Deborah K.
Yelp
We stayed at the Hotel Melby for several nights during the holiday season while visiting family (which means we'll likely be staying there again in the future, despite our experience). Even though it was the holidays, I think it must be the off season because it wasn't that busy at the hotel or anywhere in the area which, to me, seems like the staff should have been very attentive to the guests they had.If I could sum up our experience at the hotel in one word, it would be "disengaged." We felt it with almost every single staff member from the moment we walked in until the moment we left. The only exceptions were Lorin at the front desk on our last two days, who was extremely competent and should be given every promotion they have, and a young man from housekeeping. Every other staff member was consistently either talking with each other or friends who had stopped by the hotel or staring at their phones but not engaging with the guests. It happened at the valet stand, at the front desk the day we arrived (and the following two days), on the elevator and in the halls. We had the same experience with the restaurant staff but I reviewed that separately.
Our first night, as we headed out for dinner, we asked the young woman at the front desk to have staff make up the sofa bed for our child. When we returned several hours later, we found a pile of pillows and blankets on top of the king size bed, but the sofa bed wasn't made up. We weren't even sure how to open the sofa bed and my husband had to go downstairs and ask.
Every single day we were there, except one, our room wasn't made up by the time we came back in the evening, even though we had been out for hours. It was like they saw our do not disturb sign in the morning but never bothered to check if it was removed at some point later in the day. The one time it was made up, my husband had called about an hour in advance of us returning (around 4 p.m.) to ask if they had made up the room so there's a very real chance that it wouldn't have been made up that day, either. The other times, we had to hunt down a maid to make up the room or just gave up and asked for fresh towels. Not a single time that the room was made up did they make up the sofa bed, however. We always came back to a tangled pile of sheets and pillows that we had to remake.
The room was spacious and beautiful (we really like the modern city loft-like feel), the bathroom was clean and modern, and the view was stunning. Those things all deserve 4 or 5 stars. However, I've been to hotels of all types in cities all over the world and this was absolutely the worst service I've ever experienced. Management needs to come in and completely overhaul their training methods. If management is the problem, then that should be addressed. The Melby should be the crown jewel of historic downtown Melby but with this level of service, it will never be.