Extended Stay in Northridge California
Why can’t Extended stay get their act together. For many months we have been living at an Extended Stay hotel in Los Angeles, California. As I wrote about in an earlier review, this is not our first time at an Extended Stay hotel. We live just months in each city, Extended Stay is the cheapest and most convenient living style for us. We are not the only ones that find themselves living the extended Stay lifestyle, during our time in Los Angeles, we have met many people living here for months even years at a time.
The problem I have with this chain is not the idea, its a great idea for a hotel that fits the need of many people, clean rooms, free WI-Fi, kitchenette and weekly housekeeping all for a reasonable monthly rate. To increase its popularity it vamped up its services, such as new flat screen TVs, newly decorated rooms and what they call a “grab and go” breakfast each morning. All this sounds great right, well it not all as wonderful as it seems, this hotel chain has a lot to work on still.
Housekeeping:
First the lack of housekeepers at each location seems to be a huge issue, this issue alone has caused us to re-evaluate if is worth our time to stay here. For three weeks in a row we were told that our room would be cleaned on a Friday, that was our scheduled day of the week. Yet for three weeks in a row we were told on Friday our room would not be cleaned because there were not enough housekeepers, as with the previous Extended Stay hotel we were again told that “terminal cleans” take priority over “weekly cleans”. No advance warning, nothing, to make it worse one week it happened to us two days in a row. Then we were told that our room would be cleaned first thing in the morning to make up for the inconvenience. The morning we were promised to be first cleaned it was nearly 11 am before we went to the front desk to find out if our room was going to be cleaned, we were told “well the maids don’t get in until 9:30 am, then they have clean each floor at a time starting with the first floor, you are on the second floor, so as soon as they get done with this floor your room will be the first cleaned on your floor, that should be around noon”. Seriously, is this what they call first thing in the morning?
Rooms:
Next we were put into a smoking room, which most of the time is fine, but once in a while we do get our share of smoke in the halls and in our room. The problem is we were promised from the first day that we would be moved to a none smoking room. Not only have we never been offered a non-smoking room but we were never addressed about the problem, we have just been told that they have to give the non-smoking to online reservations first. Plus if anything is wrong in the room in need of repair, good luck. No matter how many times we ask to have things repaired, it just never gets done. Lets not even start about the endless problems with the refrigerators at each one, where are they buying these things?
Grab & Go Breakfast:
Last, the thing they call breakfast is not all its cracked up to be. What it really consists of is coffee, tea, muffins, oatmeal, fruit and breakfast bars. Honestly if it worked the way it should it would not be so bad for the occasional quick breakfast but as we quickly found out it does not work that way. The coffee is sometimes gone by 7am, so unless you want to be there at the crack of dawn you will not get your cup of coffee. Then we get to the muffins and breakfast bars. They are not out for the “grab and go” convenience but instead kept behind the counter with the receptionist. One morning my husband said the front desk staff was no where to be found, after just 15 minutes the line waiting to have one little muffin was nearly 6 people long. He said he felt like climbing over the desk and feeding everyone. Plus on the days you do ask for one you are treated like a criminal, Really, one day I went to get a muffin for my small child and the front desk clerk gave me two he then smiled and winked at me saying” I gave you two” as if it was an extraordinary gift, hey buddy there are two people in my room I should get two muffins.
All I can say is I am at a loss, if there were other choices like this one we would probably move, but for now we are stuck. Will things change for this hotel chain?, somehow I think not. Its like they want to run this as if it was a Hilton yet on Super 8 budget, make up your mind Extended Stay and then stick with it, stop taking short cuts, we are noticing!
