Poor Service and Misleading Advertising Masquerading as Luxury
I am extremely disappointed with our experience at the Kimpton Cottonwood Hotel. We paid nearly $650 for a cabana experience advertised as “luxury” including “dedicated cabana service,” and what we received was nowhere close to that description.
I have absolutely no issue spending that kind of money for an important occasion, which is why I was especially disappointed by how little of the experience was actually provided.
There were five of us. Our drink order was taken once when we arrived, and when another friend arrived approximately 15 minutes later, her order was taken as well. How often would you expect your “dedicated cabana server” to check on you over a span of 4 hours—every 30 minutes? Every hour? How about once!
Despite the promised service, we repeatedly had to leave the cabana and stand at the bar for 20–30 minutes just to order or receive drinks. We also ordered two hot dogs (having to walk up to the bar to do so because of course our "dedicated cabana server" was not checking on us) and waited approximately 30 minutes, only to eventually walk to the food truck ourselves to find out what happened. It appeared the server had never communicated the order to the food truck.
Another interaction was particularly unacceptable. While at the bar trying to obtain service ourselves, a bartender dropped one of our seltzers. The can was dented and approximately three-quarters empty after spilling onto the ground. Instead of throwing it away, we were offered the damaged drink with the comment, “Well, might as well have this one too. ” Beyond the poor service, offering a beverage that had been dropped on the ground raised an obvious hygiene concern, particularly for a property presenting itself as a luxury hotel.
To top the poor service and interactions off here I "got" to pay an automatic 20% gratuity! When a tip is automatically added, it is difficult not to question whether there is any incentive for staff to provide attentive service when the tip is guaranteed regardless of performance.
What has made this situation even worse is how difficult it has been to get management to address it. I initially brought the issue to another server, who gave me a phone number to call and stated, “I totally get why you don’t want to pay that much, but we can’t take the 20% off. ” Seeking an immediate resolution, I went to the front desk and spoke with Tyler Barton, Director of Food & Beverage.
When I explained what happened, Tyler sighed and said, “Yes, we’ve been hearing this a lot recently. ” He took my contact information and promised to call me Monday. He did not.
When I called Tuesday to follow up, I was told he and the general manager were pulling security footage because “they’ve never had this complaint before. ” This directly contradicted what Tyler originally told me, as well as several recent one- and two-star reviews citing similar service issues.
The phone number given to me from Tyler disconnects immediately, and my voicemail, left through calling the hotel, has not been responded to in 5 days with this whole experience occurring over two weeks ago now. At this point, the issue is not just the initial poor service, but clear management inattentiveness. When a hotel markets an experience as a 'luxury' service and charges a premium, the actual experience should reflect what was advertised. I hope upper management will finally take the time to reach out and provide a reasonable resolution.
