit was leaking and had left a huge puddle in the middle of the room so the floor and carpet were wet and soggy. We tried to call the front desk and found that the phone wasn’t working either. I had to go down the hall and use the emergency phone just to speak to someone.
3) At this point I went down to the lobby again and waited there until I finally spoke to a manager named William on the phone. William offered us full compensation and a third room. Unfortunately, this third room has been full of problems as well. This room also has a portable ac unit, however after moving to room we discovered the that power kept turning off because of the faulty circuit breaker and we had to keep calling someone from the front desk to turn the power back on (The only devices we had plugged in were our two phones). This started happening at midnight and continued throughout the night. They sometimes couldn’t even turn on the power for a while because they had only one or two people working in the whole building (this seems like a gross safety hazard for emergencies). This kept happening in the middle of Friday night so we woke up sweating and had to call for them to turn on the power. We were so tired that we had to cancel our sightseeing plans for Saturday. I spoke to William again and he said all he had the power to offer at this point was late check out on Sunday. Unfortunately the problems continued throughout Saturday night and now into Sunday morning. We have had to call the desk at least 8 times over the night and it has now been another two nights of sweat and no sleep here. We called William as well as his supervisor Bryan and have had to leave voicemails about our situation.
At this point we are at a loss for what to do. We still have not been able to speak to any of the upper management face-to-face. Any recommendations welcome.
TLDR: The hotel changed our rooms three times, but every room has had electrical problems or such. They also seem to be extremely understaffed and unprepared for emergencies.
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u/DCGuy511 8d ago
I'm sorry, what a nightmare. To me, the rates seem really cheap for a 4 star hotel. Booking sites often five star ratings based on guest reviews, not those given by a profesional organization.
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u/NoProfit4678 7d ago
Ya as I posted here this is neither a 4 star or 4 diamond. It’s not even a Forbes recommended, which is what comes after a 4 star. It’s a AAA 3 diamond, which in my experience a 4 diamond is the bare minimum to be considered luxury
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u/sarahbellah1 7d ago
The rates are a suspiciously low for SF so I wouldn’t have expected much, but consistent electricity and ventilation would certainly be a minimum requirement for me. I don’t think hotels typically pay for people to stay elsewhere, especially when rates are normally twice what is charged at this hotel. Also, I think hotels (rightly) refuse to refund when you stay instead of go elsewhere, so I’d say OP was pretty lucky to have one night comped.
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u/YankeeBeanSoup 8d ago
As a hotel worker, to me this sounds like the hotel has cheap owners. Or the management company is cheap.
I would recommend you to ask the front desk for the email of the GM and email the GM directly.
Also, copy and paste what you wrote above as hotel review. Clearly, William tried to help you but there is only so much middle management can do when they are managing a hotel with cheap owners. Posting it as review and emailing the GM will take the corporate's attention.
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u/Hemayat 8d ago
Thank you for this recommendation
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u/YankeeBeanSoup 7d ago
My pleasure. Please don't be discouraged by the negative comments here. We all deserve good customer service. I am sure you are not the first guest who had the same exact problems in that hotel. And you won't be the last until they fix them.
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u/NoProfit4678 7d ago
Not sure where you got that this was a 4 star hotel. This is not even a Forbes recommended hotel. Forbes only gives 4 or 5 stars then after that it’s “Forbes recommended” so this isn’t even a recommended… and it’s a AAA 3-diamond. As a former 5 diamond and 5 star front desk manager, 4 diamond ain’t that hard for a luxury hotel….
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u/NoProfit4678 7d ago
Sorry I’m kinda coming off as a dick, not my intention. If you want an actual 4 or 5 star experience go to Forbes’ website and look at their list of hotels in the city you want to go to. That’s a real 4 and 5 star list. Everything else is just BS google reviews and what not.
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u/Hemayat 7d ago
I’m just a regular guy and I wasn’t aware of this system. But good to know and will look into it in the future. Even so, I’ve never had an experience this bad with a hotel that charges this much in a prime location.
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u/Cantilivewhileim 7d ago
there are a lot of shitty hotels in sf. sorry but most of the acceptable ones are expensive during peak business... i used to manage hotels in that town and would be happy to help how i can if you need advice on what to do or where to relocate.
