I stay in hotels about 100 nights a year. My reviews are generally positive. I don't think I have ever given a one star review previously (and maybe not even two star). This hotel really earns one star.
The level of deferred maintenance is really incredible, and in some regards, dangerous as related to egress/ingress. As mentioned in other reviews, the elevators of the ocean tower were not working during my four day stay. On days one and two, only one of the two elevators worked so the wait times were very long (sometimes as much as 5 minutes). These were weekdays, so I assume they could have called maintenance and fixed if they wanted. On days three and four, BOTH elevators - 2 of 2 - were disabled. That meant directing people to the service elevators. One of the two worked, one did not. You share those with room service and housekeeping carts etc. They move very slowly. Plan for 10-15 minutes to get downstairs at times. I guess we were lucky however. They have large printed signs at the ready right by the service elevators...one set to direct people from the main elevators to the service ones, a whole different set saying ALL elevators are broken and to use only the stairs (there are 10 floors and I was on floor 9). The mere fact that the deferred maintenance is such that you need to print such signs to have at the ready is incredible. For people with mobility issues, its insulting and kind of dangerous - my knees would not really allow me to walk up and down 9 flights.
The level of deferred maintenance does not stop there and as other have indicated in recent reviews, the hotel is simply way past its past due date overall. Everything is old, crumbling and dirty. The AC doesn't really work.
Next, be aware in the ocean tower ANY odd number rooms you will be facing a parking lot they have repurposed as a night entertainment market with music. There is 100+ decibel sounds of crowds & music until 2am. It is incredibly insane that a hotel would monetize the parking lot with the attendant result that half the ocean tower cannot sleep. I am surprised zoning allows it, and wonder not just about the degredation to (I would guess required) parking including diabled parking, but moreover the noise, both for the hotel and the surrounding area.
As to personnel, some were kind and efficient; and in multiple cases, we got sympathy (especially around the elevators in terms of employees telling us that management well knew about it, it was frustrating for them, and nothing ever gets fixed). But in other cases, not so much. The pool attendants could not be bothered to help set up towels, they just point you to the stack and you are on your own. They could not be bothered to clear wet towels from chairs that had been vacated, we did that ourselves mutliple times and brought up the last guests' towels to the bin and they just looked at us like this was not their job. So while there were a few good seeds, the service overall was extremely lacking for the star level and price point.
The entire pre-arrival process was also deeply flawed and sort of insulting. They have a form email and I am guessing the primary purpose is to monetize you further (for example by booking hotel spa or restaurants in advance). I took time to fill out quite a few things they asked and especially wanted to coordinate arrival and departure times for transport. I got no response at all for several days. Finally on writing a second time a different person than the original author (who I never heard from again) wrote and sort of blamed me for asking about these things (the nuance being I was asking about the potential for early check-in, a published Accor platinum benefit, of which I am well aware of the terms which are basically if available...but in pointing out my arrival time soat leats they knew when I would get there and hence had my request, I got back - and again only after writing a second time - basically a rude recital of the rules in the first place). It was a crummy process that took my time, yielded me nothing, and left a bad taste in my mouth. In fairness I do have to say that on check in, they DID honor early check in. But they whole way they read me back the rules, which I well know already and was not asking for exception to, was itself really a bad approach.
Again this was by far the worst hotel stay, and also the worst value for dollar, that I have had in hundreds of hotel stays in the last 10 years so I felt compelled to write this review with a hope that others won't fall prey to these material issues with this property.
