Cambria Hotel LAX

I've been checking into hotels for more than 40 years and never, anywhere had as wretched a reception as at the Cambria. At least three reception staffers dealt with this situation, and each one added their own special splash of awful sauce. My wife had made the reservation and was flying from a different city to meet me in LA that night. My flight arrived in time to reach the hotel around 1 or 2 ... ahead of normal checkin, of course, but the parking lot looked half empty (and the lobby was entirely empty) so it seemed worthwhile to ask. "Early check-in is $50" are the first words the clerk says. OK, that's the policy. But you can get that message across a lot more warmly; his attitude was clear from the start. He insisted I had no reservation, ultimately found it under my wife's name - it was prepaid - and he said she'd have to be there. We've got the same address, he can see it's a prepaid booking ... but he's adamant. The clerk next to him looked over to sourly say a phone call from her wouldn't be enough, it would have to be a video call. Two hours later my wife gets the message; just before her flight leaves Arizona she calls the hotel, then notifies me that I'm good to check in now. And when I get back to the front desk: No, we don't have any such reservation at all. Not under your name, not under hers. After a lengthy and tense conversation, this latest clerk says he found it in the system - but she'd canceled. This makes zero sense. Upshot, I spend the afternoon and evening driving around LA in the clothes I flew in, with the rental car still full of luggage. When her flight got in that night, they checked us in - and with an attitude. The clerk waived the parking fee, which is the only reason I didn't walk out altogether. In retrospect, I should have. Computer errors and paperwork glitches are one thing; a consistently incompetent, unhelpful and ultimately rude staff is unacceptable. This Cambria has a management problem: You don't get three separate clerks being combative and cavalier with customers unless it's part of the business culture.>

Do not stay here if you are not at the hotel at exactly 4 PM to check in. We got off our cruise ship and went to the hotel about 11 AM. Our hotel was already paid for through Hotels.com. We were told we could not check in until 4 PM or after. We ended up leaving seven of our luggage bags behind the front counter. We went and explored the town. When we got in at 2 AM, we found out that they gave our room away, because we did not check in in any timely manner. If you have my bags sitting directly behind your work chair, and you already have my paid room confirmation, then why would you give my room away. The lady at the desk did provide a Lyft to replace the shuttle service that we now lost, and they did put us in another hotel, however, the hotel was extremely dirty. I don’t want to say what hotel they put us in, because I feel bad that this hotel is now going to catch heat, and I am thankful that they were able to accommodate us, however, there was feces left over in the toilet, patches of dirt in the bathtub, and some type of smeared substance on the bathroom sink. We asked cambria for a refund, and they told us no because we should have checked in before 12 AM. Again, no one told us anything about a cut off to check in time. This was a very bad inconvenience.

My husband and I have done the "park, sleep & fly" at this hotel a number of times over the past few years. In the past, transportation to and from the airport was by a private uber/lift ride arranged by the hotel (as part of the package). But, the last 2 times we've stayed there, the hotel has begun contracting an independent shuttle service to do the rides. This means: - Shuttle rides cannot be arranged prior to 6 a.m. (we often have early morning flights that require us to be there sooner). - The shuttle stops at multiple hotels on its way to the airport (making it take much longer to get there). - And the shuttle picking up from the airport does not run on a consistent schedule (which meant we waited for over an hour to be picked up from the curb at the airport). While we have been loyal customers in the past, we will be looking at different park, sleep & fly options the next time we travel.

What a horrific experience. We arrived at the hotel only to find a ditz desk clerk who informed us our room was not ready yet. It was 8:00 at night. We waited an hour before further communication. She suggested that we pay for parking on a keypad in front of the desk. The parking was $60 per day and we paid for 3 days. A half an hour later she informed us that our room reservation was canceled by Expedia. She then went on to badmouth Expedia and as it turned out it was a simple mistake on their part. What was not understandable was why she took an hour and a half to determine that our reservation had been canceled. Her next move was to tell us there would a room for us but she would have to take us as walk-ins. After that we've waited an additional 1/2 hour only to find that she said we would not have a room because the hotel was oversold. This was at the same time where we saw approximately 30 flight attendants and Airline staff checking out. Obviously this meant rooms were coming available. I began to look for another reservation on line and I asked her what about the parking and she said she would email the owner of the parking which was the third party. I assume she did so and looked for the refund for the next several days. She offered to help us find a room and contact the local hotel. She said she could get us a deal. I was able to get the same exact hotel for $30 less than her deal. We ended up staying there. She also bad mouths another hotel telling us it was in a bad neighborhood yet we passed that hotel several times and wished we had stayed there as it was in an excellent neighborhood. It is one week and we still have not had the parking return to us and I must resort to filing a small claim against the hotel because they are the bad actor in the situation. This will cost a great deal of nuisance to both myself and the hotel but I'm simply not going to allow nearly $200 to go to somebody as a gift. If the hotel itself is as horrific as the service was then I would stay the hell away. Also in the past week I have contacted the general manager directly by email, the assistant manager by phone and email, and the front desk several times as well as the manager of the parking by email. Not one person has I had the professionalism to contact me back. I highly recommend other hotels in this area such as the Doubletree where we did end up staying who had excellent customer service.