More about Beverly Garland's Holiday Inn
One thing after another...
by TripAdvisor Member krnr58
1) Rooms are not clean, in my book anyway. The carpet in my room looked well worn, and smelled like a wet dog! The surface areas were clean, but I couldn't get past the carpet!
2) They failed to mention the $9 per day parking fee until after I was checked in! The thing that really griped me was that they left the "security" gate arm up during the majority of my six days staying there. What's the point?
3) I posted a "no service" tag on my front door. They complied with that, however, when I did ask for housekeeping service, it was never done! When I returned to my room that evening and had NO towels and an over-flowing trash can I was irritated! The "electrical engineer" came up and brought me T.P. as well as changed my garbage. How embarrasing!
4) After we needed to extend our stay for several days (yes, we are glutons for punishment!) the staff failed to tell us our room key and gate key had to be re-activated! I only found out after trying to get into my room @ midnight and be denied. I don't want to talk about how bad I needed to use the restroom!
5) If you like the waters temp. near Alaska then this is the pool for you! My kids wouldn't go into the pool since the "heated" water was freezing! The manager agreeed that it was not comfortable for him either, and agreed to turn it up a bit. Yeah, right! It never happened!
6) Ice machine on our floor was broken for four of the six days we stayed. When reported to the front desk we were told that they had one on every floor. Who goes for ice in their pj's? I do and it's bad enough going across the hall in pj's never-the-less down the elevator!
NOW THE GOOD THINGS...
1) Free USA Today M-F delivered to your room!
2) Most property staff is great.
3) Free shuttle to Universal Studios and City Walk seven days a week
4) Restaurant on-site stays open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
5) Gift shop downstairs (gifs and food items)
6) Great pillows!
7) Lounge type chair w/ottoman in room/desk/two phones/coffee maker
had it's own counter, not kept on the sink like many properties/balcony/ tennis courts/ down the street from grocery store with many shops and Starbucks.
8) Travel coupon accepted from magazine. Room was discounted from
$105 to $89.
9) Had a Beverly Garland sighting our first day!
Rename it to Hoover Hotel - iot sucks that much
by A TripAdvisor Member
This was probably a nice hotel before the freeway was added only feet from our room - literally we couldn't hear ourselves think and had to turn the tv up very loud to drown out the constant and I mean constant stream of traffic just outside our window.
While it may be true that we are country folk with different ideas about noise, I cannot imagine that any sane person would not be driven mad in a short time by the constant and droning high decibel intrusion that filled our every moment in that over priced over hyped over the hill (literally - hollywood my foot) poor excuse for a room.
The so-called kid's suite was no more than a cheap piece of plywood or such that was thrown up in a normal-size room and annoyingly plastered with cheap rundown and blatant Hollywood Universal Advertising- and as as such was no more than a broom closet for kids and not much of a bonus or perk worth the extra money. Except for the 1/4" illusion there was not much of a separation as we were led to believe.
The "amusements" for children were also pretty much non-existentent except for whining about all the things that there were not to do. However anyone with a skin condition that thinks that they can be cured with heavy chlorine therapy, you are in luck because the pool is open for business. Come on in!
Management was non-existent and as a previous reviewer stated - they were always in a "meeting" -and over the course of 3 days no one could be bothered to call us back and address our concerns.
Never again and never should you - what a rip!
Very pleasant
by A TripAdvisor Member
We moved from a different hotel and were very pleasantly surprised at how well we were treated at this hotel. The staff was accommodating and the room was very nice at a very reasonable price. The restaurant that was attached to it had a great breakfast and very nice people working there. All in all my wife and I were very please. We certainly would stay there again.
Hotel was nice
by TripAdvisor Member EasternWestSussex
Nice comfortable rooms where we spent 6 nights. Nice landscaped gardens but a little noisy from the Motorway near by. However, rooms were reasonably sound proofed so had no problems with sleeping. Plenty of parking, but found $9 a day charge, somewhat steep. Would recommend asking for a room overlooking Ventura Blvd as I'm sure this would be quieter (something I did not do). Would stay there again.
Great stay location for Universal
by TripAdvisor Member Suzelle
A very nice option for anyone going to Universal City Walk/Amphitheatre/Studios. Enjoyed the room, the newness apparent in the appointments, from shower curtain to carpets, to three pillows on the bed!, the balcony access with its fresh air. Room service took a tad long, but food was satisfactory. Pleasant aesthetic style in room design. Complimentary shuttle option to Universal, tho we didn't know it was on a set schedule (once an hour) so it ended up not being convenient for us to make use of this time. Very easy access off the 101.
