My review is tempered by the fact that I've only used Southwest Concierge (southwesthotels.com) powered by Booking.com) twice, so I will probably use it again sometime to see if I can generate a more positive outcome. I've deducted one star for each negative outcome experience. I've removed hotel, airport, and transport names. The following details my last experience:
I was really unsatisfied with my experience at the hotel I booked through Southwest Concierge, near my home airport.
The room was old and not upgraded at all. The bed was queen size, not king as I had booked and it was uncomfortable. There was nowhere to plug/charge phones and devices at the bedside which I really depend on when I'm traveling. I had to pull the entire queen bed out from the wall to find a tiny power strip coming up through the center floor where I could detach one of the bedside lamps to plug in! The fixtures were old. The light switch near the door did not work, so I had to find my way in the dark to a standing lamp to get light enough to see and get settled in. I usually like to leave a light on in the bathroom at night so I can see my way, however the bathroom switches were motion activated and timed to automatically turn off- very cheap. There were old toothpaste drippings on the closet door near the bathroom. There were dings in paint everywhere. The nightstand lamp cords were bundled under plastic covers which were bent out of shape. Nothing about the room warranted the extraordinarily high overnight room rate. I questioned the actual cleanliness of the room and bathroom. I had to pay $20 per day for parking during my trip- and had I known that in advance I would never have booked this hotel in the first place.
Additionally, when my return flight was delayed and I called to notify the hotel that this would put me past their allotted parking time at exactly midnight, I was initially told that my car would be towed by the time I got there. I had to haggle to get the front desk person to handle it!
When I finally did arrive at the airport and called the front desk at the hotel, at first the desk person told me he would call for a car service on my behalf. However he then changed this and told me he was going to call a cab for me and that the driver would personally call me. So I had to walk with my luggage all the way from pickup station 10 to station 1- this is a long walk late at night in the cold. The driver never called me and I waited for a long time. Finally I was called by a coordinator at the cab company who I really had trouble understanding because of his thick accent- this made him upset and rude. He asked if there were any cabs there and I told him no, the pick up station was currently deserted. Cabs came later and I asked around and every driver from every company said that yes they were the cab that my hotel had sent. But other people were asking the same questions and told the same answers, so it was a free for all. I was finally able to jump into a cab, and the driver delayed a bit so he could also fit another person in with me. The driver took her to her hotel first and she had to pay him. He took me finally to my hotel where I too had to pay him! That hotel booked through Southwest Concierge is advertising that they have free airport shuttles, but they do not. The other hotel I stayed at through Southwest Concierge earlier in the month advertised the same thing, and they too do not have actual "airport shuttles." They call either private cars through common apps, or Taxi Cabs- But at least that hotel paid the drivers!- to me, this is very deceptive and unreliable! I'm very upset about having to pay $20 per day for parking at the second more recent hotel, and then an additional $20 for the cab for the short distance from the airport back to the hotel. I feel completely ripped off. I'll never stay at another brand of these hotels when I travel.
To be honest, I'm undecided whether or not I can trust the Southwest Concierge to place me in safe, quality airport hotels, which have trustworthy honest advertising, with honest-to-goodness free airport shuttles and free parking. These two experiences cost me much much more than I would have paid to just hire a shuttle directly from my home to the airport and back. read more