Larkspur Landing Folsom

I’ve had a great time with my son and enjoyed some time off work, but this has been the rudest hotel experience in decades of traveling around the country. I’m on a long stay, paying $800 a week, and the management and breakfast staff have been deplorable. The hot breakfast is tasteless and very low quality, so I’ve sometimes felt I had to smother it in ketchup. Half the time there’s none out. I repeatedly asked for more, and they’d put some out briefly before going back to the old way. When I asked for the breakfast manager, she rudely said, verbatim, “we do not have to put ketchup out there, this is not a restaurant.” I replied that they don’t have to provide a gym or coffee either, and I don’t have to stay. I lost my cool as an older person with principles, because I won’t accept being spoken to that way. When I asked the manager if we could all talk and make peace, I was told the staff weren’t comfortable around me. Maybe if the breakfast manager had known basic customer service, I wouldn’t have lost my temper. They all seem to back each other. The place feels creepy and negative, and there are homeless people outside and lots of bad stuff going on. I’ve had good experiences at Larkspur in Campbell and Sunnyvale, so it’s this location that needs training in customer service and breakfast.

The noise from upstairs went on until midnight: doors slamming, furniture dragging and constant stomping. We stayed because our dog gets motion sickness and needed another hour for medication to work before we could leave. When we finally told the front desk about the noise and awful stay, the employee just said, “Okay, that’s cool.” It wasn’t. Later, the General Manager emailed to say the upstairs guest had lived there since November and nobody had complained. That left us feeling like either the noise was imagined or we were being called liars. We won’t return or stay at any Larkspur Landing sister properties. We booked a suite with a couch, but there wasn’t one in the room. We’d asked for a top floor room because we’d stayed before and knew noise carried. They said it would take 30 minutes, so exhausted, we took a ground floor room that at least had the couch we’d expected. Changing rooms should have been simple, but we waited more than 25 minutes while the employee struggled before he asked another associate for help. We checked in hoping to rest and checked out questioning reality.

David at the front desk was awesome, but this Larkspur location was awful. Breakfast was very poor quality: on Saturday the fake egg looked like a hockey puck, there were no condiments, and the manager was rude about it. The carpet needs remodeling, the door was broken and hard to get parts for, and it seems it will never be fixed. The elevator took forever and needs an upgrade. There was also a foul stench throughout the hotel hallways. I’d give no stars if I could and would tell people not to stay here at all costs. Most Larkspur locations are very good, just not this one.

For a longer visit, the roomy, comfortable setup worked really well. The full fridge and kitchen let us cook our own meals, and the spacious living room made it feel more like home. There was also a pull out bed for extra guests, and breakfast was included, which added value. It was a practical, comfortable place to stay.