Just a little more Hard Rock Hotel venting....

[champdds]

Please don't get me wrong, I did enjoy our stay, but when I woke up this morning I remembered two other things I meant to mention regarding our stay.

First, this is just a pet peeve of mine, and some would consider me much of a cheapo...but when we arrived/checked in finally, and were unloading our car at the entrance, the bellhop/valet helped us (and I was okay with this since we don't pack lightly), and I had planned on having them take the bags to the room....but what irritates me ( and I have had this occur at other hotels as well), is that after he loads the cart,and I tell him we are in room #XXXX, he informs me that he just loads the carts, and someone else actually takes them to the room, and then there is the "PAUSE" for his anticipated tip...mind you, I have no issue with tipping a guy who has worked to get the bags to my room, but to stand there and expect one for simply unloading the bags carside irritates me...Just give me a cart and I'll load it myself...

Second, there is, what I feel, a design flaw in the layout of the hotel itself...we self parked (not only to save money on the valet fee, but I like the convenience of going out to our car anytime, if we forget something, etc.)...the self parking is located to the far right of the hotel, and because of the change in elevation of the hotel, this puts you at about the 1st floor level (the lobby is actually on the 3rd floor)...unfortunately, there are NO elevators available at all (from that ground level area), only a long flight of stairs up to the front door. Not such a big deal for our family, but any family with young kids (strollers,etc) or elderly/physically limited people, who need to self park, would find this very inconvenient....I asked about it at the front desk, and they said they knew it was an issue, and corporate knew about it (but how long as the hotel been around ?)

I am surprised more people, especially with the Disabilities Act around, have not had an issue with this (Maybe they give free valet in those cases ?), but I am sure some people don't like to valet their car and would rather have access to it anytime...or is that just me ?

Whew...I'll stop now...

David

 

[macraven]

Please don't get me wrong, I did enjoy our stay, but when I woke up this morning I remembered two other things I meant to mention regarding our stay.

First, this is just a pet peeve of mine, and some would consider me much of a cheapo...but when we arrived/checked in finally, and were unloading our car at the entrance, the bellhop/valet helped us (and I was okay with this since we don't pack lightly), and I had planned on having them take the bags to the room....but what irritates me ( and I have had this occur at other hotels as well), is that after he loads the cart,and I tell him we are in room #XXXX, he informs me that he just loads the carts, and someone else actually takes them to the room, and then there is the "PAUSE" for his anticipated tip...mind you, I have no issue with tipping a guy who has worked to get the bags to my room, but to stand there and expect one for simply unloading the bags carside irritates me...Just give me a cart and I'll load it myself...



David

let me share what happened to me.


i had one suitcase and one carry on bag on the cart outside..

i waited 5 minutes for the valet to take my stuff to the car.

they didn't so i had to.



and i had given the man $5 for pushing the cart from my room to the outside...........

 

[champdds]

Exactly !

 

[Laurabearz]

It seems to me that there are TWO seperate sections of cast members. Valet who just handle just the cars, and the the bell man, who handle the luggage.

So even though there are 187 valets standing around picking their noses, you will still have to wait for a bellman. And it sucks to be waiting and waiting while watching 2 million valets standing around doing nothing.


Ok I got an evil valet story for you...

We were staying at the BWV and I did a grocrey run. I came back and the Valet jerk told me they were too busy to help me, and to park over there and grab a cart myself.

I loaded that puppy up (we were staying a week) and started pushing to my room. At that point I was SWARMED by valets where I explained, in a loud voice, that I was told they were too busy to help me and that I should grab my own cart, so they better get out of my way, because I am NOT a happy camper. 10 valets backed up.

I was once again stopped inside, I growled, they backed off. I pushed that full cart down the long long hall way at BWV and vowed that if that Valet jerk ever tries to assist me again all the wonderful things I would say to him.

Someone asked me who it was, so when I went back out I snuck around until I could see him and get his name. Then as I made my way back to my car I told him if he sees me again he needs to RUN. And I did the frocker eye thing to him.

 

[AllieKat]

I'm sorry you had a less-than-stellar HRH visit. Our stay there last October was similar. We made sure to voice our opinions as you had hoping the problems would be fixed, but nope...not so much.

After returning home I received a survey (via email) asking about our visit. I filled it out and received a response from one of the "managers on duty", she apologized, admitted they missed the mark, ask that I keep her name as a personal contact so that she may assist me during my next stay and "ensure an enjoyable, relaxing and flawless visit". It was a very nice email. The somewhat funny thing is that the lady who wrote the email is the same lady I had communicated with once prior to our trip and three times during our trip. During the trip, she didn't seem to do much to ensure a "flawless" visit.

The bellhop/valet situation is a pet peeve of mine as well. You don't sound cheap to me...after all, you've just paid almost $300 a night for a hotel room.

There's an elevator near the parking lot on the left side of the hotel. We had parked on the right side as well and questioned the lack of elevator after helping a woman get her son's stroller up the stairs. On our last day there we decided to park on the left instead of the right and found the elevator. Doh!

 

[champdds]

There's an elevator near the parking lot on the left side of the hotel. We had parked on the right side as well and questioned the lack of elevator after helping a woman get her son's stroller up the stairs. On our last day there we decided to park on the left instead of the right and found the elevator. Doh!


Interesting, I asked about parking on that side-LEFT (the first day) and was told by the valet guys that side was for valet cars ONLY...HHMMMM...

