I stayed in a group of four over the weekend for S...

I stayed in a group of four over the weekend for Sakura-Con. The staff was VERY friendly and patient. They seemed happy to chat, even super early in the morning. That's where the three stars come from. However, there were more than a couple problems that really bothered my group.

1. The hotel puts a huge pending charge on your card. Our stay was around $600, but from the start, they wanted to charge us over $1,000. I'm sure it's for safety precautions, but the hotel we normally stay at has never done that to us. We didn't know beforehand and we weren't prepared; we had problems figuring out what to do. Finally, we were able to figure out how to pay some cash up front and charge other things on a card later. It was very confusing.

2. Because we had to pay cash up front, we needed to use the ATM. Even though we needed to pay over $600, the ATM would not let us take out more than $400 overall. The maximum withdrawal for one transaction was $200. The person paying for the hotel was only able to do this twice.

3. We stayed in what was supposed to be a two-queen room. The beds were definitely not as wide as actual queens. It was difficult at times for us to sleep with two people on them since there was little room.

4. The bathroom door was a slider; it didn't actually close or lock. It was separated from the wall, so you could see inside at some angles. You could also hear anything happening in there. Very awkward if you're not close with your roommates.

5. Speaking of the bathroom, the steam from the shower set our fire sprinkler off.

6. There is no free internet for non-members. Signing up to be a member of the hotel system they have is free, but you are required to sign up for it or else pay about $13 a day for internet access.

7. Water at the Starbucks/bar area was $8. I'm not sure that I need to say much about this.

The first day that we sat in our hotel room, we said that we won't be coming back to Renaissance. It's close to the convention center, but it's more expensive than the one we normally stay at (which is a block closer) and these problems were just a little much for us.