Extended Stay America - Los Angeles - Lax Airport

Horrible Customer Service, But Otherwise OK Hotel

This hotel is in an excellent location if you're going to be traveling around Los Angeles. I was in town with my wife to meet our new nephew for the first time, and this place was conveniently located near LAX and next to the Howard Hughes shopping center (a really nice place). It's right near the 405 freeway, which is what everyone in LA uses to go back and fourth from the beach to the inland bits (the valley). Anyhow: I prefer to stay at extended stay hotels when I travel, because I follow a really strict bodybuilding diet, and being able to cook and store my own food is mandatory. The location was excellent, and the room was decent (clean, small kitchen, but usable).

Well, here's where this hotel got a bad review in my book: customer service. My wife and I went to check into the hotel at night time (around midnight), and when we got into the front lobby, we were greeted by another guest who told us he had already called the hotel, and was told they were sending an employee down to the front desk to check him in -- 30 minutes prior. After we waited for a while, the other guest went and called the hotel back again (using the hotel's built-in phone system), and was told that an employee was on the way down again. After waiting an additional 30 minutes (my wife and I had been here about 45 minutes by this point), I got on the phone myself and called the hotel. I was immediately transferred to a calling service where the person told me that they've been trying to contact the employee on duty, but nobody has been answering their phone. They told me that there was nothing they could do except hunt around for the employee myself, and then put my on hold for 15 minutes and didn't answer my questions. So... After I got put on hold by the calling service, I then started wandering through the hotel with the other guests (who were still waiting to check in), banging on the doors of the communal areas. After banging on the door of the main laundry room (on the first floor), we were hesitantly greeted by the front lobby person on staff who must have been sleeping or something in the laundry room >.> So the entire time we were out there in the lobby waiting, calling the hotel, etc., this person was in the laundry room sleeping (I assume). So frustrating. We finally went to check in, were given our key cards (about time), and were then told that even though we pre-booked the standard King room, they only had a smoking version available. If you're not a smoker, and have ever slept in a smoky room, you know what I'm talking about: it's gross. So, I asked the lady to please just change our room or something, and she gave us a queen room (fine: I figured I'd argue about it later, but by this time I was exhausted, frustrated, and half-awake). So then my wife move ALL OUR STUFF into our new room, get into bed, and what happens??? The fire alarm starts beeping... Apparently the batteries had died on the fire alarm, so it was beeping every 3 seconds, making it impossible to sleep. So then I called the front desk, and was told to move into another room. So I go downstairs again (thankfully the lady had stayed at the desk this time), get a new room key, and go to the new room. And guess what I find in the new room? It was the room I had originally reserved!!!! It was a normal king room with no smoking. Sigh. I was so incredibly frustrated, that after moving all my stuff out of the first room, and into the second room (which we had reserved originally anyhow), that I just completely gave up. This was easily the worst hotel experience of my life.