Rainneday's belated birthday & anniversary reveal
- Thread starter rainnebeauxday
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Happy birthday and happy anniversary! Best wishes! [emoji255] [emoji257] [emoji254]
Happy belated birthday, and happy anniversary, dear rainne! It is great to see you back on the forum! What a romantic celebration you and DH had, and I especially love the sweet little horse from your children.
Your real estate search sounds super frustrating.
It reminds me of our search down here on the Peninsula 15 years ago, when we thought we'd NEVER find our dream house! But we eventually did, after several near-miss crises, and I'm sure you and DH will also.
Enjoy all your wonderful treasures, and hope to see you around the forum now and then. Take care of yourself, my friend!
Your real estate search sounds super frustrating.
It reminds me of our search down here on the Peninsula 15 years ago, when we thought we'd NEVER find our dream house! But we eventually did, after several near-miss crises, and I'm sure you and DH will also.Enjoy all your wonderful treasures, and hope to see you around the forum now and then. Take care of yourself, my friend!
Happy belated birthday! Lovely goodies and flowers.... and that little horse from your kids is too sweet!
Thank you, Gnippohs!
The hotel actually lost my flowers for a few hours, luckily they turned up. Thank you, Powder Puff!
Happy belated birthday, and happy anniversary, dear rainne! It is great to see you back on the forum! What a romantic celebration you and DH had, and I especially love the sweet little horse from your children.
Your real estate search sounds super frustrating.
Enjoy all your wonderful treasures, and hope to see you around the forum now and then. Take care of yourself, my friend!
Hi, Elaine!
You'll have to catch me up, I'm sure you have some new purchases to share 
I have to tell you, the hotel stay was uhmmm...well...full of snafus. We were late checking in & still had to wait half an hour or so for our room to be ready, they could not switch our room, it had to be that one, I found out later this was because of the flower situation. So we waited...and waited...finally the room was ready (I did ask the desk clerk who went to check on it (twice) if they were sure they cleared out all of the bodies
, I mean hours to clean a room?! Really?). When we got into the room Dh seemed upset, apparently the flowers were supposed be in the room when we arrived, but the flowers were MIA somewhere in the hotel. We had an appointment at H so we had to leave and could not wait for them to track down the arrangement. When we got back to the hotel the flowers had materialized and we decided to go for a swim.
There were no clean towels in the pool area and the pool was lukewarm! DH's hands started to turn blue so we only swam for 20 min or so. Later when we went to retrieve our car we realized we needed to break a bill, so we waited for 15 min at the concierge (who btw was answering the phone like this, "Hi, Palace Hotel, sorry I'm not myself today please hold..."), finally we were able to ask him for change and he referred us to the front desk. At the front desk we were stuck behind a woman who was complaining that the hotel had lost her luggage! I sent DH over to the bell hop who was very kind to give us change.
We got to bed around 2am, not unusual for us, only to be woken at 7am by a family next door who had one or two kids that were screaming and pounding on the walls. We called the front desk twice to no avail, DH went down and spoke with the manager but the noises continued. Then they started to blast the TV, on and off, on and off, and the mom (or nanny) was yelling in Italian. On our fourth complaint the security visited their room, by then it was 10am and we were wide awake. The hotel offered us some points, I called corporate who offered us even more points. I wanted our room to be comped but they would not budge. Total nightmare.
We went to leave and they could not find our car. When we drove up the night before they had not handed us a claim ticket & DH didn't think to ask for one. After 20 min. they found it and we headed home. Honestly, not worth the hassle, we should have gone for massages and stayed in our our house with our comfortable bed and quiet children who know not to scream at 7am. We used to love that hotel, before we moved here we stayed there several times over the years. It seems that they re-did the decor and forgot to uphold the same customer service standards, while it was beautiful looking it certainly wasn't a luxury experience. I thought you would get a kick out of this story.
Thank you for your warm wishes and comments! They say it takes 12 offers and we are half way there...
xoxo
Thank you very much, Birkin10600!
Thank you so much, oldbag16!
Happy belated birthday dear
Hi, Tonkamama! Thank you very much
I hope all has been well with you!Oh, Rainne, what a disaster about the hotel! I'm so sorry. But I'm glad to know this... we like both their restaurants, and have sometimes wondered if we'd like to switch hotels from our usual one to the Palace. Now I know not to do it! There's really no excuse for terrible customer service. The hotel we stay at changed from a Westin to something else (I can't remember the name). The location is good, because it's on 3rd Street, right across from SFMOMA. But their restaurant is no longer open for dinner, which also means no room service, so this means we always have to go out for dinner. Sometimes it's just fun to stay in the room, if we've been out all day, but to do that now we'd have to get pizza or something. Not very luxurious!Hi, Elaine!
