Eastgate Hotel, BW Signature Collection - Bellevue, WA, USA
Eastgate Hotel, BW Signature Collection in Bellevue, WA is now big disappointment for us.
1061161761
Mama always said if you have to tell someone bad news, precede it by some good news to soften the blow. Good news for this hotel: great location for access to I90, I405, downtown Bellevue & Issaquah, and bridges to Seattle. Also, great for heading to central & eastern WA.
Now Mama's bad news: juice machine was broke 3 breakfasts in a row (go buy juice bottles at grocery store), often no coffee cup lids (ok, shortage in plastic supply currently), yes there is a safe in room (Sorry, all of them are deactivated), yes, website says they have free parking in underground garage or around hotel perimeter (Sorry, now it costs $7/night), carpet in room needed a deep clean, including large chewing gum spot in front of closet, scrambled eggs look made from a powder (ask supplier how to get their eggs to look real), sausage links were floating in grease (use paper towel on a tray to de-grease them), potatoes tasteless & not warm, carpet in our room needed to be stretch to eliminate tripping spot, mini refrigerator is too small, microwave sits on top of mini fridge and I had to get on my knees each time to program it, no shower cap, only gave water bottle upon arrival even though I am Diamond Select (other same price hotels give each of us a bottle each day on request (recommendation: the big box discount grocery store's headquarters in Issaquah is only 7 miles from this hotel - please go negotiate to buy millions of bottles of water for all of your global hotels from them for $0.06 rather than normal $0.07/bottle), front desk unmanned and no bell - had to locate kitchen staff to get other staff's help, a single safe at front desk is inadequate for the multiple laptops or other valuable electronics guests would want to store - that's why previous franchisee had active safes in each room (web-site says "in-room safe", forgot to say "deactivated"), desk chair so worn that it was a two tone with random wear areas, tiny/tiny freezer in mini-fridge was frozen, so of no use.
I have never been this critical in any of my reviews in past 15 years on hotels, rental cars, restaurants, flights, etc., however we used to stay at this hotel about 4 times each year while visiting family in the area. And it was better in previous years. I regret I did not take pics to show the broken juice machine, the two-tone desk chair, the frozen freezer, the difficult microwave, etc. We will not return to this hotel anytime in the future until they send me a letter saying they fixed everything and invite me to inspect. There were other things broken in the hotel that a 10-minute maintenance would fix. Also, last year and this year they still expect one lady to serve all of the needs of the dining area during the very busy breakfast. That's unrealistic. I think the franchisee has tried to cut costs in too many areas and really degraded this Best Western hotel. I would not rate it as a Signature Collection. We like staying in many other Best Western locations in the West and in the South.
One of our favorite hotels in medium price category in Pacific Northwest is the Hood River Best Western Plus for it's upkeep and cleanliness, pleasant and helpful staff, wonderful setting on the Columbia River with views from various parts of the city of Hood River, Oregon of Mt Hood to the south and Mt Adams to the north and occasionally Mt St Helens to the west slightly of Mt Adams. They have one of the best restaurants in Hood River, they have outside swim pool and hot tub, a walking and docking pier, and a great conference center. Oh, and they don't charge $7/night for parking.
Sincerely,
Brian Heimbigner
US
SG
GB