AC Hotel Santa Rosa Sonoma Wine Country

Called day before to request either two queens or a room with a balcony. They told me they could get me a room with a balcony. On check in they said there was an “error” and there was no room with a balcony. So then I said, in that case I’d like the room with two queen beds. Apparently that was “unavailable” as well. I felt I handled this fairly well and didn’t make a big deal of it. I think it would have been nice if they comped the valet parking but instead they gave me “points” …except I’m not a Marriott reward member. If they had given me my 30$ valet for free as an I’m sorry for their error I probably would have forgotten the whole incident and returned for another stay…needles to stay I won’t be coming back now.

In all my years of traveling for work and vacations with family, I have NEVER experienced noise in a hotel room like I did on Friday evening 7/12. We entered room 424 and the first clue was the 2 sets of ear plugs by the bedside, then I saw what looked like an Alexa and upon further investigation realized it is a sound machine. Even a pillow over the head, ear plugs and noise machine on full volume would never drown out the sound of vehicles on the freeway, ALL NIGHT LONG! Nothing more to say. If you are a light sleeper, this is not your hotel. To add insult to injury, the breakfast buffet was completely empty of any food at all at 8:55 am...and there was one young lady working the entire room, taking orders, trying to clean up and hope for a replenishment of any food. I will NEVER stay in this hotel again!

The location is great, right in central Santa Rosa. There's a mall, plenty of nice local mom & pop restaurants, and of course the famous Russian River Brewing all within easy walking distance. The place is spotless and the staff is probably the friendliest I've ever seen. The only parking is Valet which is $30/day but they bring your car super fast whenever you need it. There are a number of quirky things you either have to figure out yourself, or ask one of the friendly staff to explain. 1) Contactless room key. It's very touchy, and it took me a few times to figure out exactly where I had to place the key to make it open the door. 2) Coffeemaker. It's random whether or not the cups they provide you will fit the coffeemaker in your room. Mine were fine, but in some rooms all the cups are too big to fit. 3) Shower. There's an enigmatic column with two posts sticking out that controls both the overhead shower and the handheld sprayer. The front desk people had to explain to guests how to turn it off. 4) Ice machine. For one thing, be aware that the room with the ice machine isn't labelled "Ice". It's labelled "Hydration Station". The ice dispenser is motion-activated, but the black plastic buckets provided in the rooms won't activate it. The friendly front desk guy explained that you have to use something white to activate the dispenser. So I wrapped a white hand-towel around the black bucket and the ice dispenser worked fine. My suggestions to the management are: 1) Make sure that all the coffee cups provided in the rooms fit the coffeemakers in the rooms. 2) Get white plastic buckets so that the ice machines will dispense ice. 3) Put a small sign in each bathroom explaining how the shower controls work.

I have never recommended staying at another property after a Marriott stay but I must do so now. My room was designed by someone who must design dormitories and prisons. It was incredibly small. The bathroom vanity was in the middle of the room by the bed with a refrigerator and storage behind it. I almost expected to see a toilet in the corner. Whoever signed off on the the final design of this property has never traveled with a companion. I often arise earlier than my partner and like to get up brush my teeth and head out for a coffee and to check my email. The bathroom sink is literally 5 feet from the bed with no real particition to break noise. It is an absurd design. I only stayed because it was the night of the debate and I wanted to see it. I did not have time to change hotels. After the debate I went online using the wifi connection provided. The connection was less than 2MBPS. That's slower than old dialup connections. There was also lots of street noise. The most astonishing thing was my room was considered an upgrade so I burned one of upgrades for a prison cell. Avoid this property at all costs. I t should not be in Bonvoy collection of properties.

Overall, a great hotel, great location (to both "downtowns", they have two, one on the other side of the highway, fear not, it's easy walk past a mall, and the other real old downtown), so lots of eateries and shopping. Our room (we splurged on a King Suite with sofa and balcony, more on all that later) was very spacious. The hotel is brand new and all amenities and fixtures are modern. Overall, the staff is super nice, a shout out to Jeff the manager, Maria on the front desk and Erica at the buffet. Parking: annoyingly enough, AC Hotel has no self-parking available, only 30$(!!!)/night valet (are we NY Boston SF downtown? :) We cracked the parking code in Santa Rosa, the most metered parking city in the whole United States, I never seen so many 2h-3h-4h metered streets! But here's the trick: park under the highway, 30ft away from the hotel from 6pm to 9am for free, then ＞9am move your car another 400ft to the adjacent mall - overnight parking is not allowed there but free during mall hours! You just saved yourself 30$/night - that's a lot of wine-tasting! Which brings me to: Gaby - she assigned us the wrong room (a much smaller, almost half size room) and when I asked for the correct room, she kept insisting that a) that's the correct room we got and b) the listing is incorrect and c) the hotel will update the listing. And then stared at me, unblinking, hoping the annoying guest just goes away and leaves her alone. Indeed, the next morning, Maria identified the problem, went out of her way to assign us the correct room - Jeff offered a points-refund for the wasted one-night overpayment. What a mess: Gaby might be a fine employee but spectacular unfit for a customer facing position.