Sonesta Select Birmingham Colonnade - Birmingham, Alabama

Chris Parker

Where to begin? Upon arriving for check in, the front desk was in disarray and dirty. The lobby was not clean (carpets, mirrors, glass, etc.). The employee was not very helpful or efficient with the number of people he was dealing with. The elevator was dirty and missing the elevator certificate. Then upon getting onto my floor, the carpet was not vacuumed with some white specs of something all down the hallway. My room was about the same, although not as bad. The wall mounted thermostat did not work, but the unit in the window did. The shower curtain was ripped. Some of the outlets in the room DID NOT work so my phone did not charge overnight. The setup of this hotel is very weird. The back of the hotel is what is facing the main road that you access it from, so you will miss it BECAUSE there is no sign pointing you to the parking lot. Nothing. Absolutely a poor layout. The pool was closed. The food in the morning is NOT a hot breakfast. The night before I stayed at another hotel for less money (Best Western) that had it. Then the last thing... there are cargo containers everywhere in the parking lot. I asked, on check out this morning why that was. I was told that they are in the process of remodeling. I guess in the meanwhile, they are letting the property and the experience of staying there fall into the toilet. Terrible. Believe the bad review and ignore the stellar reviews. Seriously.

jeremyntaylor

Price was right, hotel is nice, but I wouldn’t go more than one or two nights.|I was originally told by the front desk that we couldn’t check in after 12am, they were accommodating to us when I called to let them know we would be arriving later than 12. It appeared though that the desk is open 24hrs.|Beds and pillows were comfortable, but a little soft for my taste.|The building is definitely older and under renovation so a lot of that will hopefully be addressed in the renovation. |The front desk staff was very friendly and the hotel was overall decent. I would accept it again in a pinch.

Matthew Newman

The staff was friendly, and the check-in process was quick and effortless. That is the extent of the positives from our stay. The hotel was dirty, and not well maintained. The pool was "closed for maintenance" but something tells me they put the sign up so they didn't have to deal with spending money to maintain the pool. The floors were sticky, the carpets were dirty and dark stained, definitely in need of a steam cleaning. The room had a thermostat that was left over from when it was actually attached to an AC unit. The towels and bedding were cheap and garbage. We stayed 4 nights and not once was our room cleaned, trash emptied, or towels / sheets changed out. The TV had glowing dots on the screen from the backlight, made it impossible to watch anything. The foam headboard/pillow thing was stained. Their was other guests hair still on the soap dispenser in the shower, there was mildue on the windows. The elevator didn't have a safety inspection posted. And the free breakfast was literally a loaf of bread in a warming pan. Spend your money some place where they actual care to earn or value your business.

Joe Keeler

Don’t stop in here! Stopped here on a bus trip they were in a the middle of a remodel. This place is horrible. We haven’t had the breakfast yet but I imagine it’s gonna be bad. We check for bedbugs and didn’t see any thing. Our friends didn’t have a room until an hour later after we checked in. It’s bad folks.
We complained to our tour guide and we complained to the front desk, but not much was done. A lady came in and checked our sheets for blood or junk on them. The exercise room was bad too. you couldn’t use the treadmill because the treads were broken. Another machine was out of order. The pool was closed. Our towels in our bathroom were the thinnest I’ve ever seen.

Lamar

Nice place being remodeled right now. I do have a few suggestions for the owner due to the fact that I stay over 100 nights a year in different hotels. The majority of hotels have a 2nd mirror that is not in the bathroom. Most all hotels have a hair dryer available in the room (bring your own folks). Most hotels have flavored creamers available for coffee nowadays. The lady at the front desk was of high quality & loves her grandkids! Even though I named things that are typically provided by hotels that are not provided at this one, this is a nice place to stay & I'm sure they will correct the above. Location is awesome btw!!

t nelson

I have stayed at Sonesta in San Fran and had great experience it was Affordable and clean. This location is poorly managed like a slum lord. Red flags. TV wouldn't work, the staff could not fix, no soap in dispenser, within the first 2 hours we saw roaches. And enough that made me pack up and leave. I have never had to do this anywhere. The price of 147 as night.... you're expect decent. No. They need to burn it down and start over. They refunded my money. after a long days drive all we needed was rest instead we had to find other accommodations

Tam

Calling it a 3-star hotel is generous. This place has seen better days. It’s a 2-star hotel at best now. I was told when I checked in that there was no breakfast and that the pool was out of order. Then I found out there was an out of order sign on almost everything - like the fitness room and the ice machines. There were also visible repairs needed - metal corner bead pulled out of place at the floor elevator lobby, very worn & stained carpet, and what looked like coffee stains on the wallpaper. There was no fridge in the room and the room furniture was chipped in several places. The person at the desk was helpful - she had a fridge sent up, but she couldn’t make up for how run down things were. Not awful, but not good. As a woman traveling alone, I did not feel safe. My company booked and paid for the room so I didn’t know the hotel’s condition and didn’t have a choice. My room was clean enough and the air conditioning got cold, but I will not be back.

Elizabeth Rehmann

Bed bugs at this hotel. Just checked in and then right back out of 4 rooms and had to scramble to rebook. Staff was trying to be kind, but urging me to leave and asking me to send a picture though I insisted on waiting to confirm my refund. I’ve seen a lot of the reviews responded to saying that they’re under renovation and that is an understatement. Most things were out of order. One of our room smelled like mold, but the bedbugs were the final straw.
One of the women at the front was friendly but tried to convince us at first that this wasn’t bed bugs, she eventually said she would refund us for the rooms. While confirming my refund with Expedia one of the women at the front desk confirmed to the Expedia rep they “yes they have a bed bug problem”. It’s unethical business practice.

Do not waste your money and time.

Update post response: There were 4 rooms in separate floors and parts of the hotel with mold and bed bugs. It’s lamentable that the person that responds to these comments doesn’t perceive this as a bedbug problem.