I have to tell you, the hotel stay was uhmmm...well...full of snafus. We were late checking in & still had to wait half an hour or so for our room to be ready, they could not switch our room, it had to be that one, I found out later this was because of the flower situation. So we waited...and waited...finally the room was ready (I did ask the desk clerk who went to check on it (twice) if they were sure they cleared out all of the bodies
When we got back to the hotel the flowers had materialized and we decided to go for a swim.
There were no clean towels in the pool area and the pool was lukewarm! DH's hands started to turn blue so we only swam for 20 min or so. Later when we went to retrieve our car we realized we needed to break a bill, so we waited for 15 min at the concierge (who btw was answering the phone like this, "Hi, Palace Hotel, sorry I'm not myself today please hold..."), finally we were able to ask him for change and he referred us to the front desk. At the front desk we were stuck behind a woman who was complaining that the hotel had lost her luggage! I sent DH over to the bell hop who was very kind to give us change.
We got to bed around 2am, not unusual for us, only to be woken at 7am by a family next door who had one or two kids that were screaming and pounding on the walls. We called the front desk twice to no avail, DH went down and spoke with the manager but the noises continued. Then they started to blast the TV, on and off, on and off, and the mom (or nanny) was yelling in Italian. On our fourth complaint the security visited their room, by then it was 10am and we were wide awake. The hotel offered us some points, I called corporate who offered us even more points. I wanted our room to be comped but they would not budge. Total nightmare.
We went to leave and they could not find our car. When we drove up the night before they had not handed us a claim ticket & DH didn't think to ask for one. After 20 min. they found it and we headed home. Honestly, not worth the hassle, we should have gone for massages and stayed in our our house with our comfortable bed and quiet children who know not to scream at 7am. We used to love that hotel, before we moved here we stayed there several times over the years. It seems that they re-did the decor and forgot to uphold the same customer service standards, while it was beautiful looking it certainly wasn't a luxury experience. I thought you would get a kick out of this story.
Thank you for your warm wishes and comments! They say it takes 12 offers and we are half way there...
Oh, Rainne, what a disaster about the hotel! I'm so sorry. But I'm glad to know this... we like both their restaurants, and have sometimes wondered if we'd like to switch hotels from our usual one to the Palace. Now I know not to do it! There's really no excuse for terrible customer service. The hotel we stay at changed from a Westin to something else (I can't remember the name). The location is good, because it's on 3rd Street, right across from SFMOMA. But their restaurant is no longer open for dinner, which also means no room service, so this means we always have to go out for dinner. Sometimes it's just fun to stay in the room, if we've been out all day, but to do that now we'd have to get pizza or something. Not very luxurious!
Thank you, Elaine. Ugh, all of the hotels are changing! We used to love the Argonaut, it was a Kimpton hotel and the service was amazing, but it changed. I'm not sure who owns it now but they don't offer the type of deals that Kimpton did! Hahaha thinking about the restaurants, we also had a snafu with the Palace's breakfast buffet. DH went down and asked for a container to go (they comped our breakfasts), we just wanted to leave by that point, and who ever he asked told him that they did not have to-go containers. He came back up to the room & I asked him to go back and talk to someone else. So, he goes down, loads up a couple of plates and asks a different person if he can have a tray to carry it all back up to the room. They say to him, "Would you rather have to-go containers?" Bahahahaha...yeah.
I wonder if your hotel can give you trays, plates and utensils and you can call and order take out. All of it seems like a hassle though, doesn't it? We were >this close< to booking the Four Seasons, but we went with the Palace for nostalgia's sake. I read that the Waldorf is coming to SF, they were quoted as saying SF is missing out on luxury hotels so they are filling that gap, ha. http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-08-04/exclusive-waldorf-astoria-to-open-in-san-francisco
Let me know what happens the next time you guys make the trip up! And hopefully at some point we will both be in town at the same time
Sorry about the hotel snafus... but glad to hear some actual review, as we have never stayed there.Hi, Elaine!
I have to tell you, the hotel stay was uhmmm...well...full of snafus. We were late checking in & still had to wait half an hour or so for our room to be ready, they could not switch our room, it had to be that one, I found out later this was because of the flower situation. So we waited...and waited...finally the room was ready (I did ask the desk clerk who went to check on it (twice) if they were sure they cleared out all of the bodies
When we got back to the hotel the flowers had materialized and we decided to go for a swim.