David

 

[goofy!]

I am surprised more people, especially with the Disabilities Act around, have not had an issue with this (Maybe they give free valet in those cases ?),:

Valet parking is free for those with handicap plates/cards.

 

[champdds]

Valet parking is free for those with handicap plates/cards.

Good...I figured that, but you do give up the ability to get stuff to/out of your car easily whenever you need to, if you valet park...and I would assume the valets will still look for a tip....just doesn't give you two convenient options if you wanted to...

David

 

[patster734]

Interesting! I didn't have any problems with the HRH valet on this last trip. In fact, when we were leaving, one of the valet people saw me watching for our transportation car and told me that I could wait inside and he would get me when the car pulled up, which he did.

No, my problem was with housekeeping. It was running extremely slow. On both Saturday and Sunday, we would leave the room between 9 and 9:30AM and return between 5 and 5:30PM to an unmade room. Between 6 and 6:30PM, the maid would show up. As we were in the room at the time, we would just exchange the used towels for new ones.

Looking back, when we checked in before noon on Thursday, our room wasn't available until after 3PM. I suspect that was caused by the slow maid service. I also suspect that the HRH was extremely understaffed because I only saw a couple of maid carts while walking around the halls in the morning.

 

[champdds]

Since I became somewhat friends with the housekeeping manager during our stay, with our issues...There was one time he called me, on his cell phone, on Thursday, because he was on his way to actually pick up some people to help clean rooms...apparently there is staffing issue, at least that week...(we too had a late, late afternoon room cleaning, thankfully, we were headed out to eat anyway...)

David

 

[DeblovesPoohbear]

I am so glad I read this thread. We've stayed at the HRH 3 times and never use the valet and we always drag out stuff up the outside stairs~ duh
Now I will know to park on the LEFT SIDE~ Thanks!

 

[Bluer101]

Every time we stay at RPH we just go under the valet area to the otherside, unload a few rolling bags, fend off the valet people, wife stays with the bags, I go self park the car, we go to the check in, then up to our room. I just find this alot quicker this way and no hassel.

 

[macraven]

Every time we stay at RPH we just go under the valet area to the otherside, unload a few rolling bags, fend off the valet people, wife stays with the bags, I go self park the car, we go to the check in, then up to our room. I just find this alot quicker this way and no hassel.

rph set up different than the hrh for the valet parking. they fortunately have a larger parking lot for the guests.

the op is talking about the situation he had at the HRH with the parking.
he had to do some trips back and forth to the car, not just at check in.

 

[pauldents]

As others have mentioned, there is an elevator down to ground level and the Abbey Road car park. Valet do use this car park and just at the entrance/exit they even have a sign saying so, but they will still allow you to park in it.

If you don't want help with your luggage from Valet, just tell them. We are currently at the hotel. We used valet, luggage services and after the first night we put the car in self park with no issues whatsoever.

If you are in the other car park to the right and have young kids with strollers surely the easiest option would be to have the driver go down to car park then drive the car upto the entrance. This is what we used to do when my daughter was in a stroller or we had a luggage to take to the car.

The only issue we have ever had with car parking is when the Hotel is rammed with people who go to Velvet sessions on the last Thursday of every month. On our arrival back to the HRH the car park was full, when we mentioned it they gave us free valet

 

[wicket2005]

We don't have a problem with the valets because we just park the car in the car park ourselves, unload the car then just wheel the luggage ourselves to reception. I prefer to do this than hang around and we are all quite capable of doing the job ourselves.

Tipping is something, being from the UK, that is not generally done over here so it feels a bit strange doing it (we do it because it is what is expected). I would hate to have to tip to just unload the car then to move it to our rooms. We never know what is the expected tip.

I didn't know about the lift issue as I though the lift by the pool covered all floors. We parked on the right hand side when we were there.

 

[macraven]

generally, it is $1 per bag that is moved by the valet or bell hop.


some people might pay more, some none at all.

i have seen it both ways.

 

[wicket2005]

Thanks for that. We did have to move rooms in July and get the porter to collect our bags, 4 of them, we tipped $5 so at least we didn't under tip. We know how much to tip in restaurants. Just as a matter of interest how much is the normal tip for the people on the bikes?

 

[macraven]

the pedcabs are different for tips.
i can not recall anyone coming up with a tip system for them.
i asked at my hotel about it and was told, it is strictly up to the person that gets the ride if they want to tip.

most people assume $1 per person. others have paid $2 a person.
some people that have 3 good size people in it will tip a lot more as the pedicab man works a lot harder then.

from what i have read on the trip reports, it looks like some do $5 if they are at pbh as it is farther away from the parks.
or, they do $5 as it is one bill instead of giving out 4 singles.


i have seen a couple not give any tip before.
i wouldn't go that far as even though the pedicab men say the ride is free, they are working for tips.


i'm not much help am i on your question.
i can only tell you what i have seen and read about tipping the pedicabs.

 

[wicket2005]

You have been very helpful thank you. I didn't know whether it was something like $10 or more so it is nice to have a rough idea of what is normal. We always walk everywhere but last year my feet got terrible blisters and I really should have jumped in one of those bike things but didn't know what was acceptable to give as a tip.

 

[macraven]

you are very welcome.

some other posters may have a different thought on what i posted.
generally, it is an accepted tip for $1 a bag that you are helped with.

pedicab people work for the tips.
some users of them feel generous at times while others keep it at a set $1 per person getting the ride.