I have never regretted staying in a hotel as much as I regret staying in Crowne Plaza. In short: hotel staff took an item of ours from our hotel room, and did not return the item or otherwise remedy their error in any way (and instead, they were dismissive, unresponsive, unhelpful, and/or rude - details below).
As background: I stayed at Crowne Plaza Seattle (Room #2265) from 9/27 to 10/4/25 while on vacation with my young son. I was charged on 9/30 for $103.36 and I have another charge from Crowne Plaza on my bank statement on 10/4 in the amount of $2,709.79, so in total I paid almost $3K ($2,813.15) for my stay, just to have something irreplaceable taken from us.
Details: On 10/2, my son and I left our hotel room for the day, and my son left his baby blanket in the hotel room on the bed. When we returned, our room had been cleaned/bed had been made and the baby blanket was gone. We searched the entire room and tore off the bed sheets and still could not locate it. Unless the hotel gave access to my room to non-staff, it was 100% hotel staff who (whether intentionally or not) took my son's blanket from my hotel room.
I know some might think "it’s just a blanket" but I really cannot underscore the sentimental value of that blanket, which was passed down by family and which my son slept with every night since a baby and which provides him comfort. It is the only piece of personal property that my son is genuinely attached to. Needless to say, he and my wider family have been very upset since it has been taken, and my son has been having a hard time sleeping without it. And, in any case, no matter what the piece of personal property is, it is absolutely unacceptable for hotel staff to take guests' property of any kind from guests' hotel rooms.
To make matters worse, the hotel's response was disrespectful: they did not care, were dismissive, unresponsive, unhelpful, and/or rude. I called the front desk the day it was taken (10/2) and the receptionist said she could not help me and directed me to housekeeping (206-676-3908). Housekeeping did not answer the phone, so I left a message. The next day, housekeeping did not return my call. Someone by the name Agnesa had texted me from an unknown number (541-203-3504) about my stay on 9/27, so I decided to also text that phone number back on 10/3 and seek assistance. On 10/4, at checkout, I went to the front desk to try to speak with someone in person but no one was there. Since that day, I've continuously reached out, explained over and over the issue, and sought to get the blanket returned. I texted that number several times (speaking with Andrea, Eric, Brian), called housekeeping again, called the hotel front desk (206-464-1980), called "accounts receivable" (206-676-3908) (speaking with Espinita, I believe was her name), called the parent company IHG on their customer service line (877-424-2449), and emailed Director of Operations Shawn Schulze (sschulze@cphotelseattle.com) who told me on the phone in October that he'd contact me in November (which he *never* did and then he was rude to me after that). I have record of all these texts, calls, and emails.
Until this month (2 mos. after it was stolen), I had so much patience and hope. Now the only thing I feel is anger and confusion about how a big-name hotel that makes so much money off guests can take something so important to us and not face any kind of accountability. Whether intentional or not, the hotel caused us harm and refuses to remedy that in any way. One small voice (mine) may not make a difference (and indeed, has not made a difference because I spoke to multiple staff and none seemed to care - see above). But spreading this knowledge and warning others about this may make a difference. I’m also looking into legal options to see if there is any kind of remedy that I can get here--although what I really want is just to get my son's blanket back for him. (I honestly just wish that I never stayed at this hotel in the first place so that my son still had his baby blanket today and I didn't have to deal with all this aftermath, calling various times and being dismissed by the hotel and my son all-the-while still sad and still asking me constantly for updates about his blanket.)
