Sarah P.
Yelp
For the record, I am leaving this review after emailing 3 managers (Rene Malacara, Nadia Bolanos, Stefano Antoniazzi), the front desk, and the person who helped me with the amenity, Montserrat Velasquez. I have not received a reply regarding my complaint from any of them. It has been over a week now. Not even a "we will get back to you later." I would not have resorted to this if I simply received acknowledgement, but other future guests should know.
For starters, I had contacted the hotel in advance to coordinate an excursion and an amenity in the room upon our arrival. My boyfriend and I were coming for our anniversary and I wanted to do something special for him. I had to call numerous times to coordinate this simply request.
When calling, I was met with 30-minute wait times, and being hung up on over and over again. After calling on and off for TWO HOURS, I finally got someone on the phone and told them how I had been put on hold over and over, in order to ultimately be hung up on. They finally assisted me when they sensed my frustration. This was a red flag, but I decided to give the hotel another chance. I thought maybe this was a fluke, especially since I expect top service from a hotel like The Thompson.
When we arrived, the hotel was completely understaffed. The front desk was swamped with people (which is especially concerning during a global pandemic), but we waited. When we finally finished checking in, we went to the elevator and our keys did not work. When we returned to the front desk, someone else was already being helped and the line was long. We ended up being escorted to our room, keyless, hoping we could catch the front desk staff at a later time. Over our two night stay, this was pretty much the case at all times with the front desk.
Once we arrived at our room, the amenity, that I spent days and hours ordering, was not there. I made it very clear that I wanted the amenity there upon arrival. I even clarified this the day over the phone. As frustrated as I was, I decided to give the hotel another chance and was met with one disappointment after the other.
The WIFI frequently said "there were too many subscribers" and would not let me sign on (I have screenshots of this), the front desk often did not answer our calls, there were not enough daybeds or seats on the beach because the hotel oversold day passes to non-guests.
As if this was not enough, our room was so ridiculously loud we couldn't sleep. At 12 am, we called the front desk to tell them how loud it was and were met with little concern and action. It literally sounded like we were in the middle of a concert. After making it clear to them that we would not be able to sleep they finally agreed to change our room. Under one condition- we would have to switch once at 12 am, and then again the following day. Keep in mind we were only there for two night (so switching 3 times would make no sense) and we are in the middle of a global pandemic (why is there hotel oversold and why are there no available rooms if they are operating at minimal capacity?). We told them we were not okay with this, then finally they found us a room. At 1 am we ended up moving all our stuff to another room in the hotel to simply get a night's rest.
What concerns me the most about everything I have said is that they are so overbooked during COVID, to the point where they have"too many subscribers" on their wifi, barely any extra rooms (it's a huge hotel), and their front desk staff isn't able to answer the phone. This would be unacceptable at any time, but particularly horrifying during a global pandemic.
This was not the only way they put us at risk. When we checked out, we left our bags at the front desk so we can go around town a bit. It was clear that we were going to leave at some point, but just weren't ready yet. As soon as we left the hotel with our bags, it was evident that one of the lobby staff tipped off the cab guy to wait outside the hotel for us. He aggressively asked us if we want a cab and we declined (they overcharge a lot by the hotel). He followed us down the block, clearly speaking to the drivers on the radio. Eventually we thought we lost him, and found another cab (for literally half the price). As we were getting in, a cab driver pulled up next to us screaming, saying that "we left the hotel and we played the system" and that "we must get in the cab with him."He made it very clear that they had been following us. This continued for 10 minutes of our drive. We were terrified. The man who controls the cab line is usually 1 block away. He is never conveniently standing outside of the hotel waiting for guests who are departing. The hotel staff put us at risk, and informed outside parties about our whereabouts without our permission.
I am so angry that I payed to stay to be stressed, not sleep, and put at risk. I am even more angry that my experience has been ignored by hotel management.
