Jeff Thames

Review of Renaissance Houston Hotel

EDIT:: Upon checking out of the hotel, I had the o...

EDIT:: Upon checking out of the hotel, I had the opportunity to discuss my concerns with the front office manager, Jawanza. She was a pleasure to talk to and was she understood my frustration and admitted that the experience that I had was unacceptable. After listening to my concerns and frustrations, Jawanza did everything that she could to redeem the reputation of this Crown Plaza location and to ensure that before I left the building that she cared about my experience and would move a mountain to make it right. Without Jawanza I don't know how this location could even attempt to manage the frustration of their guests. She handled the situation with elegance and grace and this hotel is incredibly fortunate to have her on staff. Thank you Jawanza.

Holy Cow, this is absolutely the worst hotel that I could have imagined staying in for this trip to Houston. When choosing a hotel, I am quite selective and my experience has told me that Crown Plaza hotels are generally nice. I was wrong, horribly & terribly wrong.

The first night, I was tired, so I was able to ignore the fact that the staff was rude, the room was less than satisfactory and the advertised amenities were absent, however, upon returning to this dump for the second night, I was less than pleased to discover that my already substandard room had been cleaned by someone that forgot to replace the towels after taking the dirty ones and left no ice bucket. (The ice situation is already a disaster since the one on this floor is broken as is the one on the floor above me.)

I decided that it was time to get help from the front desk so I headed downstairs in one of the death trap elevators. (Pictures to follow.) Once I was able to gain the desk agents attention, (she was watching something incredibly interesting on her phone in the back room) she told me that I would have to wait until morning when a Manager arrived to get assistance with my concerns. I suppose I will use the blow dryer to dry off in the morning after my shower so I can talk to the manager.... that is convenient, isn't it?

So, if you have a preference for a quality hotel, I would advise that you not book here. You might be more comfortable sleeping in your car. Based on my experience showering in your car would be just as easy as it is here at the Crown Plaza. (If you are in your car it would certainly be easier to get ice!)

Lackluster and inconsiderate staff, shoddy facilities, death trap elevators and advertised amenities that don't exist are solid proof that IHG Hotels do not enforce any sort of quality standards and do not monitor the quality of the properties that display the Crown Plaza name. That being considered, once I have successfully dried off with the blow dryer in the morning, I am going to see if I can hang a Crown Plaza sign on my shed and book reservations through IHG for a profit. I actually feel like my shed is just as nice, if not nicer than this Crown Plaza location.