Business trip SFO - LAX and Standard Hotel

Old Mar 25th, 2015, 12:33 PM
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Business trip SFO - LAX and Standard Hotel

Such a short trip to Los Angeles, only 3 days, but so much to tell! It was a 3-day long class at our headquarters, our billing system will be replaced with another, and for now we are learning and testing it.

My flight was in the evening, so I left the job a little early, and decided to take a bus to BART, and BART to the airport. My husband helped me with the suitcase, and we went downstairs to BART. A huge crowd there – a medical emergency advertised on the website as 10 minutes delay, in reality nobody is allowed inside, and this is at the peak time. Out we came, luckily got a taxi, and I went to the airport. All went well and fast, boarding on time… and LAX had an issue, one runway closed, and we sat at SFO for another ½ hour. Arrived, walked out to the taxi, about a dozen of them empty, I was the 2nd in line of 2, the airport employee put my suitcase in the 2nd cab, the woman didn’t want the first cab, telling me: why are you taking this one, I want it! And she was loud. I just smiled, if there are 12 taxis, what’s her problem?

So ½ hour and $58 later I walked into my hotel room. The Standard has mixed reviews, and it shows. First thing everybody in our group noticed was the glass door between the room and the bathroom. The hotel is in downtown, people come in for sightseeing or business, it’s not a resort, why would they make the rooms like they rent them by the hour? The bed is on a platform, one must take a step up to get into bed. There is no bed-stand, no place to leave glasses, no place to put the alarm clock. And there is no clock radio like in other hotels. This means, one has to request a wake-up call, and the phone is a mile away from the bed. When you hear it ringing, your natural move is to jump out of bed and kill that phone. But wait, there is a step out of bed, not only one should walk carefully around it, one must also remember not to miss that platform step at the moment of waking up. Which bring a question – don’t people fall, don’t they get lawsuits?

The mattress itself is semi-soft and comfortable, the pillow is thin enough for me as a side sleeper. There is no folding stool for a suitcase, only a long counter at the window. The room has one chair. ONE plastic chair. If 2 people stay in the room and want a snack, or to watch TV – sitting on the bed is not comfortable because of that platform. No coffeemaker, but the restaurant and room service are 24-hr, I was told. The shower is walk-in, but the shower floor gets slippery. Oh, there are also 3 large bottles with pumps that have shampoo, conditioner, and body soap. I am so glad I have the habit of bringing my own shampoo as those bottles are not changed from customer to customer. How do I know this? There was a hair wrapped around one of those pumps.

The classes were only 2 blocks away, they usually put us close to business. Food varied from yucky to good, my favorite was the cheese board at 3 pm. One “mandatory” dinner at The Border Grill – nice decor, quiet place, great service, the food was good. Not excellent, but nothing to complain about. “Mandatory” as if you don’t attend, no problems, but they won’t pay for your dinner on that day.

On my “free” dinner day Paula drove up to the hotel. Initially we agreed that she will pick me up and drive to her daughter’s house to see the newborn, but I woke up with sore throat, so we ate in the hotel at 24/7 restaurant (I think it’s the name). Like the hotel, the restaurant was designed for young people who have no problem to read the menu at the candlelight. Sigh… I had an excellent roasted chicken not complimented by lukewarm mashed potatoes and unchewable stems of some type of broccoli.

When I was checking out, my bill came to over $700. What happened? The new person was making reservations for us, and instead of paying, she only reserved rooms, so everybody was charged. Took a couple of emails back and forth, and I thought it was resolved. Only 6 days later I got an apologetic email from the hotel notifying me that the charges were reversed. I’m fine with my credit card, but there was a young woman in our group who had only a debit card, this means, she had to pay out of her account, I hope they did not overdraw her bank account.

I wish this was the last business trip. With all my love of travel, I don’t like when I am told when and where to go. Our next trip is a week at the lodge on Sunnen Lake in Mark Twain National Forest.
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Old Mar 25th, 2015, 12:56 PM
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Hi Dayenu. Just looked up the hotel's website. They certainly do think they are hot stuff/trendy. That platform bed -- I would have probably fallen and broken my ankle
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Old Mar 25th, 2015, 01:44 PM
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I'm stunned by the idea of nowhere bedside to even put a glass of water. Who thinks these things up?
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Old Mar 25th, 2015, 03:09 PM
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Janis - don't know if it was only in my room, but the mattress was moved to the edge, so on the shower side it was like a regular bed - I was able to get up without hurting my knees.

Neo, must be people who don't stay in hotels
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Old Mar 27th, 2015, 02:36 PM
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That's funny, I just went to a roof top party at that hotel. Our company rented the bar out for the night for a customer appreciation event. I gather it's quite the hot spot. It was a lovely venue. I didn't stay at the hotel but my colleagues who did mentioned the steps.
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Old Mar 28th, 2015, 07:48 PM
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I didn't even go to the roof. On the website it says the pool is being renovated, so I didn't bother. Oh well...
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Old Mar 29th, 2015, 04:02 AM
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I take it this was at the Standard Downtown, not the one on Sunset in West Hollywood? That's the one that I know has quite the "in spot" on the roof. But maybe the downtown one is "lively" as well?
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Old Mar 29th, 2015, 09:40 AM
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Neo, my boss took Uber to the hotel and actually requested an Uber pop. The other people in his car told him they were headed to the very cool rooftop bar at the downtown Standard. He said "I believe it's closed for a private function" They said "No! It's never closed" He didn't tell him he bought it out for the private function (well, at least his event planners did)
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