There were no clean towels in the pool area and the pool was lukewarm! DH's hands started to turn blue so we only swam for 20 min or so. Later when we went to retrieve our car we realized we needed to break a bill, so we waited for 15 min at the concierge (who btw was answering the phone like this, "Hi, Palace Hotel, sorry I'm not myself today please hold..."), finally we were able to ask him for change and he referred us to the front desk. At the front desk we were stuck behind a woman who was complaining that the hotel had lost her luggage! I sent DH over to the bell hop who was very kind to give us change.
We got to bed around 2am, not unusual for us, only to be woken at 7am by a family next door who had one or two kids that were screaming and pounding on the walls. We called the front desk twice to no avail, DH went down and spoke with the manager but the noises continued. Then they started to blast the TV, on and off, on and off, and the mom (or nanny) was yelling in Italian. On our fourth complaint the security visited their room, by then it was 10am and we were wide awake. The hotel offered us some points, I called corporate who offered us even more points. I wanted our room to be comped but they would not budge. Total nightmare.
We went to leave and they could not find our car. When we drove up the night before they had not handed us a claim ticket & DH didn't think to ask for one. After 20 min. they found it and we headed home. Honestly, not worth the hassle, we should have gone for massages and stayed in our our house with our comfortable bed and quiet children who know not to scream at 7am. We used to love that hotel, before we moved here we stayed there several times over the years. It seems that they re-did the decor and forgot to uphold the same customer service standards, while it was beautiful looking it certainly wasn't a luxury experience. I thought you would get a kick out of this story.
Thank you for your warm wishes and comments! They say it takes 12 offers and we are half way there...
We used to love the mandarin oriental for a romantic getaway. However the last time we stayed there, so many things went wrong... we vowed never to stay there again.Thank you, Elaine. Ugh, all of the hotels are changing! We used to love the Argonaut, it was a Kimpton hotel and the service was amazing, but it changed. I'm not sure who owns it now but they don't offer the type of deals that Kimpton did! Hahaha thinking about the restaurants, we also had a snafu with the Palace's breakfast buffet. DH went down and asked for a container to go (they comped our breakfasts), we just wanted to leave by that point, and who ever he asked told him that they did not have to-go containers. He came back up to the room & I asked him to go back and talk to someone else. So, he goes down, loads up a couple of plates and asks a different person if he can have a tray to carry it all back up to the room. They say to him, "Would you rather have to-go containers?" Bahahahaha...yeah.
I wonder if your hotel can give you trays, plates and utensils and you can call and order take out. All of it seems like a hassle though, doesn't it? We were >this close< to booking the Four Seasons, but we went with the Palace for nostalgia's sake. I read that the Waldorf is coming to SF, they were quoted as saying SF is missing out on luxury hotels so they are filling that gap, ha. http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-08-04/exclusive-waldorf-astoria-to-open-in-san-francisco
Let me know what happens the next time you guys make the trip up! And hopefully at some point we will both be in town at the same time
We have been fairly happy at the hotel vitale. It is a smaller boutique hotel near the ferry building. If you call, they often have a "local/" rate on weekends.. Directly across the street from Boulevard restaurant. Not as convenient for downtown shopping though.
Oh boy, what is going on with the city? Ahhh I think Vitale might be a Kimpton property, must Google...thank you for the recommendation!
Thank you, Scarf1!
Glad that I could help!
That's a really nice room! What a shame that the service didn't measure up to either the room or your amazing presents.
I remembered the name of "our" hotel: it's the Park Central. On 3rd Street, right across from Yerba Bueno Park. Still a Starwood property, but no longer a Westin. Last year the restaurant was closed except for breakfast, but I just went to their web site and now it's open for lunch and dinner. They don't say anything about room service, but unless it's pouring rain I think we'll plan on having our meals out anyway. There are so many fab restaurants in SF! And of COURSE we'll plan on lunch at Neiman Marcus one day... we always have the lobster rolls.
That's a really nice room! What a shame that the service didn't measure up to either the room or your amazing presents.
I remembered the name of "our" hotel: it's the Park Central. On 3rd Street, right across from Yerba Bueno Park. Still a Starwood property, but no longer a Westin. Last year the restaurant was closed except for breakfast, but I just went to their web site and now it's open for lunch and dinner. They don't say anything about room service, but unless it's pouring rain I think we'll plan on having our meals out anyway. There are so many fab restaurants in SF! And of COURSE we'll plan on lunch at Neiman Marcus one day... we always have the lobster rolls.
Right?! Even the linens were nice. Sigh...
Ahhh ok, I know right where that is. I think there used to be 2 Westins in SF. Isn't the one with the high speed elevator (right on Union Sq.) also a Westin? They changed the access but you can still take a ride on it if you are stealthy
I would love to meet up at Neiman's or anywhere, keep me posted!