Good, convenient location....
by TripAdvisor Member sandrabeth
My husband and I stayed at this hotel 3/18-3/22/05. The hotel was clean enough... pretty mobbed in the lobby and we had to wait quite a while to check in after a long flight. The room was clean enough and so-so as far as accomodations. The telephones and internet connection in our room didn't work. We had to call down to the front desk 4 separate times before we finally got the phones to work. The internet never did function correctly. The hallways and carpets were pretty worn out and seedy. The gift shop was supposed to be open all day and into the night but we tried to use it about 8 different times and found a closed sign listing what time the clerk would be back --pretty aggravating. They advertised a heated pool, whirlpool and sauna. The pool was chilly and full of leaves. The whirlpool was cool too and the sauna was unusable--piled full of outdoor furniture.
The good things I can say about this place--- the location was great for our visit--close to Universal Studios-close driving distance to Hollywood, downtown LA and a nice drive to Santa Monica and Malibu. Plus, the place was pretty laid back and relaxed at least. It was not as nice as I'd hoped but I did enjoy the stay because of the great location.
Definitely not the greatest
by TripAdvisor Member Lexirose
This place appears great on the surface, but if you're a clean freak or just even picky, you might not be happy. After thinking that our room seemed "ok" (definitely decorated in the late 70's?!) I discovered that the shower had cracks in the tiles and was peeling, and it was very difficult to turn the water on for myself and my children. Also, after trying to kill one of the bugs flying around in the room, I ended up swatting the lampshade and a huge pile of dust flew off. After that experience we looked a little bit harder at the room and even found a gigantic spiderweb up on the ceiling near the curtains. Totally gross. Room service pizza was disgusting - about an inch of grease sitting atop the pepperoni - we had to take tons of Kleenex and sop it all up before we could even try it and that still didn't help. Then the $9 pizza turned into over $16 somehow on the final bill. The day we wanted to go to Universal we got there 15 minutes earlier than they said the first shuttle would run over there and there was already a shuttle full of people on and leaving. We were not allowed on and were told to wait. The $9 they charge per night for parking is actually $10 after they add the tax plus some entertainment tax of one kind or another. My kids liked it (of course - they're kids and not paying), but believe me....you can do better!!
Disappointing
by A TripAdvisor Member
This was the first of three hotels used on our trip to California and was by far the poorest. The rooms were ok but the noise from the freeway was constant and the windows had double glazing which had the noise reducing qualities of tissue paper! I would strongly advise the management to replace these as they are useless.
The lift nearest our room went out of service which meant a trek to the opposite end of the wing. I was not impressed and would not recommend to others.
We liked this hotel!
by TripAdvisor Member ucdmom
We stayed recently (Apr 6-9) and I was so freaked out about arriving to this hotel and finding some awful place, but was so relieved to turn the corner and find a nice, shady, high-rise hotel with several buildings (several hotel building pods, I guess you might say). We went after most spring breaks were over. No crowd in the lobby or at desk. We were checked in promptly, and our request for a quiet room away from any freeway noise was given no problem. We stayed in the Portola Building, 6th floor. Elevator was easily accessible on both ends of the building. The room was large, nicely decorated (yes, not modern, but cozy). the balcony was nice to have, with chairs and a table. No screens, but that wasn't a problem. The room was very clean, inside and out. Three pillows to each bed. Nice easy chair, lamp and side-table by the balcony for sitting and reading. Nice desk - wonderful lighting. Clean bathroom. Small coffee bar area (unfortunately, no mini-fridge); outdoor sink and mirror as well as inside the bathroom so you don't have to wait to do hair/makeup. Nice pool area - heated pool - I was excited to see what I thought was a jacuzzi hot tub, but it was a small wading pool. They need a hot tub... The shuttle is busy, but if it is full, he takes them and comes right back for you. You don't have to wait another hour. Frankly, we walked home one night. It isn't that far if you like to walk. This is also just in walking distance to a very nice market complex - Ralphs, with Jamba Juice, Starbucks, places to eat, etc. I think the folks who wrote not nice things are clean freaks, people who expected a four star hotel (The Hilton is up the hill). This place is just fine. Everyone was nice. I would encourage the hotel to put in mini-fridges, and turn that wading pool into a jacuzzi.
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