John Goehle

Review of Delaware North - Gideon Putnam...

Beautiful place, beautify rooms, fantastic food, b...

Beautiful place, beautify rooms, fantastic food, but overall a really poor experience. We reserved a block of 8 rooms and overall spent well over 3 hours on the phone over 6 phone calls to reserve and still they were wrong when we arrived. Registration staff were mostly rude (they are probably used to reservations being wrong, but still no reason to be rude). Rooms were nice, but many problems with heat and air conditioning. Various species of insects were also guests in our rooms and had no intention of leaving. We were there for a conference and I was an organizer - the conference staff were extraordinarily incompetent and even double booked our event (how does that happen???). Both the men's and women's toilets in the conference center were flooded for an entire day. The place was unbearably hot the first day. Some real bright spots though: (1) Food was incredible and the food service staff both in the restaurant and the conference center were fantastic. The Bellmen were great and really tried to help us through some tough issues (clearly they had a lot of experience trouble shooting customer complaints!) The Gideon is located in a beautiful park and is located in a truly beautiful setting. The room we had (a suite) was beautifully furnished and comfortable except for our insect companions. Overall, this place could be so much better with good management who provide consistent training to their staff and enforce high quality standards.

ADDENDUM: After I posted this review, I spoke to Rebeca at the Gideon Putnam Hotel. She was quite gracious and promised that she would work with the staff to resolve the issues that I noted. I was extremely impressed with responsiveness. I am certainly willing to visit again to enjoy the wonderful rooms and the great food.