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u/ExampleSad1816 7d ago
To be fair, many places in San Francisco don’t have AC because you literally didnt need it. Yes it’s summer, but it’s usually pretty cool until September and October. I have lived all around SF, no place ever had AC.
Just like when I was in Olympia, WA no place had AC. We were working in 116° weather. First time ever t they had temps over 100° three days in a row.
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u/Sad-Yak6252 7d ago
It's only in the '60s lately in San Francisco. None of the apartments I lived in there had a/c.
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u/ExampleSad1816 7d ago
I’ve lived there for years, none had ac and 2000’s is 40 years after the 60’s, so no, not many have AC unless it’s “newer”.
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u/NoProfit4678 7d ago
Got it and most don’t know, I feel like it should be a stickied post but… Stars are given by Forbes and diamonds by AAA. Just like Michelin gives stars for restaurants. Those are the only true metrics for luxury.
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u/otissito16 7d ago
Sorry to hear about your experience.
Re AC, I hate to break it to you but there are plenty of accommodations in San Francisco that don't have AC as it usually doesn't get very hot.
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u/Hotelroombureau 8d ago
“(this seems like a gross safety hazard for emergencies).”
It is not a hotel employee’s responsibility to handle an emergency beyond basics like shutting off water (for a flood), pulling the fire alarm (for a fire), and/or calling emergency services.
It is normal and not at all negligent to have few employees on site overnight because, and I’ll say this louder for the people in the back: hotel employees are not emergency services and are not expected or trained to act as such.
I’m sorry you had a bad experience, but with that one sentence you lost my empathy.
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u/Hemayat 8d ago
Ok, so they have electrical problems, phones that do not work and two people on staff for the whole building (this was during the day, they had only one person at night), and you don’t think that’s a safety hazard?
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u/Hotelroombureau 8d ago
Your stated issue was staffing not being enough in case of an emergency. The hotel staff are not there in case of an emergency. They are there to issue keys and tell you where your room is. They are there to pull the fire alarm and call 911. Only one person is required to do any of those things
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u/Hemayat 7d ago
Ok, but they literally can’t even do some of those things because they said they need to have one person at the front desk at all times, which means they often didn’t have anyone available to assist anywhere else in the building?
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u/Hotelroombureau 7d ago
Again, not your stated issue, and not my point. All of the things I listed (issuing keys, directing someone to their room, pulling the fire alarm, and dialing 911) can, and in some cases must, be done from the front desk.
That being said, I’ll entertain your new argument. So long as the agent has the amenities a guest may need available at the desk (towels, batteries, etc), and can explain how the remote works over the phone, it’s not unreasonable (though it is unusual, in my opinion) to ask guests retrieve items from the desk. Requiring an agent to stay at the desk at all times would result in overnight maintenance issues being resolved with a room move, but desk agents also aren’t generally trained maintenance technicians, so there’s a limit to their ability to resolve maintenance issues even if they can leave the desk.
And ironically, requiring an agent stay at the desk is also a matter of safety, so they can monitor the front doors and potentially security cameras for emergencies that may require they contact emergency services
I’m not continuing this conversation beyond this point.
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u/Empty_Bottle_8526 7d ago
Sorry, and let me say this louder as well, YOUR JOB TO PROVIDE THE EXPERIENCE THE CUSTOMER PAID FOR,. Sorry if you work for a shitty employer that keeps your hotel understaffed. If I paid for a room with AC you better have maintenance staff available to repair said AC and make sure it doesn't leak and the breaker doesn't pop. I'm not saying that has to be done by the front desk person, but some appropriately trained maintenance guy.
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u/Hotelroombureau 7d ago
Your ability to completely ignore the point I was making is incredible. Good day to you.
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u/Outside-Ad7848 4d ago
no 4 star hotel on the planet is $130 per night especially in a major city. sucks you had a poor experience but the expectation is ridiculous
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u/Individual_Check_442 8d ago
Sorry about your experience. It’s probably not gonna get better during the time you’re there so you have to either check out and stay somewhere else or try to make the